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Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

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Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#111
post #77

Just FYI Belarus is not a democracy and the laws change at the whim of the rulers. Read the journal of this blogger who got arrested there https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/blogs-trending-38804499 , the people(the foreign nationals) who were in jail with him...

The thing about Belarus is not that laws change at whim. They are not. According a lawyer I know from Belarus in courts small and not so small cases are considered rather fairly. One in principle can count that in a daily life rule of laws applies and the level of corruption is not that bad. But the moment your case is perceived by authorities as political or somebody with power finds your business interesting, one g…

> The thing about Belarus is not that laws change at whim. They are not. According a lawyer I know from Belarus in courts small and not so small cases are considered rather fairly. One in principle can count that in a daily life rule of laws applies and the level of corruption is not that bad.

No, not really. Especially not if you are conducting business.

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#112
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about Belarus is not that laws change at whim. They are not. According a lawyer I know from Belarus in courts small and not so small cases are considered rather fairly. One in principle can count that in a daily life rule of laws applies and the level of corruption is not that bad. But the moment your case is perceived by authorities as political or somebody with power finds your business interesting, one g…

> The thing about Belarus is not that laws change at whim. They are not. Lukashenko is a dictator. Being able to change laws at a whim is a defining characteristic of dictatorship.

Just like issuing executive orders, right?

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#113
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard to choose when there's only 1 real candidate. USSR had elections too.

There were 4 candidates on the last elections. More than in US, AFAIK.

The US had scores of candidates, if you think it's any useful metric.

http://www.politics1.com/p2016.htm

There are effectively no elections held in Belarus since 1994. Any true contenders are crushed and imprisoned, and the votes aren't counted either way.

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making the virtual/real world dichotomy with the hindsight of knowing that Second Life didn't go anywhere. People back then also called it a technology: it's a technology that allows e.g. in-person meetings without the need for displacement. It's a technology that disrupts physical space, the ultimate disruption! No, sorry, such dichotomy is irrelevant. What's relevant is that Second Life didn't get traction.…

Blockchains reached a valuation of $0.5 trillion and attracted all the biggest financial institutions (Goldman Sachs yesterday). Second Life traction never got even a fraction of that. Also Blockchain growth has been going for 9 years now, Second Life growth lasted 3 years ( http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/11/why_... ).

I'm wondering how usable they actually are for normal people in stable countries. They have shown to work very well for darknet markets and things like that but I wonder if there really is a use case for most people.

I live in Sweden and I can buy something from the US in minutes over the Internet and the fees are pretty reasonable. Would a crypto currency have any advantage over the current situation?

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making the virtual/real world dichotomy with the hindsight of knowing that Second Life didn't go anywhere. People back then also called it a technology: it's a technology that allows e.g. in-person meetings without the need for displacement. It's a technology that disrupts physical space, the ultimate disruption! No, sorry, such dichotomy is irrelevant. What's relevant is that Second Life didn't get traction.…

Blockchains reached a valuation of $0.5 trillion and attracted all the biggest financial institutions (Goldman Sachs yesterday). Second Life traction never got even a fraction of that. Also Blockchain growth has been going for 9 years now, Second Life growth lasted 3 years ( http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/11/why_... ).

There definitely was a virtual world craze, with tons of VC money, the like of IBM investing, and Second Life clones popping up left, right and middle. Putting "Virtual World" in your pitch was a near-guarantee of raising funds. Gartner was predicting that "80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have A "Second Life" in the Virtual World by the End of 2011" [1]

And yet here we are.

It's easy to dismiss in hindsight. If crypto-currencies turn out a fad it will have been so easy to predict that people will wonder how anyone could be tricked into buying. And if it eventually succeed, people will wonder why anyone could be this stupid not to have invested, since success was so obvious.

[1] https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/503861

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't have oligarchs in Belarus :) Victor Prokopenia ( https://www.facebook.com/viktor.prokopenya ), one of the most famous investors and businessman from Belarus is the one who actually influenced these changes.

That's a weird set of colleges attended. 7 degrees, with Stanford and Full Sail both in the mix?

Victor often refers learning and education as his hobby.

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#117
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Democracies are more stable and tend to contain healthier economies, in the long run [1]. Good for the economies. But some great economies happen in non-democratic places. It tells me nothing. I'm more concerned with fighting oppression than promoting the growth of "healthier economy" (what ever that may mean). > It is meaningful, on the other hand, to consider how long a regime (and thus one's investments) will la…

> I do not believe investment creates jobs, I believe increased consumption and protective economic policy create jobs. You are entitled to your beliefs, but factually you are completely wrong. Without investment, you have no goods to consume. A bicycle consists of many parts. You can’t buy a bicycle without someone willing to mine the metals necessary to make those parts. You can’t mine metals without money to hire…

But people do work on contingency, all the time.

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#118
post #77

Just FYI Belarus is not a democracy and the laws change at the whim of the rulers. Read the journal of this blogger who got arrested there https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/blogs-trending-38804499 , the people(the foreign nationals) who were in jail with him...

The thing about Belarus is not that laws change at whim. They are not. According a lawyer I know from Belarus in courts small and not so small cases are considered rather fairly. One in principle can count that in a daily life rule of laws applies and the level of corruption is not that bad. But the moment your case is perceived by authorities as political or somebody with power finds your business interesting, one g…

> But the moment your case is perceived by authorities as political or somebody with power finds your business interesting, one gets BIG troubles.

It is quite typical for many countries and Belarus is definitely not the worst one in this sense. For example, the situation in Latvia and Estonia is much worse because everything is ok and fair but only until you have "right" ethnic origin (citizen of 1st class) - otherwise, if you do not belong to the titular nation then you are in trouble - the whole system will play against you.

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second Life is a virtual world where virtual stuff can be traded. Blockchain technology is real world technology. It can help to solve really challenging problems and make real world systems more efficient / productive / cost effective / autonomous. The two are in no way comparable... if you're looking for a comparison to Second Life which happens to use blockchain technology, check out Decentraland: https://decentra…

You're making the virtual/real world dichotomy with the hindsight of knowing that Second Life didn't go anywhere. People back then also called it a technology: it's a technology that allows e.g. in-person meetings without the need for displacement. It's a technology that disrupts physical space, the ultimate disruption! No, sorry, such dichotomy is irrelevant. What's relevant is that Second Life didn't get traction.…

> Lots of traction!

If by traction you mean massive, wild speculation. If by "traction" you mean "shipped a functional product that does something for the mainstream", bitcoin has a long way to go. In fact, Bitcoin's flaws are so deep and unfixable it will never see non-speculatie mainstream adoption, period. Same with pretty much the entire crypto "space".

Re: Belarus to create a regulatory environment for circulation of cryptocurrencies

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second life is as far as I am aware actually profitable.

Right, as far as I'm aware, no one ever has made any money from Bitcoin, and its 1000s of % increases in less than a year.

Here, be aware of myself, who used cryptocurrency as a means to pay off student loans.
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