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Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

louwrentius.com

101–110 of 121 posts

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#101
post #8

If people didn't raise the "selling drugz" thing every time. Selling drugs should not be a crime anyway. I don't like crypto currencies (and coffee is my drug of choice), but saying "drugs are bad mmkay" and "how are we going to pay the generous pensions to our public servants [while most of us are never going to be able to retire]" is almost an incentive to try Bitcoin once again.

If drugs are illegal, then that's the law. Fair or not, that's beside the point. If you don't like the law, feel free to lobby for changing it, but in case you're selling drugs illegally, then you should go to jail. In general people breaking the law should incur the associated costs, especially when they are doing so knowingly.

A bad law tends not to change until there are enough people breaking the law.

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#102

>Therefore, I would propose to shut them all down. OK the author clearly has no idea how a blockchain and a set of validators work I would gladly hear his plan to "shut them all down"

I wouldn't be so confident. Making things illegal works pretty well in discouraging usage, and shutting down the "exchanges" like coinbase would tank the value for crypto, as most normies would no longer transfer surplus cash into bitcoins. Of course no one can take those long numbers from those cold wallets.

>and shutting down the "exchanges" like coinbase would tank the value for crypto

Sure it would, but you can't close decentralized on-chain exchanges like uniswap or Kyber

I'm pretty sure there will always be a fiatcrypto bridge, you can't "shut them all down" IMO

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also same as cash, amplified by scale and lack of geographic/political barriers.

Is there any actual evidence that this is true, taking the exchange rates in cryptocurrency exchanges into account?

What is in doubt here, value provided by cash?

A friend of mine uses (used?) cryptocurrency for transferring/receiving money to/from a sibling across the ocean. Converting to/from local currency is apparently cheaper relative to PayPal rates. (Plus, in some countries PayPal et al. restrict accounts not associated with a bank, making it even less attractive to unbanked.)

What is unclear to me personally is whether benefits outweigh other implications, once everything gets amplified by scale.

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes the title didn't help, a good lesson. Less judgement in titles. You call my post bias and unoriginal, which you can do. But can you answer the core question I pose? And please not with esoteric examples of availability of medicine for chronic diseases which to me raises the question: is that all you can come up with?

It's not esoteric! It happens. I can't go into details, which should be understandable, but I've seen this happen. People I know and love were able to live freely in the last year of their lives; people I know and love are able to function mostly normally because of the drugs they buy illegally. What, please tell me, is esoteric in this? What exactly? > is that all you can come up with? No, but it's enough to falsify…

It doesn't falsify it. It only shows one or a few examples where just a few people self-report any benefit. And getting medicine through the dark markets is shady as fuck.

That kind of example doesn't seem to support the whole crytocurrency stuff with all it's downsides in any way.

If that's all you can come up with, all the more reason to shut it down (hypothetically).

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#105

Fiat Currencies are Detrimental To Society How would you explain the inner workings of fiat currency to someone in simple, understandable terms? "Imagine if the person in your neighborhood with the biggest house ran a printer in his garage that printed off paper that said "1 Buck" on it, and instead of giving the pizza delivery guy silver coins in exchange for their service, gave them bucks. Also he demands you pay h…

The only thing you do is to move attention away from cryptocurrencies to (other) fiat currencies. They may have problems too. But we are now talking about the merits of cryptocurrencies. I see zero argument for them.

Cryptocurrency is: * Resistant to government censorship: Short of total firewalling and mass whitelisting of all IP packets and blacklisting all encrypted traffic, governments have difficulty controlling transfers. * Resistant to capital controls: Centralized banking can prevent you from using your money. The Federal Reserve reduced the reserve requirement to zero and cut interest rates to zero on March 15th. The FDIC released a PSA video advising people not to withdraw their money from banks. In June 2015 Greece closed its banks for almost 20 days and limited cash withdrawals to 60 euro. With cryptocurrency there is no bank to close, no authority to enforce withdrawal limits. * Deflationary, not inflationary: Cryptocurrencies are all different, but Bitcoin for example has a strict upper ceiling on the number of bitcoins that will ever be produced and 85% of that supply has already been produced. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve is pumping billions of dollars into banks by buying their bonds and securities and is speculating about expanding its purchasing. Venezuela has had issues with inflation and hyperinflation due to excessive production of currency and deficit spending. They even launched their own cryptocurrency in an attempt to have a commodity-backed and more stable currency, which flopped because it was still under central control of the Venezuelan government for which there was little trust and apparently it was a scheme to avoid sanctions, which is laughable because... * Resistant to Sanction: Venezuela could just start selling its oil for Bitcoin directly, obtaining a reserve of uncensorable value that it could use to regain its economic strength. In fact it is attempting this, which is underreported. Sanctions are economic warfare which harm the poorest members of a nation the most. Whether you think a nations' leaders are criminals or not, do the people deserve to suffer at the hands of the world's markets directed by the economic juggernaut and political interest of the U.S.A.? * Low Fee Remittances: Using cryptocurrencies, people can easily send money across borders to family and dependents. If someone working in the U.S.A. wants to send, by Western Union, $200, or about a months' wages MXN, they pay a fee of $5-7, which is approximately the minimum DAILY wage in Mexico. Transfer in bitcoin, the transaction fee is about $1. If you have to also purchase your bitcoins (instead of receiving them directly as wages) the fee goes up to about $4. * Automated Finance: On Ethereum you can earn 4% interest on your deposit with the Dai Savings Rate. Other protocols offer up to 10% or more for lending cryptocurrency to others who take small loans, all with no middleman other than an automated contract. No loan application, no credit check, no redlining. This is a huge silent movement for microfinancing and is growing at a steady rate, granting underserved populations access to financial services. And what's the best rate you can get from a centralized bank? 1.7% and likely to drop in the coming months.

