ElizabethMy son has been asking a lot of questions this Christmas season, and I'm worried it might be the last year he believes that Bitcoin is real.
Halcek@elizasoul No less real, or fictious than the U.S. dollar, or Euro. Although undoubtedly still less violent.
SamuelJohnson@halcek @elizasoul Tell us which countries demand payment of taxes in Bitcoin.
@samueljohnson @elizasoul El Salvador
@halcek @elizasoul One country. 90% of whose citizens say they don't understand it, two thirds of whom are opposed to it, and whose govt has lost tens of millions of dollars as result. A fiasco from the start.
@samueljohnson @elizasoul You are deflecting. Bitcoin is nevertheless no more not backed by any really valuable commodity than like the U.S. dollar isn’t. It’s value is in a group of people accepting it as a means of exchange. Exactly the same as the dollar. Only more peaceful.
@halcek @elizasoul Not deflecting in the slightest. Facts. Bitcoin is the preferred tool of criminals engaged in ransomware and other kinds of transnational crime, and if you think violence and deaths don't result you're either naive or, as is often the case with advocates, have a conflict of interest.
@samueljohnson @elizasoul You are right. As is the dollar, or euro, only more so. Please read what I wrote.
@halcek @elizasoul Nope, Bitcoin is not comparable to those currencies. They are the currencies of democracies whose populations accept them and whose banks and foreign exchange brokers are subject to govt regulation.
Shadow finance is fine if you're a criminal or libertarian nutcase, for the rest of us not so much
https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1498910326837760001?t=xxz8DWG1eafJOYm_g4Clvg&s=09
https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1493288001107021826?t=n8CDhwkf8byJJua8uRDXuA&s=19
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/07/move-to-earn-the-last-fad-of-the-crypto-bubble.html
Cory Doctorow (@[email protected]) on Twitter
“14 year ago, the world's financial system came to the brink of collapse. Central banks scrambled to react. Businesses shuttered. People lost their homes. Many governments fell. Faith in our institutions shattered. The Occupy movement was launched. So was Bitcoin. 1/”