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I'm not at all convinced by the argument about centralization happening because that's what people want. In Israel, for example, there is, in fact, a conspiracy

by danra 8y ago

I'm not at all convinced by the argument about centralization happening because that's what people want. In Israel, for example, there is, in fact, a conspiracy. Though not a hidden one at all - just one which is very hard to defeat. Israel has a very centralized market controlled by just a handful of oligarch families. The same guys control the insurance companies, pension, the fuel supply, the banks, etc. The prices are too high and the service isn't great not because that's what people want, but because competition is stifled, in cooperation with the politicians, who need the oligarchs to keep funding them. I don't think a decentralized currency would be a magic trick which would instantly solve this larger problem of economic centralization, which people most certainly do not want - but it could certainly help break the existing cycle by taking away power from the politicians.

Theodores 8y ago
That is just capitalism, Marx wrote about this a long, long time ago. Lenin came along with a solution to this a century ago however that revolution resulted in a different type of centralisation with the 'workers of the world' not uniting into the cooperatives that could have prevented the surpluses of capitalism ending up in the hands of the few. Instead there was dubious central planning with party officials calling the shots rather than these mythical worker heroes. Socialism and communism was an existential threat to international finance capital nonetheless, hence the Cold War. The cryptocurrency boom was greed driven with the fig leaf of 'smash the Fed and fiat currency'. The people that got into it were not that smart, a case of 'fools rush in'. Nowhere in the cryptocurrency discussion was there any appreciation of the history of capitalism, which requires considerable study to get any meaningful knowledge of. If you are studying graphs of alt-coin fluctuations all day and gambling on these things then you aren't going to take time to read all the required texts (or even the 'white papers' on how these silly coins are supposed to work). There are ways to address the evils of capitalism, for instance we haven't heard of the 'Tobin Tax' in a long, long time and discussion of how much capital banks should have in reserve hasn't happened even though the crash of 2008 revealed problems in that area. Despite everyone working so hard for this money stuff we, as a society, are remarkably unconcerned with figuring out how it all works and how we can build a currency system that works for everyone with liquidity to make money work for us instead of us working for money. I would be very interested in further reading on how the economy of Israel works, if you have any links then do share. I am detecting more antisemitism going on in the world at the moment with the polarised views that have not served us well historically. People muttering about international finance being a Jewish conspiracy tend to have no idea about Jewish history or how we got here. Hence I would quite like to know more about the story of the rich getting richer in modern day Israel.
- danra 8y ago
  > Nowhere in the cryptocurrency discussion was there any appreciation of the history of capitalism, which requires considerable study to get any meaningful knowledge of. This is false. I recommend listening to Trace Mayer, for example. > I would be very interested in further reading on how the economy of Israel works, if you have any links then do share. I recommend Guy Rolnik[1] and Yaron Zelekha[2]. [1] https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/WRITER-1.4968179 https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/WRITER-1.4968179 [2] https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-yaron-zelekha-s-crusade-to-save-israel-from-itself-1.5234889 https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-yaron-zelekha-s-crusade-to-...
  - Theodores 8y ago
    Thank you so much. I clearly over-generalised regarding the cryptocurrency crowd and their knowledge of capitalism, glad I did as I now have Trace Mayer to read properly. I keep forgetting about Haaretz, again thanks for the quality reading material.

by danra 8y ago

Theodores 8y ago

That is just capitalism, Marx wrote about this a long, long time ago. Lenin came along with a solution to this a century ago however that revolution resulted in a different type of centralisation with the 'workers of the world' not uniting into the cooperatives that could have prevented the surpluses of capitalism ending up in the hands of the few. Instead there was dubious central planning with party officials calling the shots rather than these mythical worker heroes. Socialism and communism was an existential threat to international finance capital nonetheless, hence the Cold War. The cryptocurrency boom was greed driven with the fig leaf of 'smash the Fed and fiat currency'. The people that got into it were not that smart, a case of 'fools rush in'. Nowhere in the cryptocurrency discussion was there any appreciation of the history of capitalism, which requires considerable study to get any meaningful knowledge of. If you are studying graphs of alt-coin fluctuations all day and gambling on these things then you aren't going to take time to read all the required texts (or even the 'white papers' on how these silly coins are supposed to work). There are ways to address the evils of capitalism, for instance we haven't heard of the 'Tobin Tax' in a long, long time and discussion of how much capital banks should have in reserve hasn't happened even though the crash of 2008 revealed problems in that area. Despite everyone working so hard for this money stuff we, as a society, are remarkably unconcerned with figuring out how it all works and how we can build a currency system that works for everyone with liquidity to make money work for us instead of us working for money. I would be very interested in further reading on how the economy of Israel works, if you have any links then do share. I am detecting more antisemitism going on in the world at the moment with the polarised views that have not served us well historically. People muttering about international finance being a Jewish conspiracy tend to have no idea about Jewish history or how we got here. Hence I would quite like to know more about the story of the rich getting richer in modern day Israel.

danra 8y ago
> Nowhere in the cryptocurrency discussion was there any appreciation of the history of capitalism, which requires considerable study to get any meaningful knowledge of. This is false. I recommend listening to Trace Mayer, for example. > I would be very interested in further reading on how the economy of Israel works, if you have any links then do share. I recommend Guy Rolnik[1] and Yaron Zelekha[2]. [1] https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/WRITER-1.4968179 https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/WRITER-1.4968179 [2] https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-yaron-zelekha-s-crusade-to-save-israel-from-itself-1.5234889 https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-yaron-zelekha-s-crusade-to-...
- Theodores 8y ago
  Thank you so much. I clearly over-generalised regarding the cryptocurrency crowd and their knowledge of capitalism, glad I did as I now have Trace Mayer to read properly. I keep forgetting about Haaretz, again thanks for the quality reading material.