The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban • Hacker News Board

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#11

Post by thebean11 » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

Even if you take the most cynical approach towards crypto, banning crypto is simply not the governments job.

At best, this is equivalent to banning beanie babies (no real negative affects for society, but stupid and a big overreach).

At worst, it's equivalent to banning the internet (sets the country behind decades as the rest of the world adopts the new technology and profits from it).

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#12

Post by hpoe » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

_nckn wrote: post #5

I think the main premise of this article is the fact that crypto's carbon emission is insane, especially Bitcoin, which I agree (I don't hold Bitcoin for this exact reason). But there are many other crypto that uses Proof of Stake, way way greener than Proof of Work, such as Cardano. Even Ethereum is transitioning to Proof of Stake. This article should be re-titled "The Political Case for a Blanket Proof of Work Ban"…

Wasn't that posted like 2 days ago on HN already?

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#13

Post by colinmhayes » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

arrosenberg wrote: post #9

This is America, banning things rarely works as intended. A carbon tax solves this problem just fine.

Miners would just move to China.

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#14

Post by JohnJamesRambo » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

Let’s go the other way and ban fiat. Money printing is a much greater threat to world security.

Print way too much money, run out of resources and room to pump, crash to rock bottom, start a war, then start over again is the historic cycle we are stuck on until we fix this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debasement

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#15

Post by mmastrac » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

thebean11 wrote: post #11

Even if you take the most cynical approach towards crypto, banning crypto is simply not the governments job. At best, this is equivalent to banning beanie babies (no real negative affects for society, but stupid and a big overreach). At worst, it's equivalent to banning the internet (sets the country behind decades as the rest of the world adopts the new technology and profits from it).

The government[0] has regulatory authority over environmental issues, so why wouldn't this be the government's job?

[0] ie: all of them

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#16

Post by jtolds » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

_nckn wrote: post #5

I think the main premise of this article is the fact that crypto's carbon emission is insane, especially Bitcoin, which I agree (I don't hold Bitcoin for this exact reason). But there are many other crypto that uses Proof of Stake, way way greener than Proof of Work, such as Cardano. Even Ethereum is transitioning to Proof of Stake. This article should be re-titled "The Political Case for a Blanket Proof of Work Ban"…

I came here to say this exact same thing. There is seriously interesting and useful real work being done under the umbrella term "decentralized finance" or DeFi. It is hard to cut through the noise of get rich quick schemes, but at the core, the DeFi stuff, built on top of green cryptocurrency (proof of stake), along with quickly improving zero-knowledge proof tech, is actually useful and groundbreaking.

Bitcoin and proof of work should totally be banned.

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#17

Post by sremani » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:36 PM UTC

colinmhayes wrote: post #13

arrosenberg wrote: post #9

This is America, banning things rarely works as intended. A carbon tax solves this problem just fine.

Miners would just move to China.

They are already there. US will not be the first country to ban Crypto. The countries that are facing acute Capital flight post-corona would do that. US will use its regulatory regime to firewall crypto into its own thing. But if BTC becomes a threat to USD in a realistic way (which is not evident in medium term), then game on!

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#18

Post by senthil_rajasek » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

In addition to the shortcomings mentioned in the article a major problem of cryptocurrencies is the inability of local goverments to issue bonds that fund critical community projects like schools, safety and roads.

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#19

Post by edouard-harris » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

arrosenberg wrote: post #9

This is America, banning things rarely works as intended. A carbon tax solves this problem just fine.

> This is America

Note that the author of the post is based in London, UK: https://www.stephendiehl.com/

Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

#20

Post by herodotus » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

mantenpanther wrote: post #6

Hostile and clearly framed article from the first sentence. Could not read it further.

I am sorry that you did that. I believe that Bitcoin's intrinsic energy usage is a big big problem, and I would have been interested in a reasoned counter-argument from someone who is in favour of Bitcoin or other crypto-currencies. After all, I read HN mostly to learn and grow. I especially enjoy informative comments on articles and the ensuing debates.