Crypto Sponsorship for the AFL - and now NFTs

May 2, 2006
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Blockchain solutions scale poorly.

Bitcoin processes around 5 transactions per second
Visa (traditional system) processes 1,700 transactions per second on average
Source: https://towardsdatascience.com/the-...e-for-visa-like-transaction-speed-5cce48f9d44

Also a busier blockchain network = higher transaction fees. I recall transferring some Bitcoin between wallets a while back, and what was a simple $100 shift from one wallet to another, carried a transaction/processing fee of almost $15 (thankfully had credits that I could use to reduce). But imagine a scenario lining up for chips at the footy to pay with crypto and finding out the already overpriced food has an additional $5 added on because the network is busy. I know that there are some solutions that are addressing this (Bitcoin Lightning Network being the main one) but there are some pretty significant security tradeoffs with these.

Then there is the elephant in the room around energy use. It is all well and good to say "oh well everything will be solar some day so its ok", but that's a bit of a cop out of a real current problem. The security of blockchain solutions is designed around computers solving "high effort math". Faster computer processes only raises the bar in this regard, which is where we end up with a scenario where bitcoin consumes more electricity than Argentina. There is a reason why Tesla suspended Bitcoin as a payment option for its vehicles (there was talk they would recommence, but not sure if they have?). Pawning off the problem to the energy industry to solve, doesn't help to address a major flaw in the technology.

I'm not necessarily a crypto hater (although I would say that about 90% of the people that I have met that are into NFTs have been absolute douchebags. Perhaps that is just a coincidence) and own a little crypto myself, but people like you that talk about crypto future with such surety (e.g "Bitcoin will be at 100k by the end of the year") either don't fully understand what they are buying into from a technology perspective, or are just following the same buzzwords and catchphrases they have seen on subreddits.
No, I do fully understand what I'm buying and I don't have this belief that it go to $100k+ for no reason.

Lightning Network is already in place as a layer 2 solution to both speed and cost of transactions for Bitcoin and other parties are also working on scalable solutions.

Ethereum already has Polygon, as well as working on 2.0 to move away from proof of work (mining) to proof of stake, which is infinitely better for the environemnt, much fast and cheaper as well.

BSC costs around 12-14c per transaction and usualyl pretty fast and then there's Solana, which can complete roughly 50k transactions per second at an average price of $0.00025 per transaction.

The high-effort math you're referring to is for Proof of Work Blockchains, such as Bitcoin. New crypto, as well as Ethereum, either have moved away from is, or are in the process of doing so. In regards to environmental impact, yes it uses a lot of electricity. However even before China kicked the miners out it was using around 70% renewable energy, pretty much to reduce the running costs.

There's a lot of myths perpetuated about crypto that simply aren't true and this thread has really highlighted how much people believe the misinformation out there. I'm not saying it doesn't have its issues, challenges and risks, but the future is very bright and crypto as a space is very early in its adoption.
 
Apr 6, 2005
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I don't have a house but if I already fully owned an asset like a house, then I'd leverage it to buy another one.

1st rule of investing is to never sell your biggest assets to FIAT, you borrow against them to invest more so that your interest payments are less than your returns.

CZ who owns Binance sold his apartment in Hong Kong for Bitcoin though. Now he's a billionaire due to that one investment.
There's nail you hit on the head here. Crypto offers this opportunity in so many varied ways.
 
I'm not sure why crypto is allowed to call itself currency

currency should be a defined word that does not include investments
Are you trying to tell me my collection of Pokemon cards is not actually a kind of money I can use?
 
Some Crypto exchange outfit is sponsoring the Swans this year. As a member I am appalled. It is bad enough having capo bottom feeders like insurance companies sponsoring footy. Last straw for me.
 
People think crypto is dangerous yet are entirely fine with 18 year olds having access to credit cards, bank loans and gambling.

Actually most people would advise teenagers against making poor financial decisions.

Even back in high school my year 10 commerce teacher spent a large portion of her classes explaining how easily debt can lead to financial distress and basically ruin your life if you're not careful.
 

Run Too Far

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I remember people telling me 7 years ago "Don't buy crypto, it's a scam.......blah blah yell at cloud."

Very happy I didn't listen to them.
A, they knew FA about crypto then and nothing has changed.
B, they probably believe everything the government tells them, duh.
 
