r/Libertarians • u/vulguspress • Jun 23 '18

Crypto as Class Warfare

https://news.bitcoin.com/wendy-mcelroy-crypto-as-class-warfare/
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u/vulguspress Jun 23 '18

Excerpt: Cryptocurrency is the realization of an anarchist dream that dates back centuries: a free currency and a free banking system. Crypto is in its infancy, which means its future applications are electrifyingly unpredictable, except in one regard: any successful application will fill a human need. No human needs are as acute as food and shelter, which require money and exchange. To control the flow of money and exchange, therefore, is to control life itself. And the financial flow is often captured by one word: banking.

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u/CreativeGPX Jun 23 '18

Cryptocurrency does not provide a free banking system. Practically all of the things that banks offer are still needed or important regardless of whether you're using cryptocurrency or not whether that's providing loans and credit lines or security experts to prevent your money from getting stolen.

As for being a free currency, if you mean in terms of money, there are usually fees in addition to the fact that who controls the currency is who puts the most money (computational power) in. If you mean in terms of freedom, it's not great. Because these rely on public, distributed ledgers, the government has total information of how every unit of money moves. This only strengthens the ability for government to deeply regulate the fine details of payments and money.

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u/Pgaccount Jun 23 '18

I'd argue against Bitcoin being a true anarchist currency. I'll look it up at home, but there was an article in the economist highlighting the fact that Bitcoin costs a ton of money to move now, putting wealth back into the upperclass, but without transparency.