The Feds Are Terrified Of Cryptocurrencies... But They're Powerless To Stop Them

[tyz]

The federal government is no match for innovation. This is something lawmakers have always known, and it is the reason state and federal regulations exist. But innovation, by its very nature, will always find a way around those regulations, resulting in the implementation of more regulations for creative minds to learn to evade — which they will. This results in the over-regulation we see in America today.

Nothing scares the government more than something it can’t control, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed this week that it is terrified of cryptocurrencies — as well it should be. See, all those lawmakers and bureaucrats sitting around regulating everything depend on taxpayer money to pay their salaries so they can keep writing regulations. Since cryptocurrencies allow people to keep all of their money, this is a big problem for the lawmakers. Soon, people may even start to realize they can buy, sell, and trade freely without any government intervention. The horror.

Zerohedge

[1714998056]

1714998056

[deisik]

The federal government is no match for innovation. This is something lawmakers have always known, and it is the reason state and federal regulations exist. But innovation, by its very nature, will always find a way around those regulations, resulting in the implementation of more regulations for creative minds to learn to evade — which they will. This results in the over-regulation we see in America today.

Nothing scares the government more than something it can’t control, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed this week that it is terrified of cryptocurrencies — as well it should be. See, all those lawmakers and bureaucrats sitting around regulating everything depend on taxpayer money to pay their salaries so they can keep writing regulations. Since cryptocurrencies allow people to keep all of their money, this is a big problem for the lawmakers. Soon, people may even start to realize they can buy, sell, and trade freely without any government intervention

The truth is out there

So what are you doing here? Just one day short from a year ago, I asked people if 70 million dollars (or somewhere around that number) that got stolen at Bitfinex back in the day was enough to go for a decentralized exchange working on the blockchain level. Most people (if not all) agreed that it was more than enough. Nothing has been done so far, though, and it seems that we should have waited until the government finally decided for an ultimate offensive against cryptocurrencies. Is this not enough to actually implement blockchain exchanges now when we have the technology for close to real time transactions?

[yoseph]

The federal government is no match for innovation. This is something lawmakers have always known, and it is the reason state and federal regulations exist. But innovation, by its very nature, will always find a way around those regulations, resulting in the implementation of more regulations for creative minds to learn to evade — which they will. This results in the over-regulation we see in America today.

Nothing scares the government more than something it can’t control, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed this week that it is terrified of cryptocurrencies — as well it should be. See, all those lawmakers and bureaucrats sitting around regulating everything depend on taxpayer money to pay their salaries so they can keep writing regulations. Since cryptocurrencies allow people to keep all of their money, this is a big problem for the lawmakers. Soon, people may even start to realize they can buy, sell, and trade freely without any government intervention. The horror.

Zerohedge

Even though that the anonymity of bitcoins is great for its investors, I believe that it can also be a problem, just look at what happens one lots of bitcoins are stolen and due to its high anonymity there is no way to track the perpetrators and at times they seem to get off scotfree. I still believe that bitcoins don't need no regulation from anyone.

[Proton2233]

Anonymity is only an excuse. Actually bitcoin the feds are afraid because it's a serious competitor to the US dollar. The farther away the more bitcoin will take away from the dollar and the potential of Americans to lose such a convenient mechanism, as the issue of the dollar. Soon it will be just paper.

[Gotottack]

Anonymity is only an excuse. Actually bitcoin the feds are afraid because it's a serious competitor to the US dollar. The farther away the more bitcoin will take away from the dollar and the potential of Americans to lose such a convenient mechanism, as the issue of the dollar. Soon it will be just paper.

Not really, bitcoins to be honest, cannot replace any sort of fiat in existence.

If bitcoins were able to, then there should have been countries that did it already. The problem is that bitcoin supply is too low, hence it the volatility will cause a lot of problems in commerce. Bitcoins will only live if there are fiat currencies ready to buy bitcoins and trade it.

[soham]

its not just the federal government but any other enforcement agencies will be worried, because crypto currency is some thing which is beyond their control. they can't control the generation of the coins neither the circulation.

