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A Bitcoin-based economy would not suffer from this problem. Additionally, behold the list of extant desirable use cases for a decentralized cryptocurrency: 1.

A Bitcoin-based economy would not suffer from this problem. Additionally, behold the list of extant desirable use cases for a decentralized cryptocurrency: 1. Donating to scihub 2. Reminding HN that a list with a single element in it is still a valid list.

mirntyfirty 5y ago
A Bitcoin based economy would be unable to handle more than an infinitesimal number of transactions that take place and would be remarkably slow handling that infinitesimal amount of transactions. Price volatility would prevent businesses from selling in Bitcoin, workers from being paid in Bitcoin, taxes being collected in Bitcoin, and international trade agreements being contracted in Bitcoin.
echelon 5y ago
> A Bitcoin-based economy would not suffer from this problem. I rather like the ability of my government to use monetary policy to create favorable environments for growth. Sometimes we get a bit ahead of ourselves and things come crashing down, but when it's good it's great. > Additionally, behold the list of extant desirable use cases for a decentralized cryptocurrency: There are lots of bad use cases for crypto. 1. Crypto directly enables ransomware and terrorist financing 2. Crypto creators and whales get much of the upside. Why should we reward them rather than transact with the currencies our governments use? Governments which provide an actual social safety net? 3. People can lose a lot of money with dumb mistakes. There are no support strings.
- lordofgibbons 5y ago
  >1. Crypto directly enables ransomware and *terrorist financing* Citation needed. Almost all terror financing happens with fiat (the data was released by the FBI last year. I'll update this when I find the PDF), drug & human trafficking all happen with fiat (U.S Dollar specifically). Maybe we should ban the Dollar since it makes so many terrible things possible? Maybe encryption is bad too. I hear bad guys use it to hide their nefarious plots. /s
  - echelon 5y ago
    https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/terrorism-financing-cryptocurrency-2019/ https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/terrorism-financing-cry... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johntemplon/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-terrorist-financing-janet-yellen https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johntemplon/bitcoin-cry... https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2020/08/13/us-prosecutors-seize-bitcoin-allegedly-tied-to-al-qaeda-isis-hamas/ https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2020/08/13/us-prosecutors-se... https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/north-korea-stole-record-400-million-cryptocurrency-last-year-research-rcna12080 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/north-korea-stole-reco... https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Will-North-Korea-be-the-death-of-Bitcoin https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Will-North-Korea-be-the-deat... We're in the early days of crypto being used to fund terrorists. The usage is growing rapidly.
lordofgibbons 5y ago
>Additionally, behold the list of extant desirable use cases for a decentralized cryptocurrency: >1. Donating to scihub You mustn't be aware that Bitcoin transactions are 100% traceable (and are being traced). Donating to scihub with something like bitcoin would be opening up yourself to legal trouble depending on what country you live in. You'd have more privacy using your CC. Bitcoin is utterly useless as a form of currency. It's non-fungible, and your entire transaction history is open to the whole public to see.
throw0101a 5y ago
> A Bitcoin-based economy would not suffer from this problem. Yes, it would no doubt suffer from the worse problem of deflationary episodes: * https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the... * https://archive.fo/FWKcL https://archive.fo/FWKcL * https://www.vox.com/2014/7/16/5900297/case-against-gold-standard https://www.vox.com/2014/7/16/5900297/case-against-gold-stan... We've been here before with the gold standard and it does not work very well.

mirntyfirty 5y ago

A Bitcoin based economy would be unable to handle more than an infinitesimal number of transactions that take place and would be remarkably slow handling that infinitesimal amount of transactions. Price volatility would prevent businesses from selling in Bitcoin, workers from being paid in Bitcoin, taxes being collected in Bitcoin, and international trade agreements being contracted in Bitcoin.

echelon 5y ago

> A Bitcoin-based economy would not suffer from this problem. I rather like the ability of my government to use monetary policy to create favorable environments for growth. Sometimes we get a bit ahead of ourselves and things come crashing down, but when it's good it's great. > Additionally, behold the list of extant desirable use cases for a decentralized cryptocurrency: There are lots of bad use cases for crypto. 1. Crypto directly enables ransomware and terrorist financing 2. Crypto creators and whales get much of the upside. Why should we reward them rather than transact with the currencies our governments use? Governments which provide an actual social safety net? 3. People can lose a lot of money with dumb mistakes. There are no support strings.

lordofgibbons 5y ago
>1. Crypto directly enables ransomware and *terrorist financing* Citation needed. Almost all terror financing happens with fiat (the data was released by the FBI last year. I'll update this when I find the PDF), drug & human trafficking all happen with fiat (U.S Dollar specifically). Maybe we should ban the Dollar since it makes so many terrible things possible? Maybe encryption is bad too. I hear bad guys use it to hide their nefarious plots. /s
- echelon 5y ago
  https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/terrorism-financing-cryptocurrency-2019/ https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/terrorism-financing-cry... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johntemplon/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-terrorist-financing-janet-yellen https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johntemplon/bitcoin-cry... https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2020/08/13/us-prosecutors-seize-bitcoin-allegedly-tied-to-al-qaeda-isis-hamas/ https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2020/08/13/us-prosecutors-se... https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/north-korea-stole-record-400-million-cryptocurrency-last-year-research-rcna12080 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/north-korea-stole-reco... https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Will-North-Korea-be-the-death-of-Bitcoin https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Will-North-Korea-be-the-deat... We're in the early days of crypto being used to fund terrorists. The usage is growing rapidly.

lordofgibbons 5y ago

>Additionally, behold the list of extant desirable use cases for a decentralized cryptocurrency: >1. Donating to scihub You mustn't be aware that Bitcoin transactions are 100% traceable (and are being traced). Donating to scihub with something like bitcoin would be opening up yourself to legal trouble depending on what country you live in. You'd have more privacy using your CC. Bitcoin is utterly useless as a form of currency. It's non-fungible, and your entire transaction history is open to the whole public to see.

throw0101a 5y ago

> A Bitcoin-based economy would not suffer from this problem. Yes, it would no doubt suffer from the worse problem of deflationary episodes: * https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the... * https://archive.fo/FWKcL https://archive.fo/FWKcL * https://www.vox.com/2014/7/16/5900297/case-against-gold-standard https://www.vox.com/2014/7/16/5900297/case-against-gold-stan... We've been here before with the gold standard and it does not work very well.