jibbist

Crypto and blockchain is tech coming up with a solution that no one asked for. Blockchain is just a database that is (at best!) extremely energy inefficient. Trust comes from the same sources (brand, marketing, advertising, social cues), it being on a blockchain does not magically generate trust.

And crypto’s biggest strength as an uncontrollable and decentralised store of wealth ignore the fact you can only buy and sell it on marketplaces, which control and centralise it, so for nearly everyone involved it’s a pyramid scheme, those at the beginning persuading new people to join to prop up their assets profits

You need to free yourself from your parents basement and touch grass

I’d say that there’s a scale

‘pirating’ an abandonware PC game that has long been left by the original devs, and isn’t for sale anywhere legally - this is still illegal under most laws, despite their being no legal routes to buy it at all legally. Most sane people don’t think this is unethical.

But downloading a hacked version of an app or game developed by a tiny independent team that truly care about the product, and invest the profits back in it - I say that this is unethical, as the people you are stealing from are directly affected by your actions. If you bought this game or app, your money goes directly to them, and they are more likely to keep developing other things.

Adobe, MS and the like have billions, so piracy has less of a direct impact on them -

So yeah, for me it’s a scale of ethical piracy - and you have to draw the line where you feel comfortable