Live data from Hacker News

China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

dailybusinessgroup.co.uk

121–130 of 699 posts

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#121
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define volatile. The only currency that has stood the test of time is gold, a private currency. Every fiat currency in history has failed. Probably because heads of state like to print it to solve their short term problems essentially robbing everyone with an inflation tax. I dont call that stable or just. I work and save and expect my currency to hold up and not be abused which is not happening currently. Edit: HN m…

> Every fiat currency in history has failed. That's funny. The extant fiat currencies haven't failed. So, the only ones that have failed... are the failed ones. And those have failed, 100%, indeed.

Actually all the euro area currencies that were removed from circulation in exchange for euros; franc, deutchmark, lira etc. did not fail at all.

Thus, not every currency has failed, although it could be argued that they still exist in a 'shadow' form, thus have not yet existed to the end of the infinite timeline.

Either way every failed currency has indeed failed, thus every currency in the future that fails will also be considered to be a failure, maintaining the 100% record for failure.

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have not been looking hard if you haven't the crypto fawns here.

No, actually this has been a known thing for years. There have even been topics asking why HN hates crypto so much, which appear every six months or so.

Every crypto thread has lots of crypto lovers and lots of crypto haters. If you only see the hater then you are probably a lover.

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#123

I hope the rest of world follows. There is nothing more volatile than a decentralised crypto currency. The amount of people making a profit from it is less than 5% and energy consumption is beyond acceptable. Crypto as a tech to serve something different is totally fine of course.

Define volatile. The only currency that has stood the test of time is gold, a private currency. Every fiat currency in history has failed. Probably because heads of state like to print it to solve their short term problems essentially robbing everyone with an inflation tax. I dont call that stable or just. I work and save and expect my currency to hold up and not be abused which is not happening currently. Edit: HN m…

Hacker News has a short delay before you can reply to a new comment. I think precisely to stop instant replies and give people a chance to think about it?

Anyway. There's a cute video out there I can't find now of a man trying to use gold in New York to buy something. Anything. The results indicate its use as a currency was questionable. (No one would accept it as payment.)

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a country rounding up a whole population of a religious minority and sending them to reeducation camps. A country that mobilized over a billion people to almost completely control covid. You are vastly underestimating the CCP, as most Westerns continue to do.

>A country that mobilized over a billion people to almost completely control covid. What do you mean by completely control covid? What intended result have they managed to arrive at?

They have almost 0 community spread. A fact which many in the west respond to by saying that they’re faking their numbers, which completely ignores all of the counter measures they’ve taken. I have colleagues in China, and the Chinese lockdowns literally looked like a Zombie movie. It’s not surprising they were able to contain spread.

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#125
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this quite a bit, and I don't understand it. People keep writing articles and saying things amounting to 'it just won't last forever'. But the reason is, because it just won't, totalitarian governments don't last. Why wouldn't it? Strong central government. Clear economic and social goals with the ends justifying whatever unethical means. A complacent middle and upper class satiated by enough new wealth…

Nothing wrong with the fundamentals of your argument, but growth can’t be unlimited. Eventually it’s starts slowing down, then those complacent middle class will start being less complacent and start demanding more freedom. I think it’s reasonable to say the CCP will keep their grip on power for as long as they can continue delivering wealth to the middle class, and lifting those in poverty into the middle class. Wha…

That newly freedom-thirsty middle class could be simply brutally suppressed by an automated police force, powered by AI-driven surveillance. The CCP is a long-term thinking government, I'm sure they are at least considering how it would work.

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#126
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only PoW cryptos need extensive electricity and hardware. Its completely absurd to ban crypto. Thats like if you would ban all motorized vehicles to get rid of coal blasting diesel trucks without catalytic converter. Needless to say that its also technically impossible to ban crypto. Its like banning torrents or even harder and we all know torrent was attacked heavily in the past but it did not go away.

Just ban the fiat exchanges. The hardcore crypto types would carry on using it but like 95% would give up - that's sufficient.

The same way we eliminated illegal drugs?

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#127
post #66

I hope the rest of world follows. There is nothing more volatile than a decentralised crypto currency. The amount of people making a profit from it is less than 5% and energy consumption is beyond acceptable. Crypto as a tech to serve something different is totally fine of course.

You should educate yourself. Energy consumption is an old myth and cryptocurrency pushes a lot of innovations in this field. There is a great documentary on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7dMVcVWgc .

It is a bit annoying that you assume that people critical of cryptocurrencies and specifically Bitcoin's environmental footprint are uneducated about the issues. It is not a myth. BTC's environmental footprint is preposterous. It's estimated that the network currently runs at 165 TWh/a, or around 19 GW, which means that one transaction uses around 5 GJ or 1500 kWh, and produces 800 kg of CO2, and 250 g of electronic waste.

For keeping track of a ledger that one dude in a basement with an Excel spreadsheet could keep track of, more or less.

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#128

I hope the rest of world follows. There is nothing more volatile than a decentralised crypto currency. The amount of people making a profit from it is less than 5% and energy consumption is beyond acceptable. Crypto as a tech to serve something different is totally fine of course.

Exactly. It's literally just burning the world's resources just for the modern equivalent of beanie babies

For those who genuinely want decentralised currency, there's so many more efficient options

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#129
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just ban the fiat exchanges. The hardcore crypto types would carry on using it but like 95% would give up - that's sufficient.

Oddly enough besides the hard-core aficionados and techies that would mostly leave the criminals, who would operate street level informal exchange systems.

The whole point for criminals is that it allows pseudonymous (or anonymous, in the case of monero), and remote dealing of illegal goods and services. Especially across international borders.

Another use is tax evasion and money laundering.

Why is crypto any better than cash if users are forced to deal in person? I understand the argument of not having to carry around a duffel bag that could be seized. But nations can disrupt crypto markets on a global scale.

At the very least, they can make it difficult to exchange for actual, usable, local currency. Which appears to be what China is poised to do.

Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’

#130
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not fine with having every one of my transactions being 100% transparent to my government. Because that's the only alternative to Bitcoin^W cryptocurrency, given that real cash is on its deathbed for some reason. Bitcoin may very transparent, but other currencies like Monero are much better in that regard. As to why >100% transparency is a desirable property, see recent regime changes and imagine how easy it wou…

I'd say that cash transactions are less transparent than BTC's public ledger.

Monero and similar currencies are available for those interested.
Post reply on HN