“Bitcoin is absolutely not socialist, by any stretch of the imagination, and it isn’t democratic either.”
I am not a BTC expert but if the majority decides something in the system — can’t it be corrupted? In that sense it is a democracy.
Democracy has nothing to do with the way Bitcoin works; it is a political system where a group of people, an “electorate” all have a “vote” or ballot which is tallied. Depending on the type of system, Proportional Representation, First Past the Post or Simple Majority, a government is chosen to rule by extralegal force over the entire voting population, who are deemed, regardless of how they voted, to have given consent for arbitrary violence to be done to them.
Bitcoin is not democratic. At no point is voting involved, or coercion of any kind.
““Self Governance” is not what happens in a favela; that term is no more true of a favela than it is of the entire Brazilian state, if you believe that democratic governance results in “self governance”.”
Its not me that believes that, its the promoters of democracy, who say things like, “we do it to ourselves” when they describe how laws are enforced. From what I know of them, favelas are terrible places; filthy, violent and disgusting urban sprawls where everyone who lives there wants to escape.
So you actually prove my point? Brazil and many countries are democratic and socialist (to bigger or smaller degree). The land owning isn’t important in my argument as I only show the effects of governing (central by a chosen leader vs decentralized by people of the favela).
No, I disprove your point. The land owning is the fundamental element that you leave out of your construction, and that’s why its broken at the root.
“Its clear from this that you don’t know what capitalism or socialism is” — I’ve studied the topics from childhood, socialism actually has a much wider meaning than just its political meaning.
People who advocate for Socialism often make this claim; that it is not one discreet thing, but a range of things. This is why they have tried to say that Bitcoin is socialist; they want everything that is beneficial to be tagged with the word “Socialist”. It isn't fooling anyone.
You should look into it. That’s why I talk about a socialist (in its nature) system. A family is a socialist system for example. Also — fascism, communism — all socialist systems.
And there you have it; you think that the family structure is “socialist”. You don’t know what Socialism is, and you apply it to anything and everything, so that the word can live on long after its absolute obliteration as a workable and ethical idea.
“This is like saying math is owned by no one, or the laws of physics. None of this matters when we are considering what Bitcoin can do or we are trying to define it.”
No reason found here — you are using an analogy and a very bad one. I guess if you had an argument you’d give one. In no way is math bitcoin and in no way are laws of physics bitcoin. Bitcoin is bitcoin.
You said above that you are not a BTC expert; this means that you don’t know how Bitcoin works, and its clear that you don’t by saying that Bitcoin is not math, and “Bitcoin is Bticoin”. You need to understand what these things are to be able to talk about them, at least on an executive level.
Bitcoin is math. Bitcoin is text. Saying “Bitcoin is Bitcoin” is absurd.
If you’re going to answer people in email or here on Medium and want to quote their text, you need to learn how to do it correctly so the conversation can flow correctly. As usual, people who can’t even type an email or thread a conversation try and lecture others about how super complicated things like Bitcoin work. It’s just…incredible!
