Hacker News Reader

Comment by miketery | Hacker News Reader

The same trust/consensus is needed with Crypto. The only thing crypto has over USD is that we can be certain of its issuing policy (but even then a fork could change that).

I trust USD issuing, the federal reserve, and American military for the most part (so does wall St, EU, Japan, and China).

View on HN

That works for cash. In case you haven't noticed, cash isn't common any longer. What about about electronic dollar? The money that never exists in any form other than on some computers managed by systems built and maintained as cost centers that need to have every single possible corner cut? Do you trust those systems to accurately reflect what the Fed actually issued? If so, why? They certainly can't provide even reasonable evidence for it, much less proof. The best they can do is "but the computer says" and point to a machine slapped together by an inexperienced technician and running software maybe cobbled together from outsourced components, poorly documented, and rush out 6 months before the developers on the project thought it was actually ready for use.

They're just getting ready to take that system down to patch the WannaCry vulnerabilities, so you might want to check it quickly. They're not sure how long until they're back up.

You definitely make good points and I agree the cut corners are a big issue. However I'm under the impression that there are ledgers that are meticulously kept which track all balances, debt, and cash issuance which need to balance out at every level (from the Gov/Fed to small banks); otherwise the institution would fall.

Why do I trust it? Because it continues to work, can it fail? Sure, but there is little incentive for those in power to mess around as it would jeopardize the system.

> The money that never exists in any form other than on some computers

I'm not going to get into how money works - but your statement could be said about crypto, it only exists on some computer right? Just because it never existed before doesn't mean it won't have utility.

I think the legal system is the real place to fix things - there are certain mechanisms which influence how wealth works its way through the system. At the moment its misbalanced. It has little to do with the USD (well I benefit from USD, perhaps little countries elsewhere have a gripe with it).

> Why do I trust it? Because it continues to work, can it fail? Sure, but there is little incentive for those in power to mess around as it would jeopardize the system.

The incentive for them does not extend to you, as illustrated in 2008. They fail, you pay.

Do you realize in our current economic climate that your dollar today is more valuable than the same dollar in 10 years? Would you like it to appreciate/depreciate in value as time goes on?

Bitcoin is a perfect hedge against the issues of state-issued currency.

> However I'm under the impression that there are ledgers that are meticulously kept which track all balances, debt, and cash issuance which need to balance out at every level (from the Gov/Fed to small banks); otherwise the institution would fall.

The more likely it is for the institution to fail as the result of malfeasance, the more certain it is that any malfeasance would be covered up quickly and thoroughly.

> The money that never exists in any form other than on some computers managed by systems built and maintained as cost centers that need to have every single possible corner cut?

Those systems also probably have more humans carefully monitoring their daily operation than any other kind of system anywhere. People really care about their money.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com