There is going to be a big push for Central Bank Digital Currencies(CBDC’s) across the world in the near future. When the push comes, resist it as hard as you can, because it's basically the end of humanity as a free species if it's widely adopted. Opt for cash or cryptocurrencies. Imagine your bank offering to exchange your money to CBDC’s along with some perks…shoot that down immediately. Not just, “No”, but, “Hell no!”. Vote out any politician who suggests otherwise.
@daniel why would I opt for an unregistered security instead of cash?
@dualhammers Not all cryptocurrencies are securities and there are times when they are better than cash, electronic or physical. I don’t think it’s bad to have some of both. I’m suggesting that there might come a time when governments/banks remove the cash option to force CBDC’s. At that point cryptocurrencies might be the hedge people need so they can pressure their governments to have a change of heart.
@daniel All crypto units are unregistered securities by definition. They provide zero leverage against corporations in the business of making money, because they are themselves simply the same as old 1920s style paper securities.
It's troubling you don't understand this since you seem quite adamant about their value
@dualhammers I’m not an expert in economics by a long shot, but I do know people whose lives have been saved by cryptocurrency and they are not crypto-bros. People who were in abusive relationships with governments, cultures, or people. They would say that there is value in the cryptocurrency networks. I doubt you are for CBDC’s, but hard currency is accepted at fewer and fewer places. It’s not a stretch to consider a CBDC push. How would you counter such a threat to freedom?
@daniel if by "hard" currency you mean u.s. dollars I don't know if I actually believe "fewer and fewer places accept it." Can you confirm that's what you mean?
If it is well the world's currency of exchange will always spend everywhere until it stops having value (a shift in the monopoly on violence or other forms of power)
@daniel fun fact on dealing with other efonomcies and crypto though:
El Salvador cannot get any international aid since they've moved to Bitcoin as their currency. The IMR require all parties in an aid exchange (loans, cash transfers (in dollars to the local unit), etc.) To open their ledgers. Since El Salvador only wants Bitcoin this means big banks have to open their crypto wallets to scrutiny and the funds need to be traced by the IMF. They refused to.
@daniel so, for the people (working class, not the elites) of El Salvador Bitcoin had made their lives far worse. And it hasn't forced any global institution to change their rules. It's just given big banks a new speculative market to invest in and manipulate.
@daniel on how to fight against "threats to freedom.":
1. You're already not free. No one is except those with enough u.s. dollar net worth to be above the law.
2. I was very much in tune with labor politics during Occupy Wallstreet. The Satoshi white paper came out shortly after and was seen, then, as a tool against capitalists. All cryptocouns gave become is a tool for capitalists to further enrich themseleves. It's foolish to view it as a viable weapon against capitalism
@daniel so, how do I think we fight against the tyranny of capitalism? I don't have a great answer, to be honest. It's not 1918 anymore. Even if millions of workers across the globe died in prolonged labor militancy I don't think we're actually strong enough to win alone.
My guess is climate change, combined with militancy, needs to ramp up a ton to lead to enough destabilization. Ministry for the Future is a good speculative book on the subject
@daniel At the end of the day I think crypto is like nonprofit donations or change fot org petitions. It's an illusion of revolution without effort. A faith in that we can all live the same comfy, exploitation heavy lives of consumption we have our whole lived and things will get better.
The hope you can buy the new product of a billionaire above the law AND invest some money in a digital signature at the same time so that, without any sweat from you, we will find freedom
@daniel in short: it's a delusion and a compelling one because humans love comfort and avoiding consequences
@daniel
You're conflating two things let's start with one:
I'm sure there were lives changed and radically altered for the better by paper securities in the 1920s too. And just like then there are currently now many lives ruined as well. Shifts in capital (the actual value holding units people use to buy food, healthcare, rent) and CO2 have both positive and negative impacts.
None of that changes, definitionally, what crypto is and is not in economic terms.