Some conspiracy theories about Bitcoin

[legiteum]

- That whales are manipulating and determining the price of Bitcoin, whereas the price of Bitcoin is controlled by demand/supply.

Both of these things are true.

- Bitcoin being a ponzi scheme created by a group of people in the CIA.

Bitcoin being created by a US agency e.g. the CIA or the NSA is thus far the most plausible theory. That doesn't mean it was created as a "Ponzi scheme". It was probably created as a honey pot, or maybe just a somebody's side project.

- That the mining of Bitcoin is nothing but a waste of energy.

Absolutely true. PoW and decentralization are no longer necessary now that digital currency is 100% legal. It's the same reason Apple Music and Spotify don't use a decentralized architecture like Napster had to. PoW is a waste of energy and thousands of cryptos no longer use it and they do exactly what Bitcoin does.

- That Bitcoin was created as a tool by elites for money laundering.

It was not created for that reason, no. It is sometimes used that way, yes.

(The rest on the list aren't even worth commenting on ).

[X-ray]

- That whales are manipulating and determining the price of Bitcoin, whereas the price of Bitcoin is controlled by demand/supply.
- Bitcoin being a ponzi scheme created by a group of people in the CIA.
- That the mining of Bitcoin is nothing but a waste of energy.
- That Bitcoin was created as a tool by elites for money laundering.
- Satoshi being link to different names that were never true including Jeffery Epstein that was recently linked and claimed to be the true identity behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
- That Bitcoin was created by the illuminati to have control of the monetary system around the globe.
- The most surprising is that Bitcoin is an alien technology, which is cause it's blockchain is very difficult to be hacked.

Sometime critics aren't really critic, some just trying to make clout.

Many of these conspiracy theories about bitcoin can easily be debunked but the problem is, nobody bother to change their stance and their opinion which is hostile against bitcoin because they don't like to be wrong.

- That Bitcoin was created as a tool by elites for money laundering.

That'd be stupid because blockchain is transparent, anything you do is recorded forever

- That the mining of Bitcoin is nothing but a waste of energy.

The energy is required to keep the blockchain safe and secure. It's far more useful than using the energy for AI to generate the same answer for the same question over and over again.
If we are talking about technology conservation. A wikipedia is million times more efficient than AI to save the energy and all those traditional finance shouldn't be using tons of energy to run data center.

I don't bother seeing the other theories because most of them are pretty silly.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Bitcoin being created by a US agency e.g. the CIA or the NSA is thus far the most plausible theory.

If I were an intelligence agency, I would rather push a digital currency that is not truly decentralized. Something like Ethereum, with infinite supply. Also, I would not create bitcoin with privacy features to opt-in to. I would rather make it impossible to escape the chain analysis. A more plausible theory is that just enthusiasts created it, with all the academic work (digital signatures, hashcash) in mind.

Absolutely true. PoW and decentralization are no longer necessary now that digital currency is 100% legal.

Laws are letters written on a piece of paper. Laws can change. Laws also promised 1:1 parity with gold, until they didn't.

[legiteum]

Bitcoin being created by a US agency e.g. the CIA or the NSA is thus far the most plausible theory.

If I were an intelligence agency, I would rather push a digital currency that is not truly decentralized. Something like Ethereum, with infinite supply. Also, I would not create bitcoin with privacy features to opt-in to. I would rather make it impossible to escape the chain analysis. A more plausible theory is that just enthusiasts created it, with all the academic work (digital signatures, hashcash) in mind.

If you were some hacker working at the NSA you would... do whatever you felt like doing that day. Those "enthusiast(s)" were just like any enthusiast(s), except that they worked for the US government, which explains why they weren't able to sell even a single sat.

There's no direct evidence of this or any other theory, but this is the only one I've ever heard that is consistent with reality and human nature.

And Trump did say that he was going to pay off the US national debt with Bitcoin...

Absolutely true. PoW and decentralization are no longer necessary now that digital currency is 100% legal.

