By now most are aware of the United States government's attack on cryptocurrency. To say the Biden Administration is not a fan of it is an understatement. We are seeing a concentrated move to stifle the industry.
This has led to the creation of Operation Choke Point 2.0. It is a remake of a program instilled by the Obama Administration, which Joe Biden was a part of. The goal is to cut off cryptocurrency companies from the banking system.
The question is will it be effective? Before getting into that, let us look at what it is.
Operation Choke Point
This was a concerted effort early last decade to cut certain legal industries off from the banking system. The regulators did not ban doing business with companies in this industries. However, there was a clear message that any banks doing business with entities that dealt in forearms, gambling, or sex work was going to face ramifications.
Keep in mind, we are dealing with legal entities that the administration did not favor. Hence it used the regulators to basically destroy these industries. Of course, that is a bit overstated. What happened is they either went underground or move offshore. The gambling industry basically left the country.
Isn't it ironic that we now see gambling being advertised on professional sport telecasts?
Operation Choke Point 2.0 is a remake of this. The idea is to restrict access by cryptocurrency companies to banking services. As we are surmise, any company that can't gain access to banking services is hindered.
Thus, it is easy to conclude this will be effective. There is a major difference this time around.
We are dealing with cryptocurrency. Operation Choke Point targeted industries that sold their wares for US dollars. They were required to engage in the financial services network to transaction. Established payment systems were utilized as a part of doing business.
The difference here is this: cryptocurrency is money. There are built in payment systems inherent within blockchains. The most basic of banking services, storing, sending and receiving of money, can be done using thousands of different currencies. There are more than a dozen permissionless networks that businesses can use.
Wake Up Call For The Industry
We do have one flaw in the system. The established system is the on ramp into cryptocurrency. When people need to convert to or from fiat currency, engagement with the financial world is required. Here is where banks exert a great deal of influence.
This serves as a wake up call for the industry. For too long we fed the politicians and regulators the idea this is the same ole bull crap, nothing more than green candles creating FOMO. In other words, the idea this was just another Wall Street game was put forth by the industry.
The idea behind Operation Choke Point 2.0 has two goals:
- people need to convert their crypto to fiat
- the industry will have no value if fiat money cannot move into it and push prices higher
This is where the flaws in their thinking show through. Of course, the wake up call is how we make the premise they are operating under look foolish.
It is time for the clown show to end. What took place the last few years was a total circus. Now it is up to the builders to step up and take control.
This is how Operation Choke Point 2.0 will be a total failure.
Build Around Them
Whatever the establishment wants to do, we can counter it.
Go back to the premise of cryptocurrency. It is money that allows us to operate without the banking system. That was the main tenet that Satoshi Nakamoto was utilizing when Bitcoin rolled out. From this perspective, nothing has changed.
This means there is a simple answer to destroy the first goal:
We see this happening in place like Venezuela and Cuba. The first task is to simply create ways to acquire everyday goods and services using cryptocurrency. Ideally, for those on Hive, this will utilize the base layer stablecoin, the Hive Backed Dollar (HBD).
By accepting HBD as payment, shops can offer their wares while opening themselves up to a larger market. The key will be when those entities can start to pay some of their bills utilizing crypto.
The second goal is nothing more than a misguided belief. Cryptocurrency does not require a massive amount of fiat currency rolling in to increase prices. This is a Wall Street belief that puts itself at the center of everything.
We are dealing with technology that is operating online. The major value proposition here comes, not from money, but users. It is the network effect that creates the value.
Markets eventually reflect this. Therefore, the industry needs to truly focus upon the conversion to Web 3.0. This means not supporting the old platforms and moving as much as possible to the projects that are in this category.
Industry Shift
In my view, the industry was misguided over the last half decade. Most of what we saw was focused solely upon the Lambos, mooning, and get rich quick. We were dominated by centralized exchanges (CEX) while development of DEX languished. Liquidity pools are still under utilized as a service offered to the crypto public. Finally, crypto "influencers" all are sitting on Web 2.0, not even engaging with the Web 3.0 communities.
This is the state of the industry.
As long as we play the game utilizing their services, we will lose. Whether it is social media or the banking system, both need to be taken down. This starts with removing each transaction. One payment made using a cryptocurrency such as HBD is one not done using Visa.
This is how we start to tip the scales and counter Operation Choke Point 2.0.
After all, we have our own money.
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