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> This chestnut gets trotted out pretty regularly. What it ignores is the economic activity, largely untraceable, relating to payments outside of the US regulat
by cowpig 7y ago
> This chestnut gets trotted out pretty regularly. What it ignores is the economic activity, largely untraceable, relating to payments outside of the US regulated financial system.
You follow this up with some political points that I generally agree with, but I don't believe have anything to do whatsoever with any significant portion of cryprocurrency's use.
Beyond speculation, cryptocurrency is used for:
- Money laundering (to evade taxes, regulations, sanctions etc)
- Various forms of financial fraud
- Payments for illegal transactions (usually drugs or ransom)
And to a much, much smaller extent:
- for the legal things cash is used for
The unbanked haven't been banked, and a new, programmable money hasn't yet emerged with much value.
I love the ideas behind crypto, but have been sadly disillusioned by the reality so far
- hinkley 7y agoI don't think these people realize they're working against their own argument when they are disabusing people of legitimate uses of a financial instrument.
- mopsi 7y ago> Beyond speculation, cryptocurrency is used for: According to whom? The studies I've seen [1] say that a quarter of users are engaged in illegal activities and their share of all transactions is 44%. Their share is in decline as more applications are developed and userbase expands. It should also be noted that there are many activities that are illegal, but not really harmful to anyone. For example, marijuana prohibition laws are obviously unjustified and are being overturned across the world these days. [1] Eg https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2018/02/sex-drugs-and-bitcoin-how-much-illegal-activity-financed-through https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2018/02/sex-...