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by wpietri 2359 days ago
If an advantage falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it truly make a sound?

I'll grant those can be characteristics of cryptocurrencies, but they're only advantages to people who need those things. And they're only advantages on net if what goes with those characteristics ends up being net beneficial to somebody. E.g., the "inflation-proof" bit is a nice line, but most of the world had good reason for getting rid of fixed currencies after the collapse of Bretton Woods. And being "inflation-proof" implies a degree of value stability that Bitcoin most certainly does not have in practice.

I'll also grant that pseudo-anonymity and decentralization are useful to a very small set of people, but I think that's pretty well covered under the first part of my sentence. There are also some people who like those things for theoretical, quasi-religious reasons, but I don't think satisfying that counts as any sort of practical advantage.