4 ms·

Oddly enough I’m the diametric opposite: skeptical of crypto’s long term value up until recently (but before the last big run up) - I now see it is a a fundamen

by gfodor 5y ago

Oddly enough I’m the diametric opposite: skeptical of crypto’s long term value up until recently (but before the last big run up) - I now see it is a a fundamental hedge against totalitarianism among other things. Westerners can fail to grasp the potential benefits due to the privilege of the time and place they were born. At least for now.

zemvpferreira 5y ago
You do realize Maciej comes from a reasonably unprivileged time and place, right?
- gfodor 5y ago
  Regardless of how you want to measure this my point was not about anyone in particular but the general sentiment I see from people who are not experiencing a wide variety of the problems crypto could possibly help ameliorate if things were different for them, be it their economic status, the government they live under, or the cultural norms they live within.
ffggvv 5y ago
and you think a totalitarian government is going to let you buy crypto? if they just shut down coinbase and robinhood and square then 99% of people will lose access. chinas great wall blocks a lot of the internet itself. it’s delusional to think governments can’t stop crypto easily. they can even just block internet completely
- gfodor 5y ago
  The fact crypto is facilitating large numbers of illegal transactions is evident enough it has value in doing so. I’m not assuming crypto is a silver bullet, but merely that it will be a force for good in scenarios where what it can more readily enable compared to alternatives are just things to do. If you like analogies, totalitarian governments ban all sorts of things that check their power like guns and books, but overcoming them still has happened historically in part by people finding ways to disobey those things without getting caught (and often with fatal consequences when they are caught)

4 ms·

Oddly enough I’m the diametric opposite: skeptical of crypto’s long term value up until recently (but before the last big run up) - I now see it is a a fundamen

by gfodor 5y ago

zemvpferreira 5y ago
You do realize Maciej comes from a reasonably unprivileged time and place, right?
- gfodor 5y ago
  Regardless of how you want to measure this my point was not about anyone in particular but the general sentiment I see from people who are not experiencing a wide variety of the problems crypto could possibly help ameliorate if things were different for them, be it their economic status, the government they live under, or the cultural norms they live within.
ffggvv 5y ago
and you think a totalitarian government is going to let you buy crypto? if they just shut down coinbase and robinhood and square then 99% of people will lose access. chinas great wall blocks a lot of the internet itself. it’s delusional to think governments can’t stop crypto easily. they can even just block internet completely
- gfodor 5y ago
  The fact crypto is facilitating large numbers of illegal transactions is evident enough it has value in doing so. I’m not assuming crypto is a silver bullet, but merely that it will be a force for good in scenarios where what it can more readily enable compared to alternatives are just things to do. If you like analogies, totalitarian governments ban all sorts of things that check their power like guns and books, but overcoming them still has happened historically in part by people finding ways to disobey those things without getting caught (and often with fatal consequences when they are caught)