What if Some People Use Crypto for Evil?
Here's an objection to cryptocurrencies that I've been hearing more and more lately:
"Cryptocurrencies are used by human traffickers to obfuscate their financial activity and avoid detection by authorities. Therefore, crypto enables human trafficking and we should not support the use of cryptocurrencies."
Hopefully we can all agree that human trafficking is the height of immorality and that known instances of it should be stopped, and the victims made whole. At the same time, it's interesting to note that this exact argument is often applied to the use of crypto for drugs, guns, tax evasion, terrorism or whatever activity the person speaking finds objectionable or immoral. Some are actually immoral, while others merely provide political fuel for the passing of legislation, the actual goal of which is to hinder crypto, not to eliminate the objectionable activity.
It's a new twist on the old, misguided adage "Money is the root of all evil." Just in this version, it's not all money, but specifically crypto money that is evil. The person who uses this argument is placing the fault for immoral actions on the currency itself, rather than on the person using it to transact for immoral purposes.
The truth is that any money can and will be used by nefarious people for evil purposes. (Pesos, francs, yen, cowrie shells, dolla bills...) In fact, within the borders of any nation, you can pretty much guarantee that most immoral economic transactions are conducted in the official national currency.
But take a hard look at any national, central bank-issued currency and you will find that it relies upon immoral activity for its very existence. The U.S. dollar can only exist as such because it is backed by the full threat of force by the American government. It is a symbol of debt and of the citizens' purported obligation to make good on that debt that they never signed up to incur. It is backed by theft and fraud and war. The dollar is drenched in stolen oil and in the blood of innocents. If there is any money we should not support due to its proximity to evil, it is the U.S. dollar.
Most cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, are exactly what currency ought to be: neutral tools for economic transaction. They are neither good nor bad, but they can be used for whatever purposes the user intends. It just so happens that cryptocurrencies are, at present, being used overwhelmingly for good. They provide financial security to the unbanked. They wrench power away from the central banking cartels. They enable individuals to participate more freely in a decentralized, global economy. They offer a safe haven from surveillance. They inspire technological innovation. They challenge corrupt states. They enrich the lives of many people around the world, even those in abject poverty.
Money is a tool. We can never prevent bad people from using it to nefarious ends--it's futile to try. But in this grand technological age of decentralization, for the first time we have the ability to choose currencies based on their utility and their capacity for creating good. If you value freedom, peace, and prosperity, you should definitely support the unfettered use of cryptocurrencies.
Here are some of my other recent posts you might enjoy:
Freedom is Watching Your Step
The Real Reason Why School Shootings Happen
When Anarchists Aren't Really Anarchists
A Day in Paradise, er, I mean DANGEROUS MEXICO
Hi, I'm Starr!
I believe all human interactions should be consensual.
Quick!
Shut down the interstate highways...the rivers, the trains..
turn off the internet.
someone might use them for EVIL.
That's the illogic we are subjected to every day in modern society.
Hear! Hear!
Money is the standard of value that a group of people uses. Through market price discovery, money aggregates individuals' subjective ideas of value into a slightly more objective value system that doesn't match any individual's values exactly. Because money is the point of contact where people see the realization of value systems that don't perfectly match their own, some tend to see money as promoting evil.
A non-argument. Next!
Most black market transactions are still done with good old-fashioned under the table cash. Whether it's crypto or cash, I'm not so concerned with what other people are doing with it, as with what I'm doing with it, or what it can do for me. People will find nefarious purposes and uses for anything. You can't ban it all.
I'm just glad that cryptos have come along just as all the governments were starting to ban cash. Nothing like all transactions being in a government database so they know everything you are doing.
Isn't this the same argument for Gun control. Because someone bad did bad things with something no one should have or use it..
Yes, you're right. It's exactly the same argument. This type of logic, if consistently applied, would lead to a ban on baseball bats, iron skillets, kitchen knives, cars, roads, alcohol, the internet, pillows, and pretty much everything.