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Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by edflsafoiewq on Sunday March 26, 2023 @03:43PM (#35318718)
Yes, crypto's main use is crime. It's supporters have various arguments for why crime is actually good.
Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by codedokode on Sunday March 26, 2023 @04:38PM (#35319315)
Crypto is a technology that offers just one thing: electronic payments without anything unneessary bundled with it. Crypto is a model of what banking should be.

For comparison, to use a bank card you first need to provide all your details to bank which can share them with anyone they want, and then your application can be rejected for arbitrary reasons. And after this again the bank can share information about anything you bought with the card. There is even an official organization for sharing data about consumers loan history and this is totally not a crime in our weird society.

Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by rvz on Sunday March 26, 2023 @04:02PM (#35318925)
> Yes, crypto's main use is crime.

It is quite a very poor use with such "crime" happening all on a public and transparent blockchain, making it very easy to trace all of that (even if they use a tumbler / mixer) with the funds certainly seized and frozen as soon as it hits the exchange.

In fact criminals and scammers still use banks and Zelle to facilitate their criminal enterprise - [0] [1] in the trillions of dollars.

[0] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-fil...

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-z...

Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by tzs on Sunday March 26, 2023 @05:29PM (#35319834)
So why do so many ransomware gangs want payment in Bitcoin?
Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by rvz on Monday March 27, 2023 @12:19AM (#35322804)
Perhaps they want to get themselves traced on a public ledger and to join the long list of gangs caught and arrested by the authorities each week?

Once again, Bitcoin is worse for scammers, criminals and ransomware than using Zelle and the banks for fraud.

You should be asking why the banks continue to move trillions of dollars of illicit funds for criminals for years without them doing anything. Same with Zelle.

Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by saurik on Sunday March 26, 2023 @05:37PM (#35319906)
Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by psychphysic on Sunday March 26, 2023 @04:08PM (#35318990)
I suppose you'd have told Ms Parks to shut up and get off the bus if avoiding crime is all that's good for society?
Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by sunshinerag on Sunday March 26, 2023 @06:16PM (#35320231)
What a childish argument
Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by psychphysic on Sunday March 26, 2023 @06:23PM (#35320273)
It's a depressing reality that most adults will not progress past stage 4 in Kohlberg's moral reasoning.

The law however arbitrary and flawed is the source of morals for most adults.

George Carlin said it best with “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by bitcharmer on Monday March 27, 2023 @04:55AM (#35324413)
Sadly there are many more simple minded people like this than people who understand nuance and know that legal doesn't always equal right. Even more terrifying, people like this can vote.
Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by Ferret7446 on Sunday March 26, 2023 @06:29PM (#35320351)
Crime is relative. Homosexual relationships are criminal in a significant portion of the world, along with many other activities that you may support.

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist."

Crypto's main use is crime insofar as its main use is denying monopolistic/governmental control, and anything that the government bans is a crime.

Re:Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip... by stiltzkin on Monday March 27, 2023 @12:59PM (#35329139)
You live in a bubble if you think projects working on blockchains as Ethereum or Bitcoin are only used for crime. USD is still the #1 FIAT used for crime.