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Buying drugs/murders on the darknet and getting untraceable ransoms from your cryptolocker malware are at least two solid use cases. One could argue evading cur

Buying drugs/murders on the darknet and getting untraceable ransoms from your cryptolocker malware are at least two solid use cases. One could argue evading currency controls is a 3rd. The problem is that there's been no new uses found for blockchain after the initial uses discovered.

Judgmentality 6y ago
Blockchain isn't completely anonymous though. Bitcoin, for instance, can be and has been deanonymized to catch criminals. The entire concept of a blockchain is create an extended ledger, which isn't exactly an idea focused on privacy.
- BlueScreenDeath 6y ago
  How can people that are able to user the internet and apparently can read still be so incredibly ignorant?
- louwrentius 6y ago
  It's an idea focussed on.... what exactly? It seems like a solution in search for an actual problem.
- Acrobatic_Road 6y ago
  That's not an inherit limitation of a blockchain. Monero exists. It actually delivers on privacy where bitcoin couldn't.
- ajkdhcb2 6y ago
  Monero is private and has taken over as the far better option for the few real use-cases
louwrentius 6y ago
In that vein, I really like this book: http://www.americankingpin.com/ http://www.americankingpin.com/ About the rise and fall of The Silk Road
tuna-piano 6y ago
To those taking this comment as a joke - it is not a joke. Regardless of the morality/legality of a use, the fact that those are real use cases for the currency do give actual value to bitcoin as a currency. Now it's worth noting that "digital gold (speculation)" seems to far surpass ransom+online drugs as the reason for bitcoin to have value.
- louwrentius 6y ago
  > Now it's worth noting that "digital gold (speculation)" seems to far surpass ransom+online drugs as the reason for bitcoin to have value. That's not really value, nothing is created. It only seems a game of musical chairs, with some ending up with 'lambo money' and the rest just lost money. Terms like ponzi scheme or piramid scheme (it seems to contain elements of both) do apply.
  - bawolff 6y ago
    > Terms like ponzi scheme or piramid scheme (it seems to contain elements of both) do apply. How so? Bitcoin doesn't pay people out of the proceeds of other people buying in. Its value is solely a function of demand and scarcity. Sure compare it to beanie babies, tulips or gold. Speculation may be stupid, and it may very well end up with most people losing their money when the bubble collapses. But it doesn't have very much in common with pyramid schemes or ponzi schemes.
    - imtringued 6y ago
      Most cryptocurrency investment schemes basically work like this. Someone creates a cryptocurrency. The creators premine the cryptocurrency and sell the currency at a fixed price for pennies. The early investors try to "shill" their cryptocurrency and market it to as many people as possible. There is an influx of cash and the currency is valued at a few dollars. Early investors sell and late investors sit on a worthless cryptocurrency and the only way for them earn their money back is by marketing the cryptocurrency to even more people and selling it to them. Rinse and repeat.
geofft 6y ago
I think those are all basically the same use case - they're all about routing money of nontrivial value around governments. Much like Tor, it is not 100% unblockable, but it is quite difficult to block if you keep the internet flowing at all. And like Tor, it can be used for both moral good and moral bad. (In fairness, you can decide that the good outweighs the bad for Tor but not for cryptocurrency; you can also believe that the good doesn't outweigh other harms like the computational/energy cost of running a secure blockchain, which necessarily needs a nontrivial fraction of the world's purchaseable computing power.)
Traubenfuchs 6y ago
Number 4: Having a highly volatile, non regulated investment option with a low barrier of entry that is probably controlled by a handful of bitcoin heavyweights.

Judgmentality 6y ago

Blockchain isn't completely anonymous though. Bitcoin, for instance, can be and has been deanonymized to catch criminals. The entire concept of a blockchain is create an extended ledger, which isn't exactly an idea focused on privacy.

BlueScreenDeath 6y ago
How can people that are able to user the internet and apparently can read still be so incredibly ignorant?
louwrentius 6y ago
It's an idea focussed on.... what exactly? It seems like a solution in search for an actual problem.
Acrobatic_Road 6y ago
That's not an inherit limitation of a blockchain. Monero exists. It actually delivers on privacy where bitcoin couldn't.
ajkdhcb2 6y ago
Monero is private and has taken over as the far better option for the few real use-cases

louwrentius 6y ago

In that vein, I really like this book: http://www.americankingpin.com/ http://www.americankingpin.com/ About the rise and fall of The Silk Road

tuna-piano 6y ago

To those taking this comment as a joke - it is not a joke. Regardless of the morality/legality of a use, the fact that those are real use cases for the currency do give actual value to bitcoin as a currency. Now it's worth noting that "digital gold (speculation)" seems to far surpass ransom+online drugs as the reason for bitcoin to have value.

louwrentius 6y ago
> Now it's worth noting that "digital gold (speculation)" seems to far surpass ransom+online drugs as the reason for bitcoin to have value. That's not really value, nothing is created. It only seems a game of musical chairs, with some ending up with 'lambo money' and the rest just lost money. Terms like ponzi scheme or piramid scheme (it seems to contain elements of both) do apply.
- bawolff 6y ago
  > Terms like ponzi scheme or piramid scheme (it seems to contain elements of both) do apply. How so? Bitcoin doesn't pay people out of the proceeds of other people buying in. Its value is solely a function of demand and scarcity. Sure compare it to beanie babies, tulips or gold. Speculation may be stupid, and it may very well end up with most people losing their money when the bubble collapses. But it doesn't have very much in common with pyramid schemes or ponzi schemes.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    Most cryptocurrency investment schemes basically work like this. Someone creates a cryptocurrency. The creators premine the cryptocurrency and sell the currency at a fixed price for pennies. The early investors try to "shill" their cryptocurrency and market it to as many people as possible. There is an influx of cash and the currency is valued at a few dollars. Early investors sell and late investors sit on a worthless cryptocurrency and the only way for them earn their money back is by marketing the cryptocurrency to even more people and selling it to them. Rinse and repeat.

geofft 6y ago

I think those are all basically the same use case - they're all about routing money of nontrivial value around governments. Much like Tor, it is not 100% unblockable, but it is quite difficult to block if you keep the internet flowing at all. And like Tor, it can be used for both moral good and moral bad. (In fairness, you can decide that the good outweighs the bad for Tor but not for cryptocurrency; you can also believe that the good doesn't outweigh other harms like the computational/energy cost of running a secure blockchain, which necessarily needs a nontrivial fraction of the world's purchaseable computing power.)

Traubenfuchs 6y ago

Number 4: Having a highly volatile, non regulated investment option with a low barrier of entry that is probably controlled by a handful of bitcoin heavyweights.