4 ms·

Outlaw torrenting while you're at it

• anikan_vader 5y ago
  General purpose computing seems to be the real issue here. Might as well ban it while we've got the chance. If people want to compute something, they can use their brains! In seriousness though, banning cryptography would appear to have many more serious consequences than the elimination of Bitcoin. Free speech would take a big hit for starters. If the concern is regarding the waste of electricity, then why not apply a tax on energy equivalent to the associated negative externality? That way everyone who wastes electricity will be charged equivalently, and the government won't have to determine which use cases are "useless." (Personally I think mining gold for jewellery is almost as useless as mining Bitcoin -- both certainly have an aesthetic beauty to them.)
  • Tainnor 5y ago
    > In seriousness though, banning cryptography [...] I think, when they say "ban crypto", they mean "ban cryptocurrencies". I, too, find it deeply unfortunate that some cryptocurrency nerds have suddenly decided that a term that has for a long time been used to refer to cryptography should now suddenly be understood to refer to cryptocurrencies excusively, but it's not the first time I witness this misunderstanding.