Bitcoin Forum

People argue about bitcoin.  Is it a currency, or an investment? Is it a speculative bubble, or is it here for the long run? What about Blockchain technology?  One thing is certain. Bitcoin is plugging the holes of the archaic financial system and providing real solutions for current problems.  One problem it solves is the banking of the unbanked.

Global leaders everywhere call for the pursuit of sustainable growth.  Financial inclusion is critical to any effort raise people out of poverty.  The poorest countries in world are severely underbanked.  However, we are now seeing 90 percent digital mobile penetration in these unbanked areas. While these spots may not be able to access traditional banks, they can access the blockchain from their phones. We see the decentralized dawning of a new era in financial systems.

You don’t have to look halfway around the world to see the effects of under-inclusion. In the United States, the FDIC recently found that 27 percent of US households were unbanked or underbanked. After the 2008 recession, banks closed the least profitable branches across the country. This left gaps for rural Americans without access.  Online banking was supposed to fill some of these gaps, but the high number of unbanked families persists.  Internet connectivity in rural homes in difficult.

The biggest banks globally are beginning to cite cryptocurrency as risk factors to their profit-driven business model.  JPMorgan Chase stated that, “…financial institutions and their non-banking competitors face the risk that payment processing and other services could be disrupted by technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, that require no intermediation.”  Right now, banks worldwide are racing to implement blockchain in attempts to stay competitive.  JPMorgan Chase is also saying, “Opportunities for banks to utilize blockchain technologies for conducting business could have far-reaching implications for the sector in our view.”

The unbanked both in the U.S. and globally face high fees that destroy their ability to save money.  Have you ever tried to cash a check at these so called “Check Cashing” businesses?  It is legalized highway robbery. Additionally, these poor folks often face insurmountable obstacles to obtain the credit that is needed to buy a home or start a business.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the solution! Because of distributed ledger technology known as the blockchain, digital currencies require no trust between parties.  They cannot be counterfeited.  The entire transaction history is completely transparent and mathematically proven.  Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a way for people and businesses to bypass the traditional banks and engage in direct commerce.  Any unbanked person with a computer or a smartphone now has the opportunity for greater financial inclusion!

Compared with the old archaic financial system, there are numerous advantages in cost and security. There are no fees to store wealth via bitcoin.  It takes very little time for funds to clear. The already low transfer fees for crypto continue to drop as the network protocols become more efficient, and the flat fees are the same regardless of the amount transacted or location of the recipient.  Instead of waiting days for transferred money or paying high fees to cash checks, blockchain allow for the seamless flow of payments.  This creates tremendous opportunities for people to access micro-lending.

The internet is a $4.2 trillion global economy.  If it were a country, it would be one of the five largest economies in the world.  Doesn’t it make sense that the digital economy would have its own currency?  Shouldn’t we remove physical barriers of exchange?  Companies like Walmart, Amazon, Kodak and Starbucks are set to explore blockchain payment systems.  It seems that no company in the world want to be left out of this growing opportunity.

America is at the crossroads, and hopefully the world stands with us. Some feel that we must regulate cryptocurrency, this could stifle innovation and slow growth. Many regulatory bureaucracies are products of the existing archaic system and fear they will be replaced by the new blockchain technology.  The U.S. guides the financial markets.  Regulatory harmony is extremely important.
Archaic banking systems have served us for decades, but they fail to include many people. We must stand for innovation and freedom!  Bitcoin must work without excessive government interference!  We are obligated to help the unbanked and the poor around the world.  They should be allowed the inclusion Bitcoin and crypto provide.  

As always, it's crucial to distinguish between regulation of the Bitcoin protocol itself and regulation of third party services that store peoples' bitcoins.  The protocol doesn't need regulation, but the services invariably do.  You don't achieve financial inclusion by exchanges and webwallets getting hacked and losing everyone's money.  As such, some regulation is unavoidable.  Exchanges, in a similar vein to banks, simply can't be trusted to operate without any fiduciary oversight.

On the one hand, we don't want regulation that's too restrictive, but on the other, services can't be left completely unsupervised if they act as custodians for any funds.  At least until further advancements are made with things like smart contracts, which, theoretically, may eventually negate the need for regulation if they prove to be sufficiently robust.  The key for now is finding a reasonable compromise.

