If most politicians know nothing about Bitcoin then how will they regulate it?

[Nick Szabo]

The average politician probably has little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Some might understand the basic idea of a blockchain and its decentralized nature but the percentage of lawmakers who know the difference between a private key and a public key, the process of setting up cold storage wallets, or how multi-sig should be implemented securely is almost certainly very, very small.

So if cryptocurrency does become regulated and businesses like exchanges are forced to implement security practices such as having most of their funds in cold storage, then who will decide what regulations should be implemented and how? Surely, it won't be the politician.

Do you think they will attempt to have one of the Core devs on board or invite someone important in the cryptocurrency community like Vitalik, coblee, or Roger Ver (eek!) to write the regulations and then just take their word for it? What will they do if they decide not to participate? Heck, many (if not most) of those who are well-known and respected in the field are distrustful of governments and will probably refuse to participate since it could be seen as betraying the libertarian and anti-authoritarian ethos of the community.

Your thoughts?

[luispitchler]

i worked for a politician and i don't have a good impression about them.  they usually run for office not to serve but to gain more money and influence.  they shouldn't be involved in bitcoin otherwise it will be a messier crypto world. no offense but my personal experience.

[Kakmakr]

Most politicians might know nothing about Crypto currencies, but they have well informed advisors that are doing the ground work and research for them. A lot of the Banks also have financial advisors that are more than willing to give bad advise to these politicians and they are just one phone call or one secret meeting away.  

There will never be a shortage of people who wants to score some brownie points with these politicians, so there are an abundance of resources out there for them to use.   <Mostly bad advise> 

[davis196]

The average politician probably has little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Some might understand the basic idea of a blockchain and its decentralized nature but the percentage of lawmakers who know the difference between a private key and a public key, the process of setting up cold storage wallets, or how multi-sig should be implemented securely is almost certainly very, very small.

So if cryptocurrency does become regulated and businesses like exchanges are forced to implement security practices such as having most of their funds in cold storage, then who will decide what regulations should be implemented and how? Surely, it won't be the politician.

Do you think they will attempt to have one of the Core devs on board or invite someone important in the cryptocurrency community like Vitalik, coblee, or Roger Ver (eek!) to write the regulations and then just take their word for it? What will they do if they decide not to participate? Heck, many (if not most) of those who are well-known and respected in the field are distrustful of governments and will probably refuse to participate since it could be seen as betraying the libertarian and anti-authoritarian ethos of the community.

Your thoughts?

Do you think they will put the effort to gain knowledge about cold storage,multi-sig,public keys,etc?
They totally don't care about this.The only thing they care about it how to taxate crypto and how to control the crypto markets.I don't think they need some in depth knowledge about crypto in order to regulate the markets.

[Pursuer]

that is always going to be the problem with regulations. specially new ones for a brand new technology such as bitcoin. lack of information, and lack of truly informed people. and in the end the regulations can either be a terrible restrictive one or a friendly one that actually helps the adoption.
you can see in different countries there are a lot of different approaches from outright banning bitcoin to adopting it with open arms as a legal currency.

in the end I think it is an evolving thing. it may start out terrible at first but it doesn't have to be the end of the world. with enough persistence it can be changed.

[Onuohakk]

I won't agree with you that most politicians dont know about bitcoin. Politicians are meant to be knowledgeable individuals and even if they don't know the have workers around them that a strategies to keep them up-to date about various area well even if they do know about it all the can do is also become part of crypto

 I know many that has supported cryptocurrency and even invested but I don't think they can regulate it

[elloco4ever]

Well, that's the saddest part of cryptocurrency a lot of politicians are unaware of this and how it works, they get information from their analyst and what all the final report they get is its a risky one. Such instances happen due to lack of information, if crypto users are ready to pay taxes then they will accept it as a legal one.

[figmentofmyass]

The average politician probably has little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Some might understand the basic idea of a blockchain and its decentralized nature but the percentage of lawmakers who know the difference between a private key and a public key, the process of setting up cold storage wallets, or how multi-sig should be implemented securely is almost certainly very, very small.

So if cryptocurrency does become regulated and businesses like exchanges are forced to implement security practices such as having most of their funds in cold storage, then who will decide what regulations should be implemented and how? Surely, it won't be the politician.

as in everything else, they'll defer to experts/advisors/lobbyists.

politicians---at least career politicians who manage to stay in office---don't have real opinions. their main job is gauging public perception and telling people what they want to hear. they may end up passing horrible regulations for cryptocurrency, especially since there isn't much of a pro-bitcoin lobby on capitol hill.

