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How do you send cash to your drug dealer on the internet, instantly? I agree with you that you still have to get the product to the person, and blockchain does

by stale2002 9y ago

How do you send cash to your drug dealer on the internet, instantly? I agree with you that you still have to get the product to the person, and blockchain doesn't solve this. But it doesn't claim to. What cryptocurrencies do is solve the payment part of it, so that you can send money to someone without your bank finding out and freezing your account. If I send money to coinbase, buy Bitcoin, and then convert that to Monero, the only thing my bank knows is that I sent money to coinbase. And coinbase only knows that I sent money to a different exchange.

dmitriid 9y ago
> How do you send cash to your drug dealer on the internet, instantly? By instantly you mean "up to 200 hours"? https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time (at the time of writing this comment the spoke on the chat was at 12000 minutes). > the only thing my bank knows is that I sent money to coinbase. And coinbase only knows that I sent money to a different exchange. Money laundering is as old an art as the banking services themselves. I guess blockchain made it easier then? True innovation.
- stale2002 9y ago
  By instantly I mean, on average around 10 minutes, if you pay an appropriate fee. This is miles ahead of credit cards, for example, as that takes days to clear. Yes they do, as the transaction isn't confirmed until days later. Obviously, if you pay too low of a fee, it could take a long time. > Money laundering is as old an art as the banking services themselves. I guess blockchain made it easier then? True innovation. Indeed it does. The whole point of bitcoin was to enable censorship resistant financial transactions. And it turns out, that the people who most want to have access to censorship resistant transactions, are the people who are CURRENTLY being censored by the existing financial system. I have no idea how I'd be able to quickly send cash to someone on the other side of the world, in a way that is censorship resistant. Bitcoin enables this, though. Obviously, though, if you don't care about fighting financial censorship, then you wouldn't see the usecase for a toll that helps you make censorship resistant transactions. It is perfectly fine for you to not care about subverting financial censorship. But you should be aware that there are other people with different values, who care a whole lot about this cause.

dmitriid 9y ago

> How do you send cash to your drug dealer on the internet, instantly? By instantly you mean "up to 200 hours"? https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time (at the time of writing this comment the spoke on the chat was at 12000 minutes). > the only thing my bank knows is that I sent money to coinbase. And coinbase only knows that I sent money to a different exchange. Money laundering is as old an art as the banking services themselves. I guess blockchain made it easier then? True innovation.

stale2002 9y ago
By instantly I mean, on average around 10 minutes, if you pay an appropriate fee. This is miles ahead of credit cards, for example, as that takes days to clear. Yes they do, as the transaction isn't confirmed until days later. Obviously, if you pay too low of a fee, it could take a long time. > Money laundering is as old an art as the banking services themselves. I guess blockchain made it easier then? True innovation. Indeed it does. The whole point of bitcoin was to enable censorship resistant financial transactions. And it turns out, that the people who most want to have access to censorship resistant transactions, are the people who are CURRENTLY being censored by the existing financial system. I have no idea how I'd be able to quickly send cash to someone on the other side of the world, in a way that is censorship resistant. Bitcoin enables this, though. Obviously, though, if you don't care about fighting financial censorship, then you wouldn't see the usecase for a toll that helps you make censorship resistant transactions. It is perfectly fine for you to not care about subverting financial censorship. But you should be aware that there are other people with different values, who care a whole lot about this cause.