Laws are letters written on a piece of paper. Laws can change. Laws also promised 1:1 parity with gold, until they didn't.

I know, right? They changed the law taking the US dollar off of the gold standard just recently in [checks notes].. 1933. So who knows, maybe in another 93 years things might be different again.

Trump's voting base has given him essentially dictatorial powers at this point: he can do anything he wants and they will keep supporting him, regardless of any US laws he violates. It's very telling therefore, that he is not messing with the basic structures of the US markets, like basic securities laws, and the essential structure of the Fed and the US money supply. Why? Because if he even thought about it the markets would nose dive, and his political support would vanish.

In other words, if they suddenly made it legal for corporations to issue additional shares without informing stockholders (i.e. commit criminal fraud), then every single investor in the world would bail out of stocks in milliseconds, and the market would crash, and everybody would lose their retirement savings, and the party that did this would be politically incinerated.

If Trump even hinted at making Bitcoin illegal, then the price of Bitcoin would crash and it would clearly be Trump's fault, which would be highly undesirable, politically. Trump's massive support from the crypto industry would vanish overnight. (Although to be fair, the crypto industry is extreme pro-Trump and extreme anti-Democrat, which isn't very wise, so you could make the case that if Democrats win the White House again they may well make Bitcoin illegal since today Bitcoin is so deeply associated with Trump).

So there's probably a 0.001% chance that they will effectively make stocks non-viable by failing to enforce laws against fraud, but probably a 10% chance Bitcoin could be made illegal again in the future. Without mainstream investors, Bitcoin would drop back down to the levels it was when it was illegal, e.g. $0.01 per coin. I mean, sure, technically speaking the Bitcoin network would probably "survive" in the same way child porn networks "survive" today, but governments could make it extremely difficult and dangerous to possess.

The only reason, in other words, that Bitcoin's price is more than $0.01 is that it's perfectly legal to purchase and hold in the USA and elsewhere. If that law changed, Bitcoin would be essentially worthless.

So if you are truly concerned about US laws suddenly changing, Bitcoin is surely the last thing you'd ever want to hold...

[macson]

All of these accusations against Bitcoin have long been debunked because they lack solid evidence and cannot be proven, making them empty accusations designed to bring down Bitcoin.

Thus, these accusations will ultimately only be believed by those who are already skeptical of Bitcoin, and will gradually be forgotten as Bitcoin's continued adoption and development prove otherwise, demonstrating that Bitcoin is not what the accusations claim.

[BlackHatCoiner]

So if you are truly concerned about US laws suddenly changing, Bitcoin is surely the last thing you'd ever want to hold...

Sure. It's the last thing you'd ever want to hold. Except the US dollar, equity in the US stock exchange, US real estate & US bonds!

The financial system has experienced uncertainty and change numerously since 2008. Anybody who bought bitcoin during Covid is doing pretty well right now. Turns out that holding an asset with no counterparty risk and geographical limitation might actually make economic sense. Who would have thought!

Trump's voting base has given him essentially dictatorial powers at this point: he can do anything he wants and they will keep supporting him, regardless of any US laws he violates. It's very telling therefore, that he is not messing with the basic structures of the US markets, like basic securities laws, and the essential structure of the Fed and the US money supply. Why? Because if he even thought about it the markets would nose dive, and his political support would vanish.

This is clearly the reason Trump's held from touching the Fed. It's about political support, and not the fact that the Elite who own it do not grant him the permission. I know, a crazy conspiracy theory of mine!  

[Leon_jesus]

The traditional banking system failed but then a messiah in person of Satoshi Nakamoto came up with an idea, a great innovation that helped revolutionised the way we think about money and birthed decentralization thereby introducing an alternative to the third party system the banks operates with and made people understand that they can be their own bank, with Bitcoin.

However critics and those who are too anxious to know who the anonymous creator of the great innovation Bitcoin is have been coming up with different conspiracy theories, things like.

