Vitalik Buterin pfp
Vitalik Buterin
@vitalik.eth
The risk of politician coins comes from the fact that they are such a perfect bribery vehicle. If a politician issues a coin, you do not even need to send *them* any coins to give them money. Instead, you just buy and hold the coin, and this increases the value of their holdings passively. Furthermore, there is deniability: holding the coin is, in financial effect, a linear combination of donating to the issuer and gambling. Hence you can intend to do the former but when challenged claim that you are doing the latter. You can even hold the coin privately, and show that you are holding it to whoever; you do not need any zero knowledge proofs, you just send a test transaction. This is all risky to democracy, for reasons similar to what I wrote in https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/08/16/voting3.html and elsewhere. TLDR: the economic arguments for why markets are so great for "regular" goods and services do not extend to "markets for political influence". I recommend politicians do not go down this path.
22 replies
58 recasts
267 reactions
accountless.eth pfp
accountless.eth
@accountless.eth
politicoins polady
0 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
m_j_r pfp
m_j_r
@m-j-r.eth
considering the counterweight to plutocracy is sybil-resistant or market-based, can assembly/gathering coins counteract politician coins?
1 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
Chinmay 🕹️🍿 pfp
Chinmay 🕹️🍿
@chinmay.eth
Are you suggesting that all politicians are banned from launching memecoins? If so, how about lobbyists or news reporters? Where do we draw the line?
4 replies
0 recast
4 reactions
J. Valeska 🦊🎩🫂 pfp
J. Valeska 🦊🎩🫂
@jvaleska.eth
did not recognize you instantly with the new image and after reading first lines.. it was.. like.. who is this smart caster.. 😅 you are right, this is a very easy way to bribe them and they could create more complex schemas too where all the profit flows to the politic instead to a "decentralized" open pool.. hard to fight with that.. without a law.. but guess what, trump is not going to ban his own coin.. or create any law.. there is another extra point, what is the bribers threats the politic with sell the coin... this is not for small bribers but for big buyers I guess..
0 reply
0 recast
3 reactions
aferg pfp
aferg
@aaronrferguson
Yeah pretty clearly a very bad president
0 reply
0 recast
4 reactions
gogol on meth (🔵,🔵) pfp
gogol on meth (🔵,🔵)
@gogol
We need more people like you Vitalic, thanks for standing always in favour of the common sense.
0 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
Icetoad @ETHDenver 🍕 🎩 pfp
Icetoad @ETHDenver 🍕 🎩
@icetoad.eth
Well said. Such a disgusting trend that likely isn't going away any time soon. As if scams and drifting via memecoins weren't bad enough already. Sigh.
0 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
Abraham pfp
Abraham
@publiusjr
If I’m suppose to believe this is unique, I don’t. Pelosi just happens to develop the stock picking skills of Stevie Cohen? There is bribery right now. Biden used our tax dollars to bribe Ukraine. He tried to use our tax dollars to bribe people with student loans by forgiving them. The bigger issue is the third party payer effect. We certainly need rules and checks and balanced. Madison taught us that men aren’t angels. He went on to describe how ambition had to counter ambition because we could not expect to perfect man. The real fix, as the Founders told us was to have a religious society. That would get us closer to morality. And that’s the best we can hope for.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
KoceilaChougar.Eth pfp
KoceilaChougar.Eth
@koceilachougar.eth
True! 💯
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Delomiro pfp
Delomiro
@delomiro
Politician launching a memecoin – that's more or less okay. But the President of a large country? Now that's a bit questionable. Hopefully, every next President won't do it. That would be messed up.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
cryptok3sh.base.eth pfp
cryptok3sh.base.eth
@cryptok3sh
wow, this is kinda wild! mixing money and politics, what could possibly go wrong? 🤔 let's hope they keep it clean!
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Order Here pfp
Order Here
@orderhere
@invinciblejen oh wow, one possible reason why TRUMP coin flying high, a new mechanism for bribery
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
assayer pfp
assayer
@assayer
strongly disagree using crypto doesn't change anything at all legal bribing of politicians is a basic mechanism of oligarchic state it always was
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
gagnant.base.eth pfp
gagnant.base.eth
@boulanger
"This is a threat to our democracy"
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Adam pfp
Adam
@adam-
Agree with the dangers and the precedent set, and a net negative for the space. Having said that I feel it’s inevitable. The question then becomes, will there be lasting reproductions for those who use use it for this purpose? In America, not likely.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Brown pfp
Brown
@crimsonking
I had a “discussion” about this with my father. I worry about the future.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
jon pfp
jon
@jonbray.eth
it's obviously problematic in a lot of ways, but how are any of those things any worse than a politician holding any token? it seems that if anything, it's preferable for them to openly (or assumedly) have a branded token that way there's at least somewhere to look if you're investigating things like bribery especially compared to just holding a large percentage of any given long-tail token—particularly ones without a vesting schedule—where the financial effects on any individual investor or holder is magnified, price is easier to manipulate, and potential laundering is harder to track
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
highplains.base.eth 🎩✨🔴 pfp
highplains.base.eth 🎩✨🔴
@highplains66
America needs to overturn Citizens United asap! Everyone can agree on this.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Jeff Excell 🎩 pfp
Jeff Excell 🎩
@jeffexcell
Well put.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction