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CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

netherlandsnewslive.com

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Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#21

Post by raverbashing »

SCHiM wrote: post #8

Why should others decide if I can run useless hashing functions on my computer? Price the electricity accordingly, and make PoW impossible. Cryptocurrency is no the enabler of ransomware. Ransomware was prevalent before cryptocurrencies. The real enablers of ransomware are the countries that shelter the R10 groups, raking in millions. There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian languag…

> doesn't run when your system has a Russian language keyboard, and it's not because they know Russians never pay ransom

Yes, maybe because Russia wouldn't deal with that issue with "thoughts and prayers". On a completely unrelated subject nobody wants to wake up in a duffel bag.

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#22

Post by fsflover »

bo0tzz wrote: post #18
SCHiM wrote: post #8

Why should others decide if I can run useless hashing functions on my computer? Price the electricity accordingly, and make PoW impossible. Cryptocurrency is no the enabler of ransomware. Ransomware was prevalent before cryptocurrencies. The real enablers of ransomware are the countries that shelter the R10 groups, raking in millions. There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian languag…

>Price the electricity accordingly So I should pay significantly more on my bills, just because you want to play with some virtual coins?

You should pay more because we have to take into account CO2 problem, which is the same problem for you and for miners.

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#23

Post by nicholasbraker »

The problem I have with this story is that Bitcoin with all its specific issues regarding CO2 emmisions etc. is thrown on the same heap as other cryptocurrencies or blockchain developments which serve other goals, have less of an environmental impact and do actually solve a problem. (e.g. Quant solving the interoperability problem between blockchains which are also in use by banks etc. as well as practical uses of ETH/FLOW/ADA etc.)

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#24

Post by DoingIsLearning »

dataflow wrote: post #12
oblio wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need to ban all proof-of-work and generally all resource intensive cryptocurrencies.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say maybe we should in general ban things that are a certain amount less energy efficient (say, 5x more wasteful) than the best technology we've achieved for a similar purpose so far. And progressively tax anything that's moderately more wasteful (say, 2x-5x). It's bad enough that we have cars on roads that are twice as wasteful as they could be, let alone a transaction processing…

Clears throat... [0]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/06/13/report...

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#26

Post by dataflow »

SCHiM wrote: post #8

Why should others decide if I can run useless hashing functions on my computer? Price the electricity accordingly, and make PoW impossible. Cryptocurrency is no the enabler of ransomware. Ransomware was prevalent before cryptocurrencies. The real enablers of ransomware are the countries that shelter the R10 groups, raking in millions. There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian languag…

> Cryptocurrency is no the enabler of ransomware. Ransomware was prevalent before cryptocurrencies.

This meme really needs to die. It's driving me more and more insane every time I read it. Ransomware may have existed previously but it was nowhere nearly as prevalent before cryptocurrencies came around. It is not a mere coincidence of the cosmos that almost every single darn time (I think literally 98% of the time, as of 2019) ransomware infects someone's machine, it demands payment in Bitcoin. There is a clear relationship there for a very good reason. I cannot fathom how otherwise logical people can see these with their own eyes and yet somehow blind themselves to the obvious connection.

And if you need this from an authoritative mouth because it isn't already clear as daylight... "Cryptocurrency is one of the single enabling factors that allows cybercriminals to deploy a massive amount of ransomware across state and local agencies", said Christopher Krebs. [1]

[1] https://www.rsaconference.com/library/blog/how-cryptocurrenc...

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#28

Post by vultour »

f6v wrote: post #16
SCHiM wrote: post #8

Why should others decide if I can run useless hashing functions on my computer? Price the electricity accordingly, and make PoW impossible. Cryptocurrency is no the enabler of ransomware. Ransomware was prevalent before cryptocurrencies. The real enablers of ransomware are the countries that shelter the R10 groups, raking in millions. There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian languag…

> There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian language keyboard, and it's not because they know Russians never pay ransom... Why then?

Because some countries turn a blind eye to ransomware operators in their territory, and are not targeted in return.

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#29

Post by gtyras2mrs »

f6v wrote: post #16
SCHiM wrote: post #8

Why should others decide if I can run useless hashing functions on my computer? Price the electricity accordingly, and make PoW impossible. Cryptocurrency is no the enabler of ransomware. Ransomware was prevalent before cryptocurrencies. The real enablers of ransomware are the countries that shelter the R10 groups, raking in millions. There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian languag…

> There's a reason some ransomware doesn't run when your system has a Russian language keyboard, and it's not because they know Russians never pay ransom... Why then?

The theory (conspiracy or otherwise) that I've heard is that the Russian state looks the other way as long as ransomware makers don't affect Russian systems. So they exclude systems with Russian language keyboard to avoid impacting Russian systems (which might cause the Russian govt to take action against them)

Re: CPB director: The Netherlands must ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#30

Post by yenwel »

hnbad wrote: post #10
premium-komodo wrote: post #2

The reason we have to go to the trouble of making cryptocurrencies is that busybodies like this guy are endlessly trying to reduce our freedom. They're not trying to look out for people; they're trying to protect their ability to print money and steal. In crypto parlance, they want to remain the VIPs that have centralized special privileged access to create tokens, and force usage thereof. But now we have the technol…

Just to be clear, by "ability to print money and steal" you mean having a central bank and levying taxes? You're making a moral argument against the idea of government controlled currency in general, yes? Can you clarify why you think controlled currencies are morally bad and how cryptocurrencies are better? I'd love to hear a less abstract argument than "more freedom". EDIT: I assume downvotes mean there are people…

money printing is done by handing it to banks at zero interest and flooded on the stock exchanges. The rich get richer and the poor can buy less with the same money since wages are the last thing to raise (while the rich buy up houses and commodities with their free money). Inflation is a tax on the poor and elderly. Literally since VAT is percentage-wise levied on relatively more expensive consumer goods and if wages rise they come in higher income pay scales for taxation. Crony capitalism at it's peak where the players get bail outs and handouts and the poor get poorer and the middle class disappears.
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