6 ms·

Call me a conspiracy theorist all you want but you can't just go there and build a system that is a potential threat to the USD world reserve currency and to th

Call me a conspiracy theorist all you want but you can't just go there and build a system that is a potential threat to the USD world reserve currency and to the power of the FED.

krapp 12y ago
Silk Road doesn't pose a potential existential threat to the USD, and neither does Bitcoin. This vastly underestimates the strength of the existing global economic structure, and overestimates the impact of what is, essentially, a slightly higher-tech way to launder money and buy drugs on the internet. I understand some Bitcoin fanatics of the cryptolibertarian and anarchist persuasion would like to believe that anything not a blockchain is a house of cards destined to tumble, but everything Ulbricht is charged with would still be a crime if the Silk Road ran entirely on dollars and cents, so to me, invoking conspiracy doesn't really pass the smell test. If the government weas really that afraid of dark markets, or bitcoin, one would expect it to take heavier action against sites like Coinbase, or other open businesses which accept it, since they have far greater potential of spreading Bitcoin to the masses than inherently illegal sites like Silk Road, which would make most people uncomfortable even to know about. Yet, merely holding Bitcoins, or transacting in BTC, is not a crime.
- byEngineer 12y ago
  I said "porentialy". As an example: China, Russia, other countries like Iran could start demanding bitcoins for their oil and gas in the future. There is limited number of bitcoins. Limited by an algorithm. The numer of usds is potentially unlimited. I could come up with other examples that could be unrealistic today but possible in 5 or 10 years. So kill the cryptocurrencies while it is still easy. I dont own and have never owned any cryptocurrencies.
  - krapp 12y ago
    I can't even conceive that China, Russia, etc. would one day demand payment for anything exclusively in bitcoins unless they're well aware that the countries they're selling to have enough bitcoins and are willing to deal in that. Also, there's nothing stopping the US government from simply using BTC itself, or whatever cryptocurrency it sees fit, as it might any foreign currency. I've never seen any sign that the Fed or the USG actually see cryptocurrencies as a threat.
    - byEngineer 12y ago
      Again: cryptocurrencies have built in anti-inflation mechanism: you can have just these many bitcoins. You can't inflate out your debt using printing press. Very good feature for a creditor nation, like China. Very bad for debtor nation like the US. Ie The USD monetary base at least doubled since 2008. To deal with the debt. Impossible to do with bitcoins. Or gold for that matter.

Call me a conspiracy theorist all you want but you can't just go there and build a system that is a potential threat to the USD world reserve currency and to the power of the FED.

krapp 12y ago

Silk Road doesn't pose a potential existential threat to the USD, and neither does Bitcoin. This vastly underestimates the strength of the existing global economic structure, and overestimates the impact of what is, essentially, a slightly higher-tech way to launder money and buy drugs on the internet. I understand some Bitcoin fanatics of the cryptolibertarian and anarchist persuasion would like to believe that anything not a blockchain is a house of cards destined to tumble, but everything Ulbricht is charged with would still be a crime if the Silk Road ran entirely on dollars and cents, so to me, invoking conspiracy doesn't really pass the smell test. If the government weas really that afraid of dark markets, or bitcoin, one would expect it to take heavier action against sites like Coinbase, or other open businesses which accept it, since they have far greater potential of spreading Bitcoin to the masses than inherently illegal sites like Silk Road, which would make most people uncomfortable even to know about. Yet, merely holding Bitcoins, or transacting in BTC, is not a crime.

byEngineer 12y ago
I said "porentialy". As an example: China, Russia, other countries like Iran could start demanding bitcoins for their oil and gas in the future. There is limited number of bitcoins. Limited by an algorithm. The numer of usds is potentially unlimited. I could come up with other examples that could be unrealistic today but possible in 5 or 10 years. So kill the cryptocurrencies while it is still easy. I dont own and have never owned any cryptocurrencies.
- krapp 12y ago
  I can't even conceive that China, Russia, etc. would one day demand payment for anything exclusively in bitcoins unless they're well aware that the countries they're selling to have enough bitcoins and are willing to deal in that. Also, there's nothing stopping the US government from simply using BTC itself, or whatever cryptocurrency it sees fit, as it might any foreign currency. I've never seen any sign that the Fed or the USG actually see cryptocurrencies as a threat.
  - byEngineer 12y ago
    Again: cryptocurrencies have built in anti-inflation mechanism: you can have just these many bitcoins. You can't inflate out your debt using printing press. Very good feature for a creditor nation, like China. Very bad for debtor nation like the US. Ie The USD monetary base at least doubled since 2008. To deal with the debt. Impossible to do with bitcoins. Or gold for that matter.