[ur-whale]

Have you ever been through a contentious divorce?

Specifically one where the other party is laying claim to assets you earned?

In these type situations, an asset that:

    1) no one knows you own

    2) even if people know you own them, can't be seized short of torturing you to regurgitate the password

    3) can be transferred to any person of your choosing and in any jurisdiction of your choosing in a matter of minutes.

seems pretty darn useful.

[atoav]

> seems pretty darn useful

In societies so broken and unsolidaric that individuals have to fall back on such matters, maybe. Also very useful if you are a drug cartel, a shady bussines or similar — so people that totally won't do damage to the cohesion of society in historic experience.

[ur-whale]

> In societies so broken and unsolidaric that individuals have to fall back on such matters,

The current divorce laws in most western societies pretty much match my description, especially the US.

If in your world, those count as "broken and unsolidaric (sic)", then: sure dude.

[atoav]

And the typical solution to such injustices is to change the laws and not to create a dystopian anarcho-capitalist society in which drug cartels, scammers and fraudsters thrive.

So while I understand (and empathically feel) the circumstances leading to male divorcees in the US thinking this would be a good idea, I think there are easier solutions with much, much less side effects.

Or have people in the US given up on changing society via democratic means to such an degree they don't see a viable way to change such a simple thing like divorce laws?

[robbiep]

For all practical purposes crypto is just another asset class, that gets taxed on capital gains and is registered with centralised exchanges - so 1. Just doesn’t exist for pretty much all practical purposes

[meheleventyone]

And for 2 they can just take other assets in lieu and/or stick you in jail for non-compliance.

[ur-whale]

> And for 2 they can just take other assets in lieu.

Assuming you have any other or the bulk of your net worth is not stored as crypto.

[meheleventyone]

Well then you just get it taken when you use it to buy things and get thrown in jail for not complying with a court order.

I mean this is already a silly scenario where you’ve got married to someone you have an intensely adversarial relationship with and tried to hide all your assets by making them unusable.

[ur-whale]

> so 1. Just doesn’t exist for pretty much all practical purposes

Says you.

You can buy crypto person to person. The transaction isn't registered on any exchange.

You can mine it. Nothing gets registered anywhere.

If you choose to buy cryptos on regulated exchanges (why would you ?), bear the consequences of your choices.

[robbiep]

pretty much everyone who has got into crypto outside of early adopters has bought through an exchange. And a lot of it sits on exchanges or in centralised wallets. Unless you're a drug dealer or other criminal, or a miner, you do not have significant assets sitting in crypto that are hidden to any great effect

[rieTohgh6]

I tired to find recent ruling where judge decided to reopen the case and awarded everything to single spouse, instead of split, after the other one has hidden winning lottery ticket during divorce. But you know what I found? There where multiple such cases.

Crypto would change nothing unless you are much better at laundering money than everybody else.

[MisterBastahrd]

There's gonna be plenty of knowledge about how much you own as soon as you sell some of it. God help you if you try to get that past the legal system.

[CJefferson]

So, it's useful for breaking the law?