- That whales are manipulating and determining the price of Bitcoin, whereas the price of Bitcoin is controlled by demand/supply.
- Bitcoin being a ponzi scheme created by a group of people in the CIA.
- That the mining of Bitcoin is nothing but a waste of energy.
- That Bitcoin was created as a tool by elites for money laundering.
- Satoshi being link to different names that were never true including Jeffery Epstein that was recently linked and claimed to be the true identity behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
- That Bitcoin was created by the illuminati to have control of the monetary system around the globe.
- The most surprising is that Bitcoin is an alien technology, which is cause it's blockchain is very difficult to be hacked.

These are the conspiracy theories i've heard about Bitcoin, but then Bitcoin is still thriving and becoming more valuable as the year goes, i believe that all these are just false claims to discourage people from buying Bitcoin however Bitcoin is the future and those who're wise enough to understand that have embraced it. You must have heard some false claims about Bitcoin, feel free to discuss about it.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.

[cryptosize]

So if you are truly concerned about US laws suddenly changing, Bitcoin is surely the last thing you'd ever want to hold...

Sure. It's the last thing you'd ever want to hold. Except the US dollar, equity in the US stock exchange, US real estate & US bonds!

The financial system has experienced uncertainty and change numerously since 2008. Anybody who bought bitcoin during Covid is doing pretty well right now. Turns out that holding an asset with no counterparty risk and geographical limitation might actually make economic sense. Who would have thought!

Trump's voting base has given him essentially dictatorial powers at this point: he can do anything he wants and they will keep supporting him, regardless of any US laws he violates. It's very telling therefore, that he is not messing with the basic structures of the US markets, like basic securities laws, and the essential structure of the Fed and the US money supply. Why? Because if he even thought about it the markets would nose dive, and his political support would vanish.

This is clearly the reason Trump's held from touching the Fed. It's about political support, and not the fact that the Elite who own it do not grant him the permission. I know, a crazy conspiracy theory of mine!  

legiteum is afraid of losing his 401k pension funds... give him a break!

[cryptosize]

And Trump did say that he was going to pay off the US national debt with Bitcoin...

Do you even realize WHY he said that?

It's because he expects USD hyperinflation -> with a modest amount of BTC he could indeed pay off the whole debt.

Will he say that publicly? Of course not!

He doesn't want to cause panic in the markets.

Everyone and their mom would dump USD to buy BTC preemptively (before the Great -Currency- Reset).

You've been warned.

Without mainstream investors, Bitcoin would drop back down to the levels it was when it was illegal, e.g. $0.01 per coin.

The only reason, in other words, that Bitcoin's price is more than $0.01 is that it's perfectly legal to purchase and hold in the USA and elsewhere. If that law changed, Bitcoin would be essentially worthless.

BTC was never illegal. That's like saying BitTorrent was illegal.

The last time you could buy 1 BTC with $0.01 was back in 2010 (pizza moment).

BTC managed to reach $69k without mainstream/institutional investors (BlackRock ETF) back in 2021.

It's moronic to suggest BTC could drop down to $0.01.

Even in that case, lots of people would stack more BTC (not satoshis, whole BTCs). I would welcome such an opportunity, but it's highly unlikely to happen.

[legiteum]

This is clearly the reason Trump's held from touching the Fed. It's about political support, and not the fact that the Elite who own it do not grant him the permission. I know, a crazy conspiracy theory of mine!  

Elite? You mean average middle class Trump voters who have retirement plans?

If the stock market goes down, the Republicans will get slaughtered, and they know that. That's the only thing holding Trump back from, well, anything.

And Trump did say that he was going to pay off the US national debt with Bitcoin...

Do you even realize WHY he said that?

It's because he expects USD hyperinflation -> with a modest amount of BTC he could indeed pay off the whole debt.

LOL. US fiscal debt is dollar-denominated, so if there's hyperinflation the US will just pay off the debt with... dollars. There would be no reason to use Bitcoin or anything else.

