The ignorance displayed by very smart people with regards to cryptocurrencies is fascinating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
The only thing it did was increase the value of gold. And our world is far far far more able to circumvent any order like this, as any wealthy person storing their money in panama will tell you.
Bitcoin is the reckoning for that belief. Rather than discuss the reason for the failure of their fiat system, which is what they're discussing right now, they want to restrict your freedom of exchanging the fruits of your labor for tokens in a system outside of their control.
Freedom isn't about you asking the the government what you can do. Freedom is about the government asking your permission to govern in the interests of their constituents. If they can't convince you to use their token, they should start working now to come to a resolution that respects the rights of the people who choose not to buy their token for anything other than taxes.
His entire position is that currencies are the domain of nation states. It’s a reasoned position, based on his long distinguished career.
They can't see the simple "repetition becomes truth" driver of bitcoin price, as in the longer the price is not zero, and the longer people talk between themselfs about the bitcoin price, the more real the idea that bitcoin has value becomes. This is how money is born, by a shared belief.
He further says that it’s value is largely derived from its “potential for circumvention”.
The idea that random dude on the internet can call a Nobel Laureate & one of the most cited economists in history “ignorant” about these issues is hilarious.
Confiscating money from child pornographers is a pretty clear moral good.
Civil asset forfeiture, the confiscating the cash a poor single-mom is taking to buy the car because "it could be drug money" is a pretty clear moral evil to me.
Which one of those happens more often? I'd guess the later is 100-1000x more frequent.
Bitcoin is not moral, it offers circumvention to all, for better or worse.
Disagree all you want. But ignorance isn’t the issue.
The printing press and cars (horseless carriages) were followed by people who HATED these things when they were first introduced into society.
...if they could just provide novel or sophisticated arguments, rather than angry & seemingly frustrated opinions - I might feel they were "smart"
Decentralisation is going to change damn near everything. Yes, it's the printing press, electricity, the plane, the transistor, the internet.