Gary Gensler is done.
While this might not be official, it seems evident that Joe Biden is not going to have another 4 years. This puts the Democratic nominee up in the air. Whomever it is, the days of Gensler are likely coming to an end.
Is it possible that, if the Democrats win the White House again, the new President would keep him on? Certainly. However, with the rise in popularity of crypto as compared to 4 years ago and the pressures being put on him, it is probable that a change is in order.
Here is where we see the procedure of government in action. There is little dispute that Gensler was not favorable to crypto. At the same time, there were some major setbacks.
The regulatory agencies are still trying to hold on. They believe they are in control of this and have power over it. With each passing month, this is becoming evident they do not.
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Government Arrogance
Governments have a very high opinion of themselves. This stems from the fact that, for many centuries, their power was unrivaled.
When we look at the world today, a number of factors are pushing against that. To start, when dealing with a global environment, governments are pitted against each other. This means we are seeing activities move to jurisdictions that are more friendly.
The second component is speed.
Governments are slow. Even when they have a crucial item, it takes a long time. The US Congress has been dealing with stablecoin legislation for almost 2 years. There is still nothing passed.
Another piece of the puzzle is the concept of being able to control or direct things. Over the last few decades, we see this is nonsense. Look at the number of economic events that government were supposedly regulating and overseeing. The Great Financial Crisis was caused by the banks. Aren't they regulated? Do we not have an ever growing body of rules and laws for them to follow. Yet we keep getting the same results.
The reality is that technology is making governments less relevant. As stated on a number of occasions, governments are not designed to deal in the digital world.
Cryptocurrency Expanding At Paces Unforeseen
What is cryptocurrency?
This is something that few consider. When we strip it down, it is nothing more than data. It is tracked on a ledger that is housed on a network system called blockchain.
Let us consider the implications.
We are dealing with data and networks. This is the basis for cryptocurrency. Governments are trying to content with these in the 2020s. Has anyone noticed the pace with which technology is expanding?
Many question how fast crypto is being adopted. From an end user perspective, this is valid. It also is not relevant at the moment.
What is crucial is the pace with which innovation, development, and utility is being rolled out. Like all in the digital realm, it is exploding. The amount of compute tied to crypto is only getting larger. More data is being driven, providing the economic baseline that is so common today.
There is also the entry of TradFi into the space. This is provided a powerful marketing and awareness mechanism that did not exist before.
Then we have artificial intelligence. AI is going to be interwoven into everything online. Crypto networks are no different. We are going to see this utilized in gaming, social media, entertainment, and other online activities. Again, we see the acceleration of activity to degrees not seen in the past.
Cryptocurrency: More Than Just Money
The main issue as I see it is that cryptocurrency is viewed only as money. While this is the primary use case, it is not relegated to that. In fact, it will likely be secondary going forward.
Cryptocurrency can have much greater utility. For example, one major use case is access. Tokens or coins can provide access. This can be to the network or certain features on an application. It can be incorporated into gaming.
In other words, while there is the value aspect it, crypto is much bigger than this.
We also have the fact that computer tokens are nothing new. Actually, it is the basis of our digital world. These first appeared in the 1970s providing access to mainframe computers. With the introduction of the Internet, they became crucial for securing e-commerce and other online transactions.
Governments view this simply as money instead of the core essence of the online world.
Effectively, if we are looking at this as a race, we are looking at the pace of the Internet versus governments. We see tokens being used to describe chatbots, with something being an "x token model". How fast is that sector advancing?
This all boils down to how quickly is development taking place? Governments tend to be reactionary, simply due to the pace they operate. Technology does not take vacations or time off. The global development community is always working.
Each day, there is progress, making the system larger and more advanced from the day before.
This is true regardless of the metric. Look at data, nodes, compute, transactions, or algorithms. Everything is growing.
It is also fragmenting.
Blockchains ensure not everything is under the same configuration. The major of what we see is still the traditional client-server model. Blockchain is, however, changing this. Here is where governments are not addressing the shift (if it is even possible).
The point being is we are dealing with a structural change that enters us in a new realm. Consider this the next time some politician states about what the government is going to do.
My theory is we are seeing the foundation for the disruption of a long time industry: government.
New governance models will emerge, those designed for the digital realm. After all, cryptocurrency itself was created in this realm.
It existed in no other.
That is what governments are having to contend with. My money (crypto or otherwise), is on the technology community.