Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

Post by oomem » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #29

keymone wrote: post #22

Stopped reading after first two sentences. Bitcoin works because it provides a transaction platform that’s virtually impossible to censor or control and a monetary system that is virtually impossible to debase. Bitcoin provides those things through law of the universe - you can’t make energy out of nothing. If you figure out a different way to provide those things, feel free to make your alternative to Bitcoin, but d…

> Bitcoin works because it provides a transaction platform that’s virtually impossible to censor or control and a monetary system that is virtually impossible to debase. Why is this good? What tangible problem are we solving here?

Post by Pokepokalypse » Sat, Mar 28, 2020, 3:42 AM UTC

Post by LargoLasskhyfv » Sat, Mar 28, 2020, 7:32 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #12

louwrentius wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the actual value of that?

Being able to send money to a friend in the US from Greece has value to me. Currently, I can't do this without a lot of hassle, since there's no overlap between what banking methods we use in Greece and what they use in the US. The problem is that ~0 stores accept cryptocurrencies, so my friend can't do anything with it.

Post by louwrentius » Sat, Mar 28, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

sawmill-picture wrote: post #105

louwrentius wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing you do is to move attention away from cryptocurrencies to (other) fiat currencies. They may have problems too. But we are now talking about the merits of cryptocurrencies. I see zero argument for them.

Cryptocurrency is: * Resistant to government censorship: Short of total firewalling and mass whitelisting of all IP packets and blacklisting all encrypted traffic, governments have difficulty controlling transfers. * Resistant to capital controls: Centralized banking can prevent you from using your money. The Federal Reserve reduced the reserve requirement to zero and cut interest rates to zero on March 15th. The FDI…

Post by louwrentius » Sat, Mar 28, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

keymone wrote: post #114

louwrentius wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because it's such a narrow view on currency. Because governments have every incentive to keep currencies stable, so they will never become worthless. Cryptocoins are not backed by anything, making them very volatile and thus unsuited as a foundational currency for any stable society. This example only illustrates to me that cryptocoin proponents only have esotheric hypotheticals in mind. Sure Venezuela happened,…

Fiat is controlled by governments, governments are controlled by humans, humans are often irrational and there are many more examples than just Venezuela which is the only thing you could think of. Bitcoin is governed by math and that’s why it’s valuable to me. Bitcoin is beneficial to society because it provides choice. I don’t care if you don’t get it or if you disagree.