4 ms·

How does crypto help with that?

jongjong 3y ago
By allowing capitalism to exist on top of sound, probably scarce, voluntary monetary systems as opposed to an unfair system where one's social proximity to the money printer determines all outcomes of faux-capitalism.
- telepathy 3y ago
  How does crypto help change the law to become fair? As opposed to just facilitating unlawful activity.
  - jongjong 3y ago
    By putting pressure and providing an alternative. Without alternative, there is zero pressure or incentive to improve anything and gross injustice will become normalized and get worse. IMO, without crypto, we would already be living in feudalism. Especially with all the surveillance tech we have today.
    - telepathy 3y ago
      So you're saying the only value of crypto is some fringe act of civil disobedience that has so far been futile and riddled with fraud. Cool
      - jongjong 3y ago
        Yes. Unfortunately for some of us it's the only chance we have to contribute to society as current system is too centralized and deprives us of all opportunities. You'd have to be in our shoes to understand how weird things are for some of us. Like you could build something that's 100x better than any alternative and can't get more than a few users because of algorithm censorship. Users will tell you how great your product is but it won't move the needle because the information about the product's existence just won't propagate. There are no mediums for it to propagate and there is just one monoculture which works against you and, worst of all, gaslights you constantly.
        telepathy 3y ago
        Are you running for elected office? If not, then you're suffering from delusions of grandeur.
- jcranmer 3y ago
  Are you describing cryptocurrency or fiat money? Because "social proximity to the money printer" describes an awful lot of cryptocurrency, e.g., FTX or Tether.
  - jongjong 3y ago
    Yes, that's the current reality. Only scams have been allowed to succeed and I would not be surprised if the people who propped them up have special access to money printers as it is an extremely wasteful scheme. I feel like crypto has been a giant money laundering operation for corrupt governments. Still, it posseses the capacity to solve our monetary issues. I don't know how many more waves of scams it will take to solve the problem though. It depends how far fiat proponents are willing to go bribing away the crypto competition decade after decade. But I'm quite sure that crypto will not go away.
    - telepathy 3y ago
      I thought you said the problem was bad monetary policy. Why not focus on improving that? That's not a tech problem, it's a policy problem.
      - olalonde 3y ago
        It's really best to do both. People opposed to government surveillance tend to use E2E encryption (tech) and also lobby their government for change (policy). Same with cryptocurrency.
      - jongjong 3y ago
        If they could just shut down money printing, that would solve the problem... But they won't do that unless there is a way to verify that money printing is not taking place in secret. People who live under corrupt governments are familiar with this reality. People should be able to have total confidence in the integrity of their monetary system to ensure that they are not unwittingly supporting actions that go against their morals. Blockchain would allow precisely that.

By allowing capitalism to exist on top of sound, probably scarce, voluntary monetary systems as opposed to an unfair system where one's social proximity to the money printer determines all outcomes of faux-capitalism.

telepathy 3y ago
How does crypto help change the law to become fair? As opposed to just facilitating unlawful activity.
- jongjong 3y ago
  By putting pressure and providing an alternative. Without alternative, there is zero pressure or incentive to improve anything and gross injustice will become normalized and get worse. IMO, without crypto, we would already be living in feudalism. Especially with all the surveillance tech we have today.
  - telepathy 3y ago
    So you're saying the only value of crypto is some fringe act of civil disobedience that has so far been futile and riddled with fraud. Cool
    - jongjong 3y ago
      Yes. Unfortunately for some of us it's the only chance we have to contribute to society as current system is too centralized and deprives us of all opportunities. You'd have to be in our shoes to understand how weird things are for some of us. Like you could build something that's 100x better than any alternative and can't get more than a few users because of algorithm censorship. Users will tell you how great your product is but it won't move the needle because the information about the product's existence just won't propagate. There are no mediums for it to propagate and there is just one monoculture which works against you and, worst of all, gaslights you constantly.
      - telepathy 3y ago
        Are you running for elected office? If not, then you're suffering from delusions of grandeur.
jcranmer 3y ago
Are you describing cryptocurrency or fiat money? Because "social proximity to the money printer" describes an awful lot of cryptocurrency, e.g., FTX or Tether.
- jongjong 3y ago
  Yes, that's the current reality. Only scams have been allowed to succeed and I would not be surprised if the people who propped them up have special access to money printers as it is an extremely wasteful scheme. I feel like crypto has been a giant money laundering operation for corrupt governments. Still, it posseses the capacity to solve our monetary issues. I don't know how many more waves of scams it will take to solve the problem though. It depends how far fiat proponents are willing to go bribing away the crypto competition decade after decade. But I'm quite sure that crypto will not go away.
  - telepathy 3y ago
    I thought you said the problem was bad monetary policy. Why not focus on improving that? That's not a tech problem, it's a policy problem.
    - olalonde 3y ago
      It's really best to do both. People opposed to government surveillance tend to use E2E encryption (tech) and also lobby their government for change (policy). Same with cryptocurrency.
    - jongjong 3y ago
      If they could just shut down money printing, that would solve the problem... But they won't do that unless there is a way to verify that money printing is not taking place in secret. People who live under corrupt governments are familiar with this reality. People should be able to have total confidence in the integrity of their monetary system to ensure that they are not unwittingly supporting actions that go against their morals. Blockchain would allow precisely that.