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What I want from crypto is what this computer scientist that's been studying it for many years wants from crypto:

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

...that it should "die in a fire".

It's only effect upon the world, so far, is to enable crime, and transfer money from the dumb and unlucky. The Pollyanna crap about getting money in to the suffering in "authoritarian regimes" (like the Taliban! Send some Dogecoin to Spin Boldak!) has never happened. No examples were given, notice? Bitcoin transactions leveled off in 2011, and nothing in 11 years except tax dodging and ransoms, other criminal transfers. And endless scams.

You know what HAS created great economic opportunity for the world's beleageured? Simple bank transfers through WhatsApp are changing India. The power to move money so effortlessly, without a physical bank, in a tiny village, is the true Great New Thing. Whether you have to trust some central authority (like you do if you want water, sewage and power) is not a big deal except for libertarian loonies. You know who's never lost my data to hacking? My bank. Yes, I do trust them. So does 99.999% of the population.

The author is trying to sound "balanced", but her fairy tales about Good Deeds to unnamed foreign victims, her use of the industry marketing term "stablecoin" - now a joke since one of them utterly collapsed - reveals that she's trying to keep a skeptical audience from fleeing, while, basically, marketing. The use of the term "crypto investments", when there's no evidence any more that they ARE "investments", by any non-tulip-bulb standards, confirms my suspicions.

Canada is renowned for its excellence in financial management, worldwide. We didn't lose any banks in the Global Financial Crisis, caused by deregulation of Wall St. and City of London - none went bankrupt, none needed any bailouts. (We didn't de-regulate.) We came out of the Crisis in the best financial shape of any in the G7, they reckoned. The same with the pandemic recently, best in the G7. (And name another country that had to donate a finance minister to serial-screwup Britain, after they'd helped cause the crisis, then suffered worst from it via Austerity and triple-dip.)

So let's not screw that up by jumping on the latest fad in scamming the low-information investors. Canada's reputation, long run, will be much more enhanced, in the financial community of investors, by crypto-hostility.

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...This will in turn make Canada less competitive for a technology sector that Canada should be a world leader in.

We can't be leaders in every sector. That is just not possible.

So let's concentrate on staying world leaders in two sectors where we have no rivals, namely in woke addled virtue signaling and lachrymose apologies.

Just a suggestion.

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"over-regulating will chase away investment in the cryptoasset sector away from Canada"

Sounds good to me.

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I get the impression that Ms Rempel-Garner writes down to her audience a bit in this piece. Perhaps she is unfamiliar with the level of discourse to which we have become accustomed on Substack.

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I love a piece about a financial asset that first admits it is too complicated for most people to understand (the sign of a truly warped financial asset) and then goes on to never really explain it once. Because why explain it when you are just trying to selling it right? The fact of the matter is that crypto currencies have no basis in anything, they have no intrinsic value outside of the wild fluctuation of market pricing. Contrast this with an equity which is part of a company that actually exists, owns things, employs people and generates revenue. That equity could be trading in the market at whatever price, but the fact is that with some work one can figure out what the company is worth and decide whether the current market price is attractive or grossly overvalued. You cannot do this with bitcoin because the value is nil, void, does not exist and is impossible to assess. One giant scam being hacked by otherwise intelligent people. Michelle was right about one thing, politicians of all stripes didn't jump on this until the "political winds" shifted toward crypto or in other words when the loudest segment of their electoral base started getting scammed and trying to scam others they decided to jump into the scam as well.

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Governments tax commerce, so I don't think any crypto-currency will ever be allowed to become a significant medium of exchange.

As for "consumer" protection, there are higher priorities than protecting a small group of renegades. Take, for example, my 10-year-old washing machine that was diagnosed with a faulty circuit board which was no longer available from the manufacturer, and for which the manufacturer would not provide a circuit diagram.

A letter to the Honourable Minister regarding "right to repair" was never acknowledged.

If Ms. Rempel-Garner wants a cause of significance, ....

p.s. It was a replacement $2.00 relay that saved over $1000 of equipment going to the landfill, and another $1500 going to some offshore manufacturer.

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founding

SO we are supposed to buy imaginary coin which is only valued by an idea. Forgive me for doubting.

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As a peace offering, I have now listened to one podcast from a guy that has found a real use for the blockchain system: upcoming, super-complex energy markets:

https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-podcast-jesse-morris-on-building

There's a problem coming up where electric demand and production may be shifted around in a "smart grid" to a degree unheard-of, now. Groups of homes may put their solar panels together and put their total output up on the block for "auction"; corporations may do the same with their recharging vehicle fleets, offering to drop the chargers off the grid (or even supply power to it from 500 delivery vans in the parking lot); factories may put stored heat, or cold, up on the market.

