About cryptocurrencies

(continued from https://trisquel.info/en/forum/libre-ethereum-wallet#comment-157396)

> most ppl just say what they believe in.

Do you really want to believe that? I can only speak from my own limited experience of course, but most people (aka "we") appear to say whatever suits them best or whatever they have been taught to. A tired minority still tries to speak honestly and look beyond parrotting the last fashionable dictum. It amounts to a permanent struggle against tremendous forces, though, so I would not juge anyone severely for falling in one of the former two categories. In fact, I am sure I very often do, especially every time I do not realize it. The current hype is to be supportive of cryptos, not critical of them. The first movers have an obvious vested interest in hyping them even more, the followers want to believe it will help them throw off the yoke of their financial misery.

> it is more friendly towards Software Freedom Movement and free society than conventional currencies are

I could transfer tons of conventional currency units to other people's bank accounts without using one line of JS, free or else, provided I had the corresponding amounts in store, that is. Of course, my bank would probably be using tons of proprietary software in the process, but that would not prevent me from using a librebooted Trisquel machine for my personal needs, and no JS at all. I can do all my personal finance and business accounting on totally free software too.

Libre software has been supported with "conventional currencies" since long before the name "blockchain" was even forged, and will hopefully continue to be. Talking about which, I always found the confusion between the blockchain technology itself and cryptocurrencies a very regrettable one. It would be damning if the huge potential of the blockchain was reduced to yet another tool for economic inequality and hardship. For a currency to be liberating, its users have to be able to easily understand how it works. How many people do you expect will level up to master Ethereum? The original thread provides a farcical illustration of that very serious point. In fact, looking at the https://trisquel.info/en start page, a discussion about euros and dollars sounds a much more relevant topic to Trisquel.

I think you might like this: https://jami.net/the-jami-blockchain-switches-from-proof-of-work-to-proof-of-authority