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by aminok 4130 days ago
There's nothing wrong with the developed world providing a service to the developing world. It's a symbiotic relationship, as both are better off from the arrangement. Mining farms in the developed world giving Somalians in the developing world a secure currency that can't be expropriated, and lets them receive international remittance at a fraction of the fees they paid before, is a good thing.

With respect to fairness, what's important is the characteristics of the framework within which the resource is used, that enable rent-seeking. With Bitcoin, each individual is their own bank. They control their own private key, meaning access to money is not intermediated by rent-seeking third parties with their lock-ins and closed networks.

Mining is ultra-competitive, because there are no barriers to market entry to the open mining network, ensuring transaction fees are driven down to the maximum extent possible. The algorithmic money supply ensures that no powerful organization and its host of satellite institutions can inflate the currency on a perpetual basis, to slowly the tax the people over generations.

Any way you look at it, Bitcoin is a force for distributing power and control, by eliminating the roles of rent-seekers.