of course crypto would not help criminal money laundering. Bitcoin and Etherium are very traceable by design. In fact, it is often much, much easier to trace to origin of Bitcoin funds than the origin of USD funds, especially when cash was involved. There are "private" coins like Monero but they aren't getting much traction.

Monero is pretty popular in Venezuela right now.

Monero is probably used more like a currency than BTC is.

Monero and other crypto folks seem to rush in whenever Bitcoin is being attacked for something. I find it fascinating.

I actually see monero as a kind of lurking beast in bitcoin's shadow, as if it's whispering "Oh, you think bitcoin with it's completely public ledger is bad and dangerous. Why yes, it's very, very bad. Please attack people who use it and show them why they need me."

It's an interesting game that law enforcement is caught in. On the one hand, they want to demonize bitcoin because it's outside of their control. On the other hand, if they attack bitcoin users too strongly, they push people to alternatives like monero that are both outside of their control and legitimately untraceable in system.

Which devil do you want to deal with?

I'm not a monero folk and think it has no real world application outside of criminal dealings.

Monero is being used as a currency though which is relevant because bitcoin used to be used as a currency too before the first bubble/speculators got a hold of it. It's critical to any conversation with claims about bitcoin being a great currency (it's not)

I am of an opinion that deflationary crypto (like Bitcoin) can not be used as currency. It should absolutely be used as a store of value (kind of like gold) and as a way to transfer value.

ETH is not deflationary and it is a good candidate to be used as currency.

Eventually. Probably.

The characteristics that make Bitcoin unsuitable as a currency right now isn't is deflationary printing, it's that it's unregulated, uncontrolled, and subject to tragedy of the commons (as is seen with the multiple rejected block size increases).

> ETH is not deflationary and it is a good candidate to be used as currency.

I'm guessing you're opposing EIP1559 then

I am fine with EIP1559. If ETH becomes deflationary, it would still have other uses and something else can fill in the "currency" use.

Intuitively (have no idea how to do this), it would be interesting to have Country's coin supply grow (approx.) with its GPD/productivity.

What happens when eth switches to PoS? everyone will be incentivized to hoard and stake to become a validator, what will incentivize spending?

APY on stacking won't be as good as today. I am not sure everyone will stake once ETH2 rewards will be around 1-2%.

ETH2 won't be deflationary because such things is nearly impossible in a PoS network. You need issuance to rewards validators. It can't be network fees because if network fees are high, the network is doom to fail.

Also shortsighted. With increased ability to convert between hard currency and bitcoin it will be more practical for criminals to move large amounts of cash. The overhead of existing money laundering is significant -- the expression "follow the money" exists because it's a useful attack on criminal activities.

Money laundering is one problem; getting a large payment of cash is another, particularly if you're in the business of, say, demanding ransoms. This story was posted recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27396804

interesting(ly sad) percentage .. I wonder how come nothing impedes their laundering

that said I wonder if having another path won't make them even more hungry.. i'm sure criminals are very creative when it comes to making more money

Money laundering doesn't really make money, it just legitimize it in the financial system.

it's the way criminal groups live, without laundering they can't use what they got, so more laundering equates potentially more activity for them