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How is there still so much of ignorance over cryptocurrency this far along after its inception? Just because you buy and sell gold with major currencies doesn'
by colordrops 6y ago
How is there still so much of ignorance over cryptocurrency this far along after its inception?
Just because you buy and sell gold with major currencies doesn't mean gold is regulated. Crypto isn't much different. If you can get it anonymously, you can move it anywhere you want as long as you stay on the blockchain. Once you leave the blockchain, you aren't dealing with crypto anymore. Once you sell gold you aren't dealing with gold anymore.
I don't know about Diem in particular, but a state or corporate issued currency is not a general indictment of cryptocurrency.
- logifail 6y ago> If you can get it anonymously, you can move it anywhere you want as long as you stay on the blockchain Q: Is this fundamentally different to having a suitcase full of cash?
- deevolution 6y agoA suitcase full of cash is much more difficult to transport risk-free compared to bitcoin.
- ExtraServings 6y agoyet infinitely easier to spend.
- Heliosmaster 6y agoNot really, and that is precisely one of the point for crypto advocates. To be used as "virtual" (just non physical) cash, easier to manage.
- Mxs2000 6y agoI’ve heard it’s easier to travel conspicuously and less risky than traveling with suitcases of cash.
- alvarosevilla95 6y agoNo, but only if your suitcase will only open if unlocked by a cryptographically secure key and no one can open it through other methods. They can't steal the suitcase itself either. And you can instantly teleport the contents of your suitcase to an equivalent suitcase held by any other individual on the planet. And third parties can't arbitrarily devalue the contents of your suitcase by printing more of it.
- samatman 6y agoThe last part of this almost certainly doesn't apply to "Diem".
- alvarosevilla95 6y agoI'd argue none of the above apply to Diem actually. I'm definitely referring to traditional, actual blockchains
- logifail 6y ago> [..] no one can open it through other methods ... other than https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/ ?
- alvarosevilla95 6y agoThat still counts as using the key to open it :)
- mateuszf 6y ago> Q: Is this fundamentally different to having a suitcase full of cash? Yes, government can't print bitcoin. If you store cash - in the long term you will lose buying power. If bitcoin gets adopted as a store of value - nobody will be able to print it at will.
- derefr 6y agoIt's very hard to take a suitcase full of cash across a border. It's very easy to take a private key for a wallet-account full of cryptocurrency across a border.
- reaperducer 6y agoIt's very hard to take a suitcase full of cash across a border. Depends on the border. As long as you declare the cash to the authorities, there are many borders you can cross with great flipping wads of cash. Some industries operate mostly on cash (restaurants, for example), and "suitcases full of cash" isn't just for mobsters and movie villains.
- mthoms 6y agoWhere is that? In most of the west it's roughly $10k US (+/- 30%).
- waihtis 6y agoGold and crypto are hardly comparable. Start by factoring in all the crime & scams being done via crypto and you've got a general public practically begging for government intervention for cryptocurrencies.
- isthatsoup 6y agocompared with all the crime and scams done with fiat currencies
- waihtis 6y agoWell, one is a new phenonenom and other is established.
- colordrops 6y agoOk, but that doesn't alter my point.
- cloudinshape 6y ago10 years of debatable so-called-crimes with crypto VS at least 5000 years of wars, crimes and corruption with gold and government money...which side are we supposed to be on?
- waihtis 6y agoYou have to remember 99% of the general public do not think in this manner. Same dilemma as alcohol vs weed/psychedelics.
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoHe's right about roasting the planet though. Scarcity without computational (and literal) power is necessary. Maybe if we could use the inherent incalculability of the three-body problem as the basis for a cryptocurrency. You'd need to observe the universe to "find" astrocoins. It would be Astrology on steroids. Of course that leaves out verifiability, encryption, anonymous identity yet ownership. What if you (somehow) knew both parts of the quantum uncertainty portions of a particle because you initiated the system. Then you could demonstrate ownership by being able to predict the location or the momentum at any time based on that. But it would be fun to hold cryptocoins called Heisenbergs But that is an actual physical particle.
- Heliosmaster 6y agohttps://primecoin.io/ https://primecoin.io/ to compute Prime Numbers
- derefr 6y ago> He's right about roasting the planet though. ...no? Diem/Libra is built on Cosmos, which is a proof-of-stake system, not a proof-of-work system. Validator nodes in a proof-of-stake system do not compete to work ever harder to mine the same resources. There are a rather large number of such validator nodes (100+ at minimum), but that's also true of banks when you translate their Highly-Available mainframe stacks into equivalent Highly-Available commodity-PC stacks. (I.e. they're not spending any more electricity per tx than the ACH system is.)
- camgunz 6y agoI'll cop to hand-waving and painting cryptocurrencies w/ a broad brush here. But it seems like Diem hasn't really figured out what its system is gonna be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diem_(digital_currency)#Implementation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diem_(digital_currency)#Implem.... Looking at their docs and such, it seems like it'll be centralized under the stakeholders until they implement proof of stake, which IMO makes it just another reserve bank.
- hobby-coder-guy 6y ago
- camgunz 6y agoYou're talking about a commodity, not a currency. No one walks around with gold nuggets (or jugs of milk, or bales of wheat) in their pocket because our economy doesn't use the barter system. The difference between cryptocurrencies and other commodities is that other commodities have intrinsic worth. You can drink milk, you can eat wheat. You can't do anything with cryptocurrency, it's just a long, meaningless number.
- rytill 6y agoIt’s just a long number with no intrinsic worth. Like money.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoMoney is backed by a central bank that is accountable to a government body. Crypto is backed by speculation and tech bros (shorthand for the hyper technocratic libertarian).
- rytill 6y agoShared speculation is pretty powerful.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jackric 6y agoAccountable to a government body with opaque motives and capture over its citizens. Crypto has inspectable source code and miners and coin holders can jump ship if shenanigans are perceived
- toomuchtodo 6y agoHow’d that Ethereum DAO attack go? Some folks just decided to hard fork the chain. Much trust, such governance. I’d elect for a suboptimal government over such mechanisms any day, which seems to be a global consensus when you observe the lack of volatility in reserve currency values.
- littlestymaar 6y agoIf you ever try to cross any border custom with more than a certain amount of gold, you'd realize that it's more regulated than you think it is.
- colordrops 6y agoThat is obvious, but that is not something especially unique to gold - pretty much everything physical is regulated at the border. Yours is more of a statement about border security than gold. To bring it back to crypto, you can easily cross a border without your crypto being touched.
- andylynch 6y agoGold markets are most definitely regulated, especially if you’re doing any meaningful FX volume. And since we’re talking about crypto, it’s worth adding the gold mining tends to be too, perhaps more so.