Crypto isn't just for bros: Meet the mothers entering the market

[Zorro]

Some mothers see bitcoin and NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, as ways to build wealth for their families.

In October, Sarah Monson learned that Facebook was changing its name to Meta and shifting its focus to something called the metaverse, an immersive virtual world that did not yet exist, but the company said would one day take over the internet. Monson, a 44-year-old commercial writer and mother who recently moved to Hawaii, found the news disturbing.

“I was like, oh my God, we are all going to be dragged into this creepy metaverse by Mark Zuckerberg, whether we like it or not, and have no say in it,” she said during an interview last week at NFT LA, a cryptocurrency conference in downtown Los Angeles.

Monson thought her 6-year-old daughter would encounter some version of the metaverse in the future and she wanted to be prepared. She decided the best thing to do was learn about the technologies that many proponents of the metaverse said would underpin it, including cryptocurrencies and NFTs, or nonfungible tokens.

“My whole point was, I want to educate myself,” Monson said. She also didn’t want to miss out on what was looking to her like another major tech boom. “I lived in Seattle during the dot com bubble and I had no voice or power to do anything,” she said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/crypto-moms-nfts-metaverse-market-rcna22227

I caught this clip on tonight's NBC Nightly News broadcast found it really annoying. This mom admitted she didn't know much if anything about crypto currencies, but made a small investment in some crypto and said she's up about "50%" and is now creating her own NFTs to market and sell. Strikes me as a fool's gold enterprise.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. I think I should buy some crypto

There are simple ETFs. I suppose crypto is no different than debt and bonds when they were invented - an alt accounting system.

NFTs? Dutch Tulip Mania in digital form. Count me out. They'll be unique, but they won't be scarce. I don't think they have anything on framed prints from Home Goods.

[Bristlecone]

2. The worst investment I have is a crypto futures ETF

I dipped in to see how it would move and it has halved in 6 mos. The minute I can get to a 25% loss I’m out. Maybe your luck will be better.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Thanks for the alert

New technologies can have an industry shakeout. Another speed bump to beware.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. "Alt accounting" covers all kinds of things, including many scams

The point of debt, or bonds, is that money is needed to pay taxes to governments, and is widely accepted as stable exchange for goods and services. The long-term value of money is backed up by the state requiring it from people and companies, and there are thousands of years of practice with coins, and hundreds with notes, and decades with electronic bank accounts. Debt allows one entity that has accumulated money to give another the use of it now, with an agreement to get more back later. It's based on the idea that people can do useful work with tools, seed, shelter or whatever available - again, millennia of human history backs this up.

Crypto is indeed different; no-one requires payment in it (though it may be the most practical way of paying for guns, drugs, and other black market good and services, I suppose). You're speculating that it will become more popular, and that this popularity will outrun the process by which some entities create more of it, and thus get themselves a larger share of it. If you trust your assessment that humanity will like crypto more and more, for something, then you might gain by holding it. But I'd suggest you need better reasoning than "it's alt accounting, like debt and bonds". Identify what the "something" is. And work out who influences the prices, and what law might be used to keep them from running off with your money.

If you create something, however, and persuade someone to part with some crypto for an NFT linked with it, and then immediately convert that crypto to real money, then you're ahead, without having to worry about what future feeling is like. It's like growing the tulips. Be the one driving the scam, not the victim.

[rockfordfile]

3. That's just a crypto ad. Crypto should be banned

How do you like those high tech prices and availability. Those pos losers are crooks.

[XanaDUer2]

4. No matter what I read or have explained to me

I don't understand. It. It makes me nervous

[Baked Potato]

5. Ah the metaverse, a place where the Have-Nots can go live it up some day

and leave the real world so the Haves can enjoy the earth like God intended.

[NewHendoLib]

6. It's all bullshit snake oil to me.

[canetoad]

7. WTF?

"Crypto isn't just for bros: Meet the mothers entering the market" that is really the title of this piece.

Two kinds of folk in the world - The Bros who have been using crypto forever and the Mothers - who are now learning and are using it as, "ways to build wealth for their families."

Sexist bullshit.

[hunter]

8. I don't believe it's an ethical place to put one's money.

The energy costs are far too high in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

And all said, it's just magic numbers.

Gold is stupid too, and environmentally destructive as well, but at least you can make pretty jewelry out of it if it's actually in your possession.

Any hard currency is based on a government's ability to enforce contracts, collect taxes, and regulate markets. There's nothing really "fiat" (Latin: let it be done) about hard currencies.

Cryptocurrencies are not supported by any of those things. It's all blind faith. They are the ultimate fiat money.

[BadgerKid]

9. I liken NFTs to artwork

On one hand, it is meaningful to those who find value in it. On the other, it could be a great money laundering tool.

[48656c6c6f20]

10. Crypto scary

Bring back sand dollars.

[Peacetrain]

13. I have lived through so many bubbles and bursts.. that crypto

just seems like the next iteration of pyramid scheme for younger generations. It is as it always was.. snake oil.. some will get really rich on it.. and end up in jail some day.. the rest of us will see their money go down the drain.. Must be something in the depths of our DNA thinking we can get rich quick. It could bring on the next great depression. aka 1929 .. who knows.. but it is built on thin air so a person would be wise to take that into considerations also..