From a2904dca79b170579f54ec1d544734753458caf4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: jxnshi Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:45:38 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Update writing --- ...socialist-love-letter-to-cryptocurrency.md | 63 ++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 47 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) diff --git a/public/writings/a-socialist-love-letter-to-cryptocurrency.md b/public/writings/a-socialist-love-letter-to-cryptocurrency.md index 926e8ed..8b68720 100644 --- a/public/writings/a-socialist-love-letter-to-cryptocurrency.md +++ b/public/writings/a-socialist-love-letter-to-cryptocurrency.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # A socialist love letter to cryptocurrency. -As the time of writing, I am still very much a newbie when it comes to politics, -but I know for a fact I am a socialist. You might also have seen I accept Monero +At the time of writing, I'm still very much a newbie when it comes to politics, +but I know for a fact I'm a socialist. You might also have seen I accept Monero donations, showing my liking towards this cryptocurrency. So why? Why do I like Monero? How do I think it fits into our current society. That's what I will try to answer in this short writing. @@ -9,9 +9,10 @@ to answer in this short writing. One thing I would like to emphasize first is that cryptocurrency doesn't necessarily fit into my representation of the best economic system. First of because this is not something I have thought about very deeply, like I said I am -still a newbie when it comes to politics. And secondly, because internet might -not even be a part of it. All that to say, I will be talking about -cryptocurreny in our current economic system, which is, a capitalist one. +still a newbie when it comes to politics. And secondly, because internet or even +currency in itself might not even be a part of it. All that to say, I will be +talking about cryptocurreny in our current economic system, which is, a +capitalist one. Let's get into the meat of it. For the average person, their way of storing money is through banks. I have several problems with banks. @@ -28,19 +29,49 @@ too: Amazon, eBay, paying for you Netflix subscription, your Disney+ subscription. They know what you subscribe for, what you eat, what you drink. Anything you do with your money, they know. -And maybe you don't care about it. Maybe you think those data are not secrets, +And maybe you don't care about it. Maybe you think those data are not secrets. "Waw, my bank knows I eat corndog and watch Netflix.". But it bridges a gap of -intimacy that I don't like. I don't care if my friend knows that. But banks, -their not your friends, they're strangers, you don't know them. I personally -like to have some control over what people know about me. +intimacy I don't feel comfortable briding. I don't care if my friend knows that. +But banks, their not your friends, they're strangers, you don't know them. I +personally like to have some control over what people know about me. -With that I think I've shown the power banks have over our money. Before talking -about how cryptocurrency solves that, I will talk about what I think a good -cryptocurrency is, which I think the only one currently to my knowledge is -Monero. +With that, I've shown the power banks have over our money. Before talking about +how cryptocurrency solves that, I will talk about what I think a good +cryptocurrency is. As you might have seen in the title, this is a love letter to cryptocurrency, as in cryptocurrency as a concept. This is though, not very accurate. -Cryptocurrency is very broad and the term includes cryptoccurencies that I don't -consider good. This is why I felt the need to clarify what I consider a good -cryptocurrency. +Cryptocurrency is a very broad term and it includes cryptoccurencies that I +don't consider good. This is why I felt the need to clarify what I consider a +good cryptocurrency. + +A good cryptocurrency should have the followings: +- Respect for your privacy. Your transactions should not be tracable on the +blockchain. Knowledge about your transactions is one of the problems I talked +about with banks, so its obviously a problem too for an alternative to banks, +especially when transactions would not only be viewable by a single party but by +anyone. +- Low transaction fees. This one is a no brainer, I think it speaks for itself. +When exchanging value, you don't want to pay extra fees for it, so lower they +are, the better. +- Stable price. Okay, Monero is not stable, but I think it is more stable than +most other cryptocurrencies, ignoring the ones that are maintained stable +artificially. I also think stability comes over time, so I think in a future +world where Monero still makes sense, it will eventually be stable. +- No second layer. I think a good cryptocurrency should work by itself and not +require a other layers of any kind. +- No smart contract. The goal of a good cryptocurrency is to exchange value on +the internet, extra features like smart contract are bloat and do not interest +me at all. + +Looking at the current ecosystem, you might realize that not a lot of +cryptocurrencies meet those criteria. In fact, to my knowledge, the only good +cryptocurrency is Monero. Even Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, is not. +Bitcoin, even though it was founded on a good midset, it does not serve the +purpose of cryptocurrency nowadays. Bitcoin is not a currency but an asset. The +vast mojority of other cryptocurrencies just being scams or tech-centered +projects that go beyond the original purpose of cryptocurrencies. + +From now on, when I will talk about cryptocurrencies, asume that I'm talking +about good ones. The bad ones having no value for me at all, I won't be +defending them. -- 2.49.0