Hi Thom, I respect your input on this and I think we are largely in agreement.
1 -- Could you elaborate as to why you think coexistence is impossible?
2 -- Do you have a specific attack-vector in mind that would allow UIA compliance features to eventually spread to MPA's?
3 -- Or have you come to appreciate the extreme lengths the state will go to to retain control over others?
4 -- I can possibly envision a bts freedom-fork which may be needed to escape harsh measures from state on main-chain bts - but what measures could they be?
5 -- The Pirate party in Iceland seems to gave gained mass popularity very quickly, in my view due to the harsh restrictions placed on crypto in 2012. Crypto is still banned as far as I am aware.
6 -- Do you doubt the desire or ability of 'the people' to act in a similar way if bts was 'banned'.
7 -- I just don't see how they could ban it. Slow it down with slander, yeah - but control over information has been diminishing with the advent of the internet. Can not the same happen for finance?
1 & 3 -- Sure. The two are incompatible and opposite in nature. I do appreciate the lengths the psychopaths and control freaks that put on the cloak of the label known as "government" will go to to retain control b/c I've studied history. It is the later that will drive them to push freedom loving individuals out of the ecosystem by labeling them "cyber-terrorists" and the like, eventually legislating them out of participation if they won't comply with all the tracking requirements that allow government to control, monitor and restrict what you can & can't do.
I see this too.
But states fall, history also tells us that Empires do not last forever. My hope is that crypto will aid capital flight to more-free countries. The US can no longer control their financial borders. The free market is more profitable to the 99% and I believe that profit breeds profit. One defensible nation with ambition to gain wealth and high standards of living might be all it takes to start the cascade. Nukes and huge armies are also a threat - but if it comes to that we might all be doomed to servitude anyway.
2 -- Not really, but if history is any indication (and it truly is) you can expect it to be a relatively slow process. They will use the media to adversely label people that don't want to submit, they will also use the people that won't think for themselves and just blindly do what they're told, reporting / spying on "dissidents" (get the slaves to police themselves).
I feel that the internet could also make the difference in not repeating history. Gunpowder made previously suicidal attacks possible.
Although I concede that without critical thinking then no amount of information will help. Sock puppets and false-flag attacks are abound.
Even the 'true' conspiracy people on youtube (the new TV) are puppets. If you've heard of them - they're a liar, IMO. (Russel Brand, what a farce)
4 -- If this plays out into the hands of the regulators and the masses adopt this platform, and they all conform to the KYC / AML regs, that will indeed put pressure on those that don't want to conform, and if that gets strong enough they would likely flee to where they can find less intrusion into their financial affairs. It might well lead to a fork and alternate chain (which might have to exist far underground if laws are passed against "uncertified / unofficial crypto chains) and the whole thing will start over again as the new chain strives to gain adoption. The cycle will repeat if we can't learn from our mistakes. I hate to be a pessimist but I do see this as a definite possibility. Do you think the Silk Road is really gone? I bet it continues, albeit as yet unknown and gaining more customers every day, like blackmarkets do.
Everybody in the current financial system is already owned.
If crypto makes "cash" safe again, surely this is a major chink in their armour?
Is re-inventing sound money (bitcoin) not a lesson-learned from mistakes?
I know where you're going with all this, and I don't disagree with you but I think part of the solution is believing that the solution exists.
It's much easier to consent and concede if one gives up on hope.
5 -- Don't know enough about Iceland to comment on what the driving forces at play there are. From what I've seen the people there seem much less tolerant of bureaucrats and control freaks, especially the ones in finance like banksters. Quite a bit different attitude in the USA, where the populace has been dumbed down and hand-fed a line of propaganda about money, finance & banking for 100 year or more.
The US is not the only country in the world and it's people have not truly seen counter-examples to their way of life. I envision one trailblazing entity showing the way to everyone else.
Tyranny survives so long as the people have their bread and circuses.
The 'just in time' food distribution of the US would collapse with just 2 or 3 days of trucking strikes. Necessity is the mother of invention, and a hungry American is likely to be far more thorough in considering their options. How crypto solves this particular issue I'm not certain, but if the root-cause is fiat collapse then crypto would circulate as the black market preferred currency. Look at the US dollar in circulation in Argentina (also a power-hungry state).
6 -- Yes, I doubt the will of the people here to resist like they apparently do in Iceland. My greatest hope lies in the knowledge it does not take a majority of the population to desire a change for the minority to act to make it happen. That's why many of us are here.
Yes.
This is the beauty I see in Bitcoin. "Noone" cares about it's principles but the greed hype cycles will get it into the hands of every profit-motivated individual.
BitShares needs to do the same for business.
A free market is a profitable market and the only argument we need to win is that there is more money to be had by choosing freedom.
7 --- I don't think they can succeed in banning crypto, but they will try. Power never willingly gives up control, at least not without a struggle. Remember, nothing can stop an idea who's time has come. Is it time yet? Will enough people wake up and be willing to invest in a better way of living than control and violence against their fellow humans? It remains to be seen, and I don't get a nice warm feeling in my gut.
I believe it's time has come, for some.
The internet now connects previously disparate groups and allows them to build communities and alliances that were impossible before.
These motivated minority groups can form co-operatives unbound by geography and convey messages without fear of physical harm. The last barrier to overcome is relinquishing shame.
The clearnet is owned, and intimate details of personal lives are known. This allows states to blackmail those who care more for themselves than they do for their cause.
I think that is the bottleneck.
Maybe a shameless-campaign of some kind would help. Admired individuals detailing their 'shameful' lives enough times that it becomes obvious that every person is the same and the chance that ones 'faults' are unique are slim to none.
For the sake of argument let's say that I am naive and that doom really is around the corner, what do we do?
Should the compliance features of UIA's be removed?
If Thom was benevolent dictator (although nobody, particularly you I'm sure, would want that to happen), what would be your first actions?
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for positive rephrasing.
