I think it's time for us in the tech world to speak out and make it clear the emperor has no clothes here. Cryptocurrency is sustained by a mix of money laundering, vaporware, fraud, ransomware, gambling, and delusion. It has no social benefit except helping end first dates fast
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What we especially need to stress to regulators is that there's no relationship between the technical claims of cryptocurrency and our now over 13 years of experience. It's not decentralized, it's not a currency, it's not a store of value, and it's not a promising technology
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Pinboard Retweeted Trammell Hudson ✪
Cryptocurrency solves no problems that it didn't first create, and most of those it doesn't solve. Smart contracts are neither of those things—at worst they're an API for fraud, or as
@qrs put it, self-funding bug bounties at besthttps://twitter.com/qrs/status/1395784294451265536 …Pinboard added,
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I think most of us in the industry gave cryptocurrency a long leash because it's full of technical cleverness and seemed innovative just on those terms. But it's time we recognize that cleverness is being used as bait to defraud more people and perpetuate a con. Enough is enoughpic.twitter.com/Arnrqjtfvo
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The two things people need to know about cryptocurrency are completely non-technical: 1. If it doesn't work, it's just an easy to lose casino chip 2. If it works, it creates an end run around all financial regulation, and will be dominated by uses those regulations try to stop
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Replying to @Pinboard
Option 3: It's semi-efficient to hold, but inefficient to transfer, and gains its value only from convertability into currencies in stable liberal democracies This makes it a partial end run around unstable or repressive countries' regulations, but a fairly limited one otherwise
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Replying to @surcomplicated @Pinboard
Not really, because you can convert crypto into US dollars in any country on the planet with an internet connection and a bank, but only the very rich can abuse that with offshore tax haven accounts.
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Replying to @SpaceshipWizard @Pinboard
Transferring BTC into someone else's wallet is unreasonably expensive. Also, spending those US dollars is largely at the sufferance of the US - we could easily be a *lot* harsher on access to US dollar accounts, and we probably will be as decoupling deepens.
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Replying to @surcomplicated @Pinboard
It's unreasonably expensive when you're transferring a few hundred dollars or less. If you're transferring tens of thousands or more it's rounding error. Plus there are ways to cut fees significantly if you're moving lots of BTC: https://www.coindesk.com/saving-bitcoin-high-transaction-fees …
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Replying to @SpaceshipWizard @Pinboard
Right. But that's if you're more-or-less willing to move BTC openly in a fairly traceable manner. Ppl trying to skirt US money laundering laws this way are doing so only at the sufferance of prosecutorial priorities. And that transaction data is on the blockchain forever.
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And whatever bank is willing to convert that large transfer into something spendable is a convenient place for the police to sit and drink coffee while they wait to arrest you
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Replying to @Pinboard @surcomplicated
Glossing over a lot here, but basically you just pick up your money somewhere unfriendly to the police you're avoiding. Tax haven country, Russia, ect. When you have a billion dollars you have a LOT of options that make financial sense for avoiding a 100m tax bill...
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I'm not saying no one ever gets caught at this stuff, I'm saying that this is the primary market for crypto right now because it's the main thing it's good at/for, because stuff like transaction fees matter way less when you're moving 100m than trying to buy $80 of groceries.
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