Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cryptocurrency will always be political

nautil.us

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 20 posts

Re: Cryptocurrency will always be political

#4

Post by simonebrunozzi »

Apropos crypto + political : excellent must read by Yanis Varoufakis, an economist that I greatly admire (but not always 100% agree with), on "Bitcoin and the dangerous fantasy of apolitical money": https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/04/22/bitcoin-and-the-da...

Re: Cryptocurrency will always be political

#5

Post by thisisit »

It seems that the article is trying an artsy way to introduce cryptography and hashing:

Communication is easy, but it’s hard to tell who knows what. Messages pass one another in corridors; conversations fragment. When A replied to B, had she received your message yet, or was she reading C’s? Did she ignore what you said because she didn’t like it, or because it had yet to be delivered? When D proposes a simultaneous attack on the wardens as they deliver dinner, how many people received it? When A confirms to D that she’s in, will D see the message in time? Will D know that B saw it?

Here’s one solution, if a strange one. Write a message with a very difficult mathematical problem on it—a problem so hard that it would take a month of concentration to solve. Now wait.

And I don't get the point of this. Is cryptography bad because it needs to ensure things are not intercepted in between?

Re: Cryptocurrency will always be political

#6

Post by remarkEon »

My friend sent me a meme today that illustrated a view (not his) of what hardcore Crypto evangelists believe. In full disclosure I am not one, but believe there is probably some utility in it, I own a decent amount of BTC (not enough to make me quit working...enough to make me think about buying a house in the near future, depending on taxes), and I understand what the community is trying to do.

It was a meme of a scene from the Matrix.

>Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can trade my Bitcoin for millions some day?

>Morpheus: No Neo. What I’m trying to tell you is that when you’re ready...you won’t have to.

This view I think starkly disturbed me because it seems to signal that hardcore Hodlers really do think that on a long enough timeline the whole economic system collapses.

Re: Cryptocurrency will always be political

#7

Post by jstanley »

remarkEon wrote: post #6

My friend sent me a meme today that illustrated a view (not his) of what hardcore Crypto evangelists believe. In full disclosure I am not one, but believe there is probably some utility in it, I own a decent amount of BTC (not enough to make me quit working...enough to make me think about buying a house in the near future, depending on taxes), and I understand what the community is trying to do. It was a meme of a sc…

That you won't have to sell your bitcoins doesn't imply the "whole economic system collapses". It just means you can buy all the goods and services you need directly in bitcoin.

Re: Cryptocurrency will always be political

#8

Post by divanvisagie »

jstanley wrote: post #7
remarkEon wrote: post #6

My friend sent me a meme today that illustrated a view (not his) of what hardcore Crypto evangelists believe. In full disclosure I am not one, but believe there is probably some utility in it, I own a decent amount of BTC (not enough to make me quit working...enough to make me think about buying a house in the near future, depending on taxes), and I understand what the community is trying to do. It was a meme of a sc…

That you won't have to sell your bitcoins doesn't imply the "whole economic system collapses". It just means you can buy all the goods and services you need directly in bitcoin.

Yeah , I do think there are those who believe in a collapse of normal economic systems but the reality is that things would probably just transition to it.

Re: Cryptocurrency will always be political

#9

Post by LV-426 »

remarkEon wrote: post #6

My friend sent me a meme today that illustrated a view (not his) of what hardcore Crypto evangelists believe. In full disclosure I am not one, but believe there is probably some utility in it, I own a decent amount of BTC (not enough to make me quit working...enough to make me think about buying a house in the near future, depending on taxes), and I understand what the community is trying to do. It was a meme of a sc…

Anyone who seriously and unironically bases any kind of world view on either:

a) Memes, or b) Lines from The Matrix

is probably not someone to take seriously.

In a catastrophe like our whole economic system collapsing (presumably somehow leaving Bitcoin's internet/mining ecosystem untouched) the last thing on anyone's mind is going to be computer money.

Post reply on HN