I am going to address the question in the title of the thread.
My first observation is that after all the "hot air" nobody appears to have changed sides, indeed possibly the debate has become more entrenched, reminding me of the NI situation or the Leave/Remain discussion in UK or indeed the Abortion debate in RoI.
When I entered this forum I had a vague sense of what bitcoin was and whilst skeptical I was of a fairly open mind. I guessed that some beautiful and very scarce mathematical objects were involved. Thanks in particular to the efforts of
fp I am now considerably better informed. But
tecate has also been helpful. Whilst he clearly is more part of the religious wing of the community than
fp, nonetheless he knows his onions. Amateur followers should take note of
tecate's warnings on Tether and take special note that he is not holding bitcoin at the moment.
Any way, I digress. What I now find is that far from a thing of beauty bitcoin consists of the ugliest mathematics known to Man. Whilst hash cryptography is of mild mathematical interest, the performing of billions of trial and error hash puzzles with zero intellectual input is frankly obscene.
But the real eye opener for me is the fact that there are thousands of cryptos including bitcoin offspring. I definitely thought bitcoin was something unique before I joined this discussion. To see online exchanges with lists of cryptos all trading on a continuous basis and with so called "market caps" which a medium sized enterprise would give a right arm for is mind boggling. I know there are those who see this as evidence of the indomitable human spirit attempting to throw off the chains of a corrupt central banking elite. To me it is a sordid spectacle of avarice with people trying to make vast fortunes out of nothing. They must mostly be fraudulent, though some will be motivated by religious fervour. I don't think bitcoin was originally fraudulent - you would hardly launch a fraud advertising that 2 pizza trade for 10,000 bitcoin
Of course I have enjoyed the banter and the debate, I reckon it accounts for as much as 25% of my posts over the last 20 years. And I am €1,500 the richer due to following the
Boss tip to short.