Ask HN: Why is HN so aggressively anti-Bitcoin?
Because bitcoin is solving a problem that isn&#x27;t a real problem by introducing a dozen more problems the existing system has solved.<p>Bitcoin decentralizes currency and leaves no one entity in control. Hurrah, the government can&#x27;t stop you from moving money as you see fit. Except that most of the time, the government is stopping people from doing things that were made illegal for <i>very good reasons</i>. Money laundering of proceeds of crime, terrorist financing, tax evasion. You can debate all day about whether taxes are inherently evil, but right now the law says they are legal and you&#x27;ve gotta pay them. Saying &quot;No worries man, I&#x27;ve got a NEW currency that the government can&#x27;t stop&quot; doesn&#x27;t make it not a crime.<p>All the while, it&#x27;s not actually free. We&#x27;re burning huge amounts of energy to do mining, and the costs have to be passed on to someone. Miners get free BTC for mining, but that&#x27;s a closed system- someone eventually must pay real currency for that energy being used. And it&#x27;s getting expensive given the number of miners. (Plus, a lot of them are China which is using coal as it&#x27;s primary energy source, which is killing people from pollution!)<p>And finally, there&#x27;s no inflation&#x2F;deflation controls. A currency&#x27;s utility is increased by it&#x27;s stability. Not knowing if my BTC will double in price or drop by half in the next 2 weeks means every day is a gamble. If this were my only currency, I&#x27;d be terrified about buying groceries.<p>Oh, and let&#x27;s not forget that the huge spike in BTC prices in the last few years were found likely to have been caused by manipulation.<p>I love crypto and think bitcoin&#x2F;blockchains are a really neat technology. But I just wish they weren&#x27;t here, in the real world, because they seem to be a net-loss for the world, and a Ponzi scheme.<p>Edit after getting a coffee: ... okay, that was a bit of a rant...