My Fundamental Problem With Bitcoin

Bitcoin has the appearance of a Libertarian tax avoidance scheme that compounds the myriad problems associated with sequestering wealth away from public ownership by also externalizing its environmental costs. Decentralized digital currency that does neither of these things is possible, but Bitcoin is not it. There is simply no way to cheer Rutger Bregman’s epic takedown of tax avoidance at Davos and simultaneously champion Bitcoin, because these things are in direct opposition.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Rutger Bregman.

rutger bregman, whose entire career is devoted to eliminating poverty by way of wealth redistribution, dunks on bitcoin, citing a current affairs article that demonstrates at length why bitcoin works is in direct opposition to wealth redistribution, and goes on to cite an article from the correspondent that skewers blockchain.

That is my problem with Bitcoin. Its entire impetus was a desire to avoid taxes and regulations. There is no way to sugarcoat that, and I’ve never seen an argument that counters it, including arguments that Bitcoin is a means of circumventing unethical laws and law enforcement. That’s true, but to that I say, if we can devote more resources to the public good, we can erase unjust laws and upend law enforcement altogether, but we cannot do that by providing tax havens for wealth hoarders and allowing them to pawn the external costs of their ventures off on everyone else and the world, itself.