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>I think there is a strong argument that even with all the negative externalities listed, the positive are even greater. I think you have to be completely delu

by brazzy 5y ago

>I think there is a strong argument that even with all the negative externalities listed, the positive are even greater. I think you have to be completely deluded to believe that. > I mean, what if the world's billionaires are eventually forced to transect on a public blockchain? A lot of shadiness will suddenly become really hard to hide. Wasn't one of the big promises of crypto anonymity so that it would be the salvation of the prosecuted? And now it's supposed to completely eliminate anonymity and that is supposed to be a good thing? Schrödinger's Blockchain? >Net crime may well reduce; we don't know what we don't know in that sphere. We have ample hard evidence that the opposite is the case.

leppr 5y ago
Care to provide any sources to that "ample hard evidence"?
- brazzy 5y ago
  OP's article has a bunch of them. it opens with one.
  - leppr 5y ago
    What I want to see a source for is your claim that there is hard evidence for the opposite of "net crime being reduced", not random anecdotes and opinion pieces. I see nothing there indicating a quantitative increase in crime victims or number of crimes being committed due to cryptocurrency.
    - brazzy 5y ago
      There's entire new forms of crime being enabled by cryptocurrency. Most notably, ransomware is doing 20 billion dollars worth of damage annually (increasing quickly), and depends pretty much 100% on cryptocurrency for payment: https://cybersecurityventures.com/global-ransomware-damage-costs-predicted-to-reach-20-billion-usd-by-2021/ https://cybersecurityventures.com/global-ransomware-damage-c...
roenxi 5y ago
> Wasn't one of the big promises of crypto anonymity so that it would be the salvation of the prosecuted? The Bitcoin blockchain is a public, permanent ledger of every transaction ever made. The people claiming it is anonymous were always being optimistic. I think it might be strictly worse than the existing banking system for privacy. People trying to use Bitcoin for anonymous crime are in for a very nasty shock at some point. It is a better idea to go old school and bank with HSBC.

by brazzy 5y ago

leppr 5y ago

Care to provide any sources to that "ample hard evidence"?

brazzy 5y ago
OP's article has a bunch of them. it opens with one.
- leppr 5y ago
  What I want to see a source for is your claim that there is hard evidence for the opposite of "net crime being reduced", not random anecdotes and opinion pieces. I see nothing there indicating a quantitative increase in crime victims or number of crimes being committed due to cryptocurrency.
  - brazzy 5y ago
    There's entire new forms of crime being enabled by cryptocurrency. Most notably, ransomware is doing 20 billion dollars worth of damage annually (increasing quickly), and depends pretty much 100% on cryptocurrency for payment: https://cybersecurityventures.com/global-ransomware-damage-costs-predicted-to-reach-20-billion-usd-by-2021/ https://cybersecurityventures.com/global-ransomware-damage-c...

roenxi 5y ago

> Wasn't one of the big promises of crypto anonymity so that it would be the salvation of the prosecuted? The Bitcoin blockchain is a public, permanent ledger of every transaction ever made. The people claiming it is anonymous were always being optimistic. I think it might be strictly worse than the existing banking system for privacy. People trying to use Bitcoin for anonymous crime are in for a very nasty shock at some point. It is a better idea to go old school and bank with HSBC.