The interviewee is trying to build out that marketplace, and there's a real problem getting any one player to act as the neutral coordinator, when electrical power is this twisted mass of State/Provincial/2-Federal regulations, between US grids and Canadian.

There's a funny bit in the podcast where the guy says he believes that blockchain could provide a neutral posting board, and the host erupts, "But blockchain never turns out to be the best solution!" and they laugh together, as the guy agrees with that, but says this is the one rare case (where all transactions are huge sums of money, worth the transaction cost, and the problem of finding one neutral 'bank' has happened because of layers of history) where it might just be the trick. He notes that he really struggled, tried to find any better suggestion than blockchain, before painfully caving to that decision.

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Holding hospital/ public service IT systems for ransom with expectation that payment will be in Bitcoin poses a risk to all of us.

This column at least opens the door to dialogue.

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Canadians have been reckoning with the loss of their rights and freedoms, the collusion of Government, Banks, media and Corporations, ( fascism by definition, unless the new elite gods above decided to change that definition as well). Our once trusted Institutions froze citisen's bank accounts and funding, confiscated personal property, and judicially punished those who dared speak out against the dictate of the regime in command. They used decietful and malitious media to spread mistruths and demonize peaceful protesters. These actions against citisen's is what solidified the need for an alternative monitary system that is not controlled by those who would do us harm in order to control our speech and freedoms. We need more alternatives, not more regulations.

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Aug 5, 2022·edited Aug 5, 2022

Oh, if only we could take this approach on on all of the pending 'digital/internet' regulation!

A couple of guiding principles to consider (that I think overlaps what the author is saying) ... first, governments should look to ensure transparency in crypto markets, just like they do in other financial markets. The goal should be that investors understand (as much as possible) what they are getting into and that all players have equal access to material information that could impact the value of their investments. My understanding is that current crypo markets do not entirely meet that standard.

Another -- that the safeguards that we put in place within financial markets to prevent criminal activity need to be replicated here, though the means will likely be different. This is a legal and technical challenge, but its something we need to address. It means our legislators need to become a LOT more technically fluent, which absolutely isn't happening with the current, proposed digital legislation!

Lastly, we need to make sure that regulations on traditional financial services don't unintentionally favour cryto offerings. As an example, a lot of the advantages that ride-sharing companies like Lyft or Uber have over taxis is simply that they don't have to comply with the same (heavy) regulations. They aren't really offering something new or innovative; they are creating a legal loophole that offers the same service with way, way less regulations (and corresponding costs). Let's let the best idea win, not favour the shiny new digital offering that is only succeeding because its traditional competitors have to comply with rules and regulations they do not.

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Michelle takes us for another walk in her 'sensible shoes'... : )

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So anybody who buys into a glorified Ponzi Scheme is going to blame the politicians for not saving them from their own stupidity, instead of taking responsibility for their own poor decision-making and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, the way we love talking about in Alberta?

Paper currencies have things like government credit backing them, while precious metals are tangible assets that can't be hacked or wiped out by a computer virus or power outage. Meanwhile, a Trailer Park Boys comic featured Ricky literally pissing away over $100,000 in cryptocurrency just by peeing on the energy-hogging computers that calculate the blockchain.

Bitcoins can be completely wiped out by technology failings, they've had multiple market crashes (notice Pierre Poilievre's stopped talking about them?) and the main selling point for crypto enthusiasts is that it's not regulated by governments. If governments start regulating them, that pretty much kills the appeal of bitcoin in the first place.

If you really want to hedge against something like hyperinflation, do what the Pawn Stars do and buy gold and silver instead. They don't lose their value when the energy grid collapses, they can't be electronically stolen, and the demand for them will likely always exist. If it was good enough for Old Man Harrison, it's probably good enough for the rest of us.

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Thank you for your constructive approach. It would be simpler if crypto were merely a new asset class, but the possibility of an alternative means of payment creates a dilemma for those who derisk the payment system. Canadians have relatively sophisticated views on their currency as a means of payment and store of value because we were among the first to abandon a fixed exchange rate. I wonder if Gerry Goldstein, ex OSFI and ex Library of Parliament Research Branch, could be at your service?

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Sure makes living in Tulsa sound good. Why don’t you?

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Simple, thoughtful and informative. Missing, however, is the middle-ground--a combination of government regulation and protection on one hand while respecting the opportunity for others to enjoy the benefits of an unregulated market and its attendant risks.

In the same way that a car may be purchased from a regulated dealer or from an unregulated individual, so should cryptocurrency. As catnip is to felines, so is control to government.

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