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by Priem19 1923 days ago
>Also expect a ton of movement to crypto when wealth taxes get implemented to fix economies. They'll use it to hide assets, guaranteed.

Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely. Disregarding all of bitcoin's shortcomings, a financial instrument that brings out the worst in people—greed—won't change the world for the better. https://www.cynicusrex.com/file/cryptocultscience.html.

I used time-travel to uncover three secret messages hidden in a popular Bitcoin meme – “This meme is designed to exploit a number of weaknesses in our understanding of money, and to play on our fears. I’m going to show you how it does it, and why.” https://brettscott.substack.com/p/bitcoin-meme-time-travel.

4 comments

By which I mean to say: the greedy rich wanting to preserve or increase their wealth at all costs is what got us into this mess. Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency pyramid scheme is going to do bugger all to improve that. No amount of wealth or technology will turn vice into virtue because: “If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.” —George Carlin

Prosperity boils down to good policy and governance. Thus, good people. Unfortunately, as far as I've seen, cryptocurrencies have produced some of the worst kind of people.

To add to this, crypto communities _appear_ (I’d be pleased to be wrong here if anyone has examples) to be filled with people who are absolutely opposed to any kind of economic governance, if it’s not “let the magic hand of the market decide” they’re seemingly not interested.
You have an entire world full of governments and fiat currencies. If they are so superior then there should be no problem with competition from Bitcoin.
“Simply because cancer occurs naturally doesn't mean we shouldn't treat it. In the same vain, sometimes the “free market” just screws up, requiring intervention.” —https://www.cynicusrex.com/file/cryptocultscience.html

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are pyramid schemes. They deserve no place in the economy.

Yes, they are opposed to having their assets diluted by a government they have no say in.
If you want to challenge that belief look into governance by DAOs and some of the airdrops like UNI.

There's def crypto communities that dream of paying everyone a basic income in their currency, identifying each individual and not completing devaluing the coin are big problems though

I'm not convinced this "economic governance" offers any benefits.
Even if it's used for corrupt purposes, it's not really any worse than the current system. The subversiveness of cryptocurrency is a feature. Governments are as corrupt as can be. They screw up the economy and make ordinary citizens pay for it by raising taxes while refusing to touch billionaires. Maybe it'd be a good thing if they went bankrupt for once.
I think you seriously underestimate how ugly society would get if the government went bankrupt, and how quickly bitcoin would be rendered useless. Moreover, if governments are corrupt on fiat, they'll be corrupt on bitcoin as well.
Bitcoin is just an asset that has some interesting traits, that make it more attractive to some people vs. other assets. Other assets will still exist. Other monies will probably exist too - they’ll have some benefits over Bitcoin in some use cases.

I don’t see why governments wouldn’t tax Bitcoin income and transactions the same way as fiat income and transactions. Me paying someone a hundred dollar bill is even less taxable than Bitcoin.

Obviously everything will sound dystopian if you take it to the extreme.

> Even if it's used for corrupt purposes, it's not really any worse than the current system. The subversiveness of cryptocurrency is a feature. Governments are as corrupt as can be.

Disagree. In the current system it takes an enormous effort for the majority to suppress individually profitable but socially harmful activities (like bribery), but it can be done; many developed countries achieve quite low levels of corruption. Bitcoin makes that a lot harder, by design.

I'll take greed over institutionalized theft any day of the week.
The stateless, subversive nature of Bitcoin and especially Monero is a feature, not a bug.