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The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

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Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#111

Post by randomopining »

lancemurdock wrote: post #104
emodendroket wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deflationary currency would be an absolute nightmare for everyone except those lucky enough to be holding on to a lot of it before it was too valuable.

Deflationary currency would be a nightmare because some cohort would become very wealthy? I am not sure those two thoughts are connected. Deflation is not a bad thing for the end consumer. Our purchasing power should be going up over time as advancements/efficiencies in technology, shipping, healthcare create more for less. Deflation is "bad" in our current system because we have so much debt that isn't backed by muc…

How is an entity encouraged to take on entrepreneurial risk in a deflationary environment?

If you have a lot of capital, it literally gains value by just sitting there.

Less incentive to use it.

Only people who benefit are those that have a lot to begin with (obtain more value by doing nothing).

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#112

Post by emodendroket »

lancemurdock wrote: post #109
emodendroket wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what I said, is it? It would be great if you happen to have a bunch of Bitcoins. For everyone else it would be a nightmare because it would encourage disinvestment. Why take a risk when you can literally just sit on your money? Loans would also become pretty much unfeasible both for business purposes and for consumers (hope you can buy a house with cash).

"Hodling" is certainly part of the culture but it wont be as more services get rolled out. Look at the volume on exchanges, people move coins around, stake them, or even loan them out for APY rates. Loans would not become unfeasible, but they would be extremely reduced to people who can pay them back. That encourages healthy financial investment. It also encourages business to focus on profitability instead of raisin…

> Whether its Bitcoin/Ethereum/Gold/Silver or something else, a thriving financial system must be backed by something finite or an extremely controlled and low inflation rate. Thats not an opinion, thats a fact.

I think most people would be surprised to learn that the US financial system is "unsuccessful." It certainly sounds a lot like your unsubstantiated opinion.

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#113

Post by zlynx »

I believe the benefits of cryptocurrency outweigh problems.

I like having options that can be anonymous, don't require banks, immune to government influence, and even completely outside any law. Because laws are not always moral and should be ignored and evaded.

That's freedom. Having it is worth the significant amount of problems that come along with it.

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#114

Post by SavantIdiot »

px43 wrote: post #90
SavantIdiot wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is enlightening. The 1989 ransomware that had a PO Box in Panama is hilarious. Really? Panama? Good point, thanks. However, opaque ledgers may make it difficult to hunt them down (Zcash, monero) in the future.

Maybe companies will start enabling MFA by then? Kind of frustrating how easy it still is to break into critical infrastructure. I do that sort of thing regularly as my day job. Companies who put a slight effort into security don't get ransomwared. The idea that law enforcement needs full visibility into everyone's financial history, and that's the only way for them to stop crime, is ridiculous.

I think it also makes a convincing argument for bringing back on-site backups. If there are weekly/daily backups on local disks (tapes?) that are airgapped after backup, that would save exposing credentials to the cloud storage backups. Tape is dead, long live tape!

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#115

Post by grumple »

px43 wrote: post #99
grumple wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sending money over the internet is faster and safer using methods that existed before bitcoin (sending via banks / paypal / venmo / cashapp / etc). Crypto does not enable this.

None of those services actually let you send money over the internet. All of them are custodial. You give them your money, they hold onto it, and when they feel like it, they might let you interact with other users within their closed ecosystems.

That is a distinction without a difference and a nonsensical one at that. I have money in my bank account and it goes to someone else’s bank account.

The same is true for Bitcoin anyway - you have to use exchanges to get money in/out and you are completely dependent on strangers to process your transactions, and they cost far more. Sure you can have your own wallet but it’s entirely useless until you interact with an exchange and the network.

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#116

Post by mcphage »

blhack wrote: post #101
mcphage wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should we ban shipping? Shipping is pretty useful, though. What are the other major uses for Bitcoin?

I don't really know how to ask this question without it sounding insulting, but: do you agree that currency itself is useful? And then the broader question is: do you agree that financial instruments are useful? It seems odd to me that there are so many people on HN who don't seem to understand the importance of finance. You are literally posting on the website of a venture capital firm .

> do you agree that currency itself is useful?

Currency itself is useful, but has existed a lot longer than Bitcoin. If we're trying to evaluate the utility of some new thing, merely the fact that it's another kind of currency really doesn't get you much. Ocean Shipping on the other hand gets you a lot of things that other kind of shipping don't get you.

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#117

Post by dnautics »

emodendroket wrote: post #94
lancemurdock wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some of the biggest plagues on society are rooted in central banking policies. If you have ever been upset at the amount of money bankers make, markets they've manipulated which resulted in tiny fines, or went bankrupt and needed bailouts which require printing money which devalues all the current dollars you own as well as not enforce any reason for them to avoid future bubbles then you might be more open to somethi…

Deflationary currency would be an absolute nightmare for everyone except those lucky enough to be holding on to a lot of it before it was too valuable.

> Deflationary currency would be an absolute nightmare for everyone except those lucky enough to be holding on to a lot of it before it was too valuable.

The era 1870~1910 in the US was deflationary (as was late 19th century sweden), hardly characterizable as a "nightmare", especially compared to the nightmare that immediately preceded it. The world had a brief experiment with deflationary currency and it wasn't all terrible, in fact one of the two major participants went from "failed state" to "global superpower" in that timeframe, even while enduring the economic challenges associated with freeing its slaves.

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#118

Post by devonbleak »

tptacek wrote: post #75
toxik wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that’s not what decides if cash is viable. If we had a huge mugging problem, we would call for better law enforcement, not less cash.

No, people generally carry much less cash now, and part of the reason why is that it's so easily stolen.

I'd argue that's a small part of the reason. Like a rounding error vs the inconvenience factor of dealing with stuff like coins, having to go to a physical location during restrictive hours/days to obtain more than a trivial amount of cash, etc.

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#119

Post by mcphage »

px43 wrote: post #70
mcphage wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should we ban shipping? Shipping is pretty useful, though. What are the other major uses for Bitcoin?

Sending money over the internet. If you don't understand why that's an critical utility for billions of people on this planet, then you're not worth arguing with.

> Sending money over the internet.

> If you don't understand why that's an critical utility for billions of people on this planet, then you're not worth arguing with.

Are you aware that there are other ways to send money over the internet than Bitcoin?

Re: The Ransomware Problem Is a Bitcoin Problem

#120

Post by devonbleak »

endisneigh wrote: post #67
toxik wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People abandoned cash out of convenience, not fear of mugging.

Sure, but there are some people who don’t carry cash because of mugging and other related things (can get lost, be stolen, etc)

You're talking a rounding error on the number of people that don't carry cash simply because it's not convenient to obtain and deal with it.
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