• dhork@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I was originally interested in crypto because I wanted to know how it managed to make truly decentralized, permissionless, peer-to-peer transactions possible. After I learned about how it did all that, I also learned three things:

    • decentralized transactions are useless when so much of our economy leverages centralized transactions built around existing payment systems.

    • permissionless transactions are useless when governments are ultimately in control of payments, and have the right to restrict certain payments regardless of how they are made.

    • peer-to-peer transactions are useless when the currency is in so much investment demand that the price spikes, and nobody wants to spend it because it’s a StOrE oF vAlUe (and because of the tax implications)

    So the crypto movement demonstrated it is possible to make a platform to transact on that is free of any reliance on any intermediary, but in practice so much of our existing commerce relies on intermediaries that removing all of them causes more problems.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      Yes, a point of crypto is to remove the state control that’s been increasing inequality, fueling injustice, destroying the planet, etc.

      But no, crypto holders aren’t upset that their holdings are worth so much that they don’t want to spend them.

      • rezifon@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        . . . increasing inequality, fueling injustice, destroying the planet, etc.

        This is such an astute and accurate description of crypto and mining. You are a textbook example of projection.