You might recognize that title from a great movie I watched growing up called Young Guns. It was a fun story loosely based on Billy the Kid and his band of "Regulators". Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Lou Diamond Phillips (names you might recognize) all starred in the tale of a group of young men out to avenge the wrongful death of their father-figure. This phrase became their battle cry as they rode around the Wild West chasing and being chased by the corrupt outfit who had killed him. It's worth a watch as Westerns usually age pretty well.
That phrase could also be used to describe what's beginning to happen in the world of crypto. With the #Terra/ #LUNA debacle, #FTX, #Ripple, #Genesis, and many more, the governments are getting more and more anxious to get their ropes around crypto to try and rein it in. Just this morning I read three articles back to back on CoinTelegraph talking about the "Howey Test", things crypto can "borrow" from TradFi, and ways it can become more transparent. I'm all for trying to punish bad actors and for making crypto a "safer" environment for people to delve into, but it seems to me this has the makings of swinging the pendulum way too far in the wrong direction.
What is "regulation" anyway? Good old chatgbt gave me an answer. Let's see how it did.
Regulation refers to the creation and enforcement of rules and guidelines by a government or other authority in order to control or influence certain activities or industries. These regulations can take many forms, such as laws, policies, or standards, and they can be designed to protect consumers, the environment, public health, or other interests. Regulations can also be used to promote competition, ensure fair trade practices, or prevent fraud or abuse.
Sounds pretty spot on to me. Hell, it even sounds like regulations are good things. And, in many cases, they are. For example, there are regulations for the levels of chemicals that can be in your drinking water. That's good, right? There are countless bad examples of what can happen to people if their water is contaminated. There are strict regulations on airplane parts and pre-flight checklists that must be done before every single flight. Also good. Air travel is considered the safest form of travel in the world. Fatalities from cars, trains, bicycles, even walking are far greater every year than deaths from plane crashes. There are many more examples of regulations that protect people. The medical field is filled with them. Construction, pharma, restaurants, you name the industry, there are regulations that go with them.
So why do so many people consider regulations a bad thing? Well, let's go back to our definition and see where the problems come in.
It says they are used "to control or influence" certain things and take forms such as "laws, policies, or standards" which can be designed to protect "consumers....or other interests". What we're talking about with crypto is not your run-of-the-mill regulation to protect grandma from losing her savings. The focus right now is not on the innocuous part of the definition. Let's take out a few words and pinpoint what the powers that be are actually trying to accomplish.
Using the same definition, they are trying to "...control...certain activities" through "...policies...designed to protect...other interests." I didn't even have to add any words. It's all right there in the definition.
You have to remember who's making these regulations. Our governments. The same people who time and time again have proven to be beholden to the people giving them the most money. "Get me elected and I'll get you paid." That's basically the mantra of every career politician out there. Regardless of where they came from, greed takes over as that's just how the "system" works. I'm sure there are many who start by saying they're going to play along until they gain enough influence to change things from the inside. But it doesn't work that way. Greed and power always seem to win.
Are these the people we want dictating the "rules" for crypto? Hardly. Crypto was invented to get out from under these people, not to let them take it over and corrupt it too. Make no mistake, this is an effort at control through policies for the betterment of "other interests", namely the legacy banking system. The rules that end up getting put into place (and believe me, they WILL put rules in place) will be designed to funnel the money into the chosen few cryptos Wall Street feels they can manipulate and control. They will NOT be designed to protect you and me. They'll say that they're for the common good, and they'll use their mainstream media puppets to beat it into everyone's brains, but they will be for one thing only: to reestablish control within the legacy system. Period.
Thank God for Hive. In reading those CoinTelegraph articles I didn't find one single instance of Hive being vulnerable to these regulations. I'm not an expert by any means, but the way Hive is structured leaves nothing for regulators to latch on to. They can regulate things all around it, but the blockchain itself was created in such a way that it is outside the scope of what they can go after. This is why everyone should be in Hive.
Over the last couple weeks I've read a few stories from Venezuelans using Hive and HBD in their daily lives. It works and it's coming. The benefits of owning and using both Hive and HBD are too profound to be ignored forever. I've said it before many times, quality rises. The quality and qualities of Hive are too good to remain undiscovered and unused for much longer. The more control governments try to exert, the more Hive becomes necessary. We just have to keep building and getting the word out.
Hive is the Way.
