Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only those that challenge existing economic power structures.
> challenge existing economic power structures That's quite a polite way of saying "facilitate tax evasion".
That is a feature, not a bug.
China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
151–160 of 699 posts
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#152Earlier 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.
The same way we eliminated illegal drugs?
Drugs are addictive which is why people continue to use them even when illegal. Why would people use illegal crypto? It was hard enough to use them as a currency when legal, them being illegal would make them mostly worthless to most people.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yours is the top comment on this thread and it's a bit surprising. When you say less than 5%, what are you talk about? Can you point to any sources that back that up?
HN has a well known hatred for anything crypto. I’m not really sure why, to be honest. Very odd that an authoritarian action by an extremely centralized government is being applauded on here.
Even bad people can do good things. It's not strange at all that we can applaud an action of an authoritarian regime. Xi is an evil dictator, but I think this particular action is positive for the world.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#154Other than white listing and black listing transactions by the miners and exchanges, and governments declaring it illegal, Bitcoin is 100% censorship resistant.
>Bitcoin is 100% censorship resistant.
... as is everything else? Other than governments declaring it illegal and intermediaries black listing it, I mean.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#155I 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.
I won't downplay the environmental consequences of PoW, but the actual reason so many governments are speeding the push against crypto might be related to a future of high inflation and high gov debt. It would be the perfect storm for mainstream crypto adoption.
> the actual reason so many governments are speeding the push against crypto might be related to a future of high inflation and high gov debt
The reason why we have inflation and debt is to keep the value of our currencies stable. IE, if people want to use dollars, the US government can print more dollars to satisfy the demand. (And thus keep the value stable.)
Cryptocurrency's volatile value is a result of its inability to "print money" when more people want to use it.
Remember: Currency is not an investment. A good currency has a stable value over time; otherwise it's very difficult to conduct commerce.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#156Earlier 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.
I'm not saying I agree, but GP didn't say the converse - the framing was 'cash is going ['on its deathbed'], and I'm not happy with the mainstream replacements'.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#157I'm not sure why the market would react to this news. China is not an example to follow in just about anything these days.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Give me a break. Power consumption numbers are completely meaningless in this argument. Power usage does not correlate directly to CO2 emissions. Crypto can and does run on renewables. If we were serious about fixing climate change we'd stop all air traffic tomorrow. In reality, the climate issue is just a convenient political bludgeon.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#159This is interesting timing given what has been happening related to Evergrande. It is possible that the government is worried about money being moved out of the country, and cryptocurrency is one way of doing that.
Re: China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
To underline how preposterous the whole PoW is - BTC is mined by hardware that consumes 2000-3000W each, all the while vast majority of these machines never mine a single block