News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by olalonde on Wednesday July 13, 2022 @06:24PM (#32089489)
I agree that the Internet's utility is more obvious than Bitcoin. Bitcoin has little or even negative value to authoritarians. Even in more liberal countries, financial sovereignty and privacy are not generally viewed as important. But to me, this is just more reason to believe that the pace of adoption will be slow and gradual.
Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by imtringued on Thursday July 14, 2022 @05:04AM (#32093697)
Bitcoin has very high value for authoritarians. If you can enforce the currency you can enforce wealth inequality and entrenchment of incumbents.
Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by olalonde on Thursday July 14, 2022 @05:16AM (#32093765)
> Bitcoin has very high value for authoritarians.

Then why have almost all authoritarian governments banned Bitcoin?

> If you can enforce the currency you can enforce wealth inequality and entrenchment of incumbents.

That's the whole point. No one can control Bitcoin which is why it's not appealing to authoritarians. Authoritarians don't like things they can't have authority over.

Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by andirk on Friday July 15, 2022 @11:07PM (#32114909)
Can you elaborate or add citations? Your claim is possible but so far we have seen the opposite with autocrats, authoritarians, groups who benefit from controlling their own currency.
Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by skinnymuch on Thursday July 14, 2022 @11:45AM (#32097559)
Bitcoin is an authoritarian’s wet dream as evidenced by the libertarian philosophies of crypto bros and how Bitcoin and crypto have played out.

Showing authoritarian governments don’t like Bitcoin doesn’t help. Western conservatives and CCP’s social views are very similar. Yet they despise one another. Of course. Authoritarians want to be the ones in control. Why would they like other authoritarians?

Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by olalonde on Thursday July 14, 2022 @05:50PM (#32101867)
First, your sentence makes no sense at all. Libertarianism is practically the opposite of authoritarianism. Libertarians are in favor of a small state with limited power. Authoritarians want the opposite.

Second, "Bitcoin being high value to authoritarians" is another way of saying that authoritarians like Bitcoin. There's a lot of evidence that they don't, and for good reason: they can't control it.

Re:The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money by skinnymuch on Thursday July 14, 2022 @07:39PM (#32102679)
Cryptopunk dystopians are libertarian wet dreams as well as crypto bro wet dream.

The opposite of authoritarianism is anarchism. Anarchism and libertarians are not the same thing. One is hard left, the other is hard right. They can’t both be the opposite of authoritarianism.

Libertarians want to be the ones in power. Being in power is something authoritarians enjoy too. I already responded to the authoritarians not liking something does not mean anything about their principles or beliefs.