Disclaimer: Nothing here condones the violation of the laws of your nation. It’s just the mad observations of a cartoon with internet access. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Despite the recent market plunge, cryptocurrency must be doing something right if governments are experimenting with regulation.
What’s even more interesting is the fact that Bitcoin is becoming a reflection of political affiliation.
To that end, governments are watching one another as each attempts to regulate or outlaw cryptocurrency. Over time they’ll refine their methodologies. At the end of the day, however, they’ll have no power to stop it just like they have no power to stop software piracy.
Lessons from The Pirate Bay
Piracy is something that cannot and will not be stopped by any government. It’s just the nature of peer-to-peer technology. Governments would have to shut down the entire internet in order for that to happen… and that’s not going to happen (“Meshnet… is that you?’). Instead, governments attempt to “regulate” piracy by punishing individuals within their arbitrary territorial borders rather than attacking the underlying technology. People are labeled criminals for doing nothing more than making and possessing a copy of software. That’s not to say that some governments haven’t made threats against other governments who “harbor” those evil pirates.
The best they can do at the moment is hunt down pirates by making threats against ISP’s to turn them over while running a fear campaign about the horrors of piracy and trotting out the billion dollar corporations who claim victimhood against their college-aged pirate oppressors (Is ten years in federal prison worth downloading the ‘Emoji Movie’? For some apparently, the risk is worth every byte [pun absolutely intended]).
Seeing as governments like China can be wholly thwarted with a decent VPN, it bodes well for the survival of cryptocurrency.
What will regulation accomplish?
If cryptocurrency, like piracy, cannot be stopped what purpose does government regulation serve?
The perception of control.
It’s the basis of their “power”. If you believe the lie, then they’ve, for all intents and purposes, control your mind. If they say cryptocurrency is bad, you will believe it. And seeing as most people have no idea what cryptocurrency is at this point in time there’s plenty of room for government to craft their message of fear upon the believing masses.
If you’ve been paying attention to the government-friendly MSM lately, here’s a short list of the reasons why cryptocurrency will ultimately be viewed like piracy:
• Bitcoin has no value and the “real” value lies in the blockchain
• Bitcoin is used by criminals, insinuating your criminal status for using it
• Bitcoin is a scam/fraud/Ponzi Scheme says some banker/economist/“expert”
• Bitcoin will crash to zero and it will end
• Bitcoin is the devil
• Bitcoin contributes to global warming
• Bitcoin is not money/currency/asset/property/commodity/investment
• Bitcoin will be murdered by governments... unless demands are met
• Bitcoin doesn’t have a future
Meanwhile… the government recently passed a tax bill which turned all crypto trading into a taxable event. I’m not quite sure how they can justify taxing something that they claim has no value.
So which is it? No value? Or has value?
Obviously, Bitcoin has value. All the crypto trash talk is just misinformation to get the masses ready to accept the official government explanation. The old financial institutions and the governments they’ve aligned with are feeding the public this garbage to make the average person accept whatever regulation the government doles out.
The future is going to be bleak for crypto shortly.
But let me reiterate that crypto isn’t going anywhere. It’s got a bright future. You, however, will NOT be a part of that crypto future unless government let’s you. “Use the official crypto or you’re a criminal.” That’s how it’s going to work.
They aren’t going to let go of their fiat without turning every single one of us into criminals. It’s basic central banking 101.
So… how about all those predictions about 2018 being the year of privacy coins, huh?