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>"I don't see a single use for Bitcoin other than illegal activities." A decentralised currency for world trade that doesn't allow an arbitrarily chosen countr

by _nedR 9y ago

>"I don't see a single use for Bitcoin other than illegal activities." A decentralised currency for world trade that doesn't allow an arbitrarily chosen country to profit by simply printing notes and skimming off the top? A payment system that doesn't pick an arbitrary corporation to rake in all the profits by nickel-and-diming every transaction in an economy?

simias 9y ago
That's one side of the coin. I can spin it the other way: bitcoin is a currency that can't be regulated or seized by democratic governments and justice bodies. The entire point of the Bitcoin design is to evade all regulations, the ultimate free market. In many places (in particular in America and the EU) what you call an "arbitrarily chosen country" is effectively a "democratically elected government". It's not perfect of course, there's corruption, there's lobbies but at least there's some amount of accountability. It's also a currency where 75% of all possible coins are currently in circulation and in the hands of a tiny amount of people who are bound to become the new one-percenters (if not 0.01%) if it truly becomes the "world trade currency". With the added benefit to be almost impossible to trace and therefore to tax if the holder is even a little be clever. I'm not saying that it's all white or all black but I'm a bit tired of the cynical libertarian cryptocurrency kool aid. "The current system is flawed, let's break everything and see what happens". And let's make a quick million while we're at it, a new sucker is born every minute.
- zzzcpan 9y ago
  But if there is no accountability or regulations the new one-percenters can't become as powerful as the old one-percenters, that rely on the authority of "democratically elected governments".
  - simias 9y ago
    You'll have to give me a more detailed case for that. If we make money harder to tax and regulate the very rich will become less powerful? Won't that just make it even easier to concentrate riches? Given how easy it seems to evade taxes nowadays when you're super rich I can't imagine how it'd be when anybody can basically generate a new untraceable wallet for any transaction. Corruption will never have been so lucrative.

by _nedR 9y ago

simias 9y ago

That's one side of the coin. I can spin it the other way: bitcoin is a currency that can't be regulated or seized by democratic governments and justice bodies. The entire point of the Bitcoin design is to evade all regulations, the ultimate free market. In many places (in particular in America and the EU) what you call an "arbitrarily chosen country" is effectively a "democratically elected government". It's not perfect of course, there's corruption, there's lobbies but at least there's some amount of accountability. It's also a currency where 75% of all possible coins are currently in circulation and in the hands of a tiny amount of people who are bound to become the new one-percenters (if not 0.01%) if it truly becomes the "world trade currency". With the added benefit to be almost impossible to trace and therefore to tax if the holder is even a little be clever. I'm not saying that it's all white or all black but I'm a bit tired of the cynical libertarian cryptocurrency kool aid. "The current system is flawed, let's break everything and see what happens". And let's make a quick million while we're at it, a new sucker is born every minute.

zzzcpan 9y ago
But if there is no accountability or regulations the new one-percenters can't become as powerful as the old one-percenters, that rely on the authority of "democratically elected governments".
- simias 9y ago
  You'll have to give me a more detailed case for that. If we make money harder to tax and regulate the very rich will become less powerful? Won't that just make it even easier to concentrate riches? Given how easy it seems to evade taxes nowadays when you're super rich I can't imagine how it'd be when anybody can basically generate a new untraceable wallet for any transaction. Corruption will never have been so lucrative.