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The point of crypto is not "breaking the rules." Bitcoin might be inefficient but its mostly used as a reserve currency these days. Crypto in general, however,
by DiscourseFan 1y ago
The point of crypto is not "breaking the rules." Bitcoin might be inefficient but its mostly used as a reserve currency these days. Crypto in general, however, is the first currency that is backed neither by its cult value (gold) nor the military and economic strength of the country that prints it (USD), but entirely by technological foundations itself. It is revolutionary, if also very power inefficient. It is effectively reducing the role of the state to an intermediary regulatory body as technology continues to advance to the point where such civil laws are not required. Of course the corporation, as an entity, will come to dominate the world, but that is the natural progression of history and can also be overcome through social and political movements. But not before the state itself, as a political entity, is effectively dissolved.
- rekttrader 1y agoCrypto is the first viable non-nation state currency. It’s NeoCurrency and frankly it’s high time something like it should exist.
- hellisothers 1y agoEvery person I’ve ever met who espouses “crypto” sounds like they’re in a cult trying to recruit new members. I can’t recall meeting a person who uses crypto who when asked about it (if they didn’t bring it up first) treated it like “oh, yea, crypto, it’s whatever, you just use it or don’t”.
- rekttrader 1y agoHave you tried doing an ACH to a friend or paid rent that way recently? Banks force you to Zelle (there are daily/weekly limits) they’re not enough to cover modern rents so you breakup payments. Meanwhile any stable coin transfer can be done in minutes and works better than any payment rail ever. Edit: I got my landlord to open a Coinbase account because stablecoin payments are way easier (also got a signup bonus for referring a new account)
- malnourish 1y agoMy living partner transfers me money via ACH each month to share our expenses. It's effectively instant.
- dmoy 1y agoACH isn't instant, but if you use the same bank they may use something besides ACH to affect the transfer. ACH is... FTPing around flat files, at some point in the day. Or the next day. Plus time for clearing. FedNow is closer to instant
- otterley 1y agoFor the purpose of making rent payments, it doesn't matter.
- chews 1y agoYou've undoubtedly done this before the IRS/Treasury $600 dollar reporting requirements... try to do this with someone new.
- everythingctl 1y agoPretty much every other developed country has solved this problem without having to transact in digital lottery tickets.
- xethos 1y agoYes and no. I can eTransfer in Canada... to a limit of $2,000 CAD daily. Rent is $2,100, so parent's point stands. I could upgrade my cellphone and use Google Play Services, allowing up to $10,000 CAD daily, but I have no intention of doing so. I think it's messed up to tie my financial and digital sovereignty to a foreign corporation, I don't appreciate the hit to battery life, privacy, and the pre-requisite bump in hardware to run GApps, and I simply don't want to end up on the spending treadmill for new cellphones. Canada "solved" this, but the limits haven't kept up with inflation or life in general
- solumos 1y agoWe should meet.
- burkaman 1y agoHow is it not backed by its cult value? It's the same as gold, only valuable if enough people agree that it's valuable. The technical foundations make it cool to think about, but not valuable without a large community of like-minded people.
- IlikeKitties 1y agoGold has at least some value outside of "cult value" since it has industrial and decorative use.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- c0balt 1y agoGold also has the nice property that it "just works", it will be there without electricity or an uplink to some network
- georgemcbay 1y agoCrypto actually has all of the same fundamental flaws the person you are replying to claims it liberates people from, they just take slightly different forms. As you mentioned, like any currency its worth whatever people collectively believe that its worth and nothing more. And on top of that, while it may not be tied to a singular government like the USD, it is heavily tied to being used in a place with operational telecomm and electricity infrastructure, which requires a functional societal order that the "military and economic strength" the original reply was talking about provides.
- theahura 1y agoHi, author here. You should probably read my quoted post about crypto, which comes out ambivalently positive on the whole thing (https://open.substack.com/pub/theahura/p/tech-things-the-point-of-crypto-is?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5sutf https://open.substack.com/pub/theahura/p/tech-things-the-poi...)