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You can try to regulate Bitcoin but you can't stop it. It will become like the drug war or prohibition.

pavlov 4y ago
It's sufficient to regulate the high-profile crypto on/off-ramps. Exchanges should follow the same rules as banks and brokers, and there probably should be an energy waste tax levied on PoW coin transactions which exchanges would enforce, similar to how brokers do dividend tax withholding today. If someone wants to trade Bitcoin peer-to-peer for cash 2010-style, that's fine by me, it won't create systemic risks.
- jbaczuk 4y ago
  I agree, and exchanges already are heavily regulated. But taxing energy consumption? How can you tax energy waste? What if someone sets up their own power generation? Is it wasting energy to let sunlight hit a parking lot?
  - kayodelycaon 4y ago
    > What if someone sets up their own power generation? I'd like to see how this is economically feasible for crypto.
    - jbaczuk 4y ago
      Me too. It's another financial incentives to make clean power generation more accessible.
  - pavlov 4y ago
    > ...exchanges already are heavily regulated. They are not, compared to banks and brokers. They do all kinds of things that would be absolute no-nos in regular finance, like trading against their customers.
    - jbaczuk 4y ago
      Ah, that's a good point. Well, good thing is you don't need an exchange to use it, and there are decentralized exchanges.
cliffy 4y ago
What is there to stop beyond the horrible energy consumption and scams? Bitcoin doesn't do anything useful at all. It's a net negative for the earth and the public at large.
- jbaczuk 4y ago
  People will just keep using it. But you might be right that it is a net negative since it's mostly used for speculation... But, it's not completely useless (tell that to the criminals who use it regularly). Or people who own it because they don't want all their assets in a highly inflationary currency.
  - hnthrow1010 4y ago
    You're playing a semantic game here. Yes, technically if criminals are using it, it's not "useless". To the rest of us, it's actually worse than useless because the criminal activity is a net negative on society. The idea that crypto is a hedge against inflation is laughable, look at any of the price activity in the last few months. Crypto tokens have no fundamentals or inherent value or anything. The price is completely random.
    - jbaczuk 4y ago
      I'm not condoning all the illegal stuff that happens with Bitcoin, to be clear, but just because a government says something is illegal, doesn't mean it should be. For example we're happy in the U.S. (well most of us I think) to be freed from oppressive rulers who taxed without representation, and something like Bitcoin would have been quite useful in that situation. There are many countries who are in a similar situation.
  - dghlsakjg 4y ago
    > Or people who own it because they don't want all their assets in a highly inflationary currency. When compared to world currencies BTC currently has an inflation rate that makes it the second most inflationary currency in the world after Venezuela. As a store of value crypto is not great.

It's sufficient to regulate the high-profile crypto on/off-ramps. Exchanges should follow the same rules as banks and brokers, and there probably should be an energy waste tax levied on PoW coin transactions which exchanges would enforce, similar to how brokers do dividend tax withholding today. If someone wants to trade Bitcoin peer-to-peer for cash 2010-style, that's fine by me, it won't create systemic risks.

jbaczuk 4y ago
I agree, and exchanges already are heavily regulated. But taxing energy consumption? How can you tax energy waste? What if someone sets up their own power generation? Is it wasting energy to let sunlight hit a parking lot?
- kayodelycaon 4y ago
  > What if someone sets up their own power generation? I'd like to see how this is economically feasible for crypto.
  - jbaczuk 4y ago
    Me too. It's another financial incentives to make clean power generation more accessible.
- pavlov 4y ago
  > ...exchanges already are heavily regulated. They are not, compared to banks and brokers. They do all kinds of things that would be absolute no-nos in regular finance, like trading against their customers.
  - jbaczuk 4y ago
    Ah, that's a good point. Well, good thing is you don't need an exchange to use it, and there are decentralized exchanges.

cliffy 4y ago

What is there to stop beyond the horrible energy consumption and scams? Bitcoin doesn't do anything useful at all. It's a net negative for the earth and the public at large.

jbaczuk 4y ago
People will just keep using it. But you might be right that it is a net negative since it's mostly used for speculation... But, it's not completely useless (tell that to the criminals who use it regularly). Or people who own it because they don't want all their assets in a highly inflationary currency.
- hnthrow1010 4y ago
  You're playing a semantic game here. Yes, technically if criminals are using it, it's not "useless". To the rest of us, it's actually worse than useless because the criminal activity is a net negative on society. The idea that crypto is a hedge against inflation is laughable, look at any of the price activity in the last few months. Crypto tokens have no fundamentals or inherent value or anything. The price is completely random.
  - jbaczuk 4y ago
    I'm not condoning all the illegal stuff that happens with Bitcoin, to be clear, but just because a government says something is illegal, doesn't mean it should be. For example we're happy in the U.S. (well most of us I think) to be freed from oppressive rulers who taxed without representation, and something like Bitcoin would have been quite useful in that situation. There are many countries who are in a similar situation.
- dghlsakjg 4y ago
  > Or people who own it because they don't want all their assets in a highly inflationary currency. When compared to world currencies BTC currently has an inflation rate that makes it the second most inflationary currency in the world after Venezuela. As a store of value crypto is not great.