As confidence in Bitcoin surges, I've noticed a lot of governments around the world talking about "regulating" it. I am very skeptical about this. I do not think Bitcoin and cryptos in general, have a strong enough hold on the world population to make me feel happy with governments becoming involved yet.
Why is that? Well, firstly, governments are all greedy and highly inefficient. Thier involvement in the currency would only serve to make it less appealing. They will try to "regulate"( a word I'm seeing a lot relating to Bitcoin these days) which can only mean one thing, TAXES. Yep, they may talk a pack of ass about laundering and all that stuff, but really and truly, they just want to steal a share of the profits.
One of the benefits that people believe will come from governments adopting and regulating Bitcoin is legitimacy. But what does that even mean? It's real enough to me already, and many people that have made significant amounts from it. It's legitimate to people that use it to conduct trade deals with much lower fees, it's legitimate to users like me using steemit, trying to cash out a little earnings to buy weed or some other important commodity.
Centralization does not mean legitimization and Bitcoin does not need mainstream approval by governments, if it got that, it would no longer be what it was meant to be. Bitcoin needs to regulate governments, not the other way around.
I can understand that making Bitcoin more Legitimate would encourage more Fiat rich investors to join, but I can also see how the regulations that come with regularizing the currency would make it less like itself, which will diminish interest in it immediately. Bitcoin is popular because of its decentralized nature and the ability of just about anyone with two peas for brains to make profits off of it. Changing that will change the very thing that made it successful in the first place.
Bitcoin's major appeal is its decentralized nature. With regularization by governments, a lot of its decentralized qualities will be lost. For example, its ability to be traded back and forth freely on trading sites like Bittrex. With regularization, it's likely that sites like these will be taxed heavily based on their daily earnings, which will cause them to increase fees to the users.
This will make it less attractive for small traders and even medium ones. The daily trade of Bitcoin will mostly likely halt or only be viable for large holders. Bitcoin will no longer be appealing to the majority of the world population. The likely outcome of this is that there will be no difference in keeping your assets in Bitcoin or in banks since, in both instances, you are likely to be charged fees on what you own while you make nothing at all, just like when u keep your money in a bank.
This is a personal opinion and I hold strongly to it. Some may even wish to brand me as a communist and that's okay. I believe in a free world and the current Fiat driven world is anything but free. The fact that without money, you are cut off from many things in life, means that we do not live in a free world. It is more accurate to say we live in a ''pay' world.
While observing life in general, I have noticed that many wealthy persons, not only make a lot more money than they will ever need, I get the impression that they believe that persons who are not wealthy, should not make easy money the way they do. As a result, our world is laden with restrictions, requirements, and regulations that must be bought before you can make an entrepreneurial foot step forward.
It's like price discrimination in a club. I'm sure we have all been to places that sell beers for three times as much as they are sold for on the outside. I have also been to places that sell beers only a dollar or two higher and are just as enjoyable to hang out in. The difference? In the first example, you will only find people of a certain economic group there because only they can afford it, while the latter example is where all the fun happens.
I have no problem with the price discrimination practice, people can do whatever the ass they want with their assets. My problem lies with the parroted phrase that " we live in a free society" when, without money, you realize just how not free it really is. This is what I see happening to Bitcoin. When governments regulate it, it will become impossible for persons without significant amounts of money to get in and make real profits.
Just like in real life right now, if you can't afford a huge business start-up, or an expensive degree or training, you will probably never make it rich. The persons born with a lot of money, despite how stupid they may be, will always be successful. Regularization will mean that I could never have Bitcoins like I do now since I don't have a recognized job and I have no ability to provide a job letter.
Things like job letters and declaration of funds will become requirements to be able to trade, which means that many people in the world will be cut off, just like they already are. Bitcoin would have become a crypto exclusively for the wealthy, just like most of the sought after things in life.