As a controller, it worries them because they don't want free money to be distributed to the economy..they will always want to control your money, but crypto currency is something they can't entirely stop.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

[epitome]

I think they will come up with a solution to control crypto currencies or either try to understand who is behind all these projects and will try to make rules strict for exchanges so that they will collect all the information they can from the exchanges all over the world and might work with governments all over to control these things,who knows how this market will be five or ten years from now.

[Hydrogen]

In some eras of history, the western world is known for being on the cutting edge of innovation, research and development.

Its bizarre to me how historically "innovative" nations like the united states seem to oppose innovation and progress in the form of crypto currencies while "repressive" nations like russia embrace crypto.

Traditional historical roles and script may have flipped at some point.

If crypto is the future, if it represents innovation and progress...  why would anyone want to stop it? Isn't that like trying to prevent people from using cars instead of horse driven carriages?

[whaawh]

In some eras of history, the western world is known for being on the cutting edge of innovation, research and development.

Its bizarre to me how historically "innovative" nations like the united states seem to oppose innovation and progress in the form of crypto currencies while "repressive" nations like russia embrace crypto.

Traditional historical roles and script may have flipped at some point.

If crypto is the future, if it represents innovation and progress...  why would anyone want to stop it? Isn't that like trying to prevent people from using cars instead of horse driven carriages?

Everything will depend on how federals are interested in crypto currency. If there is a very large percentage of the use of criminals in crime, then this business will take a broader turn.

[xuan87]

A lot of countries already realize the potential of Bitcoin that is why some of the country start to legalized Bitcoin and they are trying to regulate Bitcoin, some of the governments already feared that most of his citizen using Bitcoin and that can caused the taxed to be decreasing, a lot of them is thinking how to make Bitcoin into centralized, but still haven't find anything that can stop crypto yet

[Yuhee]

A lot of countries already realize the potential of Bitcoin that is why some of the country start to legalized Bitcoin and they are trying to regulate Bitcoin, some of the governments already feared that most of his citizen using Bitcoin and that can caused the taxed to be decreasing, a lot of them is thinking how to make Bitcoin into centralized, but still haven't find anything that can stop crypto yet

And i think the more government threatens cryptocurrency the more people are enticed to invest in btc than government banks. Think of the tax if you are in a 3rd world country especially if it's 30% and up and you will really have doubts and you would really try btc. With growing population of investorsainvestors and the new current update btc will even become more famous than this past years.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Sir!

First, zerohedge is a tinfoil whackjob website that panders to
the lowest instincts of man.  Second, any government could
easily outlaw or otherwise cripple crypto by legislating the
crap out of it.  Don't believe for a minute that it couldn't happen.
It could.  But I don't think the U.S. government is going to do anything
right now.  They're probably in cahoots with satoshi, so wait for
some more major scams...then it'll happen.

[iamTom123]

Sir!

First, zerohedge is a tinfoil whackjob website that panders to the lowest instincts of man.  Second, any government could
easily outlaw or otherwise cripple crypto by legislating the crap out of it.  Don't believe for a minute that it couldn't happen.
It could.  But I don't think the U.S. government is going to do anything right now.  They're probably in cahoots with satoshi, so wait for some more major scams...then it'll happen.

I believe that the US government is still not that very interested to regulate cryptocurrency as of now. This unofficial stand can changed in the future though. I am agreeing with you that the government is not really powerless so they can not regulate cryptocurrency. It has all the power it needs just in case one day it would decide to outlaw the use of cryptocurrency. The thing is they can not stop cryptocurrency but they can outlaw its use within the jurisdiction of USA and they can enjoin all of their citizens anywhere not to touch any of this cryptocurrency thing. Those who think that cryptocurrency is untouchable must be living in the cave or just into the cryptocurrency fantasyland.

[pitham1]

Sir!