Do you think they will attempt to have one of the Core devs on board or invite someone important in the cryptocurrency community like Vitalik, coblee, or Roger Ver (eek!) to write the regulations and then just take their word for it? What will they do if they decide not to participate?

there's no way people like that would be involved in writing any laws. at most, you might see such characters in a congressional hearing answering questions from legislators, but nothing more than that. even that is a stretch.

[Tether]

Most politicians might know nothing about Crypto currencies, but they have well informed advisors that are doing the ground work and research for them. A lot of the Banks also have financial advisors that are more than willing to give bad advise to these politicians and they are just one phone call or one secret meeting away. 

There will never be a shortage of people who wants to score some brownie points with these politicians, so there are an abundance of resources out there for them to use.  <Mostly bad advise> 

The average politician probably has little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Some might understand the basic idea of a blockchain and its decentralized nature but the percentage of lawmakers who know the difference between a private key and a public key, the process of setting up cold storage wallets, or how multi-sig should be implemented securely is almost certainly very, very small.

So if cryptocurrency does become regulated and businesses like exchanges are forced to implement security practices such as having most of their funds in cold storage, then who will decide what regulations should be implemented and how? Surely, it won't be the politician.

as in everything else, they'll defer to experts/advisors/lobbyists.

I wonder what kind of qualifications would be needed to become a cryptocurrency advisor.

An advanced degree in computer science and/or cryptography could do it, but they would lack the financial knowledge. Someone having all three would be a hard find. The alternative would be to scout for those who regularly contribute code to cryptocurrency and blockchain projects, but a lot of the top minds in crypto are devs posting under anonymous/pseudonymous handles who don't give a damn about economics, finance, or anything that isn't about the code, and even if they do care about the wider perspective, chances are they will probably want the government to keep their hands off crypto anyway.

[VitKoyn]

The only thing that politicians should do is to stop acting like they are always right and knows everything, they should start asking for help from tech experts to learn more about new technologies like cryptocurrencies. There will never be a well regulated cryptocurrency industry for us if politicians will remain fighting it and just looking for disadvantages instead of learning it and understand the good and what it can do. Another problem is most politicians are on their 50s (age) and they are not capable of understanding new technologies. We cannot expect those law makers to pass a good law about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies if they can't even understand the basics. Just look what happened on facebook hearing, those politicians asks questions makes them look dumb, it is because they don't have knowledge.

[nydiacaskey01]

They (politicians) don't work alone. They have staffs, they have consultants so in other words they are a group and the politician works like a CEO or head of the group. They have a staff or consultant that will look into different Industry and after a through research, it will be forwarded with recommendations to the politicians attention and the politician will have the final say weather they will dip their finger in that issue or not. Some politician will dip their fingers in issues like this because its publicity specially of election time is near.

[avikz]

They (politicians) don't work alone. They have staffs, they have consultants so in other words they are a group and the politician works like a CEO or head of the group. They have a staff or consultant that will look into different Industry and after a through research, it will be forwarded with recommendations to the politicians attention and the politician will have the final say weather they will dip their finger in that issue or not. Some politician will dip their fingers in issues like this because its publicity specially of election time is near.

That's true. They have consultants and other staffs to keep him informed about anything new and needs his attention. However, the sad reality is that the final decision will be taken by that politician only. So no matter how great a consultant's education background is or how great he does his research, the decision making power lies on that uneducated/half-educated politicians.

That's why public opinion polls should be organized for such decisions. A lot of EU countries relies on Public opinion Poll for such decisions. Very recently we have seen an example, when Scottish people voted for their wish to stay with England. That decision was not taken by politicians, instead common people like us took the decision on behalf of the country. Such kind of initiative will be hugely beneficial.

[florac9]

Politicians are scary being ,greediness is always there,I bet they won't do any good using blockchain ,we should stop hoping for anything from them cos they only care about how much they worth and their reputation, but 10% of them knows better and they understand that blockchain tech can bring total change to the world

[squatter]

I wonder what kind of qualifications would be needed to become a cryptocurrency advisor.

