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"This is a contributed post by Bill Harris, former CEO of Intuit and founding CEO of PayPal and Personal Capital.". "Cryptocurrency is best-suited for one use:
by mantenpanther 8y ago
"This is a contributed post by Bill Harris, former CEO of Intuit and founding CEO of PayPal and Personal Capital.".
"Cryptocurrency is best-suited for one use: Criminal activity"
"... rest of article..."
When something is 100% in one (from the authors view negative) direction and no technical, economic, social future potential gets mentioned something seems not right. I should not even post this, don't feed the troll.
- dragontamer 8y agoI'm not sure if "Criminal Activity" is the most descriptive name. But "gray market" activity such as pornography seems to be a big market for cryptocoins. IIRC, PornHub is experimenting with a cryptocoin (not BTC, but something else) because they don't like being subject to Paypal's whims. They believe they're in the legal clear, but banks don't want to be associated with that kind of business. And thus, there's a growing need of some kind of financial instrument for this politically unsavory, but legal, product. But yes, the primary benefit of Cryptocoin seems to be about avoiding the standard regulations and standard financial institutions. And yes, a big chunk of that (ie: SilkRoad) is about illegal-activities. In short: "Criminal Activity" is pushing the hyperbole too far, but the core concept seems to be a hack around the US's conventional financial system and protections.
- mantenpanther 8y agoI think you're right that this is one (early/first) use case, as it was during the beginnings of the internet. Also, one could argue "gray markets" is complementary to "free speech" or "censorship resistance" - which is indeed one of the core ideas of cryptocurrencies.