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So I guess the takeaway here is that the secret ingredients to bitcoin's success have been facilitation of crime and corruption by obfuscating the agency princi

by tCfD 9y ago

So I guess the takeaway here is that the secret ingredients to bitcoin's success have been facilitation of crime and corruption by obfuscating the agency principal relationship, thus concentrating wealth in the hands of the corruptible, leading to facilitation of bigger and better crime and corruption. Congratulations are in order for Bitcoin both reinforcing the most degenerate aspects of human nature more effectively than ever before and for its charter adopters and boosters getting rich off the spiraling chain of negative externalities as the cancer spreads?

Frogolocalypse 9y ago
The secret to bitcoins success is that if you cry wolf enough times, and take away peoples freedom to such an extent that they are impoverished by the wealthy, they will find a way to exert their power. This is what happens when you lose the moral high-ground. Freedom is hard. Actually requiring probable cause before being subjected to the justice system used to be a thing. Then the US government started stealing peoples money without ever even charging them with a crime. So now we have crypto. So the government can't do it anymore. "But but but what if they are committing a crime!" they say. Prove it i say. You know. Rule of law. That's what democracies are supposed to be about aren't they? That attack on freedom now has crypto as a response. The thing that it is counter-intuitive about crypto, is that the solution to electronic anonymous and censorship resistant money, turned out being record everything forever. When someone can flick a switch and take everything from you, you don't have freedom. When you can access the ledger from anyone, prove that it it is valid, and be able to send your money to anyone, for whatever purpose, you do. This technology has been developed as a direct response to the insidious and anti-democratic implementation of AML/KYC laws on a global scale over the past 30 years. The extrapolation of these laws, given a long enough timeline, is slavery. Not figurative slavery, actual slavery. Bitcoin is the technical response to that problem.
- acdha 9y ago
  That’s a rather incongruous jumble of ideas and, as usual, Bitcoin doesn’t actually solve any of the mentioned problems. If you’re concerned about asset forfeiture laws, vote better to change them – your Bitcoin will be seized and liquidated like everything else, and if you think you can hide a wallet ask how that’ll work out better than burying money or storing it offshore.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - DennisP 9y ago
    Yes, you can store wealth in place by burying money. What you can't always do so easily is move it. But you can transfer bitcoins anywhere in the world without anyone blocking the transfer, and you can carry them in your car in a hardware wallet without fear that a cop will confiscate them. Countries like Russia are looking for a way to move beyond the world dollar standard because the U.S. is able to shut down international dollar transfers for particular countries and banks, and uses that capability somewhat liberally. The U.S. probably can't do that to cryptocurrency, so I'd say it does in fact solve a problem for Russia. A lot of us vote to change things. I've also gone to protests, gotten involved in party politics, all that stuff. It's not that effective anymore. 80% of the country wants net neutrality and a couple million people took the trouble to file comments with FCC; it made no difference at all. At some point you have to stop begging and start inventing things. As Buckminster Fuller said, "To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
    - acdha 9y ago
      > But you can transfer bitcoins anywhere in the world without anyone blocking the transfer, and you can carry them in your car in a hardware wallet without fear that a cop will confiscate them. As soon as they’re converted to/from real money, they fall under the same restrictions as everything else, and most of the places you’d want want to live share restrictions on unregulated financial transactions. Similarly, while there’s egregious abuse of cash seizures it’s not like the cops haven’t heard of other stores of value. If they suspect you’re doing something serious, following the money in is what already leads to headlines about police selling large quantities of Bitcoin — and that hidden hardware wallet is going to be seen as proof that you’re hiding something. That latter point is the key one: there are a lot of people in jail because they thought they could hide money. I would not bet on having the opsec necessary to remove money from your accounts without leaving a trace, and with Bitcoin any mistake means you’ve left an irrevocable evidence trail behind.
- loceng 9y ago
  People could alternately rally around strong thought leaders and get them elected. The problem is most people vote based on knee-jerk reactions and there is too money easily in politics.

by tCfD 9y ago

Frogolocalypse 9y ago

The secret to bitcoins success is that if you cry wolf enough times, and take away peoples freedom to such an extent that they are impoverished by the wealthy, they will find a way to exert their power. This is what happens when you lose the moral high-ground. Freedom is hard. Actually requiring probable cause before being subjected to the justice system used to be a thing. Then the US government started stealing peoples money without ever even charging them with a crime. So now we have crypto. So the government can't do it anymore. "But but but what if they are committing a crime!" they say. Prove it i say. You know. Rule of law. That's what democracies are supposed to be about aren't they? That attack on freedom now has crypto as a response. The thing that it is counter-intuitive about crypto, is that the solution to electronic anonymous and censorship resistant money, turned out being record everything forever. When someone can flick a switch and take everything from you, you don't have freedom. When you can access the ledger from anyone, prove that it it is valid, and be able to send your money to anyone, for whatever purpose, you do. This technology has been developed as a direct response to the insidious and anti-democratic implementation of AML/KYC laws on a global scale over the past 30 years. The extrapolation of these laws, given a long enough timeline, is slavery. Not figurative slavery, actual slavery. Bitcoin is the technical response to that problem.

acdha 9y ago
That’s a rather incongruous jumble of ideas and, as usual, Bitcoin doesn’t actually solve any of the mentioned problems. If you’re concerned about asset forfeiture laws, vote better to change them – your Bitcoin will be seized and liquidated like everything else, and if you think you can hide a wallet ask how that’ll work out better than burying money or storing it offshore.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- DennisP 9y ago
  Yes, you can store wealth in place by burying money. What you can't always do so easily is move it. But you can transfer bitcoins anywhere in the world without anyone blocking the transfer, and you can carry them in your car in a hardware wallet without fear that a cop will confiscate them. Countries like Russia are looking for a way to move beyond the world dollar standard because the U.S. is able to shut down international dollar transfers for particular countries and banks, and uses that capability somewhat liberally. The U.S. probably can't do that to cryptocurrency, so I'd say it does in fact solve a problem for Russia. A lot of us vote to change things. I've also gone to protests, gotten involved in party politics, all that stuff. It's not that effective anymore. 80% of the country wants net neutrality and a couple million people took the trouble to file comments with FCC; it made no difference at all. At some point you have to stop begging and start inventing things. As Buckminster Fuller said, "To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
  - acdha 9y ago
    > But you can transfer bitcoins anywhere in the world without anyone blocking the transfer, and you can carry them in your car in a hardware wallet without fear that a cop will confiscate them. As soon as they’re converted to/from real money, they fall under the same restrictions as everything else, and most of the places you’d want want to live share restrictions on unregulated financial transactions. Similarly, while there’s egregious abuse of cash seizures it’s not like the cops haven’t heard of other stores of value. If they suspect you’re doing something serious, following the money in is what already leads to headlines about police selling large quantities of Bitcoin — and that hidden hardware wallet is going to be seen as proof that you’re hiding something. That latter point is the key one: there are a lot of people in jail because they thought they could hide money. I would not bet on having the opsec necessary to remove money from your accounts without leaving a trace, and with Bitcoin any mistake means you’ve left an irrevocable evidence trail behind.
loceng 9y ago
People could alternately rally around strong thought leaders and get them elected. The problem is most people vote based on knee-jerk reactions and there is too money easily in politics.