The Absolute Worst Arguments Against Crypto and Bitcoin
I am growing increasingly tired of seeing some of the smartest people I know have some of the dumbest arguments about why Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are bad. This isn’t just lay people either. I can’t tell you how many economists and other people in finance use the same played out arguments against crypto. The two primary arguments you’ll hear are “Crypto is used for illegal things.” and “Mining bitcoin and other currencies is bad for the environment.” Today, I’m going to explain why both of these are the silliest arguments and need to leave the conversation.
But, before we start, I will say that there are debates to be had over crypto. If you want to discuss people buying overvalued NFTs, we can do that another time, but I already wrote a piece about how people are thinking about NFTs all wrong. My personal main criticism of crypto is how many currencies have zero utility, but this is more of an issue of people being educated about crypto, so we’ll discuss that another time.
So, today, let’s kick things off about crypto being used for illegal things.
“But Crypto is Used by Bad People!”
We hear this all the time. We hear that the main benefit of crypto is actually what makes it so loved by nefarious characters. The blockchain provides anonymity, so people can move money around to do all sorts of awful stuff. People can buy drugs with crypto, and it can even be used for buying and selling people as sex slaves.
That’s pretty scary, right? Well, of course it is. But let’s not play make-believe.
How are we honestly going to act like we were living in some utopia without crime prior to the invention of the blockchain? As a former drug addict, I can tell you that all of my transactions were done with cash. I illegally bought illegal drugs off of drug dealers by handing them fiat currency. I did this for almost a decade, and long before I was born, people were doing it too.
Criminals have been using cash for illegal activities since the dawn of traditional money. So, why do we act like crypto is bringing something new to the table? Bad people do bad things, and they’ll exchange whatever they can to make those bad things happen while making a profit to live the life they want.
Atrocious acts like sex slavery have been a massive issue for a really long time, and people have been using cash and wire transfers to do it the entire time. All the blockchain has given these people is an additional option.
Personally, I watch a ton of documentaries about scams and terrible people doing illegal things with money. There are so many shady things you can do with money when you understand how our systems work. People create shell companies to launder money on a daily basis, and this has absolutely nothing to do with cryptocurrencies. These people do this stuff by filing legitimate government documents, and we act like crypto is an issue because it doesn’t yet have proper regulations.
I mean, come on.
The only way this argument would have any type of solid ground is if the authorities had a somewhat decent track record of stopping illegal activity when cash is involved. As you and I both know, this isn’t the case. Overdose rates have reached an all-time high, and in many cases, people are getting these drugs legally from prescribers who are making money from it. The sex trade is still a massive problem, and the authorities aren’t coming out with press conferences about how they were able to shut these groups down due to tracing money transfers.
So, until crime with cash is eliminated, please stop using this terrible argument.
“Alright, but Crypto is Still Bad for the Environment”
I’m a progressive lefty who is terrified of climate change. Is the energy usage of crypto a problem? Sure. But again, let’s not take a trip to fantasy land with this one.
The common comparison I see is people comparing mining crypto to the energy usage of an ATM.
If you think this is a good argument, I highly recommend you brush up on your logical fallacies and learn about “false equivalents”. Comparing mining crypto to the energy usage of an ATM is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
Does the ATM create money inside of the machine? No. So, we’d need to take into consideration the gas-guzzling vehicles that transfer money from point A to point B. Have you ever seen one of those Brinks trucks? They aren’t made by Tesla, and I don’t think they get the best gas mileage.
Even still, when including the trucks that transport money, that’s nowhere near what we have to take into consideration.
Crypto mining farms are massive, but how many are in your city? How many are even in your neighborhood? We see these news stories about how big they are, but 99.9% of us have never even seen one.
But do you know what we all see on a daily basis? Bank branches. Each of these bank branches also has those ATMs people love comparing crypto too. So, we’d have to add the bank branches and ATMs together, and then we’d have to add all of the ATMs in grocery stores, gas stations, and other places. And I live in Las Vegas where each casino has a ton of ATMs inside as well.
How much energy does a single bank branch use? How much energy do all the bank branches in your city use?
Let’s see what happens with a Google map of me typing “bank” for Las Vegas:
As you can see, I had to start clicking through the results, and this is only a fraction of the banks in Las Vegas. There are so many banks in this city that one page of results can’t even hold them all.
Las Vegas isn’t a huge city either. It’s grown like crazy since I moved here back in the 90s, and it’s still smaller than most of the major cities in the United States. Currently, we have about 2.3 million residents in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and the little sub-areas.
Here are some major cities around the country and their populations:
Los Angeles County - 10 million
New York City - 8.4 million
Seattle - 4 million
Dallas-Fort Worth - 7.6 million
Miami - 6.1 million
Should I keep going? This is only 5 major cities in the United States. How many banks and ATMs are in each of these cities? And what if we included the major cities from all around the world?
And what if we included all of the corporate offices for these banks and tallied up their energy usage?
Now that we have put it into a little bit of a solid comparison, mining crypto doesn’t seem so bad. Remember, crypto doesn’t have any offices anywhere. It doesn’t have employees using their gas vehicles to drive to and from work. Crypto doesn’t have customers using their cars to drive to and from bank branches either.
So, yeah, the “crypto is bad for the environment” thing is really ridiculous as well.
I’ll leave you with this. It’s a tool I use to help with my critical thinking.
Whenever I’m for or against something, I think of the opposite and the best arguments for or against it. I ask myself if there are any similarities I should be looking at because maybe I’m leaving out information to support what I already believe.
I’m not a genius, either. I’m a college dropout who struggles to get by financially. So, when I see really smart people fall for all of the standard thinking traps, it hurts my soul.
Crypto is complicated, and I think that’s what scares people. But you know what? Fiat currency is complicated. Financial literacy is extremely rare. Most of us barely know the ins and outs of saving and investing. Some of the richest people on earth are money managers. That’s how complex it is. So, when you think about how scary and complicated crypto is, just remember that most people don’t know how options trading or hedge funds work.
I’m not saying crypto is going to save us all, but there are a lot of benefits that aren’t discussed because people are too busy being fooled into believing these terrible arguments.
If you took a step back for two seconds and asked yourself, “Who benefits of cryptocurrencies get banned?”, I guarantee you’d look at these arguments a little bit more skeptically.
I don’t have time to dive into it today, but crytpo has far more pros than cons. And if you want to learn more about it, I highly recommend this book called Blockchain Revolution.
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