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There’s a difference between the cryptocurrency world’s definition of “innovation”, and solving longstanding problems for humanity. How does Bitcoin solve ineq

There’s a difference between the cryptocurrency world’s definition of “innovation”, and solving longstanding problems for humanity. How does Bitcoin solve inequality? How does Bitcoin solve world hunger? How does Bitcoin solve disease? Bitcoin — and cryptocurrencies more broadly — do none of those things, with only one notable exception. Bitcoin — being a global currency of fixed supply — stands to usher in a global deflationary economic system. Investors in a deflationary environment have little incentive to invest in the future, and consumers have little incentive to spend. These two things could grind the caustic consumerism destroying our planet’s natural ecosystems to a halt. However, there’s room for interpretation even here; many humans would likely not trade off their own survivability for that of the planet’s natural ecosystems. All of the hullaballoo about “Defi” and Ethereum only amounts to a Wall Street reskin, i.e. better high brow gambling. This does nothing for humanity either. Very innovative (!), lots of money being made, nicely exascerbating inequality of course. But achieves nothing. (The S&P is actually down since 1970 as measured in gold [1]. Wall St is a carnival, and defi is just that carnival, squared.) [1]: https://www.longtermtrends.net/stocks-vs-gold-comparison/ https://www.longtermtrends.net/stocks-vs-gold-comparison/

kenneth 5y ago
Cryptocurrencies by virtue of being digital money accessible anywhere in the world and not manipulatable by central banks can do a ton of good in countries that are experiencing currency mismanagement. It was particularly popular in Argentina, and right now Lebanon is experiencing hyperinflation as well. Controversial opinion — but I'm of the mind that the world is about to experience massive inflation due to the horrifying Covid response of massively expanding the money supply, so we might be able to see even more of a need worldwide.
- arcticbull 5y ago
  Thing is though it’s not being used in those cases even though it’s available because of fundamental limitations. Concretely over the last few years a full 66% of all transactions in Venezuela are now conducted in USD. The USD is simply a far superior currency along every metric. Stable, fungible, cheap, internationally accepted.

kenneth 5y ago

Cryptocurrencies by virtue of being digital money accessible anywhere in the world and not manipulatable by central banks can do a ton of good in countries that are experiencing currency mismanagement. It was particularly popular in Argentina, and right now Lebanon is experiencing hyperinflation as well. Controversial opinion — but I'm of the mind that the world is about to experience massive inflation due to the horrifying Covid response of massively expanding the money supply, so we might be able to see even more of a need worldwide.

arcticbull 5y ago
Thing is though it’s not being used in those cases even though it’s available because of fundamental limitations. Concretely over the last few years a full 66% of all transactions in Venezuela are now conducted in USD. The USD is simply a far superior currency along every metric. Stable, fungible, cheap, internationally accepted.