Bitcoin is a Cult
adamcaudill.com
Bitcoin is a Cult
1–10 of 232 posts
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#2this elegantly summed up all my feelings on bitcoin; excellent read
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#3Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value.
The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without too much oversight.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#4Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value. The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without to…
> BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without too much oversight
Liquidity, though.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#5Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value. The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without to…
Would like to read more.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#6I don't disagree but isn't this true for the popularization of any technology. First it's just the nerds then come the less informed masses who don't fully understand the details along with the people trying to make money out of that fact.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#7Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value. The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without to…
Do you have any sources for your claim that Bitcoin is used for large Russian/Saudi assets? It seems like the volume of BTC traded for illicit purposes is large in aggregate, but I'm not sure I've seen evidence of individual transfers being big. There are many ways that bad or unscrupulous actors can transfer money now that are actually less risky than Bitcoin.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#8Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value. The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without to…
> BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without too much oversight Liquidity, though.
Exactly: No crypto in it's current state is liquid enough for any serious moving of money. Slipping, fees (and potential hedging costs) will eat you if you need to to move serious money.
As such it only works for entities who don't have vast amounts of capital, eg. people who can't afford an army of tax lawyers to create complex legal tax evasion schemes to pay less tax than the rest of us.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#9Any network-effect driven product is a cult.
Re: Bitcoin is a Cult
#10Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value. The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without to…
Do you have any sources for your claim that Bitcoin is used for large Russian/Saudi assets? It seems like the volume of BTC traded for illicit purposes is large in aggregate, but I'm not sure I've seen evidence of individual transfers being big. There are many ways that bad or unscrupulous actors can transfer money now that are actually less risky than Bitcoin.
I'm not commenting on the use of Bitcoin for Russian/Saudi interests, simply some information on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.
Money Laundering tends to be smallish sums deposited over time, resulting in large amounts. You can't wash 100MM in one go.
Terrosist Financing tends to be a very large number of small transactions from multiple global sources in a very short space of time into one account/wallet/location. Like crowd-sourcing, in fact exactly the same as crowd-sourcing.
Less risky than Bitcoin? In the end you have to get it out of the blockchain to be useful, so that's where the pointers from a law-enforcement perspecive are.