So there are some arguments.

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#106

>unimaginable energy waste of mining cryptocurrencies Not all cryptocurrencies require a massive amount of energy. >Cryptocurrencies have existed for eleven years, they should have something to show for right now I'm using a cryptocurrency for feeless, instant microtransactions in a browser based game. It happens to be a near ideal solution. That, said I won't force it upon anyone. It is a purely voluntary propositio…

> I'm using a cryptocurrency for feeless, instant microtransactions in a browser based game. It happens to be a near ideal solution. That, said I won't force it upon anyone. It is a purely voluntary proposition. I think you just made the point of my article again for me, thanks ;) The volatility of crypto just don't provide a real alternative to regular currencies though.

Not at all. It isn't criminal, nor does it use loads of electricity. It wouldn't be possible with Paypal or any other solution.

>The volatility of crypto just don't provide a real alternative to regular currencies though.

What's that have to do with the price of tea in China? I.e. if that's the best you can offer, you can't construe that cryptocurrency is a detriment to society...

Definitely a ways off from proving your point.

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be so confident. Making things illegal works pretty well in discouraging usage, and shutting down the "exchanges" like coinbase would tank the value for crypto, as most normies would no longer transfer surplus cash into bitcoins. Of course no one can take those long numbers from those cold wallets.

>and shutting down the "exchanges" like coinbase would tank the value for crypto Sure it would, but you can't close decentralized on-chain exchanges like uniswap or Kyber I'm pretty sure there will always be a fiat crypto bridge, you can't "shut them all down" IMO

As I said, your long random numbers on your special devices are yours forever and you can decrypt more SHA-1 if you like.

There would be a lot less of that going on.

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not esoteric! It happens. I can't go into details, which should be understandable, but I've seen this happen. People I know and love were able to live freely in the last year of their lives; people I know and love are able to function mostly normally because of the drugs they buy illegally. What, please tell me, is esoteric in this? What exactly? > is that all you can come up with? No, but it's enough to falsify…

It doesn't falsify it. It only shows one or a few examples where just a few people self-report any benefit. And getting medicine through the dark markets is shady as fuck. That kind of example doesn't seem to support the whole crytocurrency stuff with all it's downsides in any way. If that's all you can come up with, all the more reason to shut it down (hypothetically).

> people self-report any benefit

And who other than the people is qualified to report whether people benefitted?

> And getting medicine through the dark markets is shady as fuck.

Are you a Christian? I'm amazed and ask seriously, because I can't imagine much of anything else that would make you spew this much of a nonsense with this much conviction.

dang, yes, I know, this is the last post from me, sorry.

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#109

Fiat Currencies are Detrimental To Society How would you explain the inner workings of fiat currency to someone in simple, understandable terms? "Imagine if the person in your neighborhood with the biggest house ran a printer in his garage that printed off paper that said "1 Buck" on it, and instead of giving the pizza delivery guy silver coins in exchange for their service, gave them bucks. Also he demands you pay h…

The only thing you do is to move attention away from cryptocurrencies to (other) fiat currencies. They may have problems too. But we are now talking about the merits of cryptocurrencies. I see zero argument for them.

> The only thing you do is to move attention away from cryptocurrencies to (other) fiat currencies. They may have problems too.

Are there any NON-fiat currencies in use today?

Re: Cryptocurrencies Are Detrimental to Society

#110
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They mean exactly what you can read in the dictionary.

But no examples how it would actually work in real life.

Money you think you have in your bank are actually just a promise recorded in a database. Even if that promise is fulfilled and you get cash on your hands, it can be diluted into worthlessness by printing trillions more. All of that is controlled by few guys behind closed doors.

None of that applies to Bitcoin. Is that good enough example from real life?

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