Peter Drake, he/him, LFHCfS 🔥 @peterdrake@social.cleverlibre.org

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

I don't think that analogy holds. It's not as if cash was invented and suddenly there was a huge spike in child kidnappings.

On the other hand, the advent of crypto HAS been accompanied by huge spikes in ransomware, financial fraud, and energy-intensive mining.

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

Let me try again:

Ransomware wouldn't exist at its current scale without crypto.

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

> When a person ransoms a child or does any other sort of illegal activity they use cash.

That's different -- when a physical object is ransomed, you have to have a handoff anyway, so you might as well use cash.

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

(How do I quote text from the original toot?)

"crypto is far superior to cash, this is why rasomers, like many other people use it… so?"

Ransomers almost exclusively use crypto. Other people don't. Why the difference? Because ransomers are committing a crime, so they can't use banks.

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

Are most people still using the old, broken cryptos?

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

Again, my position is about crypto as it exists now, not a hypothetical future version. It's not equivalent to you citing ENIAC, because that was almost 80 years ago.

Real crypto, as it is being used right now, is doing real damage to people and communities.

The "undo" isn't working (for at least some real crypto right now):

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=another-bored-ape-owner-makes-a-typo-sells-nft-for-180000-less-than-they-intended

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=crypto-speculator-loses-over-200000-to-wallet-compromise

Transferring $5M in cash internationally is much more difficult than doing it with crypto. That's why ransomwarers choose crypto.

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

*Maybe* there's some future version that won't have these problems, but AFAIK they're pretty central to all existing systems.

NYT: "The process of creating Bitcoin to spend or trade consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than is used by Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million." (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/09/03/climate/bitcoin-carbon-footprint-electricity.html)

The trouble with Proof of Stake is that it's easy for a sufficiently wealthy person to take over the currency. (It's also "one dollar, one vote", which is not going to fight the overconcentration of wealth.)

From the first (Weaver) article: "Modern finance has this rule that anything electronic needs to be reversible for short periods of time. This allows an undo in case of fraud. Have you had your credit card compromised before? I’ve had my credit card numbers stolen a couple of times. The amount of money I lost is zero. Because we have both good fraud protection and good ability to reverse transactions. That does not exist in the cryptocurrency space. If your cryptocurrency wallet is compromised, all your apes are fudged."

Ransomware ransom is overwhelmingly demanded in crypto, because there's no other fast way to move millions of dollars internationally to known criminals.

@freemo @stux @cobratbq Fair -- I've certainly been on the receiving end of "You fool, just read this book and you'll agree with me!"

High points of the first article:

- The blockchain is deliberately and majestically inefficient. It is a solution in search of a problem.
- Crypto mining is wasted computation that contributes nothing to society and "burns as much power as a significant country".
- Since crypto transactions are irreveversible (unlike bank transactions), it's ripe for fraud and theft.
- It's used mainly for drug dealing, child porn, and ransomware.

The author of the second article has a very short summary here:

https://antsstyle.medium.com/why-nfts-are-bad-the-short-version-48acff22c54b

@freemo @stux @cobratbq

Cryptocurrency and NFTs are uniformly bad.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/05/why-this-computer-scientist-says-all-cryptocurrency-should-die-in-a-fire/

https://antsstyle.medium.com/why-nfts-are-bad-the-long-version-2c16dae145e2