Feb 23, 2009
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Blockchain solutions scale poorly.

Bitcoin processes around 5 transactions per second
Visa (traditional system) processes 1,700 transactions per second on average
Source: https://towardsdatascience.com/the-...e-for-visa-like-transaction-speed-5cce48f9d44

Also a busier blockchain network = higher transaction fees. I recall transferring some Bitcoin between wallets a while back, and what was a simple $100 shift from one wallet to another, carried a transaction/processing fee of almost $15 (thankfully had credits that I could use to reduce). But imagine a scenario lining up for chips at the footy to pay with crypto and finding out the already overpriced food has an additional $5 added on because the network is busy. I know that there are some solutions that are addressing this (Bitcoin Lightning Network being the main one) but there are some pretty significant security tradeoffs with these.

Then there is the elephant in the room around energy use. It is all well and good to say "oh well everything will be solar some day so its ok", but that's a bit of a cop out of a real current problem. The security of blockchain solutions is designed around computers solving "high effort math". Faster computer processes only raises the bar in this regard, which is where we end up with a scenario where bitcoin consumes more electricity than Argentina. There is a reason why Tesla suspended Bitcoin as a payment option for its vehicles (there was talk they would recommence, but not sure if they have?). Pawning off the problem to the energy industry to solve, doesn't help to address a major flaw in the technology.

I'm not necessarily a crypto hater (although I would say that about 90% of the people that I have met that are into NFTs have been absolute douchebags. Perhaps that is just a coincidence) and own a little crypto myself, but people like you that talk about crypto future with such surety (e.g "Bitcoin will be at 100k by the end of the year") either don't fully understand what they are buying into from a technology perspective, or are just following the same buzzwords and catchphrases they have seen on subreddits.
Long term I think BTC is just the store of value asset, similar to gold which for 99% of investors they don't utilise its utility, its just a valuable asset class.

There are much faster, more efficient, cleaner and greener cryptocurrencies for transaction processing than BTC.

Bitcoin just being the most globally first to mind, it is not necessarily the most useful, beyond just being a store of value.
 
Everything. It's designed to keep you poor and in debt forever.

People think crypto is dangerous yet are entirely fine with 18 year olds having access to credit cards, bank loans and gambling.

people should have debit cards not credit cards. losers don't pay their credit cards off by the end of each month.

bank loans should only be for investment assets and preferably have no debt, so one can explore what they really want to do in life.

people who gamble "to win" are losers

people who get anything but third party insurance are living their lives beyond their means

people who sign up to monthly subscription; phones, internet, insurance, bank loan repayments, pay tv, spotify, avocado should stop and think about their priorities



so no, these are not good financial decisions
 
May 2, 2006
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people should have debit cards not credit cards. losers don't pay their credit cards off by the end of each month.

bank loans should only be for investment assets and preferably have no debt, so one can explore what they really want to do in life.

people who gamble "to win" are losers

people who get anything but third party insurance are living their lives beyond their means

people who sign up to monthly subscription; phones, internet, insurance, bank loan repayments, pay tv, spotify, avocado should stop and think about their priorities



so no, these are not good financial decisions
Yes, they are all bad financial decisions if you can't afford them.

You don't have to be a total miser and have no fun in life but you do need to live sparingly for a few years, preferably whilst young, to maximise your financial future when you're older.

I remember back in my early 20s when I took a trip to Melbourne. I missed my flight on the way home and was waiting for a new one. No money, maxed out credit card and the spruikers for Citibank were there, hounding me to get a credit card. Even though I told them I had no money and had maxed out the limit on my $2k card they still were forcing the sign up sheet into my hand, offering a limit of $1k.

Credit cards are despicable. Yes I have one for emergencies but I always ensure it's paid off before the interest payments are due. Sadly, I didn't when I was younger.
 
May 2, 2006
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Cryptocurrency is a misnomer. Not all cryptos should be viewed as currencies in the traditional sense.
Yeah, the concept has definitely changed from 'currency' to asset class. People do make plenty of transactions in BTC, Eth and BNB though but that's mostly for services and not purchases.
 
Jul 13, 2015
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I remember people telling me 7 years ago "Don't buy crypto, it's a scam.......blah blah yell at cloud."

