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Just no. Hard money is not desirable. Whatever comes out of this "the country's money supply should be determined by some cryptobros" is not going to be the re

by Nursie 6y ago

Just no. Hard money is not desirable. Whatever comes out of this "the country's money supply should be determined by some cryptobros" is not going to be the result.

casi18 6y ago
I get the "anti-crypto-bro" sentiments, but Ive trusted the FOSS/linux communities for long enough to have open and auditable tech and clear decision making, it might not be perfect but it is a lot more transparent than my government. I'd pick the crypto-communities and thousands of people gaming them to design better mechanisms for the everyday people to use, than a few politicians and the banks that are bribing them.
- RichEO 6y ago
  I think you might be over estimating the overlap between the FOSS/Linux community and the crytobro community - at least as it exists in 2021
  - casi18 6y ago
    I think HN repeatedly underestimates the overlap of these communities. FOSS ideology is critical in pretty much all crypto/defi projects.I can probably pick any dev in the space and they'll most likely be running linux. HN refuses to change its collective position it settled on a decade ago. It seems people here got stuck on some abstract projections of "crypto-capitalism-cruelty" and refuse to admit there might be something interesting going on. Where did the "move fast and break things" people, the "disrupt the institutions" people, and the hackers go? crypto. Or should we only be working on sass startups to reformat pdfs. is that what we're allowed to work on? everything else is a moral sin? Utterly Bizarre.
    - arberx 6y ago
      Preach!
    - Nursie 6y ago
      The problem with that is that there doesn’t seem to be anything interesting going on, beyond speculative hyper-capitalism. All the problems crypto was going to solve were illusory, or crypto was not a useful tool in solving them. Instead we’ve had years and years of hype and bubbles and solution-looking-for-a-problem but nothing much of any practical value. “Move fast and break things” now has a bad rap too in much of society - it turns out not everyone wants their things broken, and some of that stuff was useful. The world is not as in-love with the output of Silicon Valley startups as it used to be, having seen some of them play out.
      - matheusmoreira 6y ago
        Monero is very close to the original cryptocurrency dream. Private, anonymous, fast transactions, low fees, mineable by CPUs, can be and actually is used as a currency.
bitcoinmonger 6y ago
Agreed. The money supply should be flexible to help alleviate the effects of inevitable financial crashes. This of course devalues the savings of the average person when this happens, but it's the only way to recover from mistakes like the mortgage bubble.
- razius 6y ago
  Mortgage bubbles don't appear out of thin air, it's a debt bubble. Why does a saver have to pay for debtors?
- dools 6y ago
  Inflation is almost never caused by government spending. It’s caused by regulatory policy that allows, for example, bubbles in real estate or by external shocks like oil and so on. The whole “fiscal policy will debase the currency” thing is blown way out of proportion. I should also point out that there are much better financial instruments than cash to hold long term savings and they’re being made ever more accessible. The benefit of a government supplied digital currency is a payment system that isn’t run for profit.
- ObserverNeutral 6y ago
  > Agreed. The money supply should be flexible to help alleviate the effects of inevitable financial crashes. In reality, you either do it in secret...or it makes the crash even worse because people would be even more risk averse because they see the government using these non conventional tool...hence "it must be pretty bad, better save some more" QE is the quintessential example of this. The only American who benefitted from QE was Bernanke, so he got to be hailed as a hero and now everybody genuflects to him and uses his "playbook".
  - laurencerowe 6y ago
    > QE is the quintessential example of this. The only American who benefitted from QE was Bernanke, so he got to be hailed as a hero and now everybody genuflects to him and uses his "playbook". The US came out of the 2008 Great Recession much better than the Eurozone due to its ability to borrow cheaply as a result of QE. The Eurozone was hamstrung by the ECB's inability to act similarly and the 2012 agreement to allow the ECB to purchase "unlimited" amounts of bonds saved the currency.

by Nursie 6y ago

Just no. Hard money is not desirable. Whatever comes out of this "the country's money supply should be determined by some cryptobros" is not going to be the result.

casi18 6y ago

I get the "anti-crypto-bro" sentiments, but Ive trusted the FOSS/linux communities for long enough to have open and auditable tech and clear decision making, it might not be perfect but it is a lot more transparent than my government. I'd pick the crypto-communities and thousands of people gaming them to design better mechanisms for the everyday people to use, than a few politicians and the banks that are bribing them.

RichEO 6y ago
I think you might be over estimating the overlap between the FOSS/Linux community and the crytobro community - at least as it exists in 2021
- casi18 6y ago
  I think HN repeatedly underestimates the overlap of these communities. FOSS ideology is critical in pretty much all crypto/defi projects.I can probably pick any dev in the space and they'll most likely be running linux. HN refuses to change its collective position it settled on a decade ago. It seems people here got stuck on some abstract projections of "crypto-capitalism-cruelty" and refuse to admit there might be something interesting going on. Where did the "move fast and break things" people, the "disrupt the institutions" people, and the hackers go? crypto. Or should we only be working on sass startups to reformat pdfs. is that what we're allowed to work on? everything else is a moral sin? Utterly Bizarre.
  - arberx 6y ago
    Preach!
  - Nursie 6y ago
    The problem with that is that there doesn’t seem to be anything interesting going on, beyond speculative hyper-capitalism. All the problems crypto was going to solve were illusory, or crypto was not a useful tool in solving them. Instead we’ve had years and years of hype and bubbles and solution-looking-for-a-problem but nothing much of any practical value. “Move fast and break things” now has a bad rap too in much of society - it turns out not everyone wants their things broken, and some of that stuff was useful. The world is not as in-love with the output of Silicon Valley startups as it used to be, having seen some of them play out.
    - matheusmoreira 6y ago
      Monero is very close to the original cryptocurrency dream. Private, anonymous, fast transactions, low fees, mineable by CPUs, can be and actually is used as a currency.

bitcoinmonger 6y ago

Agreed. The money supply should be flexible to help alleviate the effects of inevitable financial crashes. This of course devalues the savings of the average person when this happens, but it's the only way to recover from mistakes like the mortgage bubble.

razius 6y ago
Mortgage bubbles don't appear out of thin air, it's a debt bubble. Why does a saver have to pay for debtors?
dools 6y ago
Inflation is almost never caused by government spending. It’s caused by regulatory policy that allows, for example, bubbles in real estate or by external shocks like oil and so on. The whole “fiscal policy will debase the currency” thing is blown way out of proportion. I should also point out that there are much better financial instruments than cash to hold long term savings and they’re being made ever more accessible. The benefit of a government supplied digital currency is a payment system that isn’t run for profit.
ObserverNeutral 6y ago
> Agreed. The money supply should be flexible to help alleviate the effects of inevitable financial crashes. In reality, you either do it in secret...or it makes the crash even worse because people would be even more risk averse because they see the government using these non conventional tool...hence "it must be pretty bad, better save some more" QE is the quintessential example of this. The only American who benefitted from QE was Bernanke, so he got to be hailed as a hero and now everybody genuflects to him and uses his "playbook".
- laurencerowe 6y ago
  > QE is the quintessential example of this. The only American who benefitted from QE was Bernanke, so he got to be hailed as a hero and now everybody genuflects to him and uses his "playbook". The US came out of the 2008 Great Recession much better than the Eurozone due to its ability to borrow cheaply as a result of QE. The Eurozone was hamstrung by the ECB's inability to act similarly and the 2012 agreement to allow the ECB to purchase "unlimited" amounts of bonds saved the currency.