<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>gary_0</author><text>&amp;gt; In authoritarian states this is probably a net good&lt;p&gt;Crypto doesn&amp;#x27;t fix the problem with authoritarian states (or the drug war, or backwards prostitution laws), though, it&amp;#x27;s just another workaround. There&amp;#x27;s no shortcut around actual social change.&lt;p&gt;And the idealistic notion that crypto could allow mass civil disobedience didn&amp;#x27;t really pan out; these days, &amp;quot;civil disobedience&amp;quot; is usually too marketable and monetizable for it to not get co-opted by scamvangelists and corporations (which reminds me of the Black Mirror episode where they monetize the guy&amp;#x27;s suicidal protest against everything being monetized).</text><parent_chain><item><author>UncleMeat</author><text>This really is the key thing. Crypto allows for the evasion of laws. That&amp;#x27;s its key contribution. In authoritarian states this is probably a net good. In the rest of the world this is a harm.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The killer app for this technology is crime.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>vaxintar</author><text>Thanks to Ethereum (and specially now that there are L2s which have cheaper tx costs) I can distribute revenue from my business between different types of collaborators, without incurring in paying 120% in taxes for having &amp;quot;employees&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;In Argentina if someone works for you more than 15&amp;#x2F;20 hours in a given month you are legally obliged to hire them for, at least, 3 months.
The legislation doesn&amp;#x27;t fit in tons of cases, and led the country to over 35% of working people outside the legal framework.&lt;p&gt;Crypto gives people living in dysfunctional democracies a chance to participate in the global economy, something that people living in Europe or North America cannot comprehend.&lt;p&gt;And don&amp;#x27;t even get me started on why ownership of your money is important but if you are willing to read take a look at this: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Corralito&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Corralito&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>Nearly 14 years in, where exactly is this “ton of real world utility”?&lt;p&gt;Surely someone somewhere would have a product providing this utility, even amidst the sea of fraud and grift. I still don’t see it.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Some&lt;/i&gt; utility? Okay, sure. A ton? Not even close. Consider that the web launched in 1993. By 2007 (14 years later), virtually the entire planet had changed dramatically as a result. &lt;i&gt;That&lt;/i&gt; is a technology with a ton of real world utility.</text></item><item><author>sickofparadox</author><text>Cryptocurrency was (and still is to an extent) a really interesting idea that has a ton of real world utility, especially as government surveillance continues its march towards panopticon. It&amp;#x27;s a shame that the &amp;quot;get rich quick&amp;quot; grifters and speculators took ahold of it and have killed any chance of normal people adopting it as a regular form of payment.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Binance US No Longer Allows USD Withdrawal for Users</title><url>https://thenewscrypto.com/binance-us-no-longer-allows-usd-withdrawal-for-users/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>vaxintar</author><text>&amp;gt;in the rest of the world is a harm&lt;p&gt;Have you ever considered what might happen if that distant, authoritarian state suddenly appeared within your country? It has happened many times before, and I don&amp;#x27;t see why we should think it won&amp;#x27;t happen again.&lt;p&gt;Things turn around faster and faster as technology progresses, at least from my perspective</text><parent_chain><item><author>UncleMeat</author><text>This really is the key thing. Crypto allows for the evasion of laws. That&amp;#x27;s its key contribution. In authoritarian states this is probably a net good. In the rest of the world this is a harm.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The killer app for this technology is crime.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>vaxintar</author><text>Thanks to Ethereum (and specially now that there are L2s which have cheaper tx costs) I can distribute revenue from my business between different types of collaborators, without incurring in paying 120% in taxes for having &amp;quot;employees&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;In Argentina if someone works for you more than 15&amp;#x2F;20 hours in a given month you are legally obliged to hire them for, at least, 3 months.
The legislation doesn&amp;#x27;t fit in tons of cases, and led the country to over 35% of working people outside the legal framework.&lt;p&gt;Crypto gives people living in dysfunctional democracies a chance to participate in the global economy, something that people living in Europe or North America cannot comprehend.&lt;p&gt;And don&amp;#x27;t even get me started on why ownership of your money is important but if you are willing to read take a look at this: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Corralito&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Corralito&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>Nearly 14 years in, where exactly is this “ton of real world utility”?&lt;p&gt;Surely someone somewhere would have a product providing this utility, even amidst the sea of fraud and grift. I still don’t see it.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Some&lt;/i&gt; utility? Okay, sure. A ton? Not even close. Consider that the web launched in 1993. By 2007 (14 years later), virtually the entire planet had changed dramatically as a result. &lt;i&gt;That&lt;/i&gt; is a technology with a ton of real world utility.</text></item><item><author>sickofparadox</author><text>Cryptocurrency was (and still is to an extent) a really interesting idea that has a ton of real world utility, especially as government surveillance continues its march towards panopticon. It&amp;#x27;s a shame that the &amp;quot;get rich quick&amp;quot; grifters and speculators took ahold of it and have killed any chance of normal people adopting it as a regular form of payment.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Binance US No Longer Allows USD Withdrawal for Users</title><url>https://thenewscrypto.com/binance-us-no-longer-allows-usd-withdrawal-for-users/</url></story>