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India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

reuters.com

221–230 of 244 posts

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#221
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's illegal to exchange goods or official currency for cryptocurrency in the nation you are in, the usefulness of cryptocurrency is going to be considerably constrained. This depends on how thorough or draconian the state is but a lot of people just shy away from illegal activity without enforcement being that strong. After all, if buy a tangible good, I want legal title to it and having engaged in an illegal tra…

This gets repeated a lot around here but is far from the truth. Drugs are still traded, and so are other "illegal" items. And trading drugs is quite risky comparing to trading crypto (especially fully decentralized). > usefulness of cryptocurrency is going to be considerably constrained Sure, but you are missing why 3rd worlds like China, India and Morocco are trying to restrict crypto. They are worried about capital…

The goal of drugs is to do the drugs. They are consumer goods. You buy them, then consume them. Crypto has no value unless you can sell it on to someone else, and that's it's ONLY value. That is the glaring difference, and it's weakness.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation isn't bad. Most of the world doesn't suffer from hyper-inflation. Decentralized finance doesn't provide a tremendous benefit over a trusted third party. High volatility and high transaction cost makes it a poor choice for a currency. Most of the worlds economy already runs on digital transactions without the need for crypto. There are plenty of reasons why crypto doesn't make sense and it is perfectly ratio…

Inflation is bad. Hyperinflation is worse. Reported CPI does not reflect actual inflation. One just needs to look at asset prices, stock prices, etc to see what is happening. You and everyone else is being robbed, every day, and it gets worse... I strongly suggest you look into why people would want "censorship resistant, decentralized, non-state, peer to peer currencies". The existing financial system doesn't make s…

I'll take inflation over wild volatility any day

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe doing your research before buying something online same as with cash payments is a good idea. I'd pick a vendor who accepts crypto besides fiat, I assure you there are lots of them.

The point is that there might be no public info. If you can research using public info, then government could research too of the places which delivers goods for crypto and could order one for themselves and track the package through courier.

You are taking this too seriously. Do you really think that the Indian government will start investigating every incoming package to the country if the webshop it originated from accepts crypto? In a country if 1.3B+ people?

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#224
post #115
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind to elaborate?

In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that a given statement is true, without conveying any information apart from the fact that the statement is indeed true. You can build untraceable anonymous cryptocurrencies using these algorithms.

Ah, thanks.

But I wanted to know about what Polygons ZK plans are and why GP hopes they succeed.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#225
After seeing the Demonetization fiasco in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetis... I don’t think Modi regime in India understands the difference between Digital Currency and Crypto Currency https://twitter.com/0x101/status/1317685559414972418

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that there might be no public info. If you can research using public info, then government could research too of the places which delivers goods for crypto and could order one for themselves and track the package through courier.

You are taking this too seriously. Do you really think that the Indian government will start investigating every incoming package to the country if the webshop it originated from accepts crypto? In a country if 1.3B+ people?

Not every but once the webshop becomes big that you can find lot of info on the internet about them then I think yes.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#227
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 90s many people said the same thing about "being online" and "having email". Writing letters and meeting in person works just fine, they said. Crypto makes so many things so much more efficient that not having access to it will be like not having access to the internet today.

Crypto makes so many things so much more efficient Like what? I can currently pay for any legal physical or virtual good I can think of using a conventional credit card. Crypto might or might help privacy and might allow you to buy illegal things more easily. It's a hedge against inflation but a number of things have that quality. The use of crypto seem inherently confined to keeping the state from doing things to pe…

    I can currently pay for any legal physical or virtual
    good I can think of using a conventional credit card.
Yes. But the merchant hates it. Because it is expensive and they are not sure if they really will get their money.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#228
post #126
post #15

Tokens like Bitcoin, Eth, NFTs etc are the only thing one can own in the digital space. So if a country makes the possession of cryptocurrencies illegal, it makes their people digitally possessionless. This would cut them off from the next version of the web. Similar to how North Korea cuts of their people from the current web. So far it seems no country that cuts of their people from the internet has been able to fl…

When you own property in real life the record of ownership is maintained by the city/state/country. There's no reason why the ownership in digital space has to be on a decentralized blockchain, you can also record it centrally (as shown by trusted entities like VISA etc).

    When you own property in real life the record of
    ownership is maintained by the city/state/country.
And the people of Turkey lost over 80% of their savings buying power because of this.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you supposed to turn the coins into FIAT where it's actually usable? At that point, you cannot move your money around however you like, you can only move the tokens around on the blockchain.

Gift cards and p2p exchange for fiat using a dex or another service. As long as there is money to be made, the Indian crypto black market will thrive and grow.

So meeting strangers at a cafe.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cryptocurrency fanatics I am a person with nuanced thoughts and opinions, unique and diverse from the rest of the world. >cryptocurrency Let's not confuse zk proofs with cryptocurrency. Powerful, non-cryptocurrency systems that use zk proofs are coming. Alone their power is something we must reconcile, even before combined with distributed, autonomous systems. And that's my point. ZK proofs are astoundingly powerful…

The problem with this sort of reasoning is that it conflates an e.mail or a downloaded movie (or a bag of cocaine) with a cryptocurrency or token. E.mails/movies/dope etc are all basically consumer goods. Read the e.mail, wipe it. Put the coke up your nose, watch the movie. It only has to go as far as the person you are sending it to, and it's journey is finished, and it's value is realised. Crypto is entirely differ…

PGP had no economic value when published in defiance of the State Department. Why publish PGP when the personal incentives seemed to far out way the consequences? Phil Zimmerman still lives overseas.

That's my point. You can ignore economics entirely and zk proofs are still going to radically transform our societies and IT systems, long before considering their impact to the cryptocurrency industry.

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