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On anti-crypto toxicity

blog.mollywhite.net

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Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#301

Post by jfk13 »

koonsolo wrote: post #234
malthaus wrote: post #183

Unfortunately, given: "How can we create a more equitable financial system, where everyone has access to banking services? How can we reduce the power that a small few currently hold over the web? How can we improve data privacy and ensure that people have control over their personal information? How can we create reasonable privacy in the financial system? How can we make information more available to everyone? How…

> society won't be worse off in the end. That is most definitely a political question. I think the article has a strange reasoning about crypto trying to "save the world". For me it's pretty clear: individuals can now store and transfer value on the internet using a consensus algorithm. Plenty of you claim that it's enough to have a democracy that controls a central bank. That way you also have some kind of consensus…

> it's clear that cryptocurrencies try to live outside of governmental control

As a species, we have developed government control because in general, large-scale anarchy doesn't work well.

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#302

Post by Jach »

sneak wrote: post #230
logifail wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In one corner we have types who want to send > arbitrarily large amounts of money and in the other corner we have the types who know about and enforce AML and KYC legislation. How is this possibly going to end well for the first group?

It turns out there are actually things that lawmakers don't really have the power to effectively ban, drugs and prostitution and gambling and cash transactions principally among them. A lot of people don't seem to integrate this fact. The practical power of a lawmaking body is not unlimited. There are certain things they simply cannot stop, no matter how many laws are passed. It won't "end" for either group, really.…

"The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia." --Malcolm Turnbull, Australia Prime Minister (2015-2018)

There are some people who see attitudes like that in the government and think how can [things backed by math] survive a coordinated government onslaught that'll happen any year now? And then those that just look at such statements as the unlettered nonsense they are. Bitcoin lets you "be your own bank", independent of any KYC laws that may or may not apply to other banks in your jurisdiction.

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#303

Post by bena »

jack_pp wrote: post #42
bertil wrote: post #25

The largest and easiest argument against crypto is the environmental impact. It’s completely ignored in that piece.

It's not that easy. Renewable power plants could be setup in areas where it makes no sense due to the logistics of transporting that energy to normal society and that plant could be 100% used to mine crypto which in a way makes crypto a "wireless energy transport technology". Complaining that crypto uses a lot of power is like complaining India is trying to burn fossil fuels which will harm the planet. India wants to…

How do you get the energy out of crypto?

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#304

Post by pydry »

trutannus wrote: post #177
keskival wrote: post #175

"How can we create a more equitable financial system, where everyone has access to banking services?" The same as national health insurance. You make a law that everyone must be served by the banks. Easy.

Use the state to fix failures of the state? There's a weird cyclic optimism here that I don't think can really be supported by the facts. After all, those who write a law can just as easily add addendum to that law, or remove it all together. Even with equal banking laws, there's always going to be an individual who the state deems as less equal than others. That's just how it's always been. Its bizarre that this is…

>Use the state to fix failures of the state?

The lack of banking services for the poor is a market failure not a state failure.

State competition in markets that have failed to deliver necessary services has long been effective whether its through provision of housing or bare bones post office bank accounts.

It not only provides underserved communities it whips competitors into line because - surprise surprise - competition works.

It's the one weird trick parasitic oligarchs hate.

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#305

Post by sofixa »

OGWhales wrote: post #272
sofixa wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ruble's course doesn't matter because it's close to unusable. The Russian economy is cut off from vital supplies, and will soon have all sorts of shortages of all sorts of high tech/quality things - vehicles, phones, computer parts, sensors for their precious resource extractions. China and India cannot fill all the gaps, there's too many of them. As for the oligarchs, they're still rich, but much less so, and th…

> Yes, the average Russian citizen is excluded from the rest of the world, and will bear the brunt of the impact. As they should, because they're the ones who mostly sat idly and allowed all of this to happen. I have zero sympathy for the average Russian whose inaction made them unable to purchase a new phone or car. What do you expect the average Russia to have done exactly? I’m curious what you would have done in t…

Not vote for Putin and his party for decades? Go out in the streets when opposition leaders or dissidents were assasinated in broad daylight? Something? Anything? Because of them allowing Putin to get where he is, now innocent Ukrainians are suffering terrible atrocities. I know which population is more guilty and which deserving of compassion.

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#306

Post by S6eUL »

lukeramsden wrote: post #260
S6eUL wrote: post #104

In my view it is quite difficult to find insightful and civilized long-form discussion on the topic of crypto, compared to most other "controversial" topics I'm personally intersted in (e.g. geopolitics or economics). I might be mistaken – but it is my impression that the blockchain-space is fast growing and attracts a ton of intelligent people. Surely there must be a lot to talk about? On reddit, the crypto-themed s…

There is plenty of interesting discussion, both on Twitter and in community-specific areas like blogs and Discords and such. It’s just drowned out by the nonsense, which is inevitable due to the association so many people have with getting rich quick with cryptocurrencies. It’s the same with retail traders buying options - there is some interesting discussions happening in some places, and interesting strategies bein…

Granted, but discussions on Twitter and Discord are quite a bit different in nature from long-form comment chains on HN or reddit.

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#307

Post by rglullis »

perlgeek wrote: post #254
rglullis wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like saying that you dismissed the web after you saw the 100th clone of the million dollar home page.

After the 100th clone of the million dollar home page, I would have dismissed the web, if there hadn't been also been hundreds of good/useful/entertaining websites around at that point.

Just like that for some of us working with web3, the amount of useful applications that come up more than make up for all the stupidity going on with the "NFT art" space.

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#308

Post by trutannus »

cestith wrote: post #297
trutannus wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not advocating for crypto. I'm advocating against blind trust in the government to "pass a law" and fix it.

How about we don't put blind trust in either, but see where both might actually deliver?

That's how I think we should!

Re: On anti-crypto toxicity

#309

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Quindecillion wrote: post #122

It's unfortunate that Bitcoin has become so mired in partisan politics. For me its purpose is simple. If my money is a representation of my time and effort, why should I accept the central banks' inflation "target" of even 2%, due to money printing? I don't see why anyone should be okay with that, particularly given that central banks rarely meet that target for long and more often than not overshoot by a significant…

> why should I accept the central banks' inflation "target" of even 2%, due to money printing?

If crypto were the currency of a small emerging economy, it would find company in the volatility of its peers. (It would still stand out in a class of its own.)

Most people in those currencies prefer steady +2%/year (worst case: eight for a few quarters) to -70% one year, +90% the next [1].

> Why is that acceptable to people?

Nobody financially literate experiences it. Real wages vary within a narrow band, and have increased over the decades [2]. If you're storing value over longer periods of time, you store it in appreciating forms of cash (e.g. Treasuries [3], interest-earning deposits) or securities (e.g. bonds, equities, et cetera).

The people who do get screwed by inflation, the poor, do because of commodity volatility. Turning around and making everything volatile by handing them a volatile currency is the opposite of helpful.

[1] https://www.upmyinterest.com/fund?tick=Bitcoin

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

[3] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DLTIIT

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