Crypto Cult Science | Angelino Desmet
www.arscyni.cc
Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely. Disregarding all of bitcoin's shortcomings, a financial instrument that brings out the worst in people—greed—won't change the world for the better.

Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely. Disregarding all of bitcoin’s shortcomings, a financial instrument that brings out the worst in people—greed—won’t change the world for the better.

  • qyron
    3·
    5 days ago

    What I find funny about the crypto currency concept was that it was originally devised - to what I know - to replace conventional money, under governmental control. But it quickly came the notion that for any crypto currency to hold value it had to be capable of being exchanged by the convention money it was meant to replace. Thus came the crypto markets, which in all emulate the conventional stock exchange markets (or FOREX, pick your poison), where huge chunks of wealth change hands with no real backing.

    A crypto currency, in my opinion, needs to be viewed as a viable means of exchange in order to have value. If I sow potatoes and decide to sell them for crypto, that I can use next to get a massage or a second hand laptop, then a crypto has value. If nobody is using crypto to buy service or goods, then crypto is worth… nothing.

    If an entire parallel economy bloomed around crypto - any crypto - that would make more strides to truly shake governments than anything else.

    • Troy@beehaw.org
      2·
      5 days ago

      I don’t know what Satoshi had in mind when they wrote their paper, but at least today I would view crypto money as complementary currencies rather then a replacement of fiat money. We should create a decentralized economy with a wide range of currencies -fiat and complementary money as well. Whether or not the crypto money will run on blockchains doesn’t matter, but it is one technology that seems to be fit for a lot of use cases to solve payment issues imo.

    • arsCynic@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      If an entire parallel economy bloomed around crypto - any crypto - that would make more strides to truly shake governments than anything else.

      “[…] In the end, governments aren’t inherently bad, but the people in it can be. And if they can be corrupted by bitcoin then we are merely running uphill on the Titanic.

      “Strong currencies are not the solution to poor governance. Good governance and democracy makes a country and its currency strong. Not vice versa.” —halukakin, HackerNews, 2021 [26]

      So, governments are not without faults, but likewise not the evil bogeymen as many people make them out to be, and neither are bitcoin enthusiasts. I still think most people mean well, but our ideas cannot account for, nor fathom the complexity of it all. Should the US decrease their disproportionally large defence budget?* Most definitely. Will bitcoin stop that? Probably not. Blame is easy, change is hard, and gambling on crypto“currencies” is not hard. It’s just playing Monopoly with another currency without changing the game. Maybe that’s it. Maybe they don’t want it changed and bitcoin is just a charade. “I don’t care if we have new banks, as long as I am rich.” But let’s not get lost in speculation here as well. […]”