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My desired solution is for central banks and their abusive monetary policy to die in a fire. One way to achieve that is to have many competing currencies that

My desired solution is for central banks and their abusive monetary policy to die in a fire. One way to achieve that is to have many competing currencies that are not controlled by a central bank. If any are a worthy replacement for government fiat people will use it. But, that is precisely why governments will do their best to regulate use of competing currencies. China has the most restrictive capital controls in the world. It is not surprising at all that they have banned a legitimate threat to their control over the country's money.

jollybean 5y ago
This implies a probably lack of understanding of what Central Banks do. "When the ships come into harbour, nail them to the dock" - not realizing that eventually, when the tide goes out - the ship will go down several feet relative to the dock and be damaged by the fixed boarding blanks. You have to use ropes to fix ships, because the water moves. Dumping the Central Bank and even using hard currency would lead to economic collapse the very first time there is an existential shock - and the only 'saviour' would be a different form of monetary intervention i.e. fiscal policy (i.e. government budget). Also, in a completely unregulated scenario, powerful financial interests would leverage ownership of the crypto scheme and power would even be further centralized. Bitcoin is disproportionately owned by a small number of players who have absolutely zero civic perspective, they're looking to make a Trillion dollars out of nothing. If you don't like that money is managed by a large swath of banks working together with government and regulatory oversight and frankly relative transparency ... then you really won't like it when your monetary system is managed by the insane tyrant offspring of the Winkelvi and Satoshi dynasties who own 30% of the economy. Crypto mining that is energy intensive should be banned immediately on that basis alone. Aside from that, anyone declaring monetary value on a crypto asset should have to declare it, and if they don't, they go to actual prison for tax evasion. I'm looking forward to those people replacing weed smokers in prison - that would be effective public policy.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  > Aside from that, anyone declaring monetary value on a crypto asset should have to declare it, and if they don't, they go to actual prison for tax evasion. I'm looking forward to those people replacing weed smokers in prison - that would be effective public policy. You're both pro legalization of weed and pro government? The war drugs is one the many fronts of the war on personal freedom. Ironically the thing you're railing against -- being an anonymous uncensured transaction platform -- is one of the few ways weed dealers and consumers can continue to transact. > Crypto mining that is energy intensive should be banned immediately on that basis alone. Which is only neccessary to prevent > Also, in a completely unregulated scenario, powerful financial interests would leverage ownership of the crypto scheme and power would even be further centralized. PoS _is_ succeptible to this as ownership means a voting stake. PoW prevents entrenched interests from controlling it.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    I'm 'not' for people not going to jail because they smoke weed, and 'for' people going to jail for tax evasion. The kind of straw manning that reveals itself here due to the complete lack of civic thinking in some circles is really disturbing. There is no necessity for mass energy usage for crypto, there are any number of ways to distribute new units of currency. Again the use of the term 'necessary' here is a hint at the false understanding of currency through the lens of a particular form of crypto. Crytpo, at least today, is a dystopia. Go and live for a few weeks in a country with weak civic institutions and see for yourself. This joke is less and less funny as time goes on, the experiment, in it's current form, has run it's course, it's long since over.
    - reedjosh 5y ago
      > the complete lack of civic thinking in some circles is really disturbing. I used to love the idea of the government fixing societies' woes. Unfortunately in my lifetime I've seen several business cycles wherein the rich get bailouts and the rest of us lose our shirts. My country has entered wars I didn't then, and don't now support. I've seen 3 letter agencies topple foreign governments, and I'm watching China leverage its social credit system and implementing CBDCs. I've seen the infrastructure in my country become dilapidated and homelessness skyrocket. I voted for 'change' and got none. I am civic minded, and to me the government is starting to look like the problem. As such, I support any peaceful alternative. There is no such thing as consent of the governed, and I plan continue believing what I see with my lying eyes.
tablespoon 5y ago
> My desired solution is for central banks and their abusive monetary policy to die in a fire. One way to achieve that is to have many competing currencies that are not controlled by a central bank. If any are a worthy replacement for government fiat people will use it. But, that is precisely why governments will do their best to regulate use of competing currencies. So your "solution" is a regression to something that was tried and didn't actually work well? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_central_banking_in_the_United_States#1837%E2%80%931862:_%22Free_Banking%22_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_central_banking_in_...
imtringued 5y ago
Free banking is cool until it fails.
- tastyfreeze 5y ago
  The fact that you dont see central banking as a failure is quite telling. A bit like Stockholm syndrome. The Fed has destroyed the value of the dollar and transfered wealth from lower income classes to higher income classes by targetting persistent annual inflation.

