@RBC We might have to agree to disagree. Although, I do appreciate your view on this.
I might not be a huge fan of BTC, but it is because of the issue that surround it. The dislike and skepticism comes from the problems associated with it, not from knee-jerk reaction. I think there are some good that be taken from this idea and re-used in other non-traditional banking formats.
My worries still stay within the fact that there are far more efficient ways to transfer money in terms of energy. Visa does an awesome job of this (as much as they suck for other reasons).
But, I agree with you and G raham that it is better than Western Union for international transfers. WU is horrible relic of the past and needs to be replaced with something better. If Kenyans can use non-traditional banking on their phones to transfer/save money, why can't there be an international version of this?
In terms of loans, so Defi is basically like peer-to-peer lending with traditional currency, but with BTC? Why bother with a new currency? Why not just do peer-to peer banking with USD?
And, 1% interest doesn't sound like much, but if BTC rises, the value of my labor falls. This makes the loan more expensive. A loan that should have taken 40 hours of labor to repay could take far far more if the currency continues to increase in value. The increase in value is added interest on the loan. What would my life look like if I took out a 5 BTC loan 5 years ago? I'd be screwed even if the interest rate was zero.
The benefit of inflation for workers, governments, etc. is if the dollar loses value (and our labor moves up with inflation... this is a big if) we actually pay back less in terms of hours of labor. Huge inflation jumps are terrible for everyone, but why should we be concerned about 2% inflation
if wages rise as well?
Moreover, wealthy people have cash, assets, and everything. If I'm holding 10 bucks and it is worth 10.50 a month later awesome, but the guy holding 10,000,000 is going to be that much richer than me. It is the same as the stock market. If my stock goes up 2% in a cool, I have another 50 bucks, but if I had millions in stocks, cool, I have another 500K to buy and sell the little people.
Money supply: Doubling in the last x years. Can you explain to me why this is bad? I honestly don't see a problem if the economy goes from 10 trillion to 21 trillion, how does this work without more money? I'm going to see if David Harvey discusses this in any of his papers/lectures.
All govs corrupt - free market will work things out better: The libertarian belief in the market strikes me as setting up common people up for failure. Friedman, the Chicago School, Regan, Thatcher, and so on who all said government is the problem brought about 40 years of the wealthiest getting wealthier and the rug being pulled out from everyone else. Few things worry me more than the "free-market," especially as it seems to correlate with a rise in broken windows policing that just completely fuck the poor.
Whale Wallets: I never said you were giving me an opinion, I was asking if you could show me where you found this or could provide an easy chart for us to read. In my quick search, I don't see much to support this:
https://time.com/6110392/bitcoin-ownership/You bring up good points, but why not just take the peer-to-peer anti-traditional bank aspects that surround BTC in some cases (as it is very much a part of WallStreet as well) and use it with USD or some other currency? I'm super far left in terms of fearing the right hand of the state (police, military, etc.) and but I enjoy the left hand of the state (welfare, regulation in favor of workers/consumers, healthcare, etc.). I don't think it always works out great, but I have much more faith in the technocratic government institutions more than I do in the private market institutions where the rich/powerful can prey on everyone else and claims "social Darwinism" has fated them to be our masters and us at the bottom.
Maybe, I'm propping up aspects of society that suck, but maybe as I've gotten older my anarchist views softened and I'm become the compromising socialist. Libertarianism and anarchism both have romantic ideas that sound great on paper, but both are disasters in practice.