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Look, I agree with a good part of this article. I also agree that the whole "unregulated internet" is terrible for humankind in general. Crypto is a scam. Meta
by artyom 5mo ago
Look, I agree with a good part of this article. I also agree that the whole "unregulated internet" is terrible for humankind in general. Crypto is a scam. Meta should be, plain and simple, shut down. Twitter is a madhouse. The list is endless.
However, every single time I feel like stricter regulation should be in place, a congressman speaks about "servers"... and yeah, maybe not.
- pocksuppet 5mo agoThe EU seems to have a different take. As I understand it, regulations are much more malleable in Europe. When problems arise, regulations are put in place. When regulations are problems... it takes a lot longer to remove them, but can still happen eventually. Nothing like the USian deadlock system. And when they do write them, it's always about general principles. The GDPR doesn't speak of cookie consent banners, instead it speaks of personal data and data controllers and data processors and the reasons you may control or process personal data, one of which is consent, so of course the industry made it as obnoxious as possible. There are probably places that are doing even better than Europe.
- nozzlegear 5mo ago> USian American. Please avoid the childish term "USian" unless you're going to commit to calling people from South Africa "SAian" too.
- a_victorp 5mo agoTo be fair, "american" could refer to anything made in the American continent (North, Central and South America)
- bentley 5mo agoIn some languages, but not really in English. Convention in the cultures of the Anglosphere is that the world comprises seven continents, and the Americas comprise two of them, not one. And in English, both formal and informal, “American” is generally considered the demonym of the United States of America, not the Americas. Although I call myself estadounidense in Spanish (an odd term—why don’t people from Estados Unidos Mexicanos count?), the equivalent English term is “American,” not “United Statesian.”
- nozzlegear 5mo agoNot in English.
- tpmoney 5mo agoAnd USian could refer to folks from Mexico (and at prior points in history a number of other countries), so it's hardly unambiguous.
- stkdump 5mo agoWho are you to make rules for others to follow?
- nozzlegear 5mo agoI'm citing a rule, not making one. American is in the dictionary, used by the UN, recognized by everyone and their dog as the proper demonym for citizens of the United States. Who are you to question that authority and replace the proper demonym with a neologism?
- stkdump 5mo agoI didn't. Languages aren't defined by dictionaries. If they were they would not have come into existence in the first place and they wouldn't evolve the way they do.
- armchairhacker 5mo agoBecause of onerous regulations, the EU has much less startups. You may think that’s good, but I’m sure some missed-potential startups would’ve improved QOL. They at least would’ve increased the EU’s economy and internet control and decreased its dependence on the US.
- chairmansteve 5mo ago"Because of onerous regulations, the EU has much less startups". That old trope. Is that also the reason Miami or St. Louis have less startups? I have started companies in the UK. The process is about the same as in the USA. The problem in Europe is that there is a lot less VC capital. Just like in Miami. It had nothing to do with regulation.
- pocksuppet 5mo agoOne reason there's less VC capital because they don't control the world reserve currency like the US does, so they can't just print money and export inflation. Thankfully the current US leadership is intent on resolving this discrepancy.
- sham1 5mo agoTo be fair to us, the Euro is also a world reserve currency, alongside of course the US Dollar, the British Pound, the Japanese Yen, and the Chinese Renminbi. And the Euro is in fact the second largest in terms of external reserves, being only beat by the USD. Of course, the USD has been for a while the largest one of these, but as you say, they're really trying to get away from that. And a currency falling in relevance isn't new, one can always ask the Pound about that.
- dgellow 5mo agoI generally agree with you message but the UK isn’t the EU anymore, and starting a company in Germany, France is definitely more expensive and involved than in the UK or the US. Regulation also has a responsibility, but not in the way people on HN generally think. The EU single market is messy, lots of things haven’t actually been consolidated, you have to take in account all the differences between each member state regulations if you want to get access to the whole EU. And if not you’re limited to mostly one region. If the EU can complete the single market we should be in a way better position to compete. I really hope we can see The 28th Regime[0] becomes reality soon, that would be such an improvement [0]: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2025)779233 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BR...
- Cider9986 5mo agoHey, just because 99% of cryptocurrencies are a scam doesn't mean that crypto as a whole is a scam.
- andai 5mo agoSturgeon's Law. 99% of everything is shit.
- dleslie 5mo agoOk. Where is crypto currency used in a way that fiat currencies cannot be, and is adding value to the world? I can think of nothing.
- sph 5mo agoThen you need to read outside your bubble.
- dleslie 5mo agoIt would have been as easy to write a valid answer as a non-answer; _unless_ there is no valid answer.
- Cider9986 5mo agoMonero gives people the ability to transact privately online. Privacy is a human right; therefore, through the technical innovation of private cryptocurrency, Monero allows individuals to exercise this right, adding value to the world. Please look into Monero and try to understand privacy activist's, marginalized peoples', and my point of view. You don't have nitpick, you can accept this one cryptocurrency as having benefits—I agree that a vast majority of cryptos are a scam and are unnecessary and bad for the environment, but there are some cryptos that are less flawed than the banking system. Here's a good discussion to learn more: (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47841149 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47841149)
- dleslie 5mo ago
- ece 5mo agoThe congressional technology committee Gingrich killed could've fixed this. You can't half ass democracy, you have to keep getting better at governing and convince people it's worth it.
- pstuart 5mo agoI agree wholeheartedly. There's an innate tension between "freedom of speech" and "weaponized misinformation". I think Karl Popper’s "paradox of tolerance" needs to be front and center in this discussion -- as it's playing out as predicted: free speech is embraced by those who are empowered by it, who then clamp down on free speech to suppress dissent. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-dangerous-embrace-of-cancel-culture/ https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administr... All the noise from the "absolute free-speech" folk who wanted to promote their conspiracy theories and hate speech are notably quiet now. And ironically, their "free speech" rants were not First Amendment issues as they were complaining about being platformed by private parties.