I wasted years of my life in crypto

I've never understood the initial arguments about Bitcoin, no matter how many times they've been explained to me.

The block chain is, and always was, an extremely inconvenient database. How anyone, especially many intelligent people, thought it was realistic to graft a currency on top of such a unwieldy piece of technology is beyond me. Maybe it goes to show how few people understand economics and anthropology and how dunning-krueger can happen to anyone.

Now the uninformed gambling on futuristic sounding hokum? THAT is easy to understand.

That being said, I'm sorry the author had to go through this experience, the road of life is often filled with unexpected twists and turns.

It's an ingenious solution to achieve a "trustless" currency that prevents double-spending without a central authority. Unfortunately, this solves the wrong problem. Spending money usually involves getting a good or service in return, which inherently requires "trust" (as does any human interaction). Your fancy blockchain is not going to help you if you order something with Bitcoin and no package arrives.

> Unfortunately, this solves the wrong problem. Spending money usually involves getting a good or service in return, which inherently requires "trust" (as does any human interaction). Your fancy blockchain is not going to help you if you order something with Bitcoin and no package arrives.

That problem already has solutions. The problems cryptocurrency is supposed to solve are, I want to buy subversive literature from someone I already trust not to rip me off, or for an amount I'm not worried about losing, without anyone requiring me to give them a government ID. Or I want to sell it to people without requiring them to give anyone an ID. I want to donate money to Wikileaks. I want to commission art or software from someone in South America who doesn't have access to US banks. I have the same name as someone on a list and I want a way to move money without the government ruining my life. I live in an oppressive country and I want to finance the rebellion, or buy contraception or some other thing which is banned by the baddies when it ought not to be.

It's for doing the things where the existing system fails you, not the things where it works. But it can do those things too. Cash works the same way. You're not worried about a restaurant stealing your money because by the time you pay them you've already eaten. You're not worried about Newegg sending you a brick with "lol" written on it instead of a GPU because they're a well-known company and if they did that it would cost them more in damage to their reputation than they'd gain from the theft and people would sue them independent of payment method.

You don't always need your trust in other people to come from the payment system when it can come from a dozen other things instead.

> I want to buy subversive literature from someone I already trust not to rip me off

Subversive literature printed on blotter paper.

Outside of buying sex and drugs the only uses for cryptocoins are, and always has been, ransoms, scams and gambling.

Okay, tell me how I buy something over the internet without tying the purchase to my government ID.

Your argument seems like "only criminals want privacy" which is a no.

No, the argument is crypto is primarily used for crimes. Which is true.

Also, if you want privacy, don't use crypto.

> No, the argument is crypto is primarily used for crimes. Which is true.

The argument is right here:

> Outside of buying sex and drugs the only uses for cryptocoins are, and always has been, ransoms, scams and gambling.

It doesn't contain the word "primarily" which indeed makes it false, and the rebuttal to your different claim is this one:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46190260

> Also, if you want privacy, don't use crypto.

Can you tell me another way of buying something over the internet without tying the purchase to a government ID?

Sorry, which web shops demand governmental ID? I have never had to provide them mine in any of the countries I’ve lived in.

If your concern is the webshop finding out your address, well I’m unsure how you solve this when you buy with crypto, but again ship to your home. If you have an alternative place to get it delivered for privacy, might as well do that with fiat transactions the same way.

The store usually* doesn't demand it, but your ID is tied to your cards via your bank's KYC obligations anyway

* It's becoming more common for sites to ask for ID, I've gotten prompted for it buying a cellphone online, to access an old Facebook account and even Hetzner (Before ever using it) because I got flagged as high risk

Ok, let’s go step by step through your processes, since I am tired of crypto nerds LARPing as Jason Bourne.

How did you first obtain your crypto? What level of anonymity was available for that tx?

Where do you store your crypto short and long term? How do you make it available for spending on online platforms? What percentage of your income and expenditures is in crypto? How do you balance between fiat and crypto anonymously?

What are you buying with the crypto? Why does it need to be purchased with crypto?

Where are you having it shipped? Are you faking all contact details when making the purchase?

Are you completely obscuring yourself physically while collecting said package? Are you obscuring your movements along the way as well to prevent leading back to your home?

Often, proponents love to portray citizens in economically ruinous governments in SAmerica as ideal usecases. Why do they need to use your specific crypto coin? Why can’t they use a locally invented (read: forked) one? It feels much more useful to regulate supply/demand where all said economic activity will take place, instead of replacing your entire net worth from a dying currency to a speculative one mostly propped up by foreigners like you who have zero skin in their local game.

I could go on and on, but it is exhausting to reiterate common sense - no one ever thinks this through fully from the comfort of their air conditioned first world white collar desk job office. How are you ensuring perfect info and op sec in your crypto journey?