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The consequences of bitcoin have not been sufficiently questioned and poked at. Society allows the exchange of bitcoin for real currency. Bitcoin enthusiasts (a

The consequences of bitcoin have not been sufficiently questioned and poked at. Society allows the exchange of bitcoin for real currency. Bitcoin enthusiasts (at least until they are victimized) view the scams, crimes, and damage enabled by Bitcoin as externalized costs (borne by those who are "not up to the task of understanding", which is generally not something you should write immediately after complaining about "intellectual arrogance"). The cost of a Bitcoin speculator's "freedom" is paid by others. Real currency and banking systems actively try to prevent fraud and crime. Bitcoin is...whatever the exact opposite of that is. It exists only to be itself -- provably so.

janoside 6y ago
You are clearly more confused, and entrenched in the status quo, than the comment I was originally responding to. I'm not sure why the "air quotes" around the word "freedom", but it reeks of mockery. And therein lies the philosophical divide that clearly separates us: free association and trade between free individuals is the moral ideal of any economic system (yes, also the freedom to speculate and to get scammed); by contrast a system of power management and control for the sake of "preventing fraud and crime" (by the way, you might want to do some research about the efficacy of prevention of the systemic tools you exalt) is a system of masters and slaves. Bitcoin is foundation for the clearest example of the former in existence, and its properties resist influences pushing toward the latter. https://medium.com/@breedlove22/masters-and-slaves-of-money-255ecc93404f https://medium.com/@breedlove22/masters-and-slaves-of-money-...