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This gets repeated a lot around here but is far from the truth. Drugs are still traded, and so are other "illegal" items. And trading drugs is quite risky compa

by csomar 5y ago

This gets repeated a lot around here but is far from the truth. Drugs are still traded, and so are other "illegal" items. And trading drugs is quite risky comparing to trading crypto (especially fully decentralized). > usefulness of cryptocurrency is going to be considerably constrained Sure, but you are missing why 3rd worlds like China, India and Morocco are trying to restrict crypto. They are worried about capital outflows. It's not a surprise most of these countries already have rigid capital controls. People who have decided they want to "outflow" their capital are not really worried about government restrictions.

louloulou 5y ago
Yeah, people making these arguments haven't lived in developing countries with terrible, inconsistent, reactionary, arbitrarily applied laws. Where you have to "break the law" constantly in order to survive.
- joe_the_user 5y ago
  Sure but bitcoin's value would be a lot less if it was only being used to skirt the abuses of third world regimes - and when those same third world regimes make illegal. Most people who buy bitcoin today in the first world do so because it's made money for people. Sure, in third world countries and elsewhere, people skirt or break the law on a regular basis. But they still don't it for kicks and they don't do it for "right to cryptocurrency", they do it because it will get them something and making crypto illegal will mean it gets people less and people use it less, reducing demand and price (minus the manipulation bitcoin experiences but at some point that manipulation won't be manageable).
TheProbes 5y ago
The goal of drugs is to do the drugs. They are consumer goods. You buy them, then consume them. Crypto has no value unless you can sell it on to someone else, and that's it's ONLY value. That is the glaring difference, and it's weakness.

by csomar 5y ago

louloulou 5y ago

Yeah, people making these arguments haven't lived in developing countries with terrible, inconsistent, reactionary, arbitrarily applied laws. Where you have to "break the law" constantly in order to survive.

joe_the_user 5y ago
Sure but bitcoin's value would be a lot less if it was only being used to skirt the abuses of third world regimes - and when those same third world regimes make illegal. Most people who buy bitcoin today in the first world do so because it's made money for people. Sure, in third world countries and elsewhere, people skirt or break the law on a regular basis. But they still don't it for kicks and they don't do it for "right to cryptocurrency", they do it because it will get them something and making crypto illegal will mean it gets people less and people use it less, reducing demand and price (minus the manipulation bitcoin experiences but at some point that manipulation won't be manageable).

TheProbes 5y ago

The goal of drugs is to do the drugs. They are consumer goods. You buy them, then consume them. Crypto has no value unless you can sell it on to someone else, and that's it's ONLY value. That is the glaring difference, and it's weakness.