I've been saying for a while now that I really feel like the FCC and the SEC are pretty much the same thing. Remember not so many years ago when the whole idea of net neutrality came out. From 2012 to 2021 there was a jack-off (yeah I said it) named Ajit Pai who was single handedly making sure the Internet was inaccessible and locked down to pretty much everyone.
Sounds familiar right?
On the SEC side of things we now have Gensler who is waging a one man war on all things crypto. It's actually not that surprising that suddenly there would be some overlap between the two things.
I wrote this post yesterday about some new features that Google is rolling out for subscribers. I had made a comment about Google not being very good at keeping your data private and that brought up some really good discussions in the comments. You should really read them if you get the chance.
Anyway, fast forward a couple of hours and I see the announcement that the government is working on passing a bill that would effectively make VPN's illegal.
Whether this is a push by the SEC as part of operation chokepoint 2.0, or just a distraction from the gun debate in the wake of another mass shooting... who knows.
Make no mistake, this is definitely an attack on our privacy and while the idea of Google knowing everything about me didn't bug me so much, this kind of got my blood boiling.
I mentioned in that same post yesterday that I subscribe to Nord VPN. I know there are cheaper ones out there and I know there has been some debate, but the main thing that drew me to Nord was the fact that it is an industry leader, they have a lot of servers I can connect to, and they supposedly don't keep logs.
For the most part, I use my VPN when I am travelling and I have to connect to a public wireless network. Say I am in a hotel and I don't have my hotspot or the signal for my hotspot is really week. That isn't to say I haven't used my VPN for one or two less than legal uses in the past.
Of course, the proposed legislation hasn't even passed, but the penalties they are talking about with this thing should be enough to give anyone pause. Something like a minimum of $250,000 fine and years in prison. It's pretty clear they have some specific targets in mind based on those penalties.
It almost feels like the war that was waged on illegal music downloading back in the day by the record companies. It makes you wonder if they are just going to cherry pick a few individuals or organizations to shake down in hopes that everyone else falls into line.
The good thing is, if this goes the same way, history shows us how that worked out for everyone.
This is just one of those things though that the longer I think about it the more it bugs me. It feels like a very personal and directed attack on us. Something that the US should never even be considering if the tenants of the nation are truly what they claim to be.
I know, I know, look at me with all of my misguided patriotism and the idea that my home country really was founded on something great. At least a sliver of a dream that we are somehow doing a 180 on.
As much as I want to say screw the man and keep using my VPN no matter what, I have a family to take care of, so I don't know if I can afford that luxury. The good news is, with most centralized exchanges requiring KYC, using my VPN to access them has become a moot point over the last couple of years.
Moving most of my holdings to decentralized chains is looking to be the smarter course.
Ultimately, I really hope the brakes get pumped on all of this ridiculousness. Across the board. We are at a place where we can't afford to make many more wrong turns.
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