Quote from: solid12345 on March 31, 2014, 11:04:20 PM

This is what the SEC is for, if you want regulation then go cry to Uncle Sam to do it to save Grandma. I personally don't want any form of regulation but if we're going to have it, better an army of licensed bureaucrats than a bunch of neckbeard monkeys sitting in front of their computer wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.

If it goes that way - it might - the licensed bureaucrats are going to have an interesting time...

Just consider what "do your own due diligence" and "investigate before you invest" means here. I'm used to DYODD in the stock market, which means plowing through financial statements at a minimum. But here, it means plowing through this forum and - if you're serious - figuring out the nuts and bolts of the crypto coin you've plopped your money into. Consequently, I find myself plowing through bitcoinj and dogecoinj, and comparing the two. I'm doin' my own due diligence, all right.

Also, consider what an "investment" in an alt entails. If you're in this game over and above a nice momentum-trade punt, you're hoping that your cyber will rise in price because of added demand for it. Other than a pump, which is strictly the turf of the momentum-trade pumpers, how does the demand increase?

That's right: through people buying it for use, or at least buying it in the hope that others will adopt it. Which leads to the inevitable question: why should they? And, question #2 - especially relevant for a cyber like Quark - why aren't they?

The crapcoins are an inevitable product of an open-source world. But so is pitching in, in any way you can. Open source = zero barriers to entry. Yes, many kick-ins are minor and clonecoins are all over the place, but the very nature of open-source means that someone can come along with a real technical innovation that'll spread like a proverbial wildfire. Or a marketing innovation, or an end-user innovation, or...

In order to be effective, bureaucracies need a stable industry structure and a stable infrastructure: their rules have to have a half-life of decades. That's workable for the stock market because the investment industry's a lot like a car, a washing machine or an oven. There've been lots of innovations within the form, but someone from 1930 could figure out how to use the 2014 versions of those machines with only a little tutoring. Just as an investor from 1930 could puzzle his way through the stock market of today with only a few formal tutorials on what's changed. He could still pick up his phone and call a broker to buy and sell - just like he could in 1930. He could also look through annual reports and news releases to decide what to buy - just as he could in 1930. Heck, the Wall Street Journal's still around.

Could you say the same about a Bitcoiner from 2009? Or anyone from 2005?

Yep: if the SEC decides to make cybers a part of their turf, they'll have a very interesting time - once they stop using surface analogies to scratch the surface of this world....