This is why Bitcoin is an existential threat to government power. I personally think it's empowering and great for the individual, however if you tend towards more statist views then this would seem like anarchy.
I don't want some drug lord to pump/dump/coerce/tax-evade their way into being the richest person on my continent, and then hire an army to take my nation over. That is easier with crypto currency than it is with fiat.
The tech community dropped the ball in the '90s by being panglossian about the potential problems with the web. It would be nice if, this time, we could get ahead of the ball with crypto currencies.
The ideal case would be a hybrid system of state fiat and cryptocurrencies where liberal democracies incentivize their citizens to use fiat through better governance and services while also respecting the sovereignty of individuals to accumulate value that cannot be debased by dumb political decisions.
Why not both?
The liberal democracies are pretty open and positive on cryptocurrencies. So no, it does not seem to be threat to them.
Instead, it is more of a threat to the less liberal countries.
If large portions of the economy aren’t paying taxes, I am not paying taxes. This breaks down the social contract. Given authoritarian nations’ increased force projection, this vision of cryptocurrencies first corrodes liberal democracies, where those not paying have courts and Constitutions between them and the state.
Nope! Liberal democracies allow cryptocurrency and it very well could be the case that some of these crypto events are non taxable events.
Thats just working within what liberal democracies allow.
> have courts and Constitutions
Courts and constitutions are pretty important in liberal democracies. I support the protections that those provide, personally.
That’s tax evasion.
I know it’s chic to be callous about tax fraud in some cryptocurrency circles. But the same has been true of cash, art and bearer bonds for centuries.