How many different ways is the EU going to destroy itself? It appears the leadership of the country is intent on total annihilation of the Eurozone.
It is bad enough that many are itching for World War 3. Now, we find out the EU might regulate Bitcoin out of the economic zone. This would not only affect Bitcoin, it would do the same for all blockchain based activities.
Here we have another example of where the EU leaders feel that reality should cater to their wishes, even if it is completely unrealistic.
As I stated on a number of occasions, the end in coming.
In this instance, the EU is ensuring that it is completely disconnected from the crypto industry.
The EU Could Ban Bitcoin
The world of crypto is a race. Many countries are vying to become crypto hubs. How this unfolds is still unclear. Nevertheless, even the United States is focusing upon making regulation more accommodating.
Then we have the EU. Their approach is the exact opposite.
At the core of this are private keys. The EU is concentrating so much on privacy that is seeks something unrealistic.
Paymium’s Alexandre Stachtchenko explained that if the current version of the EDPB’s guidelines on processing personal data through blockchain technologies is approved, bitcoin might become illegal in Europe. This is because the proposed ruleset identifies public keys as personal data.
If this goes through as written, deletion of the keys from the blockchain would be required. Naturally, this is not feasible since the data is immutably. Public keys are designed to be just that, public. It is an obvious part of the design.
Stachtchenko explains that, in the current draft subject to public consultation, the institution assumes that a public key might be considered personal data. This, as such, may be subject to deletion depending on certain conditions.
However, onchain data is immutable and cannot be deleted or modified due to technical unfeasibility. Similarly, Stachtchenko clarifies that the EDPB guidelines establish that data protection principles are “not negotiable.”
The last sentence could be very telling. If this is the position, crypto has little future across the EU. It will be a repeat of 30 years ago when the area was nowhere to be found regarding the Internet.
Today, notice how there are no companies like Amazon, Tencent, Google, or Meta in the EU. Internet success came from outside the area.
Crypto will repeat this situation.
Technological Dinosaurs
Move fast and break things.
This is the mantra of technological developers. While there is an apparent downside, it has led to some of the largest business successes we have seen.
We have more than 15 years of blockchain evolution. The industry grew and evolved over that time to the point where it is becoming an integrated part of the existing financial system. We have major institutions looking to crypto solutions as a replacement for SWIFT. This is just one example of how things are changing.
The EU is going to fight it at every turn. While many people complain about something like privacy, the reality is they do not care. Billions post their most personal details on Facebook or Instagram. In spite of the business models of these companies being well known, hundreds of millions flock to these applications each day.
Anyone who is paying attention realizes we are at an acceleration point. Things are getting faster.
Here is where the EU risks becoming a technological dinosaur.
China is marching ahead. The United States is trying to pull its head out of its hind end and get back into the game. Even smaller countries such as El Salvador are betting on a positive impact from crypto.
Crypto does not need governments to succeed. However, it might be that governments will have to rely upon crypto.
Statchenko stresses that data anonymization cannot be a solution to this conflict, as several regulations classify these transactions as high risk and even criminalize them.
Criminalizing Bitcoin and other crypto transactions is suicide in my view. We are dealing with a new technology. Blockchain is much greater than just financial (although you would not know it from the green candle people). It is a new architecture that changes has data is handled.
The EU doesn't like it and is going to regulate it as it sees fit.
By the time they realize the mistake, they will lack any competitiveness in the industry.