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The point of cryptocurrencies is to rediscover everything we already know about money, the hard way

• abakker 9y ago
  That is certainly Matt Levine's take, as well. It is kind of funny, actually. Engineers rediscovering by doing, and wall street having these existential self-doubts about whether there is some hidden sophistication which is entirely absent.
• Mtinie 9y ago
  On the surface that can be a beneficial exercise. 400+ years of financial dogma and cruft has accumulated in the world's financial system(s). If the sole eventuality of this period of cryptocurrency development is that some of the "sacred cows" stood up in the four centuries since are torn down, and outdated models are discovered and updated to better serve people of today, I consider it worthwhile progress.
  • Sangermaine 9y ago
    Except that's not what's happening. What's happening is that some people are relearning the hard way why those "sacred cows" are so sacred. We've become so used to having them that some people take them for granted and forget why they exist, like the "raw water" people forgetting why municipal water systems exist. e.g. "Why do we need all these regulations anyway? It's just statist slavery!" later "Ah right, the fraud and the scams."