-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 11/10/2016 01:17 PM, jim bell wrote:
Governments killed an estimated 240 million people in the 20th century. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide , although this article does not cite the figure 240 million; I recall the figure from elsewhere.)
If you consider that to have been an unacceptable number, then I think you need to try to explain away any system that claims that it has the "horsepower" to stop such slaughter. If anything, the only criticisms I have heard of AP is that it would be TOO effective, not that it would not be powerful enough to get rid of the governments that kill. (And, ultimately, ALL governments.)
As with most elegant solutions to real world problems, the sticking point with AP is implementation. It requires anonymous payment protocols that are themselves "bullet proof", and would have to weather counter-attacks by a ruling class whose financial resources and ability to affect major infrastructure changes are astronomically higher than common sense would suggest. Bounties for killing the operators of an AP system, offered through more old fashioned means, would be extraordinarily high - requiring bullet proof anonymity in the presence of uber-motivated adversaries with global network surveillance capabilities. The betting pool itself would alert potential targets to take proportional defensive measures, which "at best" would inhibit the social progress promoted by the system. But other than that... :o) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJYJMcqAAoJEECU6c5Xzmuqr78IAL5LxsbtDLnG1NUXcW7G+5uO rNR/I5ae3059RQW+EwdoWWRlWXcZvd3qUTMietYWgLeYBs+VyaMZKra1VUn5ySb1 pTkSpXKSwKTUoVQJWQq/E2Iem7XrZE4waqe8DzgRPqQG4A8UvvrFSayJdBmtsPKV garNPvt7SdXdcv7Z4FvPvd/gp5dythHdI8hyVyUmYfDGI/bJGWhgjf/DdAlBC3y3 HbhudFXTSfrDPORRSVv0FHdS7GE6K4hcVDoqfn/VGexS/IlGeKckzD7eSyaaGC+H t0mngPVCfIU+ZO0v75RDDtPt78GaulprkdZ1DZmfOICteCkjSTwMT0F0s7cFL+M= =hjwy -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----