And the good news is, it's incredibly difficult for anyone to apply regulations to the Bitcoin protocol itself.  That's not something we need to be overly concerned with.  Plus, any sensible government will know that criminalising its usage would only drive it underground, creating an even bigger problem for them.  It's in their best interests to play nice.  They definitely don't want us as an enemy.

Lastly, while it's true that we can clearly see the advantages for the unbanked/underbanked, it's worth remembering that they may not see things the same way yet.  Even if we're ready for them, that doesn't necessarily mean they're ready for us.  It may take some time for them to make the necessary adjustments in mindset.  Change on this scale isn't always as fast as we'd ideally like.  All we can really do is make it as simple and user-friendly as we can and let them come to us in their own time.

It's essential to get rid of Physical barriers to exchange, but it becomes possible only if regulatory bodies agree or accept for such a free market to co-exist with the existing banking systems. The true test of strength for Bitcoin would be its cross border transferability without having to worry about the TSA at the airport checking your luggage and laptops for any hidden paper money that you're carrying over a limit that has been specified or allowed. Also most of those companies are setting up blockchains to privately benefit themselves and only their customers, not necesarily a large proportion of the population. Like for example, Starbucks has its own cryptocurrency and this is okay for coffee buyers, and it kind of acts as a replacement for tokens or coupons that people buy to purchase coffee, but I'm not sure if people would exchange this token as much like Bitcoins would be exchange between people. These token based blockchain currencies are just similar to exchanging Amazon gift cards which is done is small amounts.

Mostly the need is felt for regulation of cryptocurrencies so that it can be continued to be freely used without having to worry about legal issues or jail terms. There needs to be a free market for crypto enthusiasts as this would help people maintain their personal privacy for the transactions that they make, as compared to making payments using their credit cards or the traditional banking system. Lets hope that regulation happens in a way that doesn't put barriers or extreme limits on crypto trades, and allows for a free market to prevail and traditional banks to realize its potential and to value peoples privacy.

I agree.  My concern is too is overregulation rather than common sense regulation.  There are unsavory elements such as money laundering and terrorism that must be addressed.

Also many of those people that are unbanked, are so because of choice.  However, the price they pay to do so is high.

Great point.  I hope the United States takes the lead on any regulations and remembers to value free market enterprise!  After all, we were founded on capitalism and commerce.

It is I think what you use for, some call it currency, some store of value like gold but it seems no matter whatever happens, as total market cap increases, it will increase too.

It's too soon to be fearful of overregulation because there was virtually no regulation to begin with. Honestly, can you trust any exchange right now with your money? You can't. Time will tell, we have to wait until, june, I believe when regulations are going to be proposed and enforced.

Bitcoin has been talked about lately. Being one of the most revolutionary digital transaction tools. Some now even use it as an investment, in the midst of such fluctuating value-tends to continue to increase. In the course of much debate about bitcoin, I'm sure the government even bitcoin users will accept bitcoin, many countries have legalized bitcoin, it's just a matter of time until bitcoin is received worldwide .

Its possible that regulations may turn out to be not so bad! Banks are regulated (Yes, they suck, but atleast there is a regulator who "claims" to be watching all of them).

Overall, I agree with the argument! Good stuff. And yes,...Bitcoin (or any altcoin) is required. Maybe not all of them will survive, but there is enough demand for them to sustain for a long period of time.

Isn't that inclusion is not the legal one or that is the point where we are actually getting stuck at. I mean when it comes to the use of bitcoin or rest of the currencies then there is no problem at all, anyone anywhere can start earning it and using it over the internet and through the blockchain. However at some point every business needs the financial support from the real world and when we will need to cash out the bitcoin into our bank accounts then how do you explain that one in first place? I mean there is no reason that we can put forth as banks will have legal bold no answer to our business. The article is nicely written but the end point again comes to the same point again, regulations cant be ignored all the time.

I watched an interview of Tim Draper last night (view here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTYruMPpZMU)) where he explained how important it is to not turn everything into a costly legal battle, which will definitely curb down the potential of new projects and services that can't emerge because of this, and thus not be able to positively impact the internal economy, which I completely agree with. Goverments should differentiate between the plenty of different aspects of this market. You can't just regulate the entire market in the same manner and expect it will be sufficient; the only thing you're doing is harm yourself as country, which is why I am happy that there are open minded countries out there looking to stimulate further growth. Freedom as stated by Tim equals wealth, firm and unfair regulations stimulate poverty.

