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If that is so easy, why was the war on drugs never won? The government can deliver serious blows to BTC but I’m not sure it can be totally destroyed.

by lixtra 5y ago

nitrogen 5y ago
Are people as addicted to BTC as they are to drugs?
- randomhodler84 5y ago
  Moar addictive. I just can’t get enough. I keep putting more dollars in, and keep getting less and less bitcoin back every year. Addicted.
ineedasername 5y ago
Because drugs were not a digital abstraction that required buyers & sellers to go through traditional financial institutions to convert their fiat cash into physical drugs. Banning bitcoins as I described would mean the vast majority of all banks in the world would not be able to act as on/off ramps to crypto so it could never hit mainstream as a medium of exchange. It would also be worthless as a store of value because you wouldn't be able to get that value anywhere useful. It might live on as some part of the existing shadow banking networks, but it would never deliver on the promise of currency available to the masses & disconnected from arbitrary nation-state monetary policy. I'd like to be clear in my viewpoint though: I am not anti-crypto. I think there are many improvements it can bring to the existing global financial infrastructure. I just don't have any faith that it can deliver on promises of freedom from government regulations & control. If it exists, it will always exist because of government forbearance in killing it, not despite government antipathy.
moksly 5y ago
Because drugs is a commodity people want. There are numerous examples throughout history where different forms of currencies get shut down by the ruling body. There is of course an argument to be made about Bitcoin being a commodity. But I think we can easily agree that the consumer demand for Bitcoin isn’t going to rival that of drugs. I think the real joker is the black market. Modern drug organisations are Apple sized businesses that also have their own enforcement of violence and justice systems, and so on, making them effective non-geographic states. I live in Denmark, we’re a rather small country, we frankly have less authority behind the Danish Krone than some drug organisations would have behind whatever crypto currency they fancy.
burnished 5y ago
Gonna go out on a limb here, no one prosecuting the war on drugs actually wanted to get rid of them, they just wanted to criminalize their political opponents.

If that is so easy, why was the war on drugs never won? The government can deliver serious blows to BTC but I’m not sure it can be totally destroyed.

by lixtra 5y ago

If that is so easy, why was the war on drugs never won? The government can deliver serious blows to BTC but I’m not sure it can be totally destroyed.

nitrogen 5y ago

Are people as addicted to BTC as they are to drugs?

randomhodler84 5y ago
Moar addictive. I just can’t get enough. I keep putting more dollars in, and keep getting less and less bitcoin back every year. Addicted.

ineedasername 5y ago

Because drugs were not a digital abstraction that required buyers & sellers to go through traditional financial institutions to convert their fiat cash into physical drugs. Banning bitcoins as I described would mean the vast majority of all banks in the world would not be able to act as on/off ramps to crypto so it could never hit mainstream as a medium of exchange. It would also be worthless as a store of value because you wouldn't be able to get that value anywhere useful. It might live on as some part of the existing shadow banking networks, but it would never deliver on the promise of currency available to the masses & disconnected from arbitrary nation-state monetary policy. I'd like to be clear in my viewpoint though: I am not anti-crypto. I think there are many improvements it can bring to the existing global financial infrastructure. I just don't have any faith that it can deliver on promises of freedom from government regulations & control. If it exists, it will always exist because of government forbearance in killing it, not despite government antipathy.

moksly 5y ago

Because drugs is a commodity people want. There are numerous examples throughout history where different forms of currencies get shut down by the ruling body. There is of course an argument to be made about Bitcoin being a commodity. But I think we can easily agree that the consumer demand for Bitcoin isn’t going to rival that of drugs. I think the real joker is the black market. Modern drug organisations are Apple sized businesses that also have their own enforcement of violence and justice systems, and so on, making them effective non-geographic states. I live in Denmark, we’re a rather small country, we frankly have less authority behind the Danish Krone than some drug organisations would have behind whatever crypto currency they fancy.

burnished 5y ago

Gonna go out on a limb here, no one prosecuting the war on drugs actually wanted to get rid of them, they just wanted to criminalize their political opponents.