10 sats \ 16 replies \ @Undisciplined 1 May \ parent \ on: Bitcoin paradigm shift thought experiment bitcoin
That's very much the scenario I'm imagining.
The reason I'm concerned about it is that it creates two adoption hurdles for us: 1) getting people to use bitcoin at all and 2) getting them to use dirty bitcoin.
"Dirty bitcoin" is nothing but a human construct that creates problems where there are none; there is no "dirty" or "clean" bitcoin, there's simply bitcoin.
They [the gov] isn't burning or destroying money or other assets they seize, things that could be labeled as "dirty" just as well, no, they use those assets to improve the police, for example, by acquiring more and better police cars, uniforms, guns, training, et cetera---and there's nothing wrong with that.
Why should it be different with bitcoin?
They [the gov] isn't burning any seized ("dirty") bitcoin either, no, they auction it FFS, they profit off of it, FFS.
Hypocrisy is running wild on the upper levels.
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I get all that. My concern is essentially that they can create a barrier to adoption by incentivizing merchants to only accept "clean" bitcoin. If adoption develops along those lines, it'll be a huge setback for "freedom money".
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People need to start being rational and think for themselves, not simply do as told by big daddy gov.
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Sure, but they're not going to.
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One of the reasons why I'm an outspoken misanthrope.
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What outcome are you hoping for out of your misanthropy? Serious question. It's not clear to me what perpetual scolding is good for. Maybe it's fun? Hopefully that's enough for you, because that's all I think you (or anyone) are achieving with that strategy.
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I'm simply not a fan of the average human being, which has nothing to do with Bitcoin.
In regards to Bitcoin, I'm convinced of it on a personal level, and want to escape the coming financial shit show produced by the powers that be.
Maybe it'll be adopted en masse once the banks of the average Joe also hold bitcoin, or maybe it'll be a fringe-currency / escape hatch forever, who knows.
We're fifteen years in and the overwhelming majority still thinks it's a scam, if that ain't telling you something about the average Joe, then what?
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I'm simply not a fan of the average human being, which has nothing to do with Bitcoin.
In my experience people are both better and worse than are commonly believed. Sometimes I'm blown away by what humanity is capable of, and sometimes I feel like if we were all wiped out it would be broadly good for the larger universe in every way that really matters.
Those two views are hard to hold in your head without going mad, admittedly.
We're fifteen years in and the overwhelming majority still thinks it's a scam, if that ain't telling you something about the average Joe, then what?
Here's how I think of it: btc is such a giant mindfuck on so many levels. The amount of foreign ideas that upend other things is staggering. It's cliche to say that you can think about it and read about it for years and still not be close to exhausting it, but that's been true for me. Seven-ish years of reading and thinking and it's still really weird. This thread in one of the book club discussions elaborates on this. This one also seems relevant.