17 ms·

I don't understand the analogy, they are saying the vast majority of cryptocurrencies were not stolen or part of anything illegal. Thats the point of my post. D

I don't understand the analogy, they are saying the vast majority of cryptocurrencies were not stolen or part of anything illegal. Thats the point of my post. Did you misread, or do I just misunderstand what you are saying.

BobbyJo 5y ago
I think the point is 'vast majority' isn't relative. If 10% of cars get stolen every year that's a LOT, but 'the vast majority of cars did not get stolen'. In this case we'd need to relate it to normal asset/currency transactions. Is the rate of illegitimate transactions the same? 10X? 1000X? It can have several orders of magnitude more illegitimate activity while the statement 'the vast majority....' remains true.
- vmception 5y ago
  ah okay, so the goal post moves from imagining the vast majority was illegitimate use, to imagining "orders of magnitude" above other asset classes contains illegitimate transactions. now I understand. I don't personally care about that. Its more important that the US Deputy Treasury Secretary has intelligently differentiated between sanctionable centralized institutions and the network itself. A lot of people have talked themselves out of cryptocurrency by imagining that the [US] government would attack or outlaw the networks themselves, instead of acknowledging their legitimacy, and supported that with the imagination that the vast majority of use was illegitimate.
  - hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
    > ah okay, so the goal post moves from imagining the vast majority was illegitimate use, to imagining "orders of magnitude" above other asset classes contains illegitimate transactions. The only one who is moving goal posts is you, who have somehow setup this strawman that the collective position on HN was that the vast majority of crypto was illicit use.
    - vmception 5y ago
      Yeah I did. Anyone that actually harbored that opinion should feel silly now.
      - hackingforfun 5y ago
        I agree that the collective opinion on HN seems to be that crypto is pretty much only used for illegitimate use. I think it's great to see a government official directly challenging that assumption.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]

BobbyJo 5y ago

I think the point is 'vast majority' isn't relative. If 10% of cars get stolen every year that's a LOT, but 'the vast majority of cars did not get stolen'. In this case we'd need to relate it to normal asset/currency transactions. Is the rate of illegitimate transactions the same? 10X? 1000X? It can have several orders of magnitude more illegitimate activity while the statement 'the vast majority....' remains true.

vmception 5y ago
ah okay, so the goal post moves from imagining the vast majority was illegitimate use, to imagining "orders of magnitude" above other asset classes contains illegitimate transactions. now I understand. I don't personally care about that. Its more important that the US Deputy Treasury Secretary has intelligently differentiated between sanctionable centralized institutions and the network itself. A lot of people have talked themselves out of cryptocurrency by imagining that the [US] government would attack or outlaw the networks themselves, instead of acknowledging their legitimacy, and supported that with the imagination that the vast majority of use was illegitimate.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  > ah okay, so the goal post moves from imagining the vast majority was illegitimate use, to imagining "orders of magnitude" above other asset classes contains illegitimate transactions. The only one who is moving goal posts is you, who have somehow setup this strawman that the collective position on HN was that the vast majority of crypto was illicit use.
  - vmception 5y ago
    Yeah I did. Anyone that actually harbored that opinion should feel silly now.
    - hackingforfun 5y ago
      I agree that the collective opinion on HN seems to be that crypto is pretty much only used for illegitimate use. I think it's great to see a government official directly challenging that assumption.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]