An advanced degree in computer science and/or cryptography could do it, but they would lack the financial knowledge. Someone having all three would be a hard find. The alternative would be to scout for those who regularly contribute code to cryptocurrency and blockchain projects, but a lot of the top minds in crypto are devs posting under anonymous/pseudonymous handles who don't give a damn about economics, finance, or anything that isn't about the code, and even if they do care about the wider perspective, chances are they will probably want the government to keep their hands off crypto anyway.

I suppose "cryptoeconomics" isn't really an established field yet.

They need experts who understand the coding, cryptographic and networking aspects, and also those who understand markets and economic design. These don't all need to be the same people. As you point out, even the top minds in this field probably aren't equipped or interested in all the aspects beyond code. The government is really good at recruiting brilliant people when it wants to. So, there's that too.

[arpon11]

The average politician probably has little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Some might understand the basic idea of a blockchain and its decentralized nature but the percentage of lawmakers who know the difference between a private key and a public key, the process of setting up cold storage wallets, or how multi-sig should be implemented securely is almost certainly very, very small.

So if cryptocurrency does become regulated and businesses like exchanges are forced to implement security practices such as having most of their funds in cold storage, then who will decide what regulations should be implemented and how? Surely, it won't be the politician.

Do you think they will attempt to have one of the Core devs on board or invite someone important in the cryptocurrency community like Vitalik, coblee, or Roger Ver (eek!) to write the regulations and then just take their word for it? What will they do if they decide not to participate? Heck, many (if not most) of those who are well-known and respected in the field are distrustful of governments and will probably refuse to participate since it could be seen as betraying the libertarian and anti-authoritarian ethos of the community.

Your thoughts?

of a truth politicians did not no much about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies market and those that has had of it believe that cryptocurrencies market should be regulated under gambling and lotey laws but Cryptocoins market is not gambling and bitcoin is not ponzi.
For cryptocurrencies market to become mainstream the politicians most be educated about it and for them to be educated about it the little one that knows about cryptocurrencies must educate there colleagues about it. Investing into cryptocurrencies market is investing into our financial future.

[talkbitcoin]

that is not a bitcoin problem though. it is the problem with the government and regulations and basically how they work. so there is nothing we can do about it in order to change that.
in fact that is one of the reasons why bitcoin was created in first place. so that we no longer need to worry about these things and how the "government" is going to dictate how we use our money.

[Cryptopotato021]

Most Politicians have no clue about anything apart from making money. Regulation of cryptocurrency is being spear headed by uncle sam! The entire economy of the world lies in wall street and they would do everything in their power to make sure cryptocurrencies are screwed.

The increased usage of cryptocurrencies would drastically take away their power of controlling people and that's why they want to regulate cryptocurrencies.

P.S: Please change your name. If at all you decide to keep the name then never post shit. (Nick is a legend here)

[Binauf]

Most of them are either old or ill informed. Sometimes it takes elderly people a lot more time to accept innovations because it is hard to understand except the timely intervention of some form of education.

[Ozero]

Politicians and legislators have the opportunity to contact the specialists for advice and they give out their written conclusions and explain to them any information on the essence of the appeal. Therefore, our politicians do not have to understand all the issues that need to be regulated by law. In principle, now life has become so diverse and complex that a normal person cannot know everything.

[KingScorpio]

The average politician probably has little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Some might understand the basic idea of a blockchain and its decentralized nature but the percentage of lawmakers who know the difference between a private key and a public key, the process of setting up cold storage wallets, or how multi-sig should be implemented securely is almost certainly very, very small.

So if cryptocurrency does become regulated and businesses like exchanges are forced to implement security practices such as having most of their funds in cold storage, then who will decide what regulations should be implemented and how? Surely, it won't be the politician.

Do you think they will attempt to have one of the Core devs on board or invite someone important in the cryptocurrency community like Vitalik, coblee, or Roger Ver (eek!) to write the regulations and then just take their word for it? What will they do if they decide not to participate? Heck, many (if not most) of those who are well-known and respected in the field are distrustful of governments and will probably refuse to participate since it could be seen as betraying the libertarian and anti-authoritarian ethos of the community.

Your thoughts?

bitcoin cannot be regulated its an advertised internet token with fixed amount.

no way to regulate it.

only fiats can be regulated in their rewarding usage. but bitcoin claims not to be a fiat. althought the cryptomarket and the bitcoin creaters run a fiat system

bitcoin gold bitcoin cash bitcoin sv bitcoin god bitcoin platinum bitcoin private etc.

that could theoretically be regulated, but all regulation is basically a form of tyranny against freedom.