[Cryptography] Incentive Politics

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Mon, Oct 9, 2023 at 2:15 PM Sebastian Stache via cryptography <
cryptography at metzdowd.com> wrote:

> On 2023-10-09 04:16, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
>
> > That is precisely the outcome I expect.
> >
> > The unwinding will begin as a mechanism to clear smaller coins out of
> > the market. It will end as a mechanism to cover the tracks of a
> > massive fraud.
> >
> > Arguments that rely on the self interest of large numbers of people
> > tend to fall apart because there is insufficient imagination in
> > considering what the true self interest of the parties might be.
>
> To "wipe out $BTC" by "unwinding" (I suppose you're envisioning
> something akin to generating a new longest chain from scratch) would
> probably not be in your own self-interest if you possessed a fortune in
> bitcoin.
>

I do not own a single Satoshi, never have and never will.

If, on the other hand, you happened to _not_ possess a bitcoin fortune,
> I suppose you could argue that it would benefit you, relatively
> speaking, to destroy the bitcoin fortunes of others. If you stumbled
> upon a million dollars and acted according to your sentiments above,
> you'd most likely be doing your arguing in prison.
>

That is an interesting assertion, would unwinding the chain constitute
fraud?

That in turn raises two separate questions, first is it illegal to unwind
the chain, second could such actions be prosecuted?

I am not sure that it would in fact be a criminal offense because the whole
point of $BTC is the longest chain wins. But in any case it seems a bit of
an admission of failure to rely on Mr Plod arresting people to prevent
people attacking the chain itself. If we are going to depend on Mr Plod,
why not just put the money in the legacy financial services infrastructure
that has served us well for over 200 years?

Even if unwinding the chain is technically illegal, I think it rather
unlikely anyone would be prosecuted. The authorities are taking their sweet
time bringing in the operators of the most obvious Ponzi frauds. This
despite the fact that we know pseudocurrencies are the chief engine for
moving money to finance terrorism and profit from drug dealing,
cyber-extortion and many other evils.
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