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It is relevant because the mantra of "traditional financial institutions have your best interests at heart, unlike those Bitcoin scammers" is demonstrably false
by imgabe 9y ago
It is relevant because the mantra of "traditional financial institutions have your best interests at heart, unlike those Bitcoin scammers" is demonstrably false.
- acdha 9y agoThat’s a rather blatant strawman: it’s literally a textbook example of the value of regulation and laws which make that happen, not the goodwill of bankers.
- imgabe 9y agoYou mean the laws and regulations written by lobbyists paid by the bankers? Do you mean the regulators who leave their Federal jobs for multi-million dollar per year jobs at the banks they formerly regulated? Are those the ones you're talking about? You seem to be implying that the regulations / laws and the banks are two separate entities. They're increasingly the same. Which means that yes, it is basically their goodwill we're dependent on, or more accurately how much they think they can get away with before there's literal blood in the streets.
- emodendroket 9y agoAnd you think all the problems with banks would go away if they simply operated without any regulation at all?
- imgabe 9y agoWhen did I say that? I think at the highest levels they already do operate without any regulation. When you get to write your own regulations and there's a revolving door between the regulatory agencies and the companies they're suppose to regulate, there is no meaningful regulation. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are a threat to them because there is no central agency in charge of it that they can infiltrate and control the way the have with government-run currencies. At least, they haven't found a way to control and manipulate it, yet.
- emodendroket 9y agoInstead you just get people losing their shirts to old-fashioned scams that were made illegal a century ago, with no recourse whatsoever.
- imgabe 9y agoPeople are always losing money to old-fashioned scams, regardless of currency. It's a lot easier to learn about and protect yourself from simple, hundred year old scams than the brand new, never before seen scams the financial industry comes up with.
- mr_spothawk 9y agowrt old-fashioned scams in my sibling's comment... they've been around much longer than they've been outlawed for. arguably, we would have better herd-immunity to them if we'd never outlawed them in the first case. yes, there's no recourse to losing your BTC. it's a good thing you were only playing around, or you'd be really screwed. if you mortgaged your house, well... that wasn't very smart was it. I'm sure you won't make that mistake again, and I think/hope we as a society/culture can work to help you recover from that. whatever the case, if you lose your money/btc/shirt the banks won't be much help to you.
- emodendroket 9y agoWhat in the world are you talking about? There are a number of avenues you have to reverse fraudulent transactions with banking products that aren't available with BTC.
- mr_spothawk 9y agooh, that explains why nigerian scams dont work. /s
- emodendroket 9y agoTell me the last time a major bank shut down and its proprietors ran off with all the deposits. Or what is the BTC equivalent to a chargeback if services aren't rendered? What protection does it offer if someone steals your information and makes fraudulent purchases with your money?
- acdha 9y agoThat may be an argument for stronger regulations, not no regulations. As the bitcoin world has repeatedly proven that abuse will happen without the same institutions — ever notice how the various scam/incompetent exchanges end up in the same courts for the same reasons? It’s just harder and less likely to be successful because they weren’t practicing any semblance of responsible practice before.