Do you believe that Bitcoin can survive government intervention and regulation on a global scale?
I have never seen global collaboration between countries on regulating anything.
So, if the governments of the world can’t get their asses into gear to deal with global warming, which is literally an existential threat to the tiny little blue lifeboat we are hurtling through the cosmos on… do you think they will get together and agree on Bitcoin? Especially when, strategically, they are all thinking: “If Bitcoin does well, then I am fucked!”
Here is the caveat in global elites way of thinking: “But those guys will be more fucked than me! Maybe, if we let it happen, it will cause them to have a currency problem before it causes us to have a currency problem… and that is how we win!”
I am not joking about that. I am pretty sure that would be the kind of calculation you would see in many countries, who are thinking about whether Bitcoin should be regulated.
Here what I think about regulations: If they regulate it, so what? What will they do, threaten people with death if they use bitcoin? They already do that in some countries. Guess what people will do? They will use bitcoin, and then when the policeman comes, they will bribe the policeman in bitcoin. And up the chain it goes… until the head of state is stuffing a wallet full of bitcoin.
The bottom line is that, in countries where the rule of law matters, money is a form of speech. Freedom of association and expression protect political expression through currency. In the United States, that was the result of a Supreme Court decision on “Citizens United,” which said you can’t regulate campaign contributions because money is speech.
In countries where the rule of law matters, if you pick that fight head-on with Bitcoin, and we will take it all the way to the Supreme Court. Do you know how many lawyers Marc Andreessen can hire?
The problem is, the governments may lose. Losing on a decision that says “Bitcoin is protected speech” is much worse than the status quo, which is kind of grey. So that is unlikely to happen.
In countries where Putin is the rule of law… “Ban Bitcoin!” they can say. And nobody gives a damn. “Bitcoin is evil!” Really, you say it is evil? I better look into this… Because every time you say something is evil, it is usually good for me and bad for you, and I don’t like you.
This is happening in Venezuela right now. They are going like: “Bitcoin is the currency of terrorists, pedophiles, extremists, and criminals! P.S. Please don’t pay attention to our 550% inflation rate! P.S.2 Please leave your money in the national currency of the national bank… and go with us to the bottom, as hostages of our insane policies.”
And what is the “very tiny” percentage of technically literate people in Venezuela thinking right now? Hmm, I should look into this Bitcoin asap!
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