• technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    I’m crypto neutral.

    But it’s really strange how anti-crypto ideologues don’t understand that the system of states printing money is literally destroying the planet. They can’t see the value of a free, fair, decentralized, automatable, accounting systems?

    Somehow delusional chatbots wasting energy and resources are more worthwhile?

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      Printing currency isn’t destroying the planet…the current economic system is doing that, which is the same economic system that birthed crypto.

      Governments issuing currency goes back to a time long before our current consumption at all cost economic system was a thing.

      • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        You are right, crypto has nothing to do with currency printing. And yes, the environmental side too is a problem (unless it is produced inline with recycled energy) But governments issuing currency is a relatively recent phenomenon. Historically, people traded de facto currencies and IOUs amongst themselves.

        Bitcoin was conceived out of the 2008 financial crisis, as a direct response to big banks being bailed out. It’s literally written in Bitcoin’s Genesis block. The point of Bitcoin has always been to free people from the tyranny of big government AND big capital.

        Crypto isn’t that popular in developed countries with functioning monetary systems… untill of course those big institutions fail. I am still quite surprised, this side of Bitcoin is rarely discussed on Lemmy, given how anticapitalist it is.

        I get it libertarian, bad. And to some degree, there are a lot of problems there. But the extreme opposite ain’t that rosy either.

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          I think it’s because of what crypto turned into and the inherent flaws in the system. Crypto currencies are still backed by and dependent on traditional currency, and their value is too unstable for the average person. The largest proponents of crypto have been corporations - big capital, as you put it - and there’s a reason for that (though they’re more on the speculative market of NFTs looking to make a profit off of Ponzi schemes).

          In the end, crypto hasn’t solved any problems that weren’t already solved by less energy intensive means.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          Are you really using all of human history as a timeframe to say that currency is a relatively recent phenomenon?

          Again, I’m not anti-cryptocurrency, but it’s not really a currency anymore than any other commodity in a commodity exchange, or a barter market.

          And I don’t care if it’s livestock, or Bitcoin, I’m not accepting either as payment if I sell my home, or car. Not because of principles, but because I don’t know how to convert livestock into cash, and I can’t risk the Bitcoin payment halving in value before I can convert it to cash.

          And who was talking extremes? I’m just pointing out the absurdity of the claims that crypto is the replacement for, or salvation from, our current economic system, or the delusion that currency backed by a nation is somehow just as ephemeral as Bitcoin, or ERC20 rug pulls.

          You said Bitcoin was designed to free us from the tyranny of big capital, but it’s been entirely co-opted by the same boogeyman. So regardless of the intentionality behind the project, it’s now just another speculative asset.

          Except, unlike gold or futures contracts, there’s no tangible real world asset, but there is a hell of a real cost.

    • JiveTurkey@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I’m fine doing away with physical dollars printed on paper and coins but crypto seems to solve none of the problems that we have with a fiat currency but instead continues to consume unnecessary amounts of energy while being driven by rich investors that would love nothing more than to spend and earn money in an untraceable way.