What Exactly is Crypto?

Macrobius

Megaphoron
As far as I can tell the underlying 'asset' is two numbers -- a public key and a private key, along with some other data.

If Crypto is an 'unregistered security' it would be hard to say why the 'SSL certificates' used in web transactions are not as well -- they are almost identical as 'physical things' (bits of data and metadata, with remarkably similar structure), except in the context of the transactions they participate in.

Seems like some sort of fallacy of false reification to me.

Of course, in the end, 'Federal Reserve Notes' are just notations of a liability of the Central Bank. So there's that.


Here's a puzzle for anyone who thinks they understand Bitcoin: does your bitcoin wallet 'hold' anything besides your keys? How does it know how much is 'in it'? (I mean, how many Satoshis not the current valuation in USD which is given only in exchange).

For example: if you look in your real world wallet, you can see if there is any money in it or not, and if so, how much. So here is my question: does your Bitcoin Wallet record its balance or not?

It makes sense that a BTC wallet can be empty (have a zero balance) -- but can it go into the red? I can put IOU memoranda in my real wallet. In fact it is rather full of them -- Federal Reserve Notes are just such notations of a debt someone ... me actually ... owes to myself. 'We owe it to ourselves'.

If the number isn't in the wallet, how does the system know how many coins you have?

A stock certificate defines how many (nominal) shares are owned by the holder. Your BTC wallet does no such thing.

If there is nothing in my BTC wallet, what exactly is it 'security' for and why? Same question for a Domain Name and its 'SSL certificate'

What is crypto? Some keys used in cryptography. No single 'certificate' representing ownership of anything in particular changes hands. The blockchain is an abacus -- a device for doing a particular (well-defined and valuable) sort of calculation, in the context of a barter exchange.
 
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Gawn Chippin

Arachnocronymic Metaphoron
Foreskinner shanannigans, wunce again: Eyebawl scans rewarded with Wörldcoin:


... "Visit the Orb or the Orb will visit you..."...

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