[phantomathkg]

> Nobody can stop it.

Hypothetically, government can with severe enough punishment. Governments will do anything to squeeze tax from things, and as long as any digital transfer is not being taxed, it will find way to stop it or squeeze tax out of it.

[lanstin]

I think many governments could buy enough compute to mine most blocks and not have any transactions in them. If they wanted to. And isn't GenAI attentional deep networks the currently more interesting way to use excess compute now?

[latchkey]

Nope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncPyMUfNyVM

[whimsicalism]

There are tons of countries with severe capital controls where crypto is thriving.

[XorNot]

There's also an endless stream of very surprised crypenthusiasts who owe large tax bills. The tax department may not get you on any given year, but they will eventually get you.

[whimsicalism]

There are thriving dollar and crypto black markets in Nigeria and Argentina. Government does not appear to be getting them.

I am not talking about the irs as you seem to be imagining.

[nullityrofl]

Right but _they_ are talking about the IRS. If the US government wanted to end crypto, they would give it a whole lot better shot than Nigeria and Argentina.

[smallmancontrov]

There are countries that can mount credible attacks by partitioning the largest mining operations and shutting down the largest on/off ramps, and there are countries with severe capital controls where crypto is thriving.

The test doesn't enter hard mode until the venn diagram grows an intersection.

[mbesto]

"tons"...which?