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Comment by gspr | Hacker News Reader

In a well functioning democratic society, the money printing is ultimately under democratic control. Don't lie.

You could say the decision to go to war is also ultimately under democratic control. Yes, it is, but it doesn't necessarily mean you should trust a politician or president when they want war.

Similarly, you shouldn't necessarily trust a central bank when they want to print money. (I'm not inherently opposed to it and think the pros probably outweigh the cons for some situations and intents; just saying accountability in cases like these isn't as simple as "it's the people's will".)

And these cryptocurrencies are akin to letting whatever group holds the highest stake or the most computing power decide to go to war instead. So much better. Yay.

Nope. The point of consensus is that when you opt in to rules, they don't change under you.

Who has the highest amount of power in Bitcoin, and why haven't they done anything, for example increase the issuance?

I agree that the rules don't change. But I want the rules to be changed by a democratically elected competent government in the face of a crisis.

> Who has the highest amount of power in Bitcoin, and why haven't they done anything, for example increase the issuance?

How would that benefit them?

The issuance is exponentially decreasing every 4 years. If you're a miner and have hardware investment, increasing your issuance contrary to the expectation of the market is essentially taxing the holders.

It's besides the point though, you can certainly benefit from holding power of the protocol but the reality is that there is very little of this dynamic.

Truly, as you say, "in a well functioning democratic society", which is not the case for a not so insignificant proportion of the world.

I have no problem understanding why people in failed states might want these cryptocurrencies. They're essentially more convenient (but also more volatile) means of barter.

But let's face it: most of the hype is in well-functioning democracies. Here, I cannot fathom why anyone would wanna replace fiat currencies with this crap.

Of all the years in which you could make this argument, this year is probably the worst.

In the "well functioning democracy" U.S. You have:

- Mistrust in institutions

- An insane asset inflation bubble fueled by the biggest fiat printing spree ever

Sure, the state hasn't failed. But are you really surprised people want to expose themselves to a new paradigm with different fundamentals for money and finance, this year?

And if the US fails, don't you have quite a lot bigger problems than the currency over there?

Good luck paying for things with cryptocurrency-of-the-day without electricity. Or without authorities to call if your trading partner pulls a gun on you. But I'm sure the American solution is a diesel generator and an even bigger gun ;-)

In the case of a supply capped crypto, to not get burned by asset inflation.

Because despite it being very bad for the poor and middle classes, money printing is at an all-time high. Just like how neither US party is anti-war (but claims to be), neither wish to give up QE. The system is rigged for the super rich.

I had banker friends bragging me getting sex for approving low interest loans. I'm not sure what democratic control are you talking about, loans are approved by people.

Right. But surely that's someone abusing the system. It's not the system itself.

A system being open to abuse is to an extent a property of the system.

No True Scotsman.

If I understand correctly, that has never happened with fiat money ever in the history of humanity, though.

Hence the impetus to try something different and more befitting the future of our species.

What? Most well-functioning democracies have tasked their central banks with inflation targets.

Today, the dollar is the reserve currency of note across the world. That may be changing, but I imagine we can agree on that facet of today's global economy.

So, do you think that the dollar - and specifically the inflation schedule and distribution mechanisms of the dollar - can be reasonably said to be under democratic, rather than plutocratic, control?

There are several well-managed fiat currencies in the world that do not rely on being the world reserve! EUR, CHF, GBP, NOK, DKK, SEK, to name some.

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