First, zerohedge is a tinfoil whackjob website that panders to
the lowest instincts of man.  Second, any government could
easily outlaw or otherwise cripple crypto by legislating the
crap out of it.  Don't believe for a minute that it couldn't happen.
It could.  But I don't think the U.S. government is going to do anything
right now.  They're probably in cahoots with satoshi, so wait for
some more major scams...then it'll happen.

That is correct. If the government does legislate against cryptocurrencies, most people would want to stay on the right side of the law. They won't care about whether the laws are just or whether they are implementable.

[skyline247]

"Powerless"


 
  Feds are NOT powerless to stop Cryptocurrencies. All it would take is seizing a few Bitcoin-related domains and the entire industry will collapse in on itself within a month.
  No one in their right mind would hold on to Bitcoin if this were to happen. And the rest of the alt/crap coins would follow suit shortly thereafter. Look at what happened to BTC-e in the span of 1 week!!!

[freeyourmind]

"Powerless"


 
  Feds are NOT powerless to stop Cryptocurrencies. All it would take is seizing a few Bitcoin-related domains and the entire industry will collapse in on itself within a month.
  No one in their right mind would hold on to Bitcoin if this were to happen. And the rest of the alt/crap coins would follow suit shortly thereafter. Look at what happened to BTC-e in the span of 1 week!!!

I agree they're definitely not powerless, but having an explicit strong resistance towards cryptocurrencies will give power the the opposition, which they'd probably rather not have.

$ wise, central banks are still several magnitudes beyond Bitcoin.  The entire market cap is very small compared fiat currencies in circulation.

[pinkflower]

Dont ever underestimate the power of the governments around the world. They may not stop cryptocurrencies but they have shown that they can cooperate with each other and stop services that accept cryptocurrencies and have tagged as illegal. A good example is the take down of Alphabay and Hansa darknet markets.

[omonuyak]

Very nice write up I think governments is actually "powerless" to stop or regulate crytocurrency! Most of their fears to me is push crytocurrency to be sold through black market. The may come from several front to attack crytocurrency but in million way the coins will find their way out.

[HeRetiK]

The federal government is no match for innovation. This is something lawmakers have always known, and it is the reason state and federal regulations exist. But innovation, by its very nature, will always find a way around those regulations, resulting in the implementation of more regulations for creative minds to learn to evade — which they will. This results in the over-regulation we see in America today.

Nothing scares the government more than something it can’t control, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed this week that it is terrified of cryptocurrencies — as well it should be. See, all those lawmakers and bureaucrats sitting around regulating everything depend on taxpayer money to pay their salaries so they can keep writing regulations. Since cryptocurrencies allow people to keep all of their money, this is a big problem for the lawmakers. Soon, people may even start to realize they can buy, sell, and trade freely without any government intervention. The horror.

Oh boy. The government is not always out to get you. Sometimes. But not always.

Real innovation is not about simply evading regulations, as this post makes it out to be. Real innovation happen outside existing regulatory frameworks, that's true. But usually that's merely a side-effect of being an unprecedented solution to a previously unsolved problem.

There's a reason why regulations exists. Just look at all the scams and pump'n'dumps happening in crypto. That's other edge of the sword. Not saying that I don't love crypto the way it is. It's an amazing wild west out there. But there's a reason for regulations.

[deisik]

"Powerless"


 
Feds are NOT powerless to stop Cryptocurrencies. All it would take is seizing a few Bitcoin-related domains and the entire industry will collapse in on itself within a month.
No one in their right mind would hold on to Bitcoin if this were to happen. And the rest of the alt/crap coins would follow suit shortly thereafter. Look at what happened to BTC-e in the span of 1 week!!!

We all know what happened to Btc-e

Well, strictly speaking, we know next to nothing but in respect to your point this is in fact irrelevant. Btc-e was one of the top 5 Bitcoin exchanges and seizing its domain as well as suspending its operation should have caused if not immediate collapse but at least severe price correction of Biitcoin (according to your logic). But somehow this didn't happen. therefore you can't possibly claim that just taking over a few Bitcoin-related domains would be anywhere near enough to make the whole Bitcoin industry to implode