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by lrvick 1294 days ago
Early banks failed all the time. Give it another decade or so for regulation to start mandating accountability.
2 comments

Banks failed because they weren't regulated. If we regulate crypto, whole crypto premise is lost. So what's the point?
The only way crypto works is if it had stayed niche.

If (old) people loose money, they will complain, legislators will notice, regulating policy will be implemented.

There is no point. Crypto is a fantasy.

There’s an important subtlety here though:

Centralized entities (ie businesses) that are holding people’s funds absolutely should be regulated, and certainly more than the current state. The scammers in this space don’t have any real connection to the tech per se, they’ve just identified a relatively friction-free way to scam people.

“Crypto” itself (the tech) can’t be regulated, short of coordinating all countries to confiscate mining rigs/validators and make them seriously illegal, thus breaking the network.

So regulating the businesses does not invalidate the premise—it just protects people as they onboard funds.

We can regulate crypto banks, which is what these failed institutions were, without the premise of crypto being lost.

There's a difference between regulating the institutions that hold crypto customer deposits, compared to regulating the crypto networks themselves.

We only need to regulate crypto-banks that are holding other peoples assets.

We should not regulate those that wish to hold their own assets.

> give it another 100 years

We have. We learned to ban what crypto does and put people promoting it in jail.

Eh? When did they ban cash?
> When did they ban cash?

We monitor large cash transactions, and don’t let randos print. We also restrict who can facilitate transmitting it and under what rules. We further made securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering illegal, a trifecta of crimes most people working in crypto facilitate.

What I notice: We guarantee a monopoly for visa and mastercard, ensure that transactions cost 3-4% for everyone, and make sure that money requires days to move between accounts.

The state of transaction processing in this country is hot garbage. I'm not claiming that crypto is the answer, but I sure as hell don't think our society has arrived at any sort of best solution. I'm personally fine with a lot more "crime" (aka transactions you personally don't approve of) if it gets us a better financial system.

There are instant transactions without fees in Europe. No VISA / Mastercard needed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blik