Tuesday, June 15, 2021

The Dark Side of Bitcoin

The NY Times has an essay on The Brutal Truth About Bitcoin.

The entire essay is about positive aspects of Bitcoin, until this paragraph at the end:

Ironically, rather than truly democratizing finance, some of these innovations may exacerbate inequality. Unequal financial literacy and digital access might result in sophisticated investors garnering the benefits while the less well off, dazzled by new technologies, take on risks they do not fully comprehend. Computer algorithms could worsen entrenched racial and other biases in credit scoring and financial decisions, rather than reducing them. The ubiquity of digital payments could also destroy any remaining vestiges of privacy in our day-to-day lives.
This is like a parody of leftist nonsense. Yes, of course every investment threatens to benefit some more than others. That is what investments do.

There are no racial biases in credit scoring. The agencies do not track race.

It does not even mention the real brutal truth of Bitcoin -- it is primarily used for financial crimes. It is used for extortion, tax evasion, smuggling, and money laundering. If some country or large corporation would create a suitable digital currency, then there would be no use for Bitcoin. A trillion dollars in digital assets could disappear, and we would be better off.

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