::sigh::
1st, separate Bitcoin from everything else.
Hmm?
2nd, state-free money that is immune to seizure or debasement is a benefit in and of itself.
1. Why is that beneficial?
2. This, imo, fits pretty squarely into extreme libertarian technobabble
3. It's just not even true. Any moderately-size government with the interest to do so could quash any crytptocurrency it wanted with relatively little effort. Ignoring the most obvious and simple attack vectors (like regulating exchanges into oblivion, flatly criminalizing its use, etc.), obtaining enough compute power to execute a 51% attack is relative chump-change for a medium-large-ish government. Especially if you consider multiple governments might cooperate and work together on such a project.
3rd, you know what the #1 app in El Salvador is right now? It's a remittance app, run on Bitcoin (https://strike.me/) . Instead of paying 20% to Western Union, the receiver gets 99+% (not sure the exact number, but higher than 99%).
Cool. So like my oatmeal house idea, it's arguably useful as a better "bank" option than the banks in one of the worst-banked countries on the planet. Great.
Maybe have another read of this:
To those that would discount its value due to being mostly unseizable, I would again strongly suggest that you search for Alex Gladstein's commentary, starting with the following: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/check-your-financial-privilege. From the article:
"The critics cited above are all wealthy citizens of advanced economies, where they benefit from liberal democracy, property rights, free speech, a functioning legal system and relatively stable reserve currencies like the dollar or pound.
In reality, only 13% of our planet’s population is born into the dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar or Swiss Franc. The other 87% are born into autocracy or considerably less trustworthy currencies. 4.3 billion people live under authoritarianism, and 1.2 billion people live under double- or triple-digit inflation.
Critics in the dollar bubble miss the bigger global picture: that anyone with access to the internet can now participate in Bitcoin, a new money system with equal rules for all participants, running on a network that does not censor or discriminate, used by individuals who do not need to show a passport or an ID and held by citizens in a way that is hard to confiscate and impossible to debase."
I just don't even know where to begin on this.
- Us critics living in wealthy advanced economies are responding to proponents in wealthy advanced economies telling us about the greatest invention in mankind revolutionizing banking, and we can all get moon lambos if we just invest some money today!
- If it's useful in some place, great. It doesn't make it particularly good for anything else. It also doesn't mean it's an optimal solution in those circumstances—just better than absolute garbage.
- Citing things progressives usually care about (e.g., the global poor), while regurgitating Hayek economic nonsense that have historically only made those problems worse is a pretty funny strategy. This is, as I've stated several times now, just more Ron Swanson-esque über-libertarian silliness. To make matters worse, Bitcoin (et al) have a colossal carbon footprint—something that asymmetrically affects the very global poor crypto-enthusiasts like to exploit for cheap (and incorrect) talking points.
- How many oppressed people have reliable connections to the internet? And what can they do with this internet money when they need to use it? How?
- And once again, censorship, debase, confiscation.... all
easily doable by any competent government with a motivation to do so.
Bitcoin is not intuitive, and takes a while to have it sink it and the light bulb go off.
For the detractors, I'm guessing there are large gaps in your knowledge in how it works. I'd recommend taking this free course.
https://learn.saylor.org/course/view.php?id=468
If you still hate it at that point, god bless. But at least you will have a full understanding of it.
Baaahahahahaha. This is another lovely cultish talking point. "You're just too stupid to understand the new magic. It's very sophisticated, and if you just were able to understand, believe me—you'd recognize how great it is!" This appeals to a certain class of human, in the same way most MLM's do. "You're too smart to work a 9-5! Be your own boss, and get out of corporate American greed!".
FWIW, I have a Computer Science degree from a reasonably respectable university I won't mention here. I have been a professional software engineer for 15 years. I have written my own little blockchain (back in 2011). I understand this better than your average grifter. I don't even know any experienced software engineers that have positive opinions of cryptocurrencies or blockchain in general. The hype is undue.