Quote from: willphase on September 02, 2013, 11:09:37 AM

Quote from: Platzer

I am clearly taking a side on this issue: lobbying for Bitcoin and trying to implement it into the regulatory framework of the legacy financial system is an absurd, unreasonable and irresponsible waste of resources.

One cannot simply 'opt out' of lobbying, because the existing players in the market e.g. the banks and financial institutions whose business models are due to be disrupted by Bitcoin will be lobbying and be buying out the congressional representatives - if the Foundation does not get involve in this then put simply, it will lose, and Bitcoin will lose as a result.

So you are suggesting the Bitcoin community should form a lobby that is more powerful and influencal than the existing lobby of banks and financial institutes and that has more buying power than those to be able to buy out more congressmen? If you really think that is possible I shall reconsider my statements Wink

.

Quote from: willphase on September 02, 2013, 11:09:37 AM

Believing that somehow Bitcoin's benefits will somehow on their own impress governments and regulators enough with it's pure awesomeness is just naive - laws aren't passed because they are good for the country, laws are passed because someone stands to benefit from them.

That is exactly how I see it, and in our case the 'somebody' can be defined as the legacy financial aristocracy. Since these groups will never ever benefit from an unregulated free market currency you will never ever see any approval for it from them. That simple.

Quote from: willphase on September 02, 2013, 11:09:37 AM

'you can't regulate the regulatable'

'you can't regulate the UNregulatable' is what I said. And with that I meant the concept of crypto currency altogether, not just Bitcoin. We can sacrifice Bitcoin on the altar of regulation now but that will not stop crypto currencies from taking over the financial system, it will merely throw the development back a couple of years and destroy all the value that has by now evolved in the Bitcoin economy.

Quote from: willphase on September 02, 2013, 11:09:37 AM

... but I don't think that opting out of the whole dialog with Government is an option here, and lobbying is a key part of that dialog (like it or not!), and I see a worrying amount of rhetoric from Platzer's statements that this is what he wants to do out of principle.

Sorry in case I wasn't clear enough on that. I don't say we should not interact with and talk to government.

But looking at the disruptive potential of crypto currency I strongly believe that the lobbying-concepts of the past will not take us anywhere when it comes to organising a smooth transition of our current system to one based on crypto technology.

There is no point trying to get crypto currency implemented into the old system and it's ideals and ideas, now's the time to develop entirely new systems and ideas that are only now possible with the advent of the blockchain.

Governments an financial institutions will play a much smaller role in that new system and this is what we need to educate them about. We need to develop new ideas for how an adminstration can get the funding for necessary projects after having lost the power to tax income or to confiscate bank accounts whenever they need some cash because simply these times are coming to an end. We need mechanisms that allow the funding of public goods and services based on volantury contributions by the people who understand that their society needs these goods and services and who can by funding these projects make their vote for what the government should do with every payment.

We are talking about hyperdemocratisation.

And we need to consult government in regards to what they can do to make the transition as painless and with as little victims and collataral damage for society as possible. That is their ultimate responsibility.

Imagine an asteroid heading towards earth on collision course. Seeing it comming, does it make more sense to turn around and ask the government if that asteroid has all the licences it needs to creat a compliant impact on the planet's surface or does it make more sense to try to estimate the location and magnitude of that impact and to evacuate as many people as possible and to get prepared for the consequences of the impact?

Crypto currency is a rather huge asteroid for the financial system and it does not care about being licensed or not in the long run and no license will reduce its impact.

I think.

Joe