1. The same characteristics that make Bitcoin work well for honest people, also make it work well for dishonest people.
2. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt about whether/how Bitcoin will be tolerated/attacked by government discourages honest users of Bitcoin to a greater extent than it discourages dishonest users of Bitcoin.
3. Therefore, society would benefit if law enforcement would focus on CP and the like, rather than the currency used to facilitate it, and if the use of Bitcoin itself is legally unencumbered.
4. This is unlikely to happen.
Topic: The contradictions of Bitcoin - page 2. (Read 4815 times)
Boy, the OP surely knows how to accurately characterize those s/he doesn't agree with...
I feel like I, and many other people who post here and use bitcoin, belong in neither of your "sides." I think that it's because, while I'm not a collectivist, I'm also not a greedy pseudo-banker scammer who wants to use bitcoin to make myself rich and fuck everybody else.* Hmm...
*I have also never been one to spout out Randisms about greed, I think all of that is horseshit
I feel like I, and many other people who post here and use bitcoin, belong in neither of your "sides." I think that it's because, while I'm not a collectivist, I'm also not a greedy pseudo-banker scammer who wants to use bitcoin to make myself rich and fuck everybody else.* Hmm...
*I have also never been one to spout out Randisms about greed, I think all of that is horseshit
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the very virus it was designed to attack
I'm not sure BitCoin was designed with any agenda in mind. My theory is Satoshi had an idea for a neat hack and threw it out there to see what would happen. I think he's getting everything he wanted: it's been damned interesting.
Check what Satoshi posted in this forum before he decided to stop using that nickname. Youll see that there was some intention.
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the very virus it was designed to attack
I'm not sure BitCoin was designed with any agenda in mind. My theory is Satoshi had an idea for a neat hack and threw it out there to see what would happen. I think he's getting everything he wanted: it's been damned interesting.
I'm really not sure where I fall on your spectrum. Some people call me a socialist, others say I'm a libertarian.
What I want out of BitCoin is a decentralized currency so I can send money to whoever I please. I want to do so anonymously, so I can donate to worthy (but politically unpopular) organizations without The Man breathing down my neck. I want to do it peer-to-peer, rather than paying a percentage for the privilege of obeying the rules and whims of some middleman like Visa or PayPal. So that kind of falls under your "libertarian" bracket.
But I don't have a self-centered, sleazy, scammy agenda. I'm a very generous person. I take care of my community. I can't really prove that without handing out more information than I care to post publicly, but since I'm not begging for a BTC loan, perhaps you can take my word for it.
How does it really matter, though? It's money, and people are going to do what they always do around money: lie, cheat, steal, and get all bent out of shape over small percentages of value that they'd never care about in any other part of their life. The rest of us will ignore them and go on producing an economy and try to grow everyone's wealth.
Throughout the forums there is an obvious collision of two ideologies. On one side are the relative minority who come from cultures or cultural enclaves where sharing and community are valued over personal interest. On the other side are people who represent a broad spectrum of libertarian, self-centered, individualist, selfish, or plain greedy cultures. This "libertarian" side is also where all the pathetic, sleazy scammers and dishonest "entrepreneurs" crawl out from. You know, those with leadership skills and initiative driven by hidden and exclusively personal agendas: get rich fast, buy more dope, get your dick polished in Pattaya, etc. Their schemes, self-promotion (I totally understand why Bitcoin "discussion" was removed from TED forums after only a few days), and salesmen mentality are turning the idea of Bitcoin into its opposite: a chaotic free-market shithole full of greed, con artists, obsession with "privacy," and paranoia (especially in the form of projecting own character traits as a universal human nature). Sounds in many ways like current capitalist banksters that we all supposedly despise.
There is also this omnipresent fear of "government" while the fearful are being repeatedly scammed and gangbanged by private entities. This is apparently not a problem because deep inside we don't really want to change the system: deep down we are hoping that some day we will be the ones on top, living (even more) easy lives magically supported by "smart" investments (Bitcoin). Examples of just and equitable systems such as socialism or resource-based economy therefore frighten us - and not in a way "I wouldn't fit in, but I can see how some people would," but to the point of absolute rejection.
It is the way it is. Bitcoin is doomed to succed or to fail - in both cases by virtue of being infected by the very virus it was designed to attack: selfish, short-term profiteering through exploitation of others.
