6 ms·
Ask HN: If Bitcoin can be sanctioned, what’s the point?
- crate_barre 5y agoI’m starting to think crypto is a FBI honeypot. Decentralized my ass, and the ledger is public. The inventor is ‘mysterious’.
- suyula 5y agoYou should read up on Anom to get a better idea of what a real FBI honeypot looks like. https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7nnmg/inside-anom-video-operation-trojan-shield-ironside https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7nnmg/inside-anom-video-ope...
- 0xdeadb00f 5y agoBitcoin is probably not a honeypot IMO. But it's also the worst cryptocoin to use for actually securely and privately sending money - its just that its the most well known coin.
- seanw444 5y agoYeah it's unfortunate Bitcoin has a reputation of anonymity. I wish Zcash and Monero were more well-known.
- 0xdeadb00f 5y agoAgreed.
- sp332 5y agoI don't know what this means. They can't stop transactions from happening on the blockchain. (A majority of colluding mining power could, but that's not what's happening.) What's being sanctioned is trading cryptocurrencies, for USD etc, on major exchanges.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 5y agoThe point is to learn more about how Bitcoin works.
- WheelsAtLarge 5y agoBitcoin can be made illegal on a per country basis but a few countries have and are making it legal tender so it will continue to stay relevant in many places. El Salvador was first. Mexico is rumored to be looking at the possibility. It's too volatile now but nothing says it will always be. It makes sense for some countries where the local currency keeps on losing its value and dollars are hard to get. Even if it's made illegal all over the world the technology will continue to evolve and find its niche given the restrictions it might be under. It will probably take a few generations for it to happen. The idea of paper money took 100s of years to take hold so it's not out of the ordinary for cryptocurrency to take many more years to become common. Once Bitcoin became an asset, people's greed kept it going and will continue to keep it alive and evolving.
- PaulHoule 5y agoPeople forget also that the whole transaction log is visible. Your address is pseudonymous but anybody can see the addresses of the people you trade with, hang them out the window from their feet and use any other dirty tricks. Contrast that with banks that will have to capitulate to law enforcement with a subpoena but aren’t open to hackers, extorsionists, mafia, triad, yakuza, North Korea, Iran, etc.
- moltke 5y agoThe nice thing is that it's easy to trade for e.g. monero.
- scottiebarnes 5y ago> but aren’t open to hackers, extorsionists, mafia, triad, yakuza, North Korea, Iran, etc. Oh please, HSBC laundered money for the cartels. They pay some fines and then its back to business as usual: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/icij-banking-1.5733835 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/icij-banking-1.5733835 https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/hsbc https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/hsbc
- PaulHoule 5y agoHey, banks will make a transaction log for those people but the odds of them letting those people see your transaction log are pretty long.
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoThe Dream of crypto is not for hide in the shadow from government agencies and FBI, or to twart democratic institutions. The dream of crypto is have real platforms, not FAANG monopolies that can shut you off for no reason without recourse.
- cyanydeez 5y agodelusion of crypto is that the value of currency can be negotiated without any centralization of exchange
- ashwagary 5y agoBisq, a decentralized Bitcoin exchange, already solved this issue. Smarter sanctioned people have already transitioned to it. I expect transaction volume to spike due to this recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine.