Fools and their crypto

What crypto does to finance is eliminate more middle men than ever before and bring more transparency than ever before. The majority of people would consider that a good thing.

It doesn't mean the poor get wealthier or the rich get poorer, it just means things are more transparent, which creates a more level playing field.

Billions of dollars can't just go 'missing' like it can in the traditional fiat system for a variety of reasons - mainly because we're relying on humans to (a) be honest and (b) remember to manually file paperwork.

Crypto brings its own set of problems but like any form of technology, it will evolve over time so long as there are advantages to using it. And so long as it evolves, there'll always be new opportunities along with new casualties.

The difference with cryptocurrencies, and the part I find particularly exciting, is this time the structure is independent of nation states. Conceptually this is a big leap forward. I do agree with "meet the new boss, same as the old boss", that is likely the scenario. But even incremental improvements in objective rule of law have improved the human condition, and if cryptocurrencies can improve this in the financial realm that is a good thing.

Also not to imply that the whole space isn't rife with scams and foolish ideas at the moment, nor to imply nation states aren't going to plant a boot firmly on the head of the entire program as that well could happen. Because at the end of the day it sits on a platform that is ultimately controlled by nation states.

I would not be totally against regulation and government intervention into blockchain space (and any other space as well). In fact, it would be really good for the space have reasonable but friendly regulation which would clean up space from outright scams.

Unfortunately, governments usually don't try to came up with reasonable regulation but rather killing regulation. One notable example is BitLicense which lead to mass exodus of cryptocurrency-related companies from New York.

Real life example of sad result of such regulation:

https://www.stellar.org/lumens/build/

> If you live in a restricted area — any country on the U.S. sanctions list, as well as the states of Alabama, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Vermont and Washington — regulations prevent us from sending you lumens. Unfortunately, therefore, residents of restricted areas are not eligible for an award.

This sentence is exact reason why I really hate regulators and people who are very enthusiastic about big government cracking down cryptocurrency space just because of few really stupid and obvious pump and dump scams on coins I've never heard of.

Fortunately, I don't live in New York and US. I'm rather give here examples familiar to Hacker News readers.

Another thing I hate about regulators is notion of accredited investor. Which says:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor#United_Sta...

> In the United States, to be considered an accredited investor, one must have a net worth of at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of one's primary residence

Which basically says - rich gets richer and you poor little guy is too stupid for participating in potentially highly lucrative deals.

I know what you will say - the governments try to protect ordinary people from scams. Don't you think it's a little overshoot??? Instead of keeping so high barrier of entry, the government could impose some sort of exams if you want to accredited investor. Or as alternative, make sure a person won't put more than 10% of early net income in high risk projects. That's what I would call friendly regulation.

So I see how government try to regulate (just practically ban things) and I tell - it's better having no regulation at all!

So we have more transparency with these completely opaque ICO situations where the company name and country of operation isn't even clear? Versus the highly regulated filing requirements and GAAP independent audit requirements of a public company? Huh?

(Unless you’re not in Europe or its cultural descendants)