this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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[–] qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How is it harder to scam with cash? You come to my store to buy something, you hand me the bill, I take it and don't give you anything in return. Even if you call the police it's my word against yours, how will you prove that I took your money?

Most scams are done irl with FIAT (fake bills, overpriced cooking pots, fake tech support, palm reading, IRS google play cards, nigerian princes, fake e-bay items, fake charge-backs for real e-bay items, uber ride cancels, uncancellable memberships, hidden costs...) at the end of the day you can't protect everyone from everything, especially from their own gullibility. The design of crypto, when used properly, prevents all of the non-gullibility based scam types (chargebacks, cancels, hidden costs, automatic deductions etc.). For some people complete control over their money is a plus and some prefere to have it handled by banks and governments, maybe crypto just wasn't made for the latter.

[–] Ibaudia@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You come to my store to buy something, you hand me the bill, I take it and don't give you anything in return.

Video cameras. Also the shopkeep develops a reputation and is easily identifiable.

Most scams are done irl with FIAT,

Technically the truth, but a MUCH larger percentage of the crypto ecosystem is devoted to scams. I don't think that is just "growing pains", the design of crypto, again, incentivizes this behavior because it gives victims no recourse.

at the end of the day you can't protect everyone from everything, especially from their own gullibility.

Yes, but gullibility is the #1 problem and again, crypto has no safeguards or recourse.

For some people complete control over their money is a plus

Control but only within the system and ruleset that is made by those who control the chain. If institutions leverage their power in the space in a mass-adoption scenario, then they will be the ones making these rules and controlling what you can do, and the rigidity of crypto's rules advantage them in that case, no the consumer.

[–] qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 months ago

I don't have cameras in my store and i doubt you walk around with a gopro strapt to your forehead. Crypto stores develop reputation as well.

On what are you basing the opinion that MUCH larger percentage of the crypto ecosystem is devoted to scams? Legal action is the only recourse you have with cash, the same can be done with crypto. If design of crypto incentives scams then so does the design of cash.

Yes, but gullibility is the #1 problem and again, crypto has no safeguards or recourse.

Neither does cash, gift cards and all of the methods Nigerian princes and certified Microsoft technicians from IRS have been successfully using for years to scam their victims.

The whole point of making the system decentralized is so that a powerful actor can't seize control over it. There are hundreds of chains with different rules and regulations, you can chose the one that fits your needs, and if a powerful actor tries to change it's rules the community can decide that the version of the chain with altered rules isn't one they want to take part in and split off. It has happened before with block size wars that resulted in btc/bch split. Both chains run fine to this day, each with their own rules decided by their own community.