this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024

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Beware of this scam. Proton swap is not an official proton product. (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by testeronious@lemmy.world to c/protonprivacy@lemmy.world

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[–] aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 102 points 2 years ago (5 children)

If proton swap were an official proton product, it would still be a scam because crypto is a scam.

[–] li10@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It’s not a scam if you use it to buy stuff though

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Are you really "buying" something with crypto in that case, or is it just a complicated money laundering scheme?

[–] li10@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You could look at it as a currency conversion, then buying a product with that new currency.

I’m not fussed about the semantics tbh, as long as I get my drugs I’m happy.

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You could look at it as a currency conversion, then buying a product with that new currency.

Yes, that's how money laundering works. Whether it's crypto, gold, or fine art, the end result is still the same. You get drugs, they get clean cash, everyone is happy.

[–] li10@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago

Holy shit, I never realised how much I love money laundering

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

The question is, who's soil are we laundering out of the money? 😁

[–] holycrap@lemm.ee 16 points 2 years ago

They'd lose a lot of credibility if this was legit.

[–] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

It's only a scam if you don't immediately use it to buy drugs.

[+] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website -19 points 2 years ago (3 children)

As stupid as I think Crypto is, it's no longer purely a scam.

It's now packaged into assets like ETFs and recommended as a diversification tool (though I disagree with the Economist's analysis on this one). So it is in some sense a real asset at this point.

But crypto is a ouji board with a planchette pointing at random prices and the hands pushing it are a bunch of US banks and guys with monkey avatars that cost more than my house on X (both the site and drug).

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The fact you can invest in something does not stop it being a scam.

That's kind of like the cornerstone of many scams.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You said it yourself. Crypto has nothing to stabilise its value. It is entirely speculative. There is three options to make money with crypto. Sell it to someone that believes in it more than you do. Sell it to someone that believes he can make more of a quick buck than you, or have the gamble work, that it ends up becoming a legit payment system and have the value explode and stabilise there.

In the first two cases you just try to fuck over another gambler. In the third case you yourself gamble.

It is always possible that the hype collapses or crypto gets banned globally. Whoever is left holding it then got scammed by the others.

While in the beginning many investors believed it to become a viable payment system eventually, now most are just looking to not be the last in line to get scammed.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That doesn't make it a scam, it's just speculative.

There's also the belief that it's safer than individual currencies, or that it's less vulnerable to inflation of the money supply. Those are legitimate reasons to buy.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Still with any individual currency there is a market where mandated by law you can pay in this currency, or where you can pay taxes in that currency. So zheir value has a real and a speculative part. Crypto only has a speculative part and that part is often and strongly influenced by deliberate manipulation.

And if yet another crypto currencies is pushed it is highly questionable if there is a serious intent to deliver on the promises made to its laternuse or how much is just scamming people into an ICO and then running with that money.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I'm buyin into the ban concern.

It's a concern, for sure, just really hard to see it implemented.

Look at piracy, torrenting, usenet, etc. So long as people can make encrypted connections, crypto will continue.

I think that governments can, at best, disrupt things. But given governments are a smaller body count than users, my money is on those dedicated users staying one step ahead of the hammer.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago

Look at piracy, torrenting, usenet, etc. So long as people can make encrypted connections, crypto will continue.

Do you mean cryptography in general or cryptocurrencies in particular? Because cryptocurrencies ultimately do need an interface with other currencies, or some economy, where you can pay with them. If you cannot buy any real product or service with it, it has no value. Lets take Darknet market drug dealers for instance. They are not selling drugs because they like bitcoins and buy other drugs for themselves with it. They are selling drugs and exchanging the bitcoin into some fiat currency, so they can buy normal stuff with it.

[–] moitoi@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

People invested in Ponzi scheme as they thought it wasn't a scam. The same for crypto.

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"Powered by Swiss Privacy" 😂

[–] testeronious@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

lmao

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 42 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It has a checkmark, so it must be legit, right?

[–] maxxxxpower@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Isn't twitter just scams, bots, and bots running scams at this point?

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 5 points 2 years ago

Don't just give away secrets in the open like that 🤫

[–] Nelizea@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

The team is already on it.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 28 points 2 years ago

Check out my easy to guide to spotting a scam.

Are they peddling crypto?

Yes: Then it's a scam.

No: Might still be a scam. Proceed with caution.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I agree with you on all of that.

Basically eth and BTC are the only cryptos that make any sense, ICOs are scams, most other coins are scams, and stuff like the USD coin show that even the legitimate sounding ones are incredibly fragile.

[–] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world -5 points 2 years ago

Dear Proton. Don't do Crypto shit please.

Or at least do better integration with Proton Drive and Proton Calendar on Linux first lol