Positing extremely radical, society destabilizing measures like "unplugging the internet" does not lend much credence to the idea that Bitcoin can be controlled.
There may be other less drastic ways, of course, like leaning on ISPs to choke off blockchain traffic or something. I'm sure the bigger, scummier ones like Verizon and Comcast would even jump at the opportunity to curry more favor with the government in exchange for rent-seeking opportunities down the road. But it seems to me that these half-measures would just accelerate the rush to develop alternatives and detours around such roadblocks.
Honestly I didn't even realize I was trolling until I slowed down and gauged the responses from everyone.
I'm honestly just worked in to a bit of a stressed out frenzy here in San Francisco...
...and I'm taking a break from this bullshit. No more HackerNews for me... it is driving me, and I think a bunch of other people, batshit insane...
I'm also looking forward to getting out of SF for a couple of weeks and hopefully not hearing anyone talk about fucking Bitcoins or Google busses or Seasteading...
Interesting. I feel like the only person around here who isn't in the thick of it in Silicon Valley. Hacker News is it for me, as far as that is concerned.
Take a breath. Look around. Maybe you're doing great things down there, maybe you aren't, but chances are that nothing is as big of a deal as you're making it.
I know that I'm really nobody in any position to say this, but I will do it anyway. Relax.
Get out of SV. Get out of SFCA. There is more to life than greed. Hacker News is a refuge of scoundrels seeking to enrich themselves and/or corroborate their lack of humanity.
Bitcoin is a "mathematical fact" just like what we currently believe are unbreakable cryptography systems. The two are strongly related. Can't have one without the other, and can't avoid having cryptocurrencies if you have strong encryption.
So Stross's argument quickly moves from economics to freedom of speech: The only way to really eradicate cryptocurrencies is to make use of strong encryption outside of government-supervised uses a crime.
There may be other less drastic ways, of course, like leaning on ISPs to choke off blockchain traffic or something. I'm sure the bigger, scummier ones like Verizon and Comcast would even jump at the opportunity to curry more favor with the government in exchange for rent-seeking opportunities down the road. But it seems to me that these half-measures would just accelerate the rush to develop alternatives and detours around such roadblocks.
"Shut down the internet" is not a serious idea.