> Because that's what real-world security ultimately boils down to: men with guns, ready to drag you where the law tells them to.
But that's assuming the judge knows who the thief is. One of the main characteristics of cryptocurrency is that you can hold it without giving anyone your social security number.
In that respect it's much the same as cash -- if you get away with it you keep the money, but if you get arrested, they can order you to return it, and seize your house/car/wages/etc. if you don't.
The issue, which creates the demand for cryptocurrency, is that we don't have a digital equivalent of cash that isn't based on proof of work. But the regulatory system could create one quite easily.
> But that's assuming the judge knows who the thief is. One of the main characteristics of cryptocurrency is that you can hold it without giving anyone your social security number.
You can, but AFAIK it's harder to do that when you're trying to cash out your cryptocoins in fiat (though arguably, this becomes less of a problem for criminals with the growing numbers of goods and services you can pay for with crypto). Still, I think if governments ever allow for a mainstream, sanctioned adoption of digital currency, they won't let it keep this level of anonymity.
> You can, but AFAIK it's harder to do that when you're trying to cash out your cryptocoins in fiat (though arguably, this becomes less of a problem for criminals with the growing numbers of goods and services you can pay for with crypto).
It also becomes less of a problem if any of the things you can buy for cryptocurrency can then be resold for fiat, which is already the case.
> Still, I think if governments ever allow for a mainstream, sanctioned adoption of digital currency, they won't let it keep this level of anonymity.
But that's the problem. If you can get it from cryptocurrency then it's available, so the only consideration is whether it's available from the system that isn't built on environmental destruction, thereby removing the demand from the system that is. It would be better if we'd admit that and get on with it.
But that's assuming the judge knows who the thief is. One of the main characteristics of cryptocurrency is that you can hold it without giving anyone your social security number.
In that respect it's much the same as cash -- if you get away with it you keep the money, but if you get arrested, they can order you to return it, and seize your house/car/wages/etc. if you don't.
The issue, which creates the demand for cryptocurrency, is that we don't have a digital equivalent of cash that isn't based on proof of work. But the regulatory system could create one quite easily.