> How is that distinguishable from "What gives this place any spirit is sheisters.. Take that away by forcing <standard practices>"...
If there was any standard practice that could force sheisters to move elsewhere without negatively affecting the rest of us, I would stand by that policy 100%. Even within our standard systems, we tolerate a certain baseline level of fraud. Banks quite regularly work with fraudsters or worse and knowingly violate regulations (see: HSBC, Wells Fargo for high-profile cases). The regulated and the regulators appear to be somewhat cozy at times. But we accept this, perhaps because the value provided by these systems seems to outweigh their flaws.
As for cryptocurrencies: do they provide value to anyone besides the sheisters? Yes. Not everyone is convinced, but at least I can claim to have performed legal transactions with Bitcoin and Ethereum that I don't regret years later and that I wouldn't have done without those currencies, and that's enough to convince myself.
Would these things exist if KYC was strictly enforced on 03/Jan/2009? No. No, there would be no Bitcoin; it would be impossible to reach the audience which embraced it in 2009-2011. The ideas would likely not have spread beyond the cypherpunks, ideas which I personally think have enriched my life.
Should we put up a fight against scammers? Absolutely. Is KYC one way to do that? Yes, but please don't underestimate the cost (previous paragraph) nor overestimate its effectiveness (take a look at the list of coins on Coinbase and Robinhood -- both of which adhere to KYC -- and tell me that these are all things that a responsible company should be promoting to its average user).
If there was any standard practice that could force sheisters to move elsewhere without negatively affecting the rest of us, I would stand by that policy 100%. Even within our standard systems, we tolerate a certain baseline level of fraud. Banks quite regularly work with fraudsters or worse and knowingly violate regulations (see: HSBC, Wells Fargo for high-profile cases). The regulated and the regulators appear to be somewhat cozy at times. But we accept this, perhaps because the value provided by these systems seems to outweigh their flaws.
As for cryptocurrencies: do they provide value to anyone besides the sheisters? Yes. Not everyone is convinced, but at least I can claim to have performed legal transactions with Bitcoin and Ethereum that I don't regret years later and that I wouldn't have done without those currencies, and that's enough to convince myself.
Would these things exist if KYC was strictly enforced on 03/Jan/2009? No. No, there would be no Bitcoin; it would be impossible to reach the audience which embraced it in 2009-2011. The ideas would likely not have spread beyond the cypherpunks, ideas which I personally think have enriched my life.
Should we put up a fight against scammers? Absolutely. Is KYC one way to do that? Yes, but please don't underestimate the cost (previous paragraph) nor overestimate its effectiveness (take a look at the list of coins on Coinbase and Robinhood -- both of which adhere to KYC -- and tell me that these are all things that a responsible company should be promoting to its average user).