3 ms·

You're still bound by meat-space and the rules of the universe. If someone gets in your house and beats you with a $5 wrench until you give him your seed phrase

You're still bound by meat-space and the rules of the universe. If someone gets in your house and beats you with a $5 wrench until you give him your seed phrase, you're still relying on the police to catch the thief, ledger or not. However, you're also not bound by arbitrary rules by arbitrary people that may or may not hold their end of the deal. YOU own your Bitcoin, and until YOU send it to someone it's YOURS. On the other hand, money in the bank is "yours", but they can freeze your money anytime for whatever reason, or change the terms because whatever. "It doesn't happen", sure. Until it does. And fyi "then it means you deserved it" is an excuse that reeks of first-world privilege. Even if Bitcoin won't become the world currency, the concept of "ownership" can be useful elsewhere, especially games. Lots of games have "gems" or whatever currency the game uses. But you don't "own" these "gems", they're just a number on a database that you paid the company for. Not unlike Bitcoin, yes, but you have the added bonus of being able to exchange them freely. It's a net upgrade. The same applies to skins: you pay Epic Games for a Fortnite skin but... it's stuck there. You cannot trade it because you don't "own" it. With NFTs you do. I'd spend $10 on a skin if they gave me an NFT that I could eventually sell instead of a database entry. Out of the two options, the Postgres database is more of a scam if you think about it.

ALittleLight 4y ago
Why would game companies want you to be able to resell their in-game cosmetics? They could make that possible now, but don't.
- AlexandrB 4y ago
  Steam makes it possible, but this has also created a gambling black market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmNy11Mn7g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmNy11Mn7g Anything that can be easily traded for currency can also act as currency so you quickly fall down the KYC rabbit hole if you want to - for example - keep children from gambling.
AlexandrB 4y ago
I suggest reading Man's Search for Meaning[1]. That book made me realize that almost all freedoms are contingent on a functioning and just society. No amount of blockchain technology can change that - you will always be bound by arbitrary rules made by arbitrary people. The only freedom that might be absolute is the content of your own thoughts and how you perceive and react to your conditions. So the question is: is money on a blockchain any more yours in a meaningful sense that money in a bank? Sure there's a record on a ledger that you have some bitcoin, but the value of that currency can be manipulated, you can be coerced into transferring those funds to someone else, or your currency can be blacklisted[2]. With the example of games, you can be banned or the item you "own" can be banned arbitrarily as well. Nothing on blockchain prevents the game from keeping a blacklist of items that are not allowed to be used. Sure you can trade stuff (maybe), but that's already possible on e.g. Steam. IMHO, one of the biggest outcomes of that has been illegal gambling rings that use CS: GO items as a proxy for currency - which is hardly a positive development. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning [2] https://cryptoslate.com/despite-tornado-cash-fiasco-bitcoin-sv-launches-blacklist-manager-tool/ https://cryptoslate.com/despite-tornado-cash-fiasco-bitcoin-...
horsawlarway 4y ago
Follow this to its conclusion - you "own" the coins, but they're on a hard drive hidden somewhere while you rot in jail for fraud. Do you own those coins? Can you functionally use them in the way you intend to? Are they fungible currency for which you have access to goods and services (hah! they're not that even now...) You don't get to "opt out" from society with a clever technical trick and some cryptography. For better or worse, we're in this together. Society is not a thing you can delegate to other people. It's literally the deal we're all working with as a group. If you think the group is making bad decisions... make a compelling argument and put it in front of the group. Or Leave. Or rebel. The ledger entry doesn't do you much good when you're bound by the covenants of the society you live in, and they think the ledger is wrong. --- The only place it may help is if you plan on intentionally breaking the covenants (ex: committing crime and fraud, such as black market deals - where I do actually believe crypto has a compelling use case [and have used it for such on the og silk road]). But now it's just a twist on the "rebel" category, and governments can and will treat it as such (see: China).

ALittleLight 4y ago

Why would game companies want you to be able to resell their in-game cosmetics? They could make that possible now, but don't.

AlexandrB 4y ago
Steam makes it possible, but this has also created a gambling black market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmNy11Mn7g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmNy11Mn7g Anything that can be easily traded for currency can also act as currency so you quickly fall down the KYC rabbit hole if you want to - for example - keep children from gambling.

AlexandrB 4y ago

I suggest reading Man's Search for Meaning[1]. That book made me realize that almost all freedoms are contingent on a functioning and just society. No amount of blockchain technology can change that - you will always be bound by arbitrary rules made by arbitrary people. The only freedom that might be absolute is the content of your own thoughts and how you perceive and react to your conditions. So the question is: is money on a blockchain any more yours in a meaningful sense that money in a bank? Sure there's a record on a ledger that you have some bitcoin, but the value of that currency can be manipulated, you can be coerced into transferring those funds to someone else, or your currency can be blacklisted[2]. With the example of games, you can be banned or the item you "own" can be banned arbitrarily as well. Nothing on blockchain prevents the game from keeping a blacklist of items that are not allowed to be used. Sure you can trade stuff (maybe), but that's already possible on e.g. Steam. IMHO, one of the biggest outcomes of that has been illegal gambling rings that use CS: GO items as a proxy for currency - which is hardly a positive development. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning [2] https://cryptoslate.com/despite-tornado-cash-fiasco-bitcoin-sv-launches-blacklist-manager-tool/ https://cryptoslate.com/despite-tornado-cash-fiasco-bitcoin-...

horsawlarway 4y ago

Follow this to its conclusion - you "own" the coins, but they're on a hard drive hidden somewhere while you rot in jail for fraud. Do you own those coins? Can you functionally use them in the way you intend to? Are they fungible currency for which you have access to goods and services (hah! they're not that even now...) You don't get to "opt out" from society with a clever technical trick and some cryptography. For better or worse, we're in this together. Society is not a thing you can delegate to other people. It's literally the deal we're all working with as a group. If you think the group is making bad decisions... make a compelling argument and put it in front of the group. Or Leave. Or rebel. The ledger entry doesn't do you much good when you're bound by the covenants of the society you live in, and they think the ledger is wrong. --- The only place it may help is if you plan on intentionally breaking the covenants (ex: committing crime and fraud, such as black market deals - where I do actually believe crypto has a compelling use case [and have used it for such on the og silk road]). But now it's just a twist on the "rebel" category, and governments can and will treat it as such (see: China).