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"Cash are only used for scammer and fraudster." More true in today since most person have used a credit card and phone paying. Any tool with anonymous means can

"Cash are only used for scammer and fraudster." More true in today since most person have used a credit card and phone paying. Any tool with anonymous means can also have uses for bad person. But is not any excuse for banning, good person can sometimes not want to make a public purchase.

kgraves 5y ago
so what is the point of cryptocurrencies then? other than to make ponzi schemes efficient to the unsuspecting general public who don't even know what they are getting into? [0] > But is not any excuse for banning, good person can sometimes not want to make a public purchase. It is when ransomware is on the rise [1] and the cryptocurrency exchanges like binance are letting them get away with it. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/04/survey-finds-one-third-of-crypto-buyers-dont-know-what-theyre-doing.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/04/survey-finds-one-third-of-cr... [1] https://www.coindesk.com/ransomware-is-a-crypto-problem https://www.coindesk.com/ransomware-is-a-crypto-problem
- da_big_ghey 5y ago
  Extortion, protection racket, "normal" ransom all done in cash, you think criminal take traceable wire transfer? Maybe we are make a ban on cash? Persons with nothing to hide should not fear government seeing theyre transactions? Financial literacy already is of concern in fiat currency, so no surprising that here we have many people who are not very knowing of what they do. "Some people do bad things with this thing" cannot make excuses for "ban this thing". Having any ability for moving money out of sights of government, out of control of government, it can be in bad employment or it can be in good employment. Having any ability for moving money out of control for governments is the point of cryptocurency.
- mannerheim 5y ago
  > so what is the point of cryptocurrencies then? Buying or selling services governments or payment processors don't approve of. This includes drugs, pornography (cryptocurrency is the only payment method available on PornHub at the moment), and distasteful speech (Gab has been banned from various payment services).
- puranjay 5y ago
  The utility, to me, seems to be creating a global financial market that is truly trustless and permissionless, aka no gatekeepers. Right now, if I want to buy American stocks, I have to go through the handful of brokers licensed to sell foreign stocks in my country. I have to meet their funding requirements and I have to pay their hefty fees, not to mention meet their kyc requirements. This effectively makes it inaccessible to small players who might not meet the minimum requirements and/or pay the fees. With crypto, I can buy wrapped synthetic versions of the stocks without going through any third party. The only fees I pay are transaction fees.
  - danlugo92 5y ago
    Where can I find synthetic stocks aside from Binance?
    - leppr 5y ago
      The Ethereum dApp Synthetix has a "DeFi" version of those. It's extremely inefficient and relies on centralized Chainlink oracles but it's permissionless and the assets keep their pegs. The Korean project Luna has I believe a similar system although it's even more of a decentralization theater.
  - hakfoo 5y ago
    I'm sort of intrigued on this 'synthetic stocks' thing. What exactly are you buying there? In the US, we have 'ADR" (American Depository Receipt) products for foreign companies. A company holds foreign shares, then issues ADRs which can (nominally) be exchanged 1:1 for them. That allows investors to get involved without the legal complexities of actually getting the shares in their name. They're a normal thing you buy through ordinary domestic brokerages.
    - puranjay 5y ago
      You’re essentially buying a token that’s pegged to the price of a stock. You don’t have the same benefits as the actual stockholder, but you do get exposure to the price appreciation. I get it that its not the same thing, but if your intention is to profit from stockmarket speculation (like many investors), its a workaround, especially if your local market doesn’t have any brokerages that allow access to US equities to retail investors. Even in India, retail couldn’t easily buy US equities until two years ago. Imagine the situation for someone in a poor African country. There are no local brokerages that allow them to access US markets. They are effectively forced to invest in poorly regulated, low value local companies through heavily manipulated local stock markets. For such people, being able to buy some ETH and buy a liquid, synthetic version of AAPL is a gamechanger
- imtringued 5y ago
  They are very useful as black market currencies. Black markets are an escape hatch for bad governance and that is all they will ever be. Good governance will win in the end.
  - leppr 5y ago
    Maybe, but given how very far from any kind of sophisticated democratic governance we are, their use, and thus cryptocurrencies' use, will persist for at least our lifetimes.

