When crypto-exchanges go broke, you'll lose it all

If government didn't exist, the first thing people would do is recreate it.

Those who think life or money will be better without rules, regulations and oversight will eventually be forced to rediscover why those things came to exist in the first place.

Cryptocurrency is a good idea that will eventually be widely implemented, used and trusted --- but not without government involvement.

> Central banks were created because without them, finance was subject to wild, terrifying, ruinous boom/bust cycles.

Let's see how that is working out:

  Federal Reserve created in 1913
  Roaring 1920's -> 1929 Crash/Great Depression
  1960's Nifty Fifty -> 1973-1974 Crash/recession
  1980's bubble -> 1987 Crash and early 1990's recession
  Dot Com bubble -> 2000-2003 Crash/recession
  Housing Bubble -> 2008 Crash/GFC
  Everything Bubble -> ???

At least since the 1987 crash, artificially low interest rates from Central Banks and more recently outright money printing/QE enhanced or outright created the bubbles and busts. Even when viewed in the most favorable light their supposed moderating function seems to be horribly broken.

I find that many articles like this pick and choose what blockchain people ‘believe’.

The people I interact with in the community pay their taxes, use fiat more than crypto, and would gladly keep their assets in a regulated exchange like Coinbase, or a traditional institution like Fidelity. There is a lack of trust in these organizations because the world of finance favors the rich and they feel left out.

Articles like these tend to get caught up on the memes, which are an exaggeration of what very early Bitcoin libertarians were selling.

I hold quite a bit of my net worth in traditional stocks, real estate, and some cash, but I appreciate the value of decentralized networks and the assets that can be built on them (I also hold ETH). Having low friction to create, transact with, and use assets can be a good thing as long as scammers can be punished (probably through social consensus).

We do need a neutral, decentralized network that allows digital goods to live longer than the companies that issue them (or perhaps companies that live forever as long as anyone funds the contracts). I don’t want my Xbox to stop being able to play games because Microsoft shuts down their licensing servers in 20 years, I want those licenses to be stored somewhere else that still provides Microsoft the assurance that they can control piracy while at the same time doesn’t grant them control I’ve the lifetime of that data.

Blockchain (w/ proof of stake) is a decent place to store this. The state will be rather static, I can hold onto my own data in case the blockchain data is ever not available, and the rest of the nodes in the chain can prune that state and not worry about storing it forever.

Then if Xbox ever shuts down, I point my Xbox to my own blockchain node and it can still validate the signatures and know that the license is valid.

Crypto's vision is good, but it will go bust if no authorized body governs the said system.