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China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

techcrunch.com

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Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#161

Post by rothbardrand »

adbachman wrote: post #153
tudorconstantin wrote: post #129

I assume most of the HN readers are from USA and I can't believe my eyes what I'm reading here. People cheering a government's ban on what its citizens can do with their lawfully earned money. I worked for my money, I paid huge amounts of taxes on them. Why is it ok for somebody to come and tell me what I can and can't do with them, and then telling me it's in my best interest to not be allowed to invest them.

Because the first dozen ICOs that turn out to be scams can break consumer confidence across the whole market. When people stop trusting, the system collapses. This isn't hardship, just put your money somewhere else.

The reason ICOs were such a boon is that there has been no other path for the middle class to invest in startups.

ICOs gave a level playing field and produced a resulting boom.

Most people don't even know what a cryptocurrency is.

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#162

Post by rothbardrand »

sametmax wrote: post #142
ezVoodoo wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! Why the US government punishes trading drugs with my own money? I mean that is my lawfully earned money! Why? Why? Why?

Precisely. The fact something is yours is irrelevant. If it's your gun, i still want the state to make it illegal to shoot your kids with it.

Did you just morally equate investing in a failed startups with shooting kids?

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#163

Post by justonepost »

rothbardrand wrote: post #147

Why don't rich people need protection? Here's the answer: this is their protection. It reduces their competition. Seriously, these securities rules keep people like me from investing in AirBnB and Uber (two that I caught very early and wanted into)... but we can all go to Vegas and lose $100k in a single weekend. But putting $10k into Uber's seed round is somehow a crime I need to be protected from? Truth of the matt…

The thing is these are a huge haven for money laundering which is probably the best explanation for the amounts raised.

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#164

Post by return0 »

DigitalSea wrote: post #157

This was a needed move. Too many scamcoins are appearing and selling their overpriced offerings. It's like Kickstarter, but for larger sums of money and less accountability if things don't materialise. We are heading for a pretty serious ICO bubble if ICO's can continue to operate like they are and I can only hope that the USA follows suit next. The crypto markets right now are in a free fall as a result of the panic…

> This was a needed move.

> We are entering a brave new world with cryptocoins as they reach the mainstream.

You can't have both. decide

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#165

Post by CryptoPunk »

Nursie wrote: post #150
CryptoPunk wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're intelligent and thus should be free. But the law can't create multiple classes of people with different sets of rights, so to protect the stupid, who can't handle that amount of freedom, your rights need to be limited as well. ^ I assume this is how supporters of such laws think about the issue.

Would you dispute that a lot of people are idiots? Would you dispute that even (otherwise) smart people can and do get taken in by dodgy financial schemes? Regulations are there for good reasons...

I would dispute that either of these justify banning people from making decisions for themselves on what to spend/invest their money in.

If people really don't want the responsibility of freedom we can bring back indentured servitude, where people sign away their rights.

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#166

Post by Nursie »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #159
Nursie wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think voluntary safety nets work - it's precisely the people who wouldn't pay into one that are most in need of doing so. Almost all citizens are badly informed and easily taken in by one thing or other. We look after each other in various ways. Civil safety nets and criminal law are part of those. >> As for token sales, you can't categorise them all as borderline scams. It depends on the token sale. Indeed,…

I don't like the idea of a safety net that depends mostly on the contributions of those who least want to be party to it. Regarding looking out for each other with bans on dangerous goods/services, I have no problem with a voluntary program that people enroll in to be looked after in this manner. We could have a state-backed coop that we voluntarily cede some of our rights to for a predetermined amount of time (e.g.…

>> I don't like the idea of a safety net that depends mostly on the contributions of those who least want to be party to it.

Yet without such things we end up with millions in penury, risking starvation, because they never thought they'd be the one to hit hard times.

As for the rest, yes I get that you're a libertarian. I'm not. I understand its appeal, but it's a recipe for literal social darwinism, with those who are poor, unlucky or ill getting to die, free, in the streets.

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#167

Post by rothbardrand »

DigitalSea wrote: post #157

This was a needed move. Too many scamcoins are appearing and selling their overpriced offerings. It's like Kickstarter, but for larger sums of money and less accountability if things don't materialise. We are heading for a pretty serious ICO bubble if ICO's can continue to operate like they are and I can only hope that the USA follows suit next. The crypto markets right now are in a free fall as a result of the panic…

Here's the thing though, I did not invest in the Ethereum ICO because I considered it a scam coin.

It's really easy to just say all these ICOs are scams but we have not seen many outright scams.

I have seen a lot of very young enthusiastic teams promising things that it would be very hard for them to deliver on.

And I imagine every Silicon Valley VC can see the same thing about their pitches.

How do you know which are scams and which aren't? There's no objective measure.

So basically this is banning the middle class from investing in the next massive technology cycle.

Reserving it once again only for VCs and accredited investors. Keeping the little guy out and making the rich richer.

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#168

Post by airza »

rothbardrand wrote: post #147

Why don't rich people need protection? Here's the answer: this is their protection. It reduces their competition. Seriously, these securities rules keep people like me from investing in AirBnB and Uber (two that I caught very early and wanted into)... but we can all go to Vegas and lose $100k in a single weekend. But putting $10k into Uber's seed round is somehow a crime I need to be protected from? Truth of the matt…

Remember when you could do kickstarters with simulated renders of your product and everyone got scammed constantly?

It's because of that

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#169

Post by CryptoPunk »

lettergram wrote: post #155
CryptoPunk wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're intelligent and thus should be free. But the law can't create multiple classes of people with different sets of rights, so to protect the stupid, who can't handle that amount of freedom, your rights need to be limited as well. ^ I assume this is how supporters of such laws think about the issue.

Ugh what? If you're not directly hurting someone there shouldn't be a law against it. For instance, a law against DUIs make sense, it's so you don't kill people. A law requiring seat belt wearing - not so much.

I agree. Just relaying what I believe the common logic is for supporters of such bans.

Re: China's Central Bank Bans ICOs

#170

Post by justonepost »

tudorconstantin wrote: post #129

I assume most of the HN readers are from USA and I can't believe my eyes what I'm reading here. People cheering a government's ban on what its citizens can do with their lawfully earned money. I worked for my money, I paid huge amounts of taxes on them. Why is it ok for somebody to come and tell me what I can and can't do with them, and then telling me it's in my best interest to not be allowed to invest them.

Anarchy is not a lot of fun. it usually ends up in pure might makes right. North Korea is a timely example of what the philosophy of might makes right leads us to.
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