HUGE victory against big tech.

Scottty

Well-known member
Founder
"War on Cash" has been a thing for quite a while. Now the Covid-19 scare adds to the issue, over "contaminated banknotes and coins spreading the virus".
If the cash would be abolished and replaced with completely traceable electronic payment we'd see totalitarian oversight that would give Stalin* pause.

*for reference, there was during Soviet days an idea to abolish money, Stalin veto'ed it realising the safety valve role.

Just go back to using metal coins that can be dipped into cleaning chemicals now and then to remove germs. :)
We can keep using money, we just need to... launder it!
 

UberIguana

Well-known member
If they push too hard on debanking people and restricting cash all it will do is help crypto in the same way deplatforming has helped alt-tech.

Who knows, it might actually get governments pissed off enough at the hard left to do something once they realise a large proportion of transactions are being done in something they can't tax, provided those involved make even a modicum of effort to remain anonymous.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
I think you will see a dissident economy arise using stuff like amazon gift cards and even the virtual currency in MMOs
MMO currency is probably a better fiat currency than any given cryptocurrency in the long run, because at least someone has authority over it. It's painful for me to admit, because I very much wanted crypto to be the next thing a few years back, but it's purely temporary in utility. The moment any given crypto attains widespread use, it can effortlessly be compromised with 51% attacks by nation states and organized crime. Any attempt to build a supporting network with enough computing power to defend itself against such 51% attacks, which would probably be futile in any case, would also be so large as to be an easy target for nation state regulatory attack and thus of no lasting use to political dissidents.
 

Terthna

Professional Lurker
MMO currency is probably a better fiat currency than any given cryptocurrency in the long run, because at least someone has authority over it. It's painful for me to admit, because I very much wanted crypto to be the next thing a few years back, but it's purely temporary in utility. The moment any given crypto attains widespread use, it can effortlessly be compromised with 51% attacks by nation states and organized crime. Any attempt to build a supporting network with enough computing power to defend itself against such 51% attacks, which would probably be futile in any case, would also be so large as to be an easy target for nation state regulatory attack and thus of no lasting use to political dissidents.
There is some hope I feel for crypto still; but I'll admit that's more a feeling than anything concrete. In their current form? Cryptocurrencies are still lacking. Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done to make them fit for purpose, but the hope is that someone will be able to figure it out relatively soon.
 

UberIguana

Well-known member
MMO currency is probably a better fiat currency than any given cryptocurrency in the long run, because at least someone has authority over it. It's painful for me to admit, because I very much wanted crypto to be the next thing a few years back, but it's purely temporary in utility. The moment any given crypto attains widespread use, it can effortlessly be compromised with 51% attacks by nation states and organized crime. Any attempt to build a supporting network with enough computing power to defend itself against such 51% attacks, which would probably be futile in any case, would also be so large as to be an easy target for nation state regulatory attack and thus of no lasting use to political dissidents.

That's true for blockchains that rely on proof of work to maintain themselves (like bitcoin). Many of them use proof of stake (Etherium is planning to switch over to this in the next year or so), so anyone looking to compromise it will have to own 51% of the coins being staked. An attempted buyout will quickly run into supply issues as they run out of lower priced sellers. Admittedly, the price spike will push a lot of others into selling too, as many will think it's temporary. If the price jumps and keeps going, or jumps and holds at a certain level as the government sets its buy price, people will figure out serious money is behind the jump. This will only encourage them to hold. Given Etherium's market cap is ~$44Bn even without someone pointing the money printer at it, a buyout could get seriously expensive, even for the likes of the US government. Even if they succeed in taking down one, there are more established coins that will have also seen a jump in price as people figure out someone has taken a serious interest in crypto.

The other option is chains that rely on something like proof of person. This would generally involve solving a user-made captcha-like puzzle at a set time every few weeks. The downside is inconvenience, as you have to be available to solve it at that exact time in order to stake between then and the next round of verification. The other issue is the possibility of large numbers of users creating bad captchas, making the puzzles either ineffective or incomprehensible.
 

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