Without mainstream investors, Bitcoin would drop back down to the levels it was when it was illegal, e.g. $0.01 per coin.

The only reason, in other words, that Bitcoin's price is more than $0.01 is that it's perfectly legal to purchase and hold in the USA and elsewhere. If that law changed, Bitcoin would be essentially worthless.

BTC was never illegal. That's like saying BitTorrent was illegal.

Technically speaking Bitcoin is still not "letter of the law" legal. But in the beginning, most assumed that major governments would prosecute participants in the network, so it was effectively illegal for a while. That faded when it was clear that nobody was going to jail for having or trading Bitcoin.

However, if the US and other major governments cracked down on Bitcoin and drove it to the shadows like they do with child porn etc. then almost nobody would hold it and the price would drop to almost nothing. I'm not saying they will do that (unless the crypto community deeply ties themselves to one US political party so deeply that they are completely screwed if that party ever goes out of power, oh wait...) but it's not "impossible".

And while BitTorrent was never illegal, most of the things people did on BitTorrent were absolutely illegal (if it was legal, you'd just stick whatever it is on an ordinary server). Bitcoin is both a network technology and an end-product. Transferring bits was never illegal, but transferring money has always been highly regulated.

It's moronic to suggest BTC could drop down to $0.01.

Even in that case, lots of people would stack more BTC (not satoshis, whole BTCs). I would welcome such an opportunity, but it's highly unlikely to happen.

That's great for you, but I'm sure you realize that most people buy Bitcoin in order to make a profit, not hold it as a keepsake. Bitcoin will always "survive" in terms of the technical network, but the world markets devoting a significant percentage of its savings to Bitcoin depends only on it being a potentially profitable investment. It's really no more complicated than that.

[cryptosize]

LOL. US fiscal debt is dollar-denominated, so if there's hyperinflation the US will just pay off the debt with... dollars. There would be no reason to use Bitcoin or anything else.

Are you financially illiterate?

Printing more dollars to pay off a huge debt is like throwing more gasoline to a fire.

Are you suggesting FED can print quadrillions of USD with zero consequences?

If that were the case, Weimar Germany would never go bankrupt.

Technically speaking Bitcoin is still not "letter of the law" legal.

Code is law. TCP/IP is the network law.

p2p tech is not illegal. Even PGP is not illegal. It's called freedom of speech.

But in the beginning, most assumed that major governments would prosecute participants in the network, so it was effectively illegal for a while. That faded when it was clear that nobody was going to jail for having or trading Bitcoin.

Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.

And while BitTorrent was never illegal, most of the things people did on BitTorrent were absolutely illegal (if it was legal, you'd just stick whatever it is on an ordinary server).

People can also store illegal images (pedo NFTs/Ordinals) in the BTC blockchain.

Nobody has banned BTC nodes.

but transferring money has always been highly regulated.

Only in a centralized manner, that's why previous attempts have failed.

BTC is decentralized, nobody can take it down.

[Richbased]

- That whales are manipulating and determining the price of Bitcoin, whereas the price of Bitcoin is controlled by demand/supply.

The price of bitcoin is being determined by demand and supply, but we cannot strike out the manipulating power of the whales because they also own a large amount of bitcoins such that their activity can influence the price of bitcoin either positively or negatively. Two or more whales can agree together to liquidate the market and you will see how the price will fall and if they also buy large amount of bitcoins the price will also increase so regardless that the price of bitcoin is mainly controlled by demand and supply, there are other contributing factors that also helps in controlling the price too.

[legiteum]

LOL. US fiscal debt is dollar-denominated, so if there's hyperinflation the US will just pay off the debt with... dollars. There would be no reason to use Bitcoin or anything else.

Printing more dollars to pay off a huge debt is like throwing more gasoline to a fire.

Are you suggesting FED can print quadrillions of USD with zero consequences?

