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People think Sybil is hard, and it is, but mining groups make it a lot easier. Usually the rejoinder is "Sybil requires a huge investment and immediately destro
by camgunz 5y ago
People think Sybil is hard, and it is, but mining groups make it a lot easier. Usually the rejoinder is "Sybil requires a huge investment and immediately destroys it" but that's probably not how it would go. A miner consortium would selectively Sybil, and everyone with all their money wrapped up in BTC would probably just be like "well, that still seems preferable to losing all our money in a crash to zero" and keep their BTC anyway.
As far as censoring or control or whatever, sure there are institutions that can do this (and have): governments and banks. All they have to do is ban crypto just like they ban buying anything else. It's so, so super easy.
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Ok so, to be a little less antagonistic, I also think banks are junk and buying things should be private, etc. I think those things are a little at odds with preventing things like the drug trade and modern slavery, but I don't think the financial system is the place to attack them.
Broadly I just don't think blockchains are necessary for payments, privacy, distributed computing, you name it. Literally everything anyone can "imagine" (insurance, fraud detection, oooooh) already exists and works great.
Maybe it's corny but, I think these problems are best solved by functioning democracies. Elect people who think bank regulation is important, etc. Erecting a shadow financial system based on blockchains seems about the worst way to it.
- rglullis 5y agoYou really are out of reasonable arguments, yet you continue to argue: - Please continue to talk about PoW as a strawman for blockchain in general. - "Governments and banks can just ban crypto" is beyond missing the point. The more "banks and governments" try to shut it out and stop people from using it, the more people will be marginalized and get to the point where crypto will be their only choice. Black markets thrive in authoritarian societies, not free ones. - The world does not care about what you think. "Oh, you can solve that with functioning democracies!" No shit, genius, what a revelation. Now go tell that to the people in Venezuela who can not run a fucking grocery stand without the government telling them they are not allowed to take a profit, and tell the others that it is okay to starve to death or being forced to flee to Colombia because "blockchain is burning the planet". --- Just like 99% of the "critics", you don't know what you are talking about you and you project your totalitarian tendencies onto others, while having this childish arrogance of claiming to have a monopoly on what is moral and just. At least now I am certain that it is just a waste of time to discuss with you.
- camgunz 5y agoOh I started to reply to this post in earnest, but discovered it devolved into a bunch of insults. Super disappointed.