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by snigacookie 1319 days ago
Why did visa and the banks question you? What were you really trying to do?
2 comments

I was trying to leave Russia.
Most likely leave Russia, Iran, or Venezuela.
Yes crypto has the evil property of bypassing KYC/AML to allow peaceful citizens to escape genocidal kleptocratic governments who seek to draft you to go into war with a WWI era Mosin a feminine hygiene product as a first aid kit and an oversized pair of rotten boots. Once again crypto proves to do nothing but aid and abet criminals such as those who refuse to invade their neighbors.
You are being downvoted but the point you make stands: there are a lot of people here who will jump at the opertunity to proclaim that crypto's only use is a ponzy scheme. That claim is not only objectively false, but they way they usually phrase it also preemptively shuts down any chance proponents of either side coming closer to seeing how this tech is actually used.

Whether it be war, tyranny and unjust sanctions, crashing economies, or just avoiding the arbitrary and often unjust fees, rules, seizures, and bannings imposed by private payment networks and services like paypal or visa, humanity will always need way to exchange cash. I for one am glad crypto (as a means to transfer funds) exists, glad it will continue to exist, and will continue to support it in any way I can.

To me, what it provides to humanity far outweighs the negatives.

No, I think everyone agrees that "evading the law" is another feature of cryptocurrencies. We simply don't think this is a good feature.

Trillions of dollars are stolen from the people by money laundering and tax evasion every year, and cryptocurrencies are one of the ways this is accomplished.

Yes, some people live in countries where the law is hostile. However, your solution, "Let's evade all laws concerning money," is WORSE, not better.

This argument applies just as much to cash as cryptocurrency and makes no sense.
Trillions of dollars are stolen by government officials wastefully spending taxes they collect via mechanisms of force and by people who classify as "money laundering" activities they don't like -- such as people who grow weed and then sell it to a willing adult buyer and have the nerve to actually clean the cash so it can be spent on stuff like buying baby formula or the rent.

If the argument is bad stuff possible then your argument is to abolish government.

We cannot presuppose that breaking the law is necessarily bad or that following the law is not bad.