[2016-09-15] WSJ - ‘Mr. Robot’ Drags Bitcoin Into Its Dystopian Nightmare

[DooMAD]

As the show continues to examine hacking culture, the future of money has become an issue, too

*Spoiler Alert* - Don't read any further if you aren't up to date and plan on watching it.

*Highlight to read* For most of its two seasons, “Mr. Robot” has revolved around a plot to hack and destroy the global conglomerate E Corp. In last night’s episode, though, the plot flipped into a fight over currencies and power and a battle between bitcoin and a government-controlled alternative.

The scheme was dreamed up by Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer), the malignant E Corp. CEO, to turn his company’s digital currency, eCoin, into the equivalent of the U.S. dollar, as a way to fight bitcoin. What’s absolutely great about this is that it plays on not one, but two dystopian fears: the fears among corporatists and government officials that bitcoin is going to take over the world, and the fear among bitcoiners that their beloved cryptocurrency will be perverted into a tool of the very institutions they sought to disintermediate in the first place.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/09/15/mr-robot-drags-bitcoin-into-its-dystopian-nightmare/

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[a7mos]

I watched this episode and I believe this Idea can not work in real live. what would make people use a regulated cryptocurrency and leave all the freedom that bitcoin gave them?

[DooMAD]

I watched this episode and I believe this Idea can not work in real live. what would make people use a regulated cryptocurrency and leave all the freedom that bitcoin gave them?

I can easily foresee a situation where people would rather place their trust in something regulated.  Primarily because it's all they've ever known.  Plus people don't always realise that regulations aren't necessarily in place to benefit them.  Perhaps if there was better education around the fact that many laws are simply in place to reinforce an entrenched financial oligarchy that bleed us dry and expect bailouts when they fuck everything up, things might be different.  Public perception has to change before they learn to trust something unregulated, even if it would ultimately benefit them more.