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Because that is an ideological argument (government controlling currency is bad) masquerading as a technogical argument: https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypt

Because that is an ideological argument (government controlling currency is bad) masquerading as a technogical argument: https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html

whitepaint 5y ago
In all of the protocols I mentioned you can use stable coins such as USDC.
AnthonyMouse 5y ago
The interesting technical feature isn't that it's a separate currency, it's permissionless transactions. We're heading to a world where authoritarian governments want to eliminate cash. Handing the Stasi the ability to prevent people from so much as buying food from a grocer without their permission is catastrophic, much less the impact from such a comprehensive level of surveillance as takes place when every purchase made by everyone goes into a central database. We need a digital technology that preserves the autonomy and anonymity people have always had since the beginning with cash. (And before the obligatory pedant comes in to say that everything on a blockchain is public, they're still not attached to your identity, and there are technical solutions to preserving anonymity there too.)
- PeterisP 5y ago
  Well, permissionless transactions is the exact thing that is not going to happen in scale. With cash, you are required to deanonymize transactions unless they're small (<10k USD), and with the recently passed infrastructure bill changes to 6050I, the same would apply to cryptocurrencies. In effect there would be a bifurcation - you can either have permissionless transactions, or you can interact with the real world; since all the legitimate businesses and law-abiding people would have to avoid the "permissionless" system unless they can break the anonymity of the transaction and verify that any required filters have been applied.
  - AnthonyMouse 5y ago
    > With cash, you are required to deanonymize transactions unless they're small (<10k USD) Nearly all transactions are that small, and the ones that aren't (predominantly vehicles and real estate) are already not anonymous for independent reasons. It generally doesn't cost >$10,000 to buy a sandwich or a book.

whitepaint 5y ago

In all of the protocols I mentioned you can use stable coins such as USDC.

AnthonyMouse 5y ago

The interesting technical feature isn't that it's a separate currency, it's permissionless transactions. We're heading to a world where authoritarian governments want to eliminate cash. Handing the Stasi the ability to prevent people from so much as buying food from a grocer without their permission is catastrophic, much less the impact from such a comprehensive level of surveillance as takes place when every purchase made by everyone goes into a central database. We need a digital technology that preserves the autonomy and anonymity people have always had since the beginning with cash. (And before the obligatory pedant comes in to say that everything on a blockchain is public, they're still not attached to your identity, and there are technical solutions to preserving anonymity there too.)

PeterisP 5y ago
Well, permissionless transactions is the exact thing that is not going to happen in scale. With cash, you are required to deanonymize transactions unless they're small (<10k USD), and with the recently passed infrastructure bill changes to 6050I, the same would apply to cryptocurrencies. In effect there would be a bifurcation - you can either have permissionless transactions, or you can interact with the real world; since all the legitimate businesses and law-abiding people would have to avoid the "permissionless" system unless they can break the anonymity of the transaction and verify that any required filters have been applied.
- AnthonyMouse 5y ago
  > With cash, you are required to deanonymize transactions unless they're small (<10k USD) Nearly all transactions are that small, and the ones that aren't (predominantly vehicles and real estate) are already not anonymous for independent reasons. It generally doesn't cost >$10,000 to buy a sandwich or a book.