jollybean 5y ago

This implies a probably lack of understanding of what Central Banks do. "When the ships come into harbour, nail them to the dock" - not realizing that eventually, when the tide goes out - the ship will go down several feet relative to the dock and be damaged by the fixed boarding blanks. You have to use ropes to fix ships, because the water moves. Dumping the Central Bank and even using hard currency would lead to economic collapse the very first time there is an existential shock - and the only 'saviour' would be a different form of monetary intervention i.e. fiscal policy (i.e. government budget). Also, in a completely unregulated scenario, powerful financial interests would leverage ownership of the crypto scheme and power would even be further centralized. Bitcoin is disproportionately owned by a small number of players who have absolutely zero civic perspective, they're looking to make a Trillion dollars out of nothing. If you don't like that money is managed by a large swath of banks working together with government and regulatory oversight and frankly relative transparency ... then you really won't like it when your monetary system is managed by the insane tyrant offspring of the Winkelvi and Satoshi dynasties who own 30% of the economy. Crypto mining that is energy intensive should be banned immediately on that basis alone. Aside from that, anyone declaring monetary value on a crypto asset should have to declare it, and if they don't, they go to actual prison for tax evasion. I'm looking forward to those people replacing weed smokers in prison - that would be effective public policy.

reedjosh 5y ago
> Aside from that, anyone declaring monetary value on a crypto asset should have to declare it, and if they don't, they go to actual prison for tax evasion. I'm looking forward to those people replacing weed smokers in prison - that would be effective public policy. You're both pro legalization of weed and pro government? The war drugs is one the many fronts of the war on personal freedom. Ironically the thing you're railing against -- being an anonymous uncensured transaction platform -- is one of the few ways weed dealers and consumers can continue to transact. > Crypto mining that is energy intensive should be banned immediately on that basis alone. Which is only neccessary to prevent > Also, in a completely unregulated scenario, powerful financial interests would leverage ownership of the crypto scheme and power would even be further centralized. PoS _is_ succeptible to this as ownership means a voting stake. PoW prevents entrenched interests from controlling it.
- jollybean 5y ago
  I'm 'not' for people not going to jail because they smoke weed, and 'for' people going to jail for tax evasion. The kind of straw manning that reveals itself here due to the complete lack of civic thinking in some circles is really disturbing. There is no necessity for mass energy usage for crypto, there are any number of ways to distribute new units of currency. Again the use of the term 'necessary' here is a hint at the false understanding of currency through the lens of a particular form of crypto. Crytpo, at least today, is a dystopia. Go and live for a few weeks in a country with weak civic institutions and see for yourself. This joke is less and less funny as time goes on, the experiment, in it's current form, has run it's course, it's long since over.
  - reedjosh 5y ago
    > the complete lack of civic thinking in some circles is really disturbing. I used to love the idea of the government fixing societies' woes. Unfortunately in my lifetime I've seen several business cycles wherein the rich get bailouts and the rest of us lose our shirts. My country has entered wars I didn't then, and don't now support. I've seen 3 letter agencies topple foreign governments, and I'm watching China leverage its social credit system and implementing CBDCs. I've seen the infrastructure in my country become dilapidated and homelessness skyrocket. I voted for 'change' and got none. I am civic minded, and to me the government is starting to look like the problem. As such, I support any peaceful alternative. There is no such thing as consent of the governed, and I plan continue believing what I see with my lying eyes.

tablespoon 5y ago

> My desired solution is for central banks and their abusive monetary policy to die in a fire. One way to achieve that is to have many competing currencies that are not controlled by a central bank. If any are a worthy replacement for government fiat people will use it. But, that is precisely why governments will do their best to regulate use of competing currencies. So your "solution" is a regression to something that was tried and didn't actually work well? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_central_banking_in_the_United_States#1837%E2%80%931862:_%22Free_Banking%22_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_central_banking_in_...

imtringued 5y ago

Free banking is cool until it fails.

tastyfreeze 5y ago
The fact that you dont see central banking as a failure is quite telling. A bit like Stockholm syndrome. The Fed has destroyed the value of the dollar and transfered wealth from lower income classes to higher income classes by targetting persistent annual inflation.