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Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

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111–120 of 211 posts

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#111
post #75
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fiat is slightly different in that the government can guarantee a certain level of demand for it by requiring taxes to be paid in it. If you you don't like jail and have a tax liability in US, you can't think dollars are worthless.

> Fiat is slightly different in that the government can guarantee a certain level of demand for it by requiring taxes to be paid in it Until they switch currencies. For instance Brazil did this > The cruzeiro (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾuˈzejɾu]) was the currency of Brazil from 1942 to 1986 (two distinct currencies) and again between 1990 and 1993. In August 1993 it was replaced by the short-lived Cruzeiro Real, it…

Declaring certain currency notes to be valueless doesn't change the demand for currency. It reduces supply.

But people still need it to pay taxes and the government will only pay for services with it.

In most developed nations, the government is responsible for 20%+ of the total GDP, so that's an inbuilt "floor" to the value of its currency.

So yes, the government can change the currency and the notes, but they control the supply and demand of whatever they deem to be the currency.

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#112

Bans are totally justified. They will achieve two major outcomes: 1. Tank the price, thus freeing up energy and advanced manufactured goods (which are in shortages right now) for proper productive use. 2. Significantly lessen the instances of Ransomware, since companies will have no legal mechanism to actually pay. Whether the coins continue to exist informally and are traded in some kind of primitive barter system i…

yup. also we’ll end covid, catch all the people involved in human trafficking, give everyone free clean water, free organic food, free internet and a free tesla. climate change? gone. everyone’s IQ is gonna increase by 120 points. We’re gonna develop space technology that will put us on another habitable planet, outside of the solar system before the end of the decade!!!

next time you think a ban is a good thing, imagine I would ban something you do. It doesn’t even have to be something essential. Maybe I ban a hobby of yours. How does that feel?

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#113
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the stop sign bubble. Those stop signs dont actually stop cars, they just work because of the contagious narrative

Small difference: neither currency nor stops sign have speculation as rhe primary usage.

Your point may be true, but it's not a rebuttal to the parent's assertion that "contagious narratives" are a normal part of many generally accepted systems. It's like you're throwing in random information.

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#115
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote: I’ve seen a dozen people roll through stop signs today.

Anecdote: I saw someone this morning get pulled over for rolling through a stop sign.

Synthesis: The force of the law may not be homogeneously distributed.

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#116
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as we're banning things we should also ban all videogames, they are too addictive. There is nothing more precious than time and it can be spent much more productively. And alcohol for obvious reasons.

The difference being that the harm caused by Bitcoin (or at least the negative effects pointed out by GP) is externalized from the investors to society as a whole.

everything is externalized. you don’t live in a bubble. You are part of a ecosystem with your I/O connected to that system.

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually a secret reference to the buddhist idea of "conventional reality", things that exist only by convention or agreement among people: political office, property ownership, money, diplomas, marriage, borders, ... most of modern life

Schelling point is another name for this.

Not quite as it is a more specific term - a Schelling point is a social construct but not all social constructs are Schelling points.

In particular a Schelling point is a default chosen without communicating it in the first place. None of the above examples count.

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#119
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the stop sign bubble. Those stop signs dont actually stop cars, they just work because of the contagious narrative

well, there's also the force of law behind stop signs.

A contagious narrative backed by guns indicates weakness of narrative

Re: Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

#120
post #84

> "Cryptocurrencies are essentially neither money nor a financial product, but an example of what Nobel laureate Robert Shiller calls a 'contagious narrative': a contagious story in which people believe because other people believe in it." Which is exactly what money is, to begin with.

Like the stop sign bubble. Those stop signs dont actually stop cars, they just work because of the contagious narrative

Come to Florida where all road signs are merely suggestions /s. However, this is the strongest argument I've seen for why money is money, crypto is crypto, stop signs stop cars, and "DO NOT CROSS" keeps people out.
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