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by onethought 1294 days ago
I mean communism looks pretty cool on paper too, the actual idea. But we seem to have had a real hard time implementing it. Could crypto be like that?
3 comments

Except crypto actually works for its intended use cases. I use it constantly.

Maybe it works poorly for traders but those of us actually using cryptoassets for privacy, inflation resistance, and censorship resistance ignore the scams and traders. Scams and traders dominate the conversation of most new technology. Same things happen in traditional markets.

Cults of personality and false promises by corporations inflate stock prices all the time. Takes a while to find the real price sometimes.

Inflation resistance is meaningless for a currency that has wild fluctuations, and not just sometimes, but on a daily basis. You have to be joking to say that something that went from basically 0, to 61k, down to 16k and wild swings in between that is "inflation resistant".
Not joking at all. Inflation hits you the most in the long term. If you acquire deflationary but volatile assets like Bitcoin for long term holding, you use dollar cost averaging so the swings become meaningless. Buy a little every month.

I was buying at $10, $1k, $10k, $60k, and everywhere between. I will be buying at 100k too.

Deflationary assets trend to be short term volatile, but long term up.

https://inv.riverside.rocks/watch?v=XbZ8zDpX2Mg

> those of us actually using cryptoassets for [...] inflation resistance

Heh, gotta say cryptos have weathered their first real test as a hedge against rising global inflation (since early 2021) really well. Meaning, the rising interest rates have almost decimated dollar valuation of cryptos as the tech gold rush imploded.

Please do not mistake this article's author's concern as an attack on the libertarian fundamentals of cryptocurrency. The article is about how crypto has been marketed as an investment to retail consumers, and this space is simply wrought with terrible scams.

Capitalism looks bad on paper and we are having hellish landscape in it and pretend it’s working.

Cryptocurrencies current landscape is just same as the current financial system indeed. Cypherpunk ideals are long gone.

I agree capitalism sucks in a lot of ways, but the reduction in global poverty is at least correlatively linked with the spread of capitalism. Not sure what "hells cape" you mean, but it feels like hyperbole.

(Also just to point out, Communism isn't an "alternative" to capitalism, but actually the conclusion to it... on paper) - That is, even if you're right, Capitalism is required to achieve communism... so it seems "hellscape" is the only way.

Tbf, we dont have that many examples of people trying. Communism sucked in russia, but its not like they are that much better under capitalism.
Every time they try, a lot of people seem to die. Maybe pattern recognition over time isn’t a strength people have.

Same story in crypto. There will be shock and awe when Binance falls and plenty of people saying “real crypto has never been tried”.

How many times is "every"? I count maybe a dozen countries, they were either puppet states of the soviet union and didn't have much local control or they were authortarian dystopians both before and after communism.

Maybe the pattern is toltalitarian countries are going to be toltarian regardless of what they call themselves.

As far as crypto goes, there are like a billion different variations on the idea, most are scams, and i dont think i have ever heard anyone say "real crypto hasn't been tried" before this.

It sucked in Russia, Cuba, China (until Deng made it capitalism).

Australia, Sweden, Norway have been much better examples. Though their secret has been to not call it Communism/Socialism but instead something like "liberal democracy" or "democratic socialism".

Agree there is propaganda war that has been waged to ensure communism looks bad... which is why it's potentially a good parallel for crypto, as I think (potentially even literally not just metaphorically) the same vested interests are against it.