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by throwaway2048 3257 days ago
the point isn't about anyone's "rights" about having money spent on them/spending their money.

The point is that everyone is worse off in a situation like this, both customer and (legitimate) business.

It is a type of market failure, everyone loses.

2 comments

I think this is a special case of Gresham's law that bad currency drives out good. The problem is information asymmetry. You may be trying to buy SEC securities, but if they are swamped with fakes, it causes huge friction costs to figure out whether to transact and that hurts the market. Only experts (accredited investors?) have the resources to play.
Everyone is not worse off. We have seen rapid innovation in the Bitcoin market, toward far better risk management and security practices, in the absence of regulatory restrictions. Some speculative claim that everyone is worse off if they're free doesn't justify robbing someone of their rights.