Bitcoin Forum

In the U.S., financial regulators are at a loss when dealing with cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are unable to perform their regulatory duties.

https://bitcoinist.com/financial-regulators-are-unable-to-control-the-crypto-market/

"regulators are unable to exercise control over the ever-growing cryptocurrency market because obsolete existing legislation gives them only limited power"

After read it in that article just made me think about that maybe they are unable to control it, but they will find a way, even if it needs to be modified to "control" it, over time, im pretty sure about it, if they need to modify something to their own benefit, then, there is no problems ....

Well, regulators can't control it because the regulations are outdated and/or non-existent. It's like when you play Civilization, if you can't keep up with your opponent's research and technology, you're going to find yourself fighting their tanks with swordsmen and archers. Modern regulations are going to help regulators in a huge way in this respect.

The Europeans seem to have the more pragmatic and sensible approach.  ESMA, which are vaguely analogous to the SEC, recently said (https://news.bitcoin.com/esma-ban-blockchain-considers-regulation-premature/) regulation is "premature" and that they need more time to assess things (Translation: they can't see an immediate and obvious way to regulate crypto).  It's a blatant stalling tactic because they can tell it's a bit like trying to regulate P2P filesharing but even harder.  If you think about it, that's almost an acknowledgement of the near futility of trying to regulate it.  

The ECB went even further, basically saying it's nothing to do with them (https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-ecb/ecbs-draghi-says-not-his-job-to-regulate-bitcoin-idUKKCN1FX1PW).  They regulate fiat.  That's the limit of their job description and they know it.  It's clear they're pretty much powerless to regulate Bitcoin in any meaningful way, so they're not even going to try.  

The SEC, however, are a bunch of loudmouth dumbasses and can keep banging their heads against a wall for a while longer until the obvious fact sinks in that they're not going to have much luck.  The only things that need regulating are shady ICOs, the services that deal in fiat and any services that hold customer funds.  Those are the only weak points in crypto (or not necessarily in crypto itself, but the stupid things people freely choose to do with their crypto) that need tightening up.  Beyond that, you can't regulate shit.

The article seems to suggest that the reasons financial regulators are unable to control the crypto market is because of the absence of legislation. Even if laws are framed and regulators are given the power, it will take some time before the regulators get a handle over things (if at all it is possible). Telephone and internet service providers aren't governed by rules framed to regulate telegrams, new laws were formed. But due to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, it might be difficult to control them.