I think a lot of people that are in the cryptocurrency space, believe that if we become reputable enough, the government wont step in and try to stop user growth. The problem with ideology is cryptocurrency is more than likely, a net negative for governments. If we look at a currency like bitcoin, it pulls away money, which in return pulls away monetary policy from the Fed and other organizations. The government isnt just going to let this happen. The entire debt based model that governments use today, only works with inflationary currency, which is why the fed targets a small amount of inflation a year.
The United States isnt even that bad compared to other countries, where citizens will do anything in order to get their money out of a local currency. Governments that rely on citizens buying into the current system, or not being able to leave the current system, are going to be the first to step up, like we have seen. Theres a reason why places like China have taken a stance against cryptocurrency. However, there is a much bigger threat looming than just keeping people in the system.
If there comes a time where full anonymous payments become possible with bitcoin (there will be in the next few years), governments are essentially going to lose out on a massive amount of tax dollars. If people flock to anonymous currencies with large liquidity, many are not going to pay taxes. We can believe that people will do the right thing, but the majority probably wont, especially if they believe the taxes are too high. This is precisely the reason that the recent bill was brought up which would make it illegal to not disclose cryptocurrency ownership. The government would not be able to function without being able to tax high net worth individuals who seek to hide their assets.
To the government, they want the system to stay the same. Technological change is a variable that is not something they greet with open arms. They want to rely on what has worked for them in the past, inflate the currency, push people to the stock market, increase stock prices, which benefit companies, continue. The government probably doesnt really even want you to own gold, but they are fine with it as long as it remains hard to move, store and transfer securely and as long as a large amount of people are investing in it.
If we see the day where cryptocurrencies overtake the value of gold investment, there might actually be an economic revolution on how mainstream governments work. However, no matter how proactive a government is, or how forward thinking they are, I would still expect them to crack down in some way or another. I would expect at the least almost all governments to follow suit with making it illegal to not disclose the amount of coins you own. The higher the price rises as well, the more governments are going to take interest.
-Calaber24p
