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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

> although it may help individuals it is not a sustainable solution to the issues in those countries

Sometimes what you need are not "sustainable solutions", that's something you can afford when you are not struggling daily just to stay alive. Sometimes you just need something that solves the problem right now, damned by "sustainability".

Just like most people in poverty don't give a fuck about climate change, there are so many other problems on their mind about their daily life, that there is no space to focus on "bigger problems" or "sustainability", it's just about surviving and finding ways around whatever problem arises.

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If people in countries like Libanon or Venezuela have to survive by “dumping a barrel of oil each day in the ocean”, and this is basically the only “legitimate” use case for “oil” this is clearly not a vindication for the existence of oil.

It’s just all bad, there is no justification for “oil” to exist.

If you could somehow get money by dumping a barrel of oil into the ocean and you had no money at all with a hungry family, you'd find it hard to argue against dumping that barrel quickly.

You may (deliberately) miss the point: that people survive this way doesn’t mean it vindicates oil existing.

If I have to eat human flesh to survive does this vindicate canibalism?

> You may (deliberately) miss the point: that people survive this way doesn’t mean it vindicates oil existing.

What does it mean to "vindicate" oil existing? It simply does. As does crypto.

Now, some people, maybe you, might ask that people who dump oil into the ocean should be physically punished, even if that is the only way for them to survive. This seems a morally absurd position to me, but so be it.

> That is not really a vindication of crypto, it’s just an extra condemnation of what is happening in Lebanon and Venezuela. And although it may help individuals it is not a sustainable solution to the issues in those countries.

Look, condemnation is not enough. First fix Lebanon and Venezuela, then outlaw Bitcoin afterwards.

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