Cryptocurrency, ECONPOL
If you've been following me, you probably know I'm fairly critical of cryptocurrencies, but also not necessarily totally against them.
Well, the criticism has built up to a critical mass, and I now believe there's no real solution to their issues.
The true core of the problem is that cryptocurrency systems are maximizer systems. This is the reason behind their high and growing environmental impact.
It's the source of a wide variety of other issues as well.
Cryptocurrency, ECONPOL
@urusan What do you reckon they are maximizing? I don't quite see what it could be.
Cryptocurrency, ECONPOL
@timorl It's maximizing the same thing as the normal market system: economic value.
Basically, it's maximizing the preferences of humans.
Unfortunately, it doesn't maximize the preferences of all humans, as accumulation eventually leads to economic inequality and the preferences of very few people (elites) being mega-amplified, with everyone else being ignored, even to the point of being killed or greatly suffering to marginally improve the lives of the elites.
Cryptocurrency, ECONPOL
@timorl Worse yet, the system won't accurately maximize the preferences of the elites anyway.
Deceiving a consumer works the same as delivering actual economic value, as far as the system is concerned. If it weren't for defensive measures being vigilantly deployed, fraud would be pretty much universal.
The endgame is that an increasingly automated system will find it's much more profitable to just drug the target humans, before streamlining them out entirely.
Cryptocurrency, ECONPOL
@urusan All this sounds much more like a critique of capitalism/free markets rather than cryptocurrencies. These are the systems that optimize and cryptocurrencies are at worst an especially potent tool for performing that optimization (is this your position? It kinda sounded like that from the last two toots, but I'm not sure).
In this context I am much more worried about advertisements, these are the things literally designed to influence what is being optimized by the system, controlled by the system. Capitalism wireheading.
In contrast most of the problems on the capitalism/cryptocurrency interface are either scams, where the judicial system has to catch up with technology (which is an actual serious problem, just not as serious as an optimizing agent going wild), or Juicero level idiotic investments, only somewhat democratized. I don't think the latter is in any way exclusive to cryptocurrencies (although right now it might be most widespread among them), see the whole GameStop stock debacle.
Cryptocurrency, ECONPOL
@timorl Yeah, a lot of these same problems apply to capitalism, which is why I'm also no longer a capitalist (I was earlier in life). I go into more detail on the other thread of conversation.
The key though is that while capitalism is bigger and thus has a bigger impact, cryptocurrencies double down on the most dangerous aspects of capitalism, giving it more negative impact pound for pound
If successful in its vision, it would make the negatives of capitalism seem minor