[stringsandchars]

> Crypto isn’t synonymous with anarchy, just like the internet isn’t synonymous with pornography. Both are cliches from long ago.

Saying crypto isn’t synonymous with anarchy, like the internet isn’t with pornography, sidesteps the point. Pornography is just one use of the internet — not its central purpose.

But crypto wasn’t just built to host financial activity — it was designed to restructure it, removing reliance on central authorities. That core intent isn’t a cliché; it’s a defining feature.

Comparing it to incidental internet content is a rhetorical deflection, not a real counterpoint.

[mjburgess]

That's not what it was designed for, that's just a mixture of propaganda and confusion.

It was designed to solve the double-spending problem with digital currencies, replacing the need for "a authoritative ledger" with a one difficult to forge.

The political project around this was to provide people with a deflationary currency akin to gold, whose inflation could not be controlled by government.

The lack of government control over the inflation of this particular currency, and the lack of an authoritative ledger, are an extremely minimal sense of currency protections (, freedoms). They have as much to do with anarchy as the internet had with porn.

[philipwhiuk]

It was designed to avoid the need for existing financial institutions. The doublespend problem was merely the blocker that prevented people from otherwise doing it.

> A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

[mjburgess]

That's not anarchy though, that's paypal c. yr 2000

[zmgsabst]

Your point is merely a non sequitur: a change in banking isn’t related to paying taxes or the state as a whole, nor anarchy.

You’re not supporting your central thesis that disintermediating finance is in any way related to removing government — and people using Coinbase, a service that is centralized and does collaborate with government regulation seems to directly counter your stereotype of the customers.

Their point is correct: people who match your fantasy wouldn’t be Coinbase customers — you’re relying on old tropes.

[csomar]

Most (developed states at least) don’t claim the monetary system as a taxation medium. Debasement of currency is a bug not a feature. In the US, you are not required to process your transaction in USD but only need it to pay taxes.

Failed countries (ie: Turkey) rely on the financial system for taxation. Functioning countries shouldn’t care or be bothered by it.