Um... no... (?) I never said or implied any such thing. Maybe try reading what I wrote again? Obviously if the US dollar collapses in value, then the there would be a massive worldwide financial crisis like we've never seen (and Bitcoin's value would collapse too for that matter). In that scenario the hot commodity will be foodstuffs and bullets. Things that use complicated technology like "the internet" would be pretty worthless .

You should watch this streaming series if you want to know what the world looks like if the US dollar collapses:

https://www.hbomax.com/shows/last-of-us/93ba22b1-833e-47ba-ae94-8ee7b9eefa9a

And while BitTorrent was never illegal, most of the things people did on BitTorrent were absolutely illegal (if it was legal, you'd just stick whatever it is on an ordinary server).

People can also store illegal images (pedo NFTs/Ordinals) in the BTC blockchain.

Nobody has banned BTC nodes.

Correct. Nobody said they did (?).

but transferring money has always been highly regulated.

Only in a centralized manner, that's why previous attempts have failed.

BTC is decentralized, nobody can take it down.

Of course. But Bitcoin could be made illegal to the point where its popular adoption is similar to pedo-trading networks, which would probably put its market cap in the low $millions instead over a $trillion.

I suspect 99.9% of Bitcoin holders would consider Bitcoin to be "dead" if its value dropped 99%. Obviously there are those in that 1% who don't care at all about money (maybe they already have so much it no longer matters to them), but for most people, all they care about with respect to Bitcoin is that it increases in value after they purchase it so they can buy more stuff and have a happier life. That's different than looking at it a hobby.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Um... no... (?) I never said or implied any such thing. Maybe try reading what I wrote again?

Maybe try to explain how you're going to pay off a debt that rises faster from interest alone every year than the military spending? Answer: you don't, because the debt is not there to be paid. The debt is how fiat money comes into circulation. "Printing" money is not actually printing. The US dollar is loaned into circulation, and is "burned" when debt is paid, but if the debt starts being paid, then we experience deflation and present borrowers cannot pay back their loans, and massive bankruptcy occurs.

You worked at Wall Street, if I remember correctly? You know how money works, right?

[FortuneFollower]

- That whales are manipulating and determining the price of Bitcoin, whereas the price of Bitcoin is controlled by demand/supply.

The price of bitcoin is being determined by demand and supply, but we cannot strike out the manipulating power of the whales because they also own a large amount of bitcoins such that their activity can influence the price of bitcoin either positively or negatively. Two or more whales can agree together to liquidate the market and you will see how the price will fall and if they also buy large amount of bitcoins the price will also increase so regardless that the price of bitcoin is mainly controlled by demand and supply, there are other contributing factors that also helps in controlling the price too.

Weak hands are where the smart money strikes at. Profit is made through such people, unfortunately, that's true.

[cryptosize]

Um... no... (?) I never said or implied any such thing. Maybe try reading what I wrote again?

Maybe try to explain how you're going to pay off a debt that rises faster from interest alone every year than the military spending? Answer: you don't, because the debt is not there to be paid. The debt is how fiat money comes into circulation. "Printing" money is not actually printing. The US dollar is loaned into circulation, and is "burned" when debt is paid, but if the debt starts being paid, then we experience deflation and present borrowers cannot pay back their loans, and massive bankruptcy occurs.

You worked at Wall Street, if I remember correctly? You know how money works, right?

Even economists (like Marinakis) don't truly know how money works...

[Omj1014]

It's only for normal for something as big as Bitcoin to attract speculations and conspiracy theories, as matter of fact these conspiracy theories has help Bitcoin grow and also get places faster, some people that use Bitcoin today heard about it from some of this conspiracy theories.

[puloweh555]

It's only for normal for something as big as Bitcoin to attract speculations and conspiracy theories, as matter of fact these conspiracy theories has help Bitcoin grow and also get places faster, some people that use Bitcoin today heard about it from some of this conspiracy theories.