Very happy I didn't listen to them.
A, they knew FA about crypto then and nothing has changed.
B, they probably believe everything the government tells them, duh.

Created a BigFooty account just so you could brag about how much money you have made in Crypto? You could probably make another account to brag about how much money you made with Netflix shares...

This thread really has gone off on a few tangents.

Irrespective of whether you actually like Crypto or not, is it really a good look for the AFL? Crypto, booze and gambling. May as well bring back tobacco too. Is about as bad for people.
 
May 2, 2006
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Created a BigFooty account just so you could brag about how much money you have made in Crypto? You could probably make another account to brag about how much money you made with Netflix shares...

This thread really has gone off on a few tangents.

Irrespective of whether you actually like Crypto or not, is it really a good look for the AFL? Crypto, booze and gambling. May as well bring back tobacco too. Is about as bad for people.
Encouraging people to gain interest in investing can only be a good thing I would've thought, unlike booze and gambling.

Even if it isn't crypto they're interested in, it'll at least get people thinking about putting money away for the future.
 
Sep 9, 2015
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Created a BigFooty account just so you could brag about how much money you have made in Crypto? You could probably make another account to brag about how much money you made with Netflix shares...

This thread really has gone off on a few tangents.

Irrespective of whether you actually like Crypto or not, is it really a good look for the AFL? Crypto, booze and gambling. May as well bring back tobacco too. Is about as bad for people.

So the SX would be off limits for sponsorship too then?
 
Jun 14, 2015
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Irrespective of whether you actually like Crypto or not, is it really a good look for the AFL? Crypto, booze and gambling. May as well bring back tobacco too. Is about as bad for people.

Is Crypto really as bad as smoking? I think you are being a little bit "over the top" here.
Smoking costs a lot of money. Cryptocurrency makes a lot of money- see the difference?

As for: Macdonalds, Carlton Draught, NAB, Sportsbet, AAMI they're all big campaigners.
No one cares Ronald Macdonald or Four and Twenty Pie sponsor footy, why do I GAF if Bitcoin and Crypto does?

"OK Boomer!"
 
Is Crypto really as bad as smoking? I think you are being a little bit "over the top" here.
Smoking costs a lot of money. Cryptocurrency makes a lot of money- see the difference?

As for: Macdonalds, Carlton Draught, NAB, Sportsbet, AAMI they're all big campaigners.
No one cares Ronald Macdonald or Four and Twenty Pie sponsor footy, why do I GAF if Bitcoin and Crypto does?

"OK Boomer!"
I agree

Gambling and alcohol the high majority of people use in moderation, yet being sponsored by these companies is bad

McDonalds and 4 & 20 clog your arteries and there are a lot more people with weight/health issues than there are with people of the above two past times yet sponsorship by them is never called in to question

But then again young players aren't even allowed to be skin fold tested because its fat shaming so what the * would I know?

People like to be outraged and be quite highly moral when it suits them and turn a blind eye when it also suits them
 
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Jul 13, 2015
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Is Crypto really as bad as smoking? I think you are being a little bit "over the top" here.
Smoking costs a lot of money. Cryptocurrency makes a lot of money- see the difference?

As for: Macdonalds, Carlton Draught, NAB, Sportsbet, AAMI they're all big campaigners.
No one cares Ronald Macdonald or Four and Twenty Pie sponsor footy, why do I GAF if Bitcoin and Crypto does?

"OK Boomer!"

Everyone wins with crypto !!

No-one actually believes that. In fact, now that the big banks are moving in you can be sure most people are going to lose, as they start to manipulate markets with basically zero oversight from governments.
 
Jun 14, 2015
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Everyone wins with crypto !!

No-one actually believes that.

No-one actually says that.

FYI people lost money on stock market, currency trading, investment funds, superannuation providers, property too.

Just last week a $5 note fell out of my pocket at the local shopping centre. Of course it's the banks fault, even if I was too lazy to put the note in my wallet right?
 
Oct 12, 2016
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The story of cycling team Quebeka/NextHash is probably worth a read for those saying there is nothing to lose with crypto companies. Granted there is good and bad companies in all aspects of the business world but securing a 5 year sponsorship contract is massive in that sport and for the team to fold 6 months later due to lack of payments should sound a warning to any other sporting team. Maybe blame lack of due diligence from the team owner but long term sponsorship deals and companies trading in volatile assets are 2 things that don't go together.
 