There is also this omnipresent fear of "government" while the fearful are being repeatedly scammed and gangbanged by private entities. This is apparently not a problem because deep inside we don't really want to change the system: deep down we are hoping that some day we will be the ones on top, living (even more) easy lives magically supported by "smart" investments (Bitcoin). Examples of just and equitable systems such as socialism or resource-based economy therefore frighten us - and not in a way "I wouldn't fit in, but I can see how some people would," but to the point of absolute rejection.
It is the way it is. Bitcoin is doomed to succed or to fail - in both cases by virtue of being infected by the very virus it was designed to attack: selfish, short-term profiteering through exploitation of others.
Im a libertarian. I am a libertarian because I believe in sharing and community as opposed to force and violence.
If someone is happy when others around them are happy and not when they are not then it doesn't matter much about other stuff.
I'm totally 100% self interested, one of my main goals is to be with happy people. Screwing people doesn't get me what I want.
I'm totally 100% self interested, one of my main goals is to be with happy people. Screwing people doesn't get me what I want.
It boils down to one simple fact.
Bitcoin can change the implementation of money, but it can't change the definition of money.
Bitcoin can change the implementation of money, but it can't change the definition of money.
*EDIT: removed references to libertarianism that were too vague or distracting*
Throughout the forums there is an obvious collision of two ideologies. On one side are the relative minority who come from cultures or cultural enclaves where sharing and community are valued over personal interest. On the other side are people who represent a broad spectrum of individualist cultures. The latter view is also what all the pathetic, sleazy scammers and dishonest "entrepreneurs" use as a lame excuse for their actions. You know, those with leadership skills and initiative driven by hidden and exclusively personal agendas: get rich fast, buy more dope, get your dick polished in Pattaya, etc. Their schemes, self-promotion (I totally understand why Bitcoin "discussion" was removed from TED forums after only a few days), and salesmen mentality are turning the idea of Bitcoin into its opposite: a chaotic free-market shithole full of greed, con artists, obsession with "privacy," and paranoia (especially in the form of projecting own character traits as a universal human nature). Sounds in many ways like current capitalist banksters that we all supposedly despise.
There is also this omnipresent fear of "government" while the fearful are being repeatedly scammed and gangbanged by private entities. This is apparently not a problem because deep inside we don't really want to change the system: deep down we are hoping that some day we will be the ones on top, living (even more) easy lives magically supported by "smart" investments (Bitcoin). Examples of just and equitable systems such as socialism or resource-based economy therefore frighten us - and not in a way "I wouldn't fit in, but I can see how some people would," but to the point of absolute rejection.
It is the way it is. Bitcoin is doomed to succed or to fail - in both cases by virtue of being infected by the very virus it was designed to attack: selfish, short-term profiteering through exploitation of others.
Throughout the forums there is an obvious collision of two ideologies. On one side are the relative minority who come from cultures or cultural enclaves where sharing and community are valued over personal interest. On the other side are people who represent a broad spectrum of individualist cultures. The latter view is also what all the pathetic, sleazy scammers and dishonest "entrepreneurs" use as a lame excuse for their actions. You know, those with leadership skills and initiative driven by hidden and exclusively personal agendas: get rich fast, buy more dope, get your dick polished in Pattaya, etc. Their schemes, self-promotion (I totally understand why Bitcoin "discussion" was removed from TED forums after only a few days), and salesmen mentality are turning the idea of Bitcoin into its opposite: a chaotic free-market shithole full of greed, con artists, obsession with "privacy," and paranoia (especially in the form of projecting own character traits as a universal human nature). Sounds in many ways like current capitalist banksters that we all supposedly despise.
There is also this omnipresent fear of "government" while the fearful are being repeatedly scammed and gangbanged by private entities. This is apparently not a problem because deep inside we don't really want to change the system: deep down we are hoping that some day we will be the ones on top, living (even more) easy lives magically supported by "smart" investments (Bitcoin). Examples of just and equitable systems such as socialism or resource-based economy therefore frighten us - and not in a way "I wouldn't fit in, but I can see how some people would," but to the point of absolute rejection.
It is the way it is. Bitcoin is doomed to succed or to fail - in both cases by virtue of being infected by the very virus it was designed to attack: selfish, short-term profiteering through exploitation of others.
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