Trump launches meme coin, apparently makes more than $25 billion overnight - eviltoast

President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.

Why it matters: The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both his personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration.

  • It also speaks to the nature of the crypto industry that someone could have $25 billion worth of something that literally did not exist 24 hours previously.
  • FaceDeer@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    44
    ·
    4 天前

    So do cryptocurrencies. Maybe not for you, personally, but other people have legitimate uses for them.

    • amzd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 天前

      Name one (1) legitimate use case that is not better served in another way

      • Gregor@gregtech.eu
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        4 天前

        Private online (or maybe even offline) payments with Monero. And even if it’s not monero, you don’t have to deal with the BS of banks, such as the transactions taking days to complete. And nothing is tied to your real identity, making you entirely anonymous.

        • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          4 天前

          The reason that bank transactions take days to finalize is because of regulatory compliance. The actual money can be moved in seconds.

          I don’t know if you can reasonably cite “bypassing regulatory compliance” as a “legitimate” use case for something.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            3 天前

            I live in the UK. Here, and in most of the EU, electronic fund transfers clear in a few seconds. They reason they don’t in the US is because the banking oligopoly has retained an archaic clearing system. The regulatory compliance checks in the UK are still there, the US system is just slow. It still runs in batch mode on coal-powered mainframes.

            • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 天前

              Sorry, I should have clarified that I was referring primarily to international transfers, since that’s the preferred example of advocates.

        • amzd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          4 天前

          Anonymous online payment is cool and all right up until you fill out your address so they can bring whatever you paid for to your house.

          • Gregor@gregtech.eu
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            3 天前

            That’s fair, but I was talking about online payments for digital goods, such as VPSes, vpns, donations, etc.

            Also, let’s say irl stores adopted cryptocurrency as a payment method. Your bank wouldn’t know what you’re buying and therefore wouldn’t be able to sell that information.

            • amzd@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              3 天前

              Companies selling digital goods still need to do taxes so they need to know where they are selling their product.

              Your bank […] wouldn’t be able to sell that information.

              My bank is not allowed to sell my data by law.

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        4 天前

        You’re going to use that “is not better served in another way” clause to wiggle out of anything I might suggest, but okay.

        The Ethereum Name System is a permissionless and fully decentralized version of the Domain Name System. Lacking central servers and control means it can’t suffer outages like DNS does.

        • amzd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          4 天前

          a permissionless and fully decentralized version of the Domain Name System. Lacking central servers and control means it can’t suffer outages like DNS does.

          Oh nice no more regular outages like checks notes visa that one time 7 years ago for 40 minutes

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          4 天前

          Sounds like an overly complicated and resource intensive way to have failover servers to me, and I’m usually pro-decentralization.

          I don’t experience DNS interruptions when I’m running multiple failovers.

            • OwlHamster@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              edit-2
              4 天前

              You’re going to use that “You’re going to use that “is not better served in another way” clause to wiggle out of anything I might suggest, but okay.” clause to wiggle out of anything they might suggest, but okay.

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 天前

              I’m relatively open to crypto, but ens is like one of the goofiest examples to pick in my opinion. I also believe they’re going to use that “better” clause to wiggle out of anything, but I also believe the example you used it very weak.

      • Preflight_Tomato@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        18
        ·
        4 天前

        Bitcoin is the most secure banking method.

        Though blockchain tech produces new problems that ultimately make it useless outside of a store of value.

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        13
        ·
        4 天前

        The legitimate uae of crypto currencies is to untraceably send money to criminals.

        Only if you pre-define all possible recipients of untraceable money to be criminals.

        How about donating to Tibetan or Uyghur activists in China? Womens’ rights activists in Saudi Arabia? LGBTQ+ organizations in Russia? What about Cannabis dispensaries in American states where Cannabis is legal but the Federal government is still trying to prosecute them? Or sending money back to your family in Venezuela?

        Sorry you’re too obsessed with drinking his cum to see that.

        This is a great example of the ridiculous polarization that current American politics are suffering from. I loathe Trump. He’s the worst president America has ever had, and it’s utterly baffling that he got reelected. But since he used cryptocurrency for something and I’m not anti-crypto, boom, I’m assumed to be an extreme Trump supporter.

        Also, rule 1 of this community: be civil.

        • futatorius@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          3 天前

          In terms of cash volume, what percentage of all crypto transactions do you think go to those worthy causes, compared to money laundering, drug payments and smuggling?

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            4 天前

            Why do you need to use crypto to pay legitimate workers under the table?

            I literally just listed a variety of situations where you’d need to do that.

            • SoftTeeth@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              4 天前

              And not a single one of them would be made easier with a curency you then have to find a sucker to pay you real currency for.

              you have predefined crypto as useful when it’s actually not any more useful then valid currency