3 ms·

Crypto curreny enables anyone to use money electronically without permission from a third party. It also enables anyone to plausibly invent their own currency.

Crypto curreny enables anyone to use money electronically without permission from a third party. It also enables anyone to plausibly invent their own currency. This might not solve any problems for you, but there are lots of problems it can solve. In the earlier days when bitcoin transaction fees were a few cents instead of a few dollars, paying for things on the internet was wonderful. No need to fill out forms and possibly get your credit card denied because you use a VPN and no need to worry about your number getting stolen now or down the road. No fees going to a credit card company and no hidden fees now or in the future. That utility is still there if a store takes multiple crypto currencies since only bitcoin has the throughput of a 28.8 dial up modem (1.16 KB/s). Ethereum has much more throughput but still has high fees. Anything else (litecoin, bitcoin cash, doge coin, monero etc.) will still give this utility, which is arguably the least impactful thing about crypto currency. The shame is that it is all such a mess it almost doesn't matter. People won't stop leaving their balances in exchanges or putting it in ponzi schemes, or terrible 'smart contracts' or anything else. People in general seem to want lottery tickets much more than they want a usable peer to peer electronic currency.

WalterBright 4y ago
> It also enables anyone to plausibly invent their own currency. People have been doing that for hundreds of years. It's still done regularly today. Writing a check is creating your own money. Issuing a coupon is creating your own money. Creating a credit card is issuing your own money. It goes on...
- CyberDildonics 4y ago
  I think the burden of proof is going to have to be on you here because I don't think there is any way to bend definitions to make this true. You might be able to say the things you listed are IOUs, but they aren't ledgers, they won't scale and they can't be used without a central authority. There have been a few examples of people creating a centralized currency before bitcoin though. One was liberty dollars which was a single company that printed bills and claimed they could all be exchanged for gold (which was probably true, they went down from the US taking legal action and not any kind of default).
  - SgtBastard 4y ago
    Commenter was replying narrowly to the specific comment about “inventing your own currency” - which is exactly what coupons are, along with Airline loyalty programs’ points/miles and various barter network credits. There absolutely are ledgers behind both loyalty programs and barter networks and in the case of Airline loyalty programs, are literally planet-scale. The only significant “innovation” is the inherently ecologically destructive PoW-based decentralisation.
    - CyberDildonics 4y ago
      The case could be made for airline miles but creating a centralized system like that with limited utility is not something everyone could do, because its utility isn't universal. Also can airline miles be sent and received to and from arbitrary people? Can they be exchanged for cash or bought?
      - SgtBastard 4y ago
        >Also can airline miles be sent and received to and from arbitrary people? Yes. >Can they be exchanged for cash Normally not directly because then the programs have to handle AML/CTF obligations, but almost always Dollar-denominated gift cards. > or bought? Yes.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    You might be not aware of the fact that under free banking in America, banks issued their own currency. In fact, they did that long before governments began doing it. Here's yet another example: American Express Travelers Cheques https://www.americanexpress.com/us/travel/travelers-cheques/ https://www.americanexpress.com/us/travel/travelers-cheques/ S&H Green Stamps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps Local Currencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_i...
    - CyberDildonics 4y ago

WalterBright 4y ago

> It also enables anyone to plausibly invent their own currency. People have been doing that for hundreds of years. It's still done regularly today. Writing a check is creating your own money. Issuing a coupon is creating your own money. Creating a credit card is issuing your own money. It goes on...

CyberDildonics 4y ago
I think the burden of proof is going to have to be on you here because I don't think there is any way to bend definitions to make this true. You might be able to say the things you listed are IOUs, but they aren't ledgers, they won't scale and they can't be used without a central authority. There have been a few examples of people creating a centralized currency before bitcoin though. One was liberty dollars which was a single company that printed bills and claimed they could all be exchanged for gold (which was probably true, they went down from the US taking legal action and not any kind of default).
- SgtBastard 4y ago
  Commenter was replying narrowly to the specific comment about “inventing your own currency” - which is exactly what coupons are, along with Airline loyalty programs’ points/miles and various barter network credits. There absolutely are ledgers behind both loyalty programs and barter networks and in the case of Airline loyalty programs, are literally planet-scale. The only significant “innovation” is the inherently ecologically destructive PoW-based decentralisation.
  - CyberDildonics 4y ago
    The case could be made for airline miles but creating a centralized system like that with limited utility is not something everyone could do, because its utility isn't universal. Also can airline miles be sent and received to and from arbitrary people? Can they be exchanged for cash or bought?
    - SgtBastard 4y ago
      >Also can airline miles be sent and received to and from arbitrary people? Yes. >Can they be exchanged for cash Normally not directly because then the programs have to handle AML/CTF obligations, but almost always Dollar-denominated gift cards. > or bought? Yes.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  You might be not aware of the fact that under free banking in America, banks issued their own currency. In fact, they did that long before governments began doing it. Here's yet another example: American Express Travelers Cheques https://www.americanexpress.com/us/travel/travelers-cheques/ https://www.americanexpress.com/us/travel/travelers-cheques/ S&H Green Stamps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps Local Currencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_i...
  - CyberDildonics 4y ago