[BobbyJo]

Hardware availability is a use case of cryptocurrency, but not the point. The point is a decentralized accounting system that no single party can manipulate, for good or bad. You can apply that to hardware availability, digital game economies, supply chain accounting, etc. but the point of crypto is more abstract than any of that.

[godelski]

For those unfamiliar, see "The Cypherpunk Manifesto"

   We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money. 

https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html

Or "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto"

  Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other.

https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/cryp...

[__MatrixMan__]

I agree with:

> the point of crypto is more abstract than any of that

It has to do with operating in spite of somebody who would otherwise tamper with your information. It's about durability in the face of sophisticated adversaries.

I was trying to get at the point of crytocurrency. The accounting system can handle anything at all, so why bother with the coins? We've had coins for thousands of years, they're the most boring app imaginable. Why bother maintaining artificial scarcities when we could be addressing real ones?

But at the end of the day, if nobody provides hardware for it to run on, then, we can't have that accounting system. And those people have to pay their electric bills, and for the hardware they're using, and for that they need something money-shaped. The point of cryptocurrency is to be that money-shaped thing. We need it to interface with the traditional finance system until we can replace that system with something better.

[Calwestjobs]

his point was correct