Thank you for the options tutorial @spacehopper
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Guess China would be launching digital Yuan soon.
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Digital yuan is the opposite of crypto. Instead of decentralized finance you have a dictatorship controlling all your money. Xi can cancel your life savings with a single keystroke. If you protest he will throw you in jail.
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If you want anonymous untraceable currency use cash. Crypto is useless and can be banned at anytime.
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Perfect.
Are you buying into the current (what word should I use? Fad?)… AI powered system to democratize… give me a break. A few things have to be controlled by the government, Defense, Finance, International relationships, Homeland security, certain national security issues.
Is also somewhat traceable.
as someone obsessed with Blockchain in all its forms, I think the real reason it wins is it democratizes fin tech. No longer do app developers have to pay a middle man like Visa/MC or Plaid/Stripe to add payment capabilities. basically, as an app developer, you now have the ability to add payment for your DApp without having to deal with policies from an organization, that can change them etc. BC is based on math and a protocol and a whitepaper, and you can read it, decide if the performance makes sense for you on technical basis, and then use it as a store of value.
CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), though they are a centralized currency, also get rid of the Visa/Mastercard/Plaid/Stripe middleman and could unleash a lot of technical innovation since you aren’t paying those fees anymore.
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I think the “digital money” aspect of crypto is the least exciting and innovative part. Digital yuan can be thought of being an official stable coin. Before stable coins come about other forms of digital money are already in widespread use: credit cards in the west, WeChat pay and Alipay in China, mobile phone payments in Africa etc.
The more exciting parts to me are the a) permissionless nature and b) smart contracts people build on top. China banning crypto is cutting themselves out of this exciting field.
but to encourage people to execute the smart contracts you need some store of value, and money is the form of exchanging value. Before there was money, people exchanged goats as “payment”. Now, instead of exchanging dollars, people exchange bits/bytes.
my opinion on china is that they want everyone to use the digital yuan so the innovation is built on that, since they control that, and not Eth/sol/{insert any coin}. So they ban all the other coins and force people to use their coin.
so they aren’t cutting themselves out, they are trying to make the digitial yuan more valuable since they want all of China economy based on it.
what will happen is people will sneak money though ultra secure VPNs to other stablecoins and currencies.
That’s why I brought up the permissionless part. China is a control freak. Its craving for absolute control is baked into the party’s DNA. For innovations to fully flourish you need kids building all sorts of crazy things. Most will fail but a few useful things may come out. That to me is why China will miss out on the crypto revolution. Chinese kids now have to ask for state’s approvals.
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oh innovation is totally going to stumble. this is the same as when the ming dynasty forbade chinese ship builders to build ships with more than two masts. China lost its technological superiority and the Europeans took over the world.
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I think what you are missing in this discussion that cryptocurrencies are not a representation of any currency backed by government ( like dollars or Yuan - a fiat currency, if you will). Cryptocurrencies are media of currencies themselves (like a piece of gold, or a bag of what, or a goat etc). But, when you use Visa or MasterCard or even write a cheque, you are still using a fiat currency. So, a cryptocurrency always remains a crypto currency, but when you are paying through a creditcard/debitcard/cheque you pay from your balance of fiat currency. The two cannot be fused evne if the central banks starts their own block chains.
Added Later: The part that governments fear is that crypto currencies can exist without enabling force of government (just as gold exists as a currency even as governments have tried to ban it in past. Gold was banned in 1932 by FDR).
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As suggested in the article, the US is not going protectionist. What the USA is trying to do is to look for cost advantage and do business with countries and people who it can trust more (particularly with intellectual property). Thre are potential cost advantages of doing business within borders of the USA, if cost can be saved due to automation in machinery and software, and also due availability of cheap labor within its border.
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The consequence is clearly shown to the people through punishment of high profile celebrities which include some CCP members in high places. Even Jet Li who has become a Singaporean is on the black list.
Kill the chicken to warn the monkeys
“democratize” only sync with liberals.
Every humans are control freaks. Logically since government is made of humans, is a control freak. No new insight.
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How come you didn’t mention guns? Ming dynasty invented the gun but outlaw it.
Anyway, I thought the coast is sealed because of pirates.
The biggest issue with governance in China is every government/ dynasty top priority is self-preservation instead of prosperity of the nation. CCP is also guilty of that. Many emperors/ rulers destroy top talents, outstanding technologies, … to ensure longevity of their family lines, some are dumb enough to destroy their families so they are the only one eligible to rule.
Maybe not to a Singaporean.
Innovation needs space and freedom. I am happy to see China cutting itself off from cryptos. They are disincentizing studying hard too. Soon English will be banned from school curriculum.
Excellent development.
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