I also like how he points out how Bitcoin is somewhat of a regulation itself, but then in the way that it regulates governments that will now have to compete with each other to offer us, the people, the best of the best. It's no longer we are operating at mercy of the government, but the government operating at mercy of the people, which is exactly how it should be. Almost everything he points out is spot on.

Governments competing to serve their slaves (can't think of a better term, sorry, we are their slaves), that's definitely something to look forward to. Their endless disrespect towards people can't continue for ever.

I am sure that they were expecting to continue like that for many more decades, but that time seems to be coming to an end, and rightfully so. I like how T.D. explains the difference between governments throughout the years.

It's no longer what can I do for you?, but what are you gonna do for me! T.D. definitely gained my credits, and looking around on social media, nearly all his videos and posts are extremely low on downvotes or dislikes.

He gained his credits rightfully everywhere on the internet, especially after his recent prediction. He is right now what Roger Ver was once. Thanks for sharing this video.

It's refreshing seeing a thread not being flooded with posts for once. The subject is probably too serious to participate in for a lot newbies compared to all the one liner OP threads.

You know, although I agree that governments can sometimes be quite corrupt, they aren't special, they are people like you and me, the only difference is power, the more power any human has the more prone he is to do bad things with it. You and me, we don't access to steal millions, for example, so we don't. An average person can only steal, I don't know, a shop at most. When you have more power, you also have the potential to do worse things and unfortunately a lot of people can't stop themselves from doing it.

We are slaves in a sense but at the end of the day, it's something needed, if no one was doing any job where would we be? I don't think most first world governments are trying to destroy cryptos with regulations and I don't think they have bad intentions and obviously the lack of experience with cryptocurrencies can be worrying but we have to start somewhere, don't we?

Well said mate, in addition to your thought they harshly regulate bitcoin because they think that bitcoin will their hardest competitor soon when it comes investing money or other possibilities, may be made by the bitcoin and cause of their defeat. The anonymous of bitcoin makes them confused and thinking that bitcoin users may deny their poverties and hide on this technology so there are many arguments regarding this currencies. The good asset of bitcoin will make bitcoin still exist in this world.

i totally agree with Tim, regulations will only stimulate poverty, freedom creates growth, thus, regulating bitcoin as a whole seems overrated, governments must focus only on the third party sector that is prone to scams and fraud and also affects users on their anonymity. bitcoin's system has efficacy, full of potentiality to build economic stability.

I dont think you would find many governments agree with the internet as its own juristication.  More that it is a shared space relying on various agreements in a UN like way.   The UN will never have its own currency so I dont think this is likely.  It would be considered a threat.

Many governments derive income from operating their own currency, its part of the tax system.   Inflation is often a result of budget deficits being funded by new money.   To remove this revenue from their books would not go down well.

However the IMF has mentioned the idea of floating a crypto currency, but I believe this would only be the case if US dollars were to fail especially from its current holding world reserve currency.    The current system has a non digital version called the SDR which is kinda similar to EURO, it partakes in the value of various existing currency.

I think somewhat differently on regulation. I don't want to differentiate between harshly regulate or moderate regulate just as now. Lets talk about regulation only. I believe that regulation will actually help crypto currencies to flourish instead of impacting its price adversely. The reason lies within the core of our society. We, humans are the God and Government fearing social animal. 90% of common mass won't do anything which is not permitted by their government. Not everyone is rebellious like us who would want to venture into unknown water. So if bitcoin or crypto currency in general is not regulated by a government, majority of its citizens will think it as an illegal asset and never invest or trade in that asset. So without regulation, we are actually seeing that a large number of potential investors staying out of bitcoin market. The same applies to the regulated financial institutions. 