kgraves 5y ago

so what is the point of cryptocurrencies then? other than to make ponzi schemes efficient to the unsuspecting general public who don't even know what they are getting into? [0] > But is not any excuse for banning, good person can sometimes not want to make a public purchase. It is when ransomware is on the rise [1] and the cryptocurrency exchanges like binance are letting them get away with it. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/04/survey-finds-one-third-of-crypto-buyers-dont-know-what-theyre-doing.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/04/survey-finds-one-third-of-cr... [1] https://www.coindesk.com/ransomware-is-a-crypto-problem https://www.coindesk.com/ransomware-is-a-crypto-problem

da_big_ghey 5y ago
Extortion, protection racket, "normal" ransom all done in cash, you think criminal take traceable wire transfer? Maybe we are make a ban on cash? Persons with nothing to hide should not fear government seeing theyre transactions? Financial literacy already is of concern in fiat currency, so no surprising that here we have many people who are not very knowing of what they do. "Some people do bad things with this thing" cannot make excuses for "ban this thing". Having any ability for moving money out of sights of government, out of control of government, it can be in bad employment or it can be in good employment. Having any ability for moving money out of control for governments is the point of cryptocurency.
mannerheim 5y ago
> so what is the point of cryptocurrencies then? Buying or selling services governments or payment processors don't approve of. This includes drugs, pornography (cryptocurrency is the only payment method available on PornHub at the moment), and distasteful speech (Gab has been banned from various payment services).
puranjay 5y ago
The utility, to me, seems to be creating a global financial market that is truly trustless and permissionless, aka no gatekeepers. Right now, if I want to buy American stocks, I have to go through the handful of brokers licensed to sell foreign stocks in my country. I have to meet their funding requirements and I have to pay their hefty fees, not to mention meet their kyc requirements. This effectively makes it inaccessible to small players who might not meet the minimum requirements and/or pay the fees. With crypto, I can buy wrapped synthetic versions of the stocks without going through any third party. The only fees I pay are transaction fees.
- danlugo92 5y ago
  Where can I find synthetic stocks aside from Binance?
  - leppr 5y ago
    The Ethereum dApp Synthetix has a "DeFi" version of those. It's extremely inefficient and relies on centralized Chainlink oracles but it's permissionless and the assets keep their pegs. The Korean project Luna has I believe a similar system although it's even more of a decentralization theater.
- hakfoo 5y ago
  I'm sort of intrigued on this 'synthetic stocks' thing. What exactly are you buying there? In the US, we have 'ADR" (American Depository Receipt) products for foreign companies. A company holds foreign shares, then issues ADRs which can (nominally) be exchanged 1:1 for them. That allows investors to get involved without the legal complexities of actually getting the shares in their name. They're a normal thing you buy through ordinary domestic brokerages.
  - puranjay 5y ago
    You’re essentially buying a token that’s pegged to the price of a stock. You don’t have the same benefits as the actual stockholder, but you do get exposure to the price appreciation. I get it that its not the same thing, but if your intention is to profit from stockmarket speculation (like many investors), its a workaround, especially if your local market doesn’t have any brokerages that allow access to US equities to retail investors. Even in India, retail couldn’t easily buy US equities until two years ago. Imagine the situation for someone in a poor African country. There are no local brokerages that allow them to access US markets. They are effectively forced to invest in poorly regulated, low value local companies through heavily manipulated local stock markets. For such people, being able to buy some ETH and buy a liquid, synthetic version of AAPL is a gamechanger
imtringued 5y ago
They are very useful as black market currencies. Black markets are an escape hatch for bad governance and that is all they will ever be. Good governance will win in the end.
- leppr 5y ago
  Maybe, but given how very far from any kind of sophisticated democratic governance we are, their use, and thus cryptocurrencies' use, will persist for at least our lifetimes.