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If you follow Major Jason Lowery at all, https://twitter.com/JasonPLowery https://twitter.com/JasonPLowery, this seems to align with his thesis of bitcoin proof

If you follow Major Jason Lowery at all, https://twitter.com/JasonPLowery https://twitter.com/JasonPLowery, this seems to align with his thesis of bitcoin proof of work mining becoming a form of power competition and warfare between sovereigns.

anonymouskimmer 3y ago
> warfare between sovereigns. Would performing a blockchain transaction that gets taxed by a validator of a country that is enemies with your country be a criminal act?
- anonporridge 3y ago
  You can make anything you want a crime if you can enforce it.
  - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
    I mean is this already a crime in various countries? Countries can make things crimes whether or not they can enforce said law.
kibwen 3y ago
Given that human prosperity is directly correlated to the amount of power available for productive uses, the fact that proof-of-work incentivizes wasting power means that any state that competes in this way is directly lowering the prosperity of its citizens.
- anonporridge 3y ago
  All warfare is a waste of resources, but those who decide to become pacifists are eventually out competed and subsumed by those who maintain the art of war. I'd love to know if you've found a solution to this dilemma.
  - eru 3y ago
    You can be a pacifist (in the narrow sense that you strive hard to avoid wars) and still 'maintain the art of war'. Have a look at Switzerland for an example.
    - r00fus 3y ago
      Switzerland profiting from wars by remaining "neutral" is pacifist?
      - eru 3y ago
        The original comment was: > All warfare is a waste of resources, but those who decide to become pacifists are eventually out competed and subsumed by those who maintain the art of war. They are using 'pacifist' in a rather loose sense. So: Switzerland ain't wasting resources on warfare (though spend a bit on keeping their defenses working), and they aren't 'out competed and subsumed by those who maintain the art of war' either. Your remark about profiting from other people's wars is a different topic.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
icegreentea2 3y ago
What compells sovereigns countries to compete in this arena?
- anonporridge 3y ago
  The same thing that compels them to go to meatspace war. Control of scarce resources.
  - eru 3y ago
    That assumes states have interests. In reality, it's a bit more complicated, because states are run by people, and those individual people have interests, not the states. The latter consideration helps to understand why eg the US invaded Iraq in the 2000s but then didn't take their oil (as your 'control of scarce resources' theory might predict).
wslh 3y ago
I said that in 2019 [1] as an hypothesis and probably many people said that before. It is always a good practice to trace ideas back in time. [1] https://blog.coinfabrik.com/libra-association-a-menace-and-an-opportunity-for-blockchain-ecosystems/ https://blog.coinfabrik.com/libra-association-a-menace-and-a...
- anonporridge 3y ago
  Cool, but it's notable and important that the idea is coming from a US military officer in a MIT thesis. No ideas are purely novel.
  - wslh 3y ago
    This shows that they are very slow, even think tanks in US should have noticed and publish this before. In the next article [2] I put the focus in the interoperability as the core tenet of blockchain or whatever technology you want to invent to set a better standard for global currency standards. [2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-stable-coins-beyond-facebook-libra-sebastian-raul-wain/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-stable-coins-beyond-face...

anonymouskimmer 3y ago

> warfare between sovereigns. Would performing a blockchain transaction that gets taxed by a validator of a country that is enemies with your country be a criminal act?

anonporridge 3y ago
You can make anything you want a crime if you can enforce it.
- anonymouskimmer 3y ago
  I mean is this already a crime in various countries? Countries can make things crimes whether or not they can enforce said law.

kibwen 3y ago

Given that human prosperity is directly correlated to the amount of power available for productive uses, the fact that proof-of-work incentivizes wasting power means that any state that competes in this way is directly lowering the prosperity of its citizens.

anonporridge 3y ago
All warfare is a waste of resources, but those who decide to become pacifists are eventually out competed and subsumed by those who maintain the art of war. I'd love to know if you've found a solution to this dilemma.
- eru 3y ago
  You can be a pacifist (in the narrow sense that you strive hard to avoid wars) and still 'maintain the art of war'. Have a look at Switzerland for an example.
  - r00fus 3y ago
    Switzerland profiting from wars by remaining "neutral" is pacifist?
    - eru 3y ago
      The original comment was: > All warfare is a waste of resources, but those who decide to become pacifists are eventually out competed and subsumed by those who maintain the art of war. They are using 'pacifist' in a rather loose sense. So: Switzerland ain't wasting resources on warfare (though spend a bit on keeping their defenses working), and they aren't 'out competed and subsumed by those who maintain the art of war' either. Your remark about profiting from other people's wars is a different topic.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

icegreentea2 3y ago

What compells sovereigns countries to compete in this arena?

anonporridge 3y ago
The same thing that compels them to go to meatspace war. Control of scarce resources.
- eru 3y ago
  That assumes states have interests. In reality, it's a bit more complicated, because states are run by people, and those individual people have interests, not the states. The latter consideration helps to understand why eg the US invaded Iraq in the 2000s but then didn't take their oil (as your 'control of scarce resources' theory might predict).

wslh 3y ago

I said that in 2019 [1] as an hypothesis and probably many people said that before. It is always a good practice to trace ideas back in time. [1] https://blog.coinfabrik.com/libra-association-a-menace-and-an-opportunity-for-blockchain-ecosystems/ https://blog.coinfabrik.com/libra-association-a-menace-and-a...

anonporridge 3y ago
Cool, but it's notable and important that the idea is coming from a US military officer in a MIT thesis. No ideas are purely novel.
- wslh 3y ago
  This shows that they are very slow, even think tanks in US should have noticed and publish this before. In the next article [2] I put the focus in the interoperability as the core tenet of blockchain or whatever technology you want to invent to set a better standard for global currency standards. [2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-stable-coins-beyond-facebook-libra-sebastian-raul-wain/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-stable-coins-beyond-face...