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Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

economist.com

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Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#111

Post by uh_uh »

denton-scratch wrote: post #103
Jensson wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto bubble bursting just means that all investors leave, not that crypto currencies disappear. So bitcoin would go back to levels it was at before the investment craze 4 years ago, so about 5 years ago? At that point you could buy stuff with it and send people money, but people didn't view it as an investment vehicle.

The blockchain is an append-only structure; it can only grow. The longer the blockchain, the more it costs to process a transaction. So if people divest from bitcoin and the price drops, that won't make bitcoin more suitable for buying stuff. Nothing can make the blockchain shorter.

You can truncate it at any point you want. If in 2060, the community collectively decides that the chain is too long, they can just decide that a block from 2040 is the new genesis block.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#112

Post by unicornmama »

boppo1 wrote: post #105
unicornmama wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even before the dot com bubble burst, we saw businesses with practical value producing applications of the Internet. Today it’s over 10 years of crypto. I have only observed one application of crypto that touches the real economy - with a relatively obscure token. Everything else, seems to be just be playing financial games inside of crypto, money laundering, side-stepping regulations, speculative meme assets and of…

I think institutions will adopt it for real-time security settlement. T+3 caused the Robinhood debacle of shutting down retail GME purchasing. As far as I can tell from the congressional hearings, T+3 is because the incumbents feel secure that they have a monopoly on security settlement tech.

Fascinating. Hope someone here with experience in settlement and clearing houses could shed some light.

I wonder if any new solutions would need to use any existing crypto network or if they can just spin off their own.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#113

Post by stefanve »

Quindecillion wrote: post #87
stefanve wrote: post #30

total privatisation of the money system, sold as democratization

Bitcoin isn't "private". It's probably the most open and public money that has ever existed. There's no company behind it, no CEO, no marketing team... it's just a protocol for a p2p network. All the other "cryptos"? Sure, regulate them to death. I don't care. Good luck doing that with Bitcoin though.

the technology is not private, but the coin ownership is. As there is no government institution that can print/create coins and use that as to control inflation, adjust for GDP etc. and set rules on how the newly create money should be used. This leaves supply of coins in the market to people or private institutions that have a lot of them and thus money supply is privatised.

And yes banks are private but the money supply is ultimately controlled by the Fed and thus the democratic system is responsible for the money supplies as it appoints the governing body.

the p2p network is free to all, just like handing cash money is free to all.

Individual freedom is not the same thing as democracy, to much individual freedom is ultimately anti democratic. Because this will always favour the rich and powerful.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#115

Post by naruvimama »

Quindecillion wrote: post #85
naruvimama wrote: post #29

My biggest fear is that institutions & governments jumping into this pyramid scheme, throwing our hard earned money to make billionaires out of snake oil men. Bitcoin was fine as long as it was a small geeky fun currency with actual small transactions. It became a pyramid scheme once speculators jumped in. I am open to government or industry backed crypto or digital currency.

> I am open to government or industry backed crypto or digital currency Then you don't understand the point of Bitcoin. Any "government backed" crypto (also known as Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs) will be under the complete control of bureaucrats, much like how money currently is. That means they can create as much of that money as they like to fund whatever they want. That kind of monetary expansion is n…

I understand that bitcoin is decentralised, but decentralised what?

Currencies need to have an underlying useful asset or guarantee.

Yes governments used to have gold backed currencies but our economic growth is exponential, so it is now the job of the state. Incase they act irresponsibly it does go into hyper inflation, so they are forced to act responsibly.

In case they do print more, it does go into public good like roads & bridges which adds to the public assets and hence adds to the assets backing the currency.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#116

Post by naruvimama »

spiorf wrote: post #45
naruvimama wrote: post #29

My biggest fear is that institutions & governments jumping into this pyramid scheme, throwing our hard earned money to make billionaires out of snake oil men. Bitcoin was fine as long as it was a small geeky fun currency with actual small transactions. It became a pyramid scheme once speculators jumped in. I am open to government or industry backed crypto or digital currency.

> government or industry backed digital currency That's your bank account and credit cards etc.. The whole point of cryptocurrency is to not to be backed or controlled by any single entity.

Currencies need to be backed by an asset or an entity.

Bitcoin is meaningful only as long as it is a temporary token for transaction like an IOU note. The day it became a "store of value" or asset to be speculated on it is meaningless.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#117

Post by throwaway405769 »

user-the-name wrote: post #96
michaelscott wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economics are fully at work in every market, including renewables. If it's more profitable to... I'm not even sure what your alternative would be but I'll say feeding the energy back into the grid, then miners would do it. It's definitely not up to you to decide what people can and can't do with their energy, especially off-grid renewables, just because you perceive their use to be "wasteful"

> It's definitely not up to you to decide what people can and can't do with their energy It absolutely will need to be if we are going to avoid frying the fucking planet. The free market is the enemy of humanity.

Free markets elevate people from poverty and create wealth. Statism creates concentration camps and mass murder.

And now we're supposed to trust governments that climate change totally happens and unless we give up our freedoms we will all die.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#119

Post by throwaway405769 »

user-the-name wrote: post #94
eloff wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only true if the miners didn't buy the solar panels themselves.

Those panels could still be deployed elsewhere and produce power for the grid. Manufacturing them is not environmentally neutral either.

Solar panels are nothing but green virtue signalling. Nuclear can produce enough energy for both securing decentralized money and all customer needs.
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