Cryptocurrency: A non-mathematical take.

 Cryptocurrency is NOT a suitable medium of exchange for the 21st century.

Cryptocurrency is conceptually, non-counterfeitable coins attached to a resilient blockchain. By associating the blockchain entry with a jpg, we get the idea of an NFT. These are worth what someone will pay for them in the same way as a painting.

However, the coins are subject to failings.

1. Cryptomining of the currency (computing new coins) is inflationary.

2. Cryptowallets can be summarily deleted, by either a hacker or a despotic government. A Backup wallet is a workaround, but by the mechanism you reconnect the wallet to the blockchain, you can introduce a mathematical attack.

3. Marked bills do not name criminals. They identify the holder by possession or transaction participation. Each cryptocoin contains literally EVERY transaction it has ever been associated with as part of the coin. So arguably EVER coin acts as a marked bill.

4. No one regulates the capitalization of the blockchain. If by some art, I maintain the value of MY blockchain, nothing prevents someone else from developing one or many worthless blockchains, and exchanging their worthless coins, for my underwritten coins, stealing my money. Elon Musk is inextricably linked with both Ethereum AND Tesla automobiles, but he will not accept ether in payment for a car.


NFTs themselves are not invulnerable to a kind of counterfeiting. Use the digital display of the item to duplicate it. Then change a small finite number of bits unnoticeably. Take the hash value of this "new work," and use it to enter the "new" token back onto the blockchain at a later/newer point. A quick survey of Opensea (NFT website using Ethereum blockchain,) will satisfy most people that it is vanishingly difficult to identify two near identical NFTs. You probably could publish the Mona Lisa widely enough, but the only way to catch them is to get the "same" picture side by side and compare which blockchain entry is newest. 

We have a hard enough time identifying counterfeit oil paintings, and the masters are a small number of items, by comparison.


Gold is legitimately scarce. It arguably stores the effort made to mine and refine it. It does not rust.

Cryptocoins are NOT rare or scarce. Cash bills are not either, but we have rigorous regulations to associate them with gold or at least goods and services. Banks have requirements to capitalize with assets, and a physical location where I can take a complaint. 

The fact that crypto trading sites offer no margin calls should be unavoidable evidence that cryptocurrency is more appropriate to video games than retail outlets.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Question About Erasthmus' Sieve

Students of Mathematics are familiar with Erasthmus' Sieve. 2     x 3          x                4       x 5               x 6     x     x 7 8     x 9          x 10       x          x 11 12     x     x 13 14     x 15          x     x 16     x 17 18     x     x 19 20     x          x 21          x 22     x 23 First, we strike all multiples of 2 up to the square root (5.) Then all multiples of 3, then all multiples of 5, etc. I wrote a digital implementation of the Sieve, and used the index cr...
Read more

Notice of corrupted results: Vigenere may yet be found to be a "group."

Retraction: It is with regret that I do not delete the previous post. I am an individual, not an organization, and I failed to adequately double-check my results, but I am leaving the post to maintain some accountability. I am able to definitively say that the script for 2chars_from_file.py DOES NOT yield an exhaustive list. It develops the ciphertext for all 2 Char combinations of the FIRST 10, three character ciphertexts. This is not due to a logic error, but rather there is a virus that corrupts the indentation of the two write statements.  This may be verified by downloading the relevant code, and examining it, and running it if needed, against the relevant datafile. It is difficult to be exhaustively correct about ALL of the scripts. This calls ALL of my results in question, with regard to the qualification of a mathematical group. If Vigenere IS a group, the resulting substitution is still valid, but there exist 6 Char passwords that will accomplish the same encryption in ONE...
Read more

A Simple Rule for the Stock Market

The Stock Market is where the wealth of America is stored. As such, it is best when the stock market faithfully reflects the ups and downs of the economy. Stock market corrections are how the stock market reflects setbacks to the economy. This is good, as far as it goes, but in fact, when a stock market correction occurs, it is not well understood where the value of labor, goods and services stored in the stock market goes.  The whole idea that rising stock prices reflect improvements in the economy, is that this is the result of good investments. Investing is an act of devoting time, effort, or energy to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result. An investment is proven to be a good one, when it pays off after a duration of time. If you buy a stock, you wait for it to rise in price, and sell it at the appropriate time. "Buy low, Sell high," is how stock brokers explain their craft. How long should you hold a stock? This has always been up to the ow...
Read more