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Let perfect not be the enemy of good. If you demanded that our currencies like dollars live up to your criteria, we would still be trading goods without currenc

by Kenji 9y ago

Let perfect not be the enemy of good. If you demanded that our currencies like dollars live up to your criteria, we would still be trading goods without currency.

twblalock 9y ago
Dollars don't purport to have a blockchain or immutable transactions. Ethereum does. Ethereum needs to live up to the standards it has set for itself.
- avaer 9y ago
  That ship sailed a while ago. Ethereum has already used its market position to de facto interfere with the transactions they declare immutable on the project home page. [1] [1] https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/06/17/critical-update-re-dao-vulnerability/ https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/06/17/critical-update-re-dao-...
- Kenji 9y ago
  Oh, yeah, I forgot. Dollars are much better; a central bank (actually, any bank) can create arbitrarily many of them and flood the other banks and the market with cheap money, causing things like the subprime crisis. Much better than crypto currencies.
  - Retra 9y ago
    Airplanes can fall out of the sky at any moment, but you're still less likely to be hit by one than if you're standing on a rail waiting for a train to dodge around you. Inflexibility is not an advantage unless you're dealing with formally describable, proven systems. Human behavior and economics are not.
  - ceejayoz 9y ago
    That's... not how the subprime crisis happened. Printing money was part of how we got out of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
anigbrowl 9y ago
The dollar depends on the willingness of the US government to keep servicing its debts, which would have real-world implications if it stopped. Indeed, political disagreements over this have already resulted in interruptions to governance and the availability of services, which is arguably equivalent to food shortages under communism.
davidy123 9y ago
"We" possibly never did trade goods instead of using currency. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-society-myth/471051/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-...

by Kenji 9y ago

Let perfect not be the enemy of good. If you demanded that our currencies like dollars live up to your criteria, we would still be trading goods without currency.

twblalock 9y ago

Dollars don't purport to have a blockchain or immutable transactions. Ethereum does. Ethereum needs to live up to the standards it has set for itself.

avaer 9y ago
That ship sailed a while ago. Ethereum has already used its market position to de facto interfere with the transactions they declare immutable on the project home page. [1] [1] https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/06/17/critical-update-re-dao-vulnerability/ https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/06/17/critical-update-re-dao-...
Kenji 9y ago
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Dollars are much better; a central bank (actually, any bank) can create arbitrarily many of them and flood the other banks and the market with cheap money, causing things like the subprime crisis. Much better than crypto currencies.
- Retra 9y ago
  Airplanes can fall out of the sky at any moment, but you're still less likely to be hit by one than if you're standing on a rail waiting for a train to dodge around you. Inflexibility is not an advantage unless you're dealing with formally describable, proven systems. Human behavior and economics are not.
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  That's... not how the subprime crisis happened. Printing money was part of how we got out of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

anigbrowl 9y ago

The dollar depends on the willingness of the US government to keep servicing its debts, which would have real-world implications if it stopped. Indeed, political disagreements over this have already resulted in interruptions to governance and the availability of services, which is arguably equivalent to food shortages under communism.

davidy123 9y ago

"We" possibly never did trade goods instead of using currency. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-society-myth/471051/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-...