Quote from: custard7 on November 10, 2018, 10:47:16 PM

Quote from: Spendulus on November 10, 2018, 05:47:15 AM

Blockchain is an ALGORITHM. You've presented a WISH. Call it by some other name as desired, but it is very, very different than an algorithm.

Nothing in my original post posited that existing blockchain implementations are currently capable of the kind of political hand-binding that I was speculating on. Of course what I was talking about is a wish -- the original poster's question was 'could,' not 'can they currently.' The root of my idea is that blockchain, as an algorithm, creates the potential for transparent protocols for transferring value. Wars, coups, insurgencies -- all of these are made possible through creative financing, i.e. the ability to funnel money toward (or away from) violence specialists. Thus, cryptocurrencies -- programmable money -- could be programmed to freeze, siphon, or otherwise act as a barrier to war.

Of course, the last half of your post is true - that we should focus on the potential for abuse. Yes, everything I've said means that nefarious or well-intentioned actors could very well create a new tyrannical world order because the are able to protocolize coercion. ...

You may, if I understand your drift correctly, have a fundamental error. But then I may not understand it, and we may be in agreement.

The issue is NOT can crypto be used as an instrument of control. Control would be when crypto had some rule set, and some Overlords assigned values to transactions using that rule set and modified it as they desired.

Rather the issue is can the free market, exercised through the likes of crypto, effect beneficial modifications of government actions?

In this context we are concerned with actions we tag as "bad."

If people are using both national currencies and crypto currencies, what is the effect on government and private actions? In particular, is there an effect on the likelihood of war?