May 5, 2006
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'It's way better than fiat currency, it's decentralised and there's a fixed supply so that makes it valuable'
'But it's functionally pretty useless as a currency'
'It's a store of wealth like gold so that makes it valuable'

Etc.

There's one argument and one argument alone for crypto, and that's 'I bought something for X (or "mined" it), I want it to be worth more than X'. I wish people would just cut all the bullshit. No one gets into it for any reason other than making money out of thin air. And good luck to you if you have, but be realistic. It's also horrendous for the planet and creates zero actual value.

Should the AFL be sponsored by a crypto exchange? Can't see why not. Sports sponsorships go in waves. Banks, telcos, sports betting companies have all had time in the sun. If the AFL are being paid in real money by a company that makes it by facilitating the exchange of coins and tokens who cares? Maybe Crypto.com is a dubious business (couldn't tell you) but it's not like the AFL has an actual moral compass and if they did trading magic beans isn't a crime. Sydney (just one club, not the whole league) have a pride round game and are happy to accept sponsorship from the state owned airline of Qatar where homosexual acts may be punished by death.
 
Yes, they are all bad financial decisions if you can't afford them.

You don't have to be a total miser and have no fun in life but you do need to live sparingly for a few years, preferably whilst young, to maximise your financial future when you're older.

I remember back in my early 20s when I took a trip to Melbourne. I missed my flight on the way home and was waiting for a new one. No money, maxed out credit card and the spruikers for Citibank were there, hounding me to get a credit card. Even though I told them I had no money and had maxed out the limit on my $2k card they still were forcing the sign up sheet into my hand, offering a limit of $1k.

Credit cards are despicable. Yes I have one for emergencies but I always ensure it's paid off before the interest payments are due. Sadly, I didn't when I was younger.

Agree

The youth are the most vulnerable as one is generally on low wages and no savings; thus in desperate times, desperate decisions.

It’s also harder now than ever, as although kids are wealthier these days the expectations are high. Where historically we ALL had nothing together, no avo, no eating out at funky cafes, no overseas holidays, no daily coffee, no designer bags or labels (unless you consider country road as up there), no mobile phone, no internet, no pay tv, no laptops.

All you needed back then was a shitty cars, cheap fuel and jugs of shitty beer.
 
May 2, 2007
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'It's way better than fiat currency, it's decentralised and there's a fixed supply so that makes it valuable'
'But it's functionally pretty useless as a currency'
'It's a store of wealth like gold so that makes it valuable'

Etc.

There's one argument and one argument alone for crypto, and that's 'I bought something for X (or "mined" it), I want it to be worth more than X'. I wish people would just cut all the bullshit. No one gets into it for any reason other than making money out of thin air. And good luck to you if you have, but be realistic. It's also horrendous for the planet and creates zero actual value.

Should the AFL be sponsored by a crypto exchange? Can't see why not. Sports sponsorships go in waves. Banks, telcos, sports betting companies have all had time in the sun. If the AFL are being paid in real money by a company that makes it by facilitating the exchange of coins and tokens who cares? Maybe Crypto.com is a dubious business (couldn't tell you) but it's not like the AFL has an actual moral compass and if they did trading magic beans isn't a crime. Sydney (just one club, not the whole league) have a pride round game and are happy to accept sponsorship from the state owned airline of Qatar where homosexual acts may be punished by death.
Greater fool theory.
 
May 2, 2006
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Greater fool theory.
It's fine to have an opinion, however you'd be doing yourself a disservice to be so dismissive of the greatest investment opportunity since the dot.com boom instead of doing some thorough research and making an informed decision as to whether it's actually for you or not. Only then can you decide if the risk is actually worth the reward long-term.

FYI there's quite a few ways to make money in crypto, trading is only one of them.
 
Feb 28, 2007
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It's fine to have an opinion, however you'd be doing yourself a disservice to be so dismissive of the greatest investment opportunity since the dot.com boom instead of doing some thorough research and making an informed decision as to whether it's actually for you or not. Only then can you decide if the risk is actually worth the reward long-term.

FYI there's quite a few ways to make money in crypto, trading is only one of them.

You do know that a lot of people lost everything in the dot com boom don't you?
 
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