The thing about crypto that I find hard to believe that other people don't understand is that a lot of it is basically just private sector fiat currency. "We all agree that Dogecoin is worth X," its holders are saying, but there's probably nothing more behind it than whatever USD the owners sank into it....which, hopefully, is being invested in some other kind of profitable financial instrument. This is part of the reason I've stayed out of it. I know where Wells Fargo is putting my money when I invest in their stock. I know what the San Juan Basin Royalty Trust is doing with my capital. Bitcoin? Dogecoin? Not so much.
Yes. And as I mentioned tangentially in another post, a lot of political myth has a bottom line of violence. The political myth of Bitcoin is that 'we' disintermediate the Federal Reserve. Well, the biggest question becomes, "Is the Internet truly a Leviathan force that can compete with nations with armies?" I think crypto has its political myths, but the code bros don't have broad enough shoulders. So far...
My answer to that question would be not only no, but hell no. Even huge companies like Alphabet and Amazon that have billions sunk into server farms and infrastructure are vulnerable to a relative handful of National Guard engineers who can blow the power lines and backup generators with a truckload of Serious Putty (C-4), and what will the oligarchs do about it? Tweet memes at the soldiers' political masters? I've seen a few Amazon server farms (my daughter helped build a lot of the ones around Dulles), and they are stupidly vulnerable to any kind of physical attack.
The thing about crypto that I find hard to believe that other people don't understand is that a lot of it is basically just private sector fiat currency. "We all agree that Dogecoin is worth X," its holders are saying, but there's probably nothing more behind it than whatever USD the owners sank into it....which, hopefully, is being invested in some other kind of profitable financial instrument. This is part of the reason I've stayed out of it. I know where Wells Fargo is putting my money when I invest in their stock. I know what the San Juan Basin Royalty Trust is doing with my capital. Bitcoin? Dogecoin? Not so much.
Yes. And as I mentioned tangentially in another post, a lot of political myth has a bottom line of violence. The political myth of Bitcoin is that 'we' disintermediate the Federal Reserve. Well, the biggest question becomes, "Is the Internet truly a Leviathan force that can compete with nations with armies?" I think crypto has its political myths, but the code bros don't have broad enough shoulders. So far...
My answer to that question would be not only no, but hell no. Even huge companies like Alphabet and Amazon that have billions sunk into server farms and infrastructure are vulnerable to a relative handful of National Guard engineers who can blow the power lines and backup generators with a truckload of Serious Putty (C-4), and what will the oligarchs do about it? Tweet memes at the soldiers' political masters? I've seen a few Amazon server farms (my daughter helped build a lot of the ones around Dulles), and they are stupidly vulnerable to any kind of physical attack.