As long as the entry and exit to crypto is controlled by banks, crypto will have this problem. When cryptocurrency starts being used instead of the state system, only then will it have achieved its goal. Ps. I wholeheartedly oppose CBDC’s.
this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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Anarchism
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That's my point. Nobody talks about using blockchain and a cryptocurrency to circumvent governments anymore, pop information on the topic is compromised, hidden by finances, investments and bullshit like that.
I think that’s because those governments are watching and would stop at nothing to close said loopholes…
Crypto hasn't been decentralized for a very long time. For most coins large miners/pools have control over the transactions. Proof of stake is far worse. Most coins are traded via centralized exchanges as doing anything on chain is slow and often has high fees.
Blockchain in its current form is not the answer for decentralized value exchange. I'm not sure if a proper decentralized currency can even work in practice. Currencies must be backed by something to have a stable value. In nearly all cases you need a central entity that will guarantee a currency's value.
Do you think large miners/pools can actually manipulate the blockchain? (Genuine question btw)
For smaller coins probably, for larger ones probably not. The issue is more about the centralization of power. If a group of large miners decided to get together and mess with the chain there's not much the average small miners can do. They could do a hard fork from the main network but if the general public doesn't switch their new chain will have no value.
What do you think about anonymous exchanges, could they have a relevant role in this particular phase?
I'm not sure how much they differ from regular exchanges, but if a central wallet is involved I don't think it really solves any issues.
Uniswap for example is an open source decentraized exchange.
Are we allowing anarcho-capitalists to call themselves anarchists!?
Why you think that? It's just a technology, you can simply use it to exchange value; It's the capitalism stupidity who chose to use that for finance.
It's a technology that is almost the Platonic Form of a solution in search of a problem. In literally every application that people have come up with for blockchain and other crypto scams, there are other technologies that are superior in literally every conceivable way.
For example? I'm genuinely interested.
Well, for payment there's dozens of options superior to cryptocurrency ranging from plain old cash to debit and credit cards to online payment systems like, in my neck of the woods, Alipay or WeChat Wallet.
For NFTs there's, well, you know, not using NFTs at all since those do absolutely fuck-all for anybody except the Ponzi scheme grifters who push them.
For some of the weirder ideas that crypto-grifters push (like using blockchain for inventory tracking or delivery tracking or even land title management) there's ... you know ... inventory tracking systems (which have been a thing for literally thousands of years in a myriad of forms), simple QR-code based delivery tracking systems (that I literally use every day when buying things from places like Taobao¹), and, you know, land registries that have also been a thing for literally thousands of years.
¹I currently have six packages incoming:
- Two are with Yuantong Express and are expected to depart the local depot at 1300hrs today for delivery to the pick-up station in my compound before 1600hrs.
- One is with postal express and left the Chengdu processing centre at 0600hrs this morning and is expected to be in Wuhan's processing centre tomorrow for final delivery to me tomorrow.
- Another is with Zhongtong Express and left Zhangzhou City at shortly after midnight with delivery to the Ezhou processing centre this evening for delivery to me tomorrow as well.
- Another with Zhongtong Express is expected to arrive in Ezhou before the 20th and delivery to me expected before the 21st. (This one is going through a tortuous route so is a bit slow.)
- The final one is with Yunda Express and was just picked up in Nanning city with final delivery to me expected the day after tomorrow.
This is all information that is trivially available at my fingertips and not a single world-burning blockchain was in the loop.
I think a decentralized anarchistic society would be wonderful, but holy shit if we don't ditch capitalism along the way I'll probably kill myself. I couldn't stand an ancap society
I couldn’t stand an ancap society
You won't have to - it would exist for ten minutes before it destorys itself and reverts back to bog-standard captalism.
Technology can be used in different ways, I understand capitalism-cryptos correlation is the actual paradigma but blockchain didn't have a political value in itself.
Its a ancap dream come true
In my point of view, Money itself is of political value.
The thing with the "store of value" is that it stands on the shoulders of libertarian thinkers or political economy. Even Marxist couldn't escape that paradigm.
The mere concept of money as a store of value have no theoretical validity. Money doesn't produce things, but things are commodified and available for money. Medicine, real estate, weapons, soldiers, whatever. Economy as a field exists into this paradigm which is flawed. Economy as we know it today, is subordinated to politics.
There is a case to be made in Economy in terms of industry development, but most of the time that's not what economist are talking about when we cover the topic (Check out Thorstein Veblen, or the Capital as Power works). It's all about the finance. Crypto is fake money and money is fake. There is no "store of value" in the sense that you are talking about my friend.
I want to invite you to check out those works.