Here we go again, the "right-wing populism" narrative to ban crypto.
The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
31–40 of 630 posts
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#32I think the main premise of this article is the fact that crypto's carbon emission is insane, especially Bitcoin, which I agree (I don't hold Bitcoin for this exact reason). But there are many other crypto that uses Proof of Stake, way way greener than Proof of Work, such as Cardano. Even Ethereum is transitioning to Proof of Stake. This article should be re-titled "The Political Case for a Blanket Proof of Work Ban"…
The main premise of the article is that cryptocurrencies are "speculation for speculation’s sake," i.e. gambling, and that's bad. Also, the article claims that they contribute to inequality. The green stuff is basically a side note.
I don't think it's a terribly strong case but I suppose it depends on whether you agree that crypto is gambling and if you think gambling should banned. Anyway, I think lots of people stupidly speculate on things. I cast my vote by not speculating on those things. Should I be able to stop others from speculating?
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#33Didn't people make the same arguments about the Internet?
They didn't make the argument that the internet was a ponzi scheme or that it used energy equivalent to a medium-sized country. Did you have some other arguments in mind?
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#34Hostile and clearly framed article from the first sentence. Could not read it further.
I am sorry that you did that. I believe that Bitcoin's intrinsic energy usage is a big big problem, and I would have been interested in a reasoned counter-argument from someone who is in favour of Bitcoin or other crypto-currencies. After all, I read HN mostly to learn and grow. I especially enjoy informative comments on articles and the ensuing debates.
Ok. Let's ban capitalism.
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#35>>> In social media era, everyday our adversaries are running very effective military-inspired psyops campaigns to sow division and polarization within the body politic.
Am I the only one who thinks this is a 2 way street and our governments are actively doing the same to our adversaries?
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#36Seems to me that Stephen is not well informed on crypto in general. This article is really only relevant to Bitcoin.
Take a project like Brave for instance which is disrupting the online advertising model: https://brave.com/ (I am completely unaffiliated, just a fan of the project)
Can you look at this project and tell me with a straight face it is bad for the environment and should be banned by government? Because that's basically what Stephen has done when he lumped every crypto together.
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#37Ban? That silly. How you kill something you don't like is tax it heavily. Add on the carbon tax equivalent to each bitcoin transaction as well as tax the capital gains/losses. Interest will deflate on it's own.
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#38The political case against it is that banning cryptocurrency will cause a non-negligible fraction of the population to lose a large amount of money solely through government action.
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#39Even if you take the most cynical approach towards crypto, banning crypto is simply not the governments job. At best, this is equivalent to banning beanie babies (no real negative affects for society, but stupid and a big overreach). At worst, it's equivalent to banning the internet (sets the country behind decades as the rest of the world adopts the new technology and profits from it).
The government has regulatory authority over monetary policy and currency, so why wouldn't this be the government's job? You might take issue with their decision, but the authority is there.
Re: The political case for a blanket cryptocurrency ban
#40Is "Electricity Neutrality" a concept? Does the government have any control over how I use the electricity that I pay for? This is a genuine question and I'm not trying to be snarky.