Hacker News Reader

Comment by miracle2k | Hacker News Reader

> So, what exactly have you solved?

Ownership of your funds, which is the primary requirement from which all others stem. You will still have those when you regain access to the internet, or the ability to spend them.

The reality is that a government having the ability to confiscate the funds in your bank account, and attempting to restrict you and your neighbours peer to peer actions, personal mobility or internet access are totally different things. This sort black and white thinking provides lacks a valuable analysis of actual power structures. No one claims your crypto currency will protect you from a bullet.

View on HN

> > So, what exactly have you solved?

> Ownership of your funds

Nope, ownership is law. The problem you’ve mitigated (but not solved) is the ability to retain possession of your funds.

> The reality is that a government having the ability to confiscate the funds in your bank account, and attempting to restrict you and your neighbours peer to peer actions, personal mobility or internet access are totally different things.

They are motivated on rely on very much the same social conditions, they are not “totally different things”, and they are even less different the more it becomes necessary for the government to do the latter in order to achieve the effect of the former.

> No one claims your crypto currency will protect you from a bullet.

The capacity and willingness to use a bullet to effectuate their will for that end is what enables a government to drain your money from a bank; it may be masked and may not be immediately evident in the mechanics they use to do it in practice, because the time and repetition and institutionalization has routinized and streamlined the process. But, at root, its all the bullet.

> Ownership of your funds,

Which ends the moment that oppressive government makes you give up your keys.

> This sort black and white thinking provides lacks a valuable analysis of actual power structures.

The "blockchain is godsend for oppressive governments" is the sort of non-thinking that is currently unsurprising for most crypto enthusiasts pushing it while completely ignoring (or plain not knowing) the realities.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com