On the other hand, if a government chooses to regulate bitcoin and roll-out a regulatory framework to its citizens, the common mass who are staying out of the bitcoin market will now start exploring it and put money into it. Regulated financial institutions will also start doing the same because they have the support of that regulatory framework rolled-out by their government. We will then actually see billions of dollars pouring into crypto market from common people as well as regulated entities. Because now they have legal cover. Regulation will actually help spreading positive vibes about bitcoin and other cryptos. If major economic superpowers start regulating bitcoin and crypto market in their country, we will actually see exponential growth of the crypto currency market.

Yes, i also think the same, the countries which are opposing it will realize their mistake soon. They will see that they are missing on a golden opportunity and thus rectify their decision.

Regulation of bitcoin exchanges is okay, however, I think when excessive regulation comes into play so that it can almost be regarded as a "crackdown" on all bitcoin activity is uncalled for completely, and you're right, it can indeed stifle bitcoin's adoption rates and make it difficult for people who need it the most to access it.

DooMAD presents this point perfectly, if there aren't regulated exchanges, then the pretty much all exchanges would be run on fractional reserve and have much more likelihood to scam you. However, if regulators decide that KYC rules have to be tightened up to the point that it's impossible for the average Joe to access the exchange, that's when problems arise.

I'm definitely against excessive regulation, but at the end of the day, we aren't the ones making the rules. The archaic system is making the rules here, and they obviously have a conflict of interest.

But the sticking point would always be what the governments would insist on having in return for giving us their blessings.  I can't see a scenario where they would universally accept Bitcoin as it is.  There are things they would naturally insist on curtailing.  It's likely the regulations they would impose would be viewed as unfavourable by the current crypto-enthusiasts we already have, so we'd possibly gain interest from new people at the expense of the old ones who might leave the space, disillusioned by a regulatory framework that potentially diminishes some of the qualities they value.  It's going to be more than a little tricky to find a compromise that would please everyone already involved, while still appealing to the masses.

Moreover, the moment anyone encounters a regulation they don't agree with, they'll start work on a new project to flout it.  So the governments of the world need to be on the same page as us and I think that's going to take a while.  It's going to be a game of whack-a-mole if they don't get regulation right.  It would still end up being "them" versus "us" if we can't agree on what form the regulations should take.  That's not progress.  If there is some sort of happy compromise in the middle, I'm not seeing it yet.

I almost feel sorry for the arduous task governments face in trying to deal with us.  Almost.  But then I remember the reason that this whole thing exists is almost entirely due to their own ineptitude anyway, letting the banksters run riot and destroying the global economy.  They couldn't be trusted to regulate the banksters, so what makes them think they're ready or even qualified to regulate us?  I'm happy to wait a while until they recognise their failings as plainly as we do.  Let them come to us with some humility once they figure out how badly they fucked the world.  Then maybe we can engage with them about what's good for crypto.  

They just aren't ready yet.

Bitcoin has been talked about a lot recently. It is one of the most revolutionary transaction tools. Some now even see it as an investment and this has been proven to be a good investment with the fluctuating value. It’s just a matter of time before it is used by almost everyone

Yes indeed!  Everyday I see new outlets for crypto currency.  It is amazing how fast we are growing! 

Indeed Bitcoin and hopefully other cryptocurrencies can do more than scratch the surface of this businesses and hopefully achieve more compared to what has done by other investments such as stocks and forex. The returns they are simply goving are not enough for this banks to do better returns for us. If they see that a lot of people are getting richer with cyrptocurrencies I thinm this will be the start to see them as a threat to their business. Hopefully the government is also on our side that when the time comes we are not the ones who are in danger.

Bitcoin should not be regulated!

Of course it shouldn't. But third party services do need to regulated to a certain point where it makes it safe for anyone using one of the regulated exchanges to be safe in storing funds with them (obviously, it's still best to store funds on the trustless bitcoin network anyways).

It should be noted though that these regulations shouldn't be a tool to restrict people from using bitcoin. Instead, it should be actually be keeping people safe by regulating ICOs, exchanges, etc.

There are many advantages which bitcoin offers to people that are currently unbanked, underbanked, or living in a country which a non-working fiat currency. And we are already seeing an emergence of these bitcoin users. These benefits are clear for me, but it does take time for adoption to catch on.

The extremely stable and durable bitcoin has nothing to discuss. But anything against the rules is not so important. In essence I find it does not affect anyone but also gives value to the community. That proves it is more and more trusted and respected in the market.