The more negative news about Bitcoin is reported the more it grows. This is true. There have long been numerous conspiracies surrounding Bitcoin and negative news about it is also very common, even when the price is experiencing a correction. I would even say it's possible that conspiracies like this always emerge when the price drops intentionally trying to make people doubt Bitcoin and take advantage of the low price to buy it.

Because the pattern of Bitcoin conspiracies is always the same. Currently, many people suspect that Satoshi is Epstein. This conspiracy has emerged since the mention of Bitcoin in Jeffrey Epstein emails. In the leaked emails, Jeffrey Epstein revealed intense communication with technology figures, although this has not been proven. Even if he uses or owns Bitcoin, it doesn't mean he is Satoshi. There are many other Bitcoin conspiracies, but I believe this is temporary, as it is being exploited by certain individuals, after which Bitcoin will grow again.

[legiteum]

Um... no... (?) I never said or implied any such thing. Maybe try reading what I wrote again?

Maybe try to explain how you're going to pay off a debt that rises faster from interest alone every year than the military spending? Answer: you don't, because the debt is not there to be paid. The debt is how fiat money comes into circulation. "Printing" money is not actually printing. The US dollar is loaned into circulation, and is "burned" when debt is paid, but if the debt starts being paid, then we experience deflation and present borrowers cannot pay back their loans, and massive bankruptcy occurs.

I've lost what we were talking about here, but... The Fed and the Treasury are two different things, and I think we were talking about debt, which means the Treasury. About 12% of US debt is currently held by the Fed, so there is some overlap, but it's important to think of these things separately. If the Fed bought all of the Treasury debt, for instance (or a big chunk of it), then that would represent a devaluation of the USD, meaning that the next time the US went to borrow, interest rates would be much higher, probably precluding our ability to borrow further. Given that the US runs significant deficits every year, that would mean much higher taxes and deep spending cuts as we'd be forced to balance the budget. Hence the US tends to sell most of its debt to investors rather than the Fed.

Will it ever be paid? Probably not, but if the US GDP keeps growing, it can make the debt smaller as a percentage of GDP, which will make it less significant over the time. Thus far our economy is still growing pretty well, but that can change, particularly for the long term when our natural population growth is rapidly shrinking and US citizens have been trained to hate immigrants by one of its political parties for the last 20 years so they are shutting the doors on them too, and vowing to deport millions of workers on top of that, which will lead to a smaller US GDP, making our debt MORE significant instead of less so. (Countries tend to re-think their stance on immigration when their economy starts to blow up though).

You worked at Wall Street, if I remember correctly? You know how money works, right?

I'm a software engineer, so no, I never worked on Wall Street .

[finaleshot2016]

- That whales are manipulating and determining the price of Bitcoin, whereas the price of Bitcoin is controlled by demand/supply.

It's an obvious economic math. Not conspiracy

- Bitcoin being a ponzi scheme created by a group of people in the CIA.

It was a P2P asset back in a day with a full transparent transaction, that's where it started.

- That the mining of Bitcoin is nothing but a waste of energy.

Mining crypto isn't a waste, eventually all of the BTC will be mined, everyone have access to decentralized finance and those major tech app have huge energy waste than BTC and it's a business owned by the top 1%, while BTC is owned by the people.

- That Bitcoin was created as a tool by elites for money laundering.

Could be but people can even track those funds in the blockchain nowadays.

- Satoshi being link to different names that were never true including Jeffery Epstein that was recently linked and claimed to be the true identity behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

Mentioned in the files but everyone can mention satoshi back then, afaik, there's a lot of people (like craig) claiming that they're satoshi and shows some weak proofs, and some buying it.

- That Bitcoin was created by the illuminati to have control of the monetary system around the globe.

Some elites are already controlling the traditional system, it makes no sense if those so called rich or elites aka illuminatis are also controlling the finance system for everyone.

- The most surprising is that Bitcoin is an alien technology, which is cause it's blockchain is very difficult to be hacked.

lol