The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban

Post by tome » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #134

iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gambling, e.g. casino or sports betting is different because for some it's a fun pastime and participants are (more or less) aware of what it's about. "Crypto" - not the underlying tech which is potentially interesting and may have merit in some incarnation - but buying or trading "assets" grounded in the tech, is essentially a quasi-legal pump and dump scheme right now. There is a rich history of securities law that…

Its odd that I can drop a hundred grand at the Venetian, but not in a mates start-up.

Post by hakesdev » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #138

duckfang wrote: post #109

Notice: When Wall street decides to horrible things with money in its various ways, nobody bats an eye. When fraud happens, nobody goes to jail. It's business as usual. When the People decides to do horrible things with money in its various ways, we see hardware manufacturers attempt to lock down hardware to prevent it (nVidia), we see the SEC collectively lose their shit, we see completely inconsistent rules from th…

You can't justify your own 'bad behaviour' by pointing at someone else's bad behaviour. That is whataboutism, to distract from - I believe - valid and substantiated criticism. I agree that so much is wrong with Wall Street, but that is another discussion. That is a separate issue to me.

Post by tome » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

tachyonbeam wrote: post #118

tome wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of the article's arguments work if you replace the word "Gold" for the word cryptocurrency I don't see it. Doesn't seem to apply to ponzi scheme, or facilitating cyber attacks, or the environmental impact. Perhaps you could give some explicit examples.

I don't like the way bitcoin mining wastes energy, but mining gold certainly has an environmental impact. Most of the machinery is currently powered by fossil fuels, and most of the gold isn't used for useful applications AFAIK. I'm glad some cryptos are moving to proof of stake, and I wonder if bitcoin will be able to make that transition too, or if the miners have too much to lose to let that happen?

Post by smeej » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

einpoklum wrote: post #126

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).

Without arguing for or against such a ban - it is literally in the purview of governments. Control and regulation of financial mechanisms is a key part of state sovereignty. So, such a ban would is much more "the government's job" than banning a product like beanie babies. It's also not the equivalent of banning the Internet; perhaps - similar to banning gambling through the Internet. In the sense that it may be impo…

Post by lvs » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

Kranar wrote: post #162

aarongray wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home prices in my area are up around 15% over the past year.

That makes real estate investments a good defense against inflation. A good defense against inflation are assets whose price increases at a rate higher than the rate of inflation. A bad defense would be an asset whose price increases at a rate lower than that of inflation.