Be rich sheeple or free people, what's your choice?

[Pidgeon]

I was at the beach after having my evening half rack, same boring night walk scavenging for forgotten or used fleshlights and I was thinking, what if instead of one of those magic toys I get my macho pride stuck in a genie bottle? But after hitting the genie so hard in his head probably he will only be able to grant me one wish, and that on shitty conditions, what if I asked him to make me richer then Satoshi but I'd have to choose:

- Bitcoin gets accepted everywhere, every government legalizes it, all mining is centralized, everyone must register every address with the local IRS, you're not allowed to send money outside legal addresses and miners are refusing those, every single transfer is taxed, the government can decide at any point to seize your coins and can do that with ease. BUT the value will go up 1000x times to 30 big ones!
- Bitcoin is not legal tender, but the genie makes it so that the government has no way and no intention of making any move against it, nobody is banning you from owning, nobody is taxing you, nobody cares about your KYC, AML, taxes, profit, any legal action against anything that involves Bitcoin is impossible and illegal, any seizure impossible as it would break the law, you're as free as one can be. But the price stays forever at $30,000.

No middle way, no trick, no further questions, no this or that, your choice and tell me why this and not that!

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[Churchillvv]

  this just hilarious 
Imagination wants to drive you to hell, wake up from that dream mate. 

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I will surely go for the decentralized version of bitcoin, even though the price stays for ever at $30,000, that is not the problem, $30,000 is already a good achievement considering that Satoshi himself or their selves never expected bitcoin to become this big, I will go with the decentralized version of bitcoin because ..
1. Not only does it align with the vision Satoshi had for bitcoin , but..
2. Nothing is as sweet as one being free.

Giving the government access to my coin through tax or whatever means will only mean one thing, and that is, "more money for them to loot", while i who owns the money continue to wallow in hardship caused by un-development and high inflation, i will rather keep control of my Bitcoins than grant government access to it, even if it means that the price of bitcoin will rise and fall, and never go past $30,000 again, a good trader can still make a good living buy and selling bitcoin.

[panganib999]

I was at the beach after having my evening half rack, same boring night walk scavenging for forgotten or used fleshlights and I was thinking, what if instead of one of those magic toys I get my macho pride stuck in a genie bottle? But after hitting the genie so hard in his head probably he will only be able to grant me one wish, and that on shitty conditions, what if I asked him to make me richer then Satoshi but I'd have to choose:

- Bitcoin gets accepted everywhere, every government legalizes it, all mining is centralized, everyone must register every address with the local IRS, you're not allowed to send money outside legal addresses and miners are refusing those, every single transfer is taxed, the government can decide at any point to seize your coins and can do that with ease. BUT the value will go up 1000x times to 30 big ones!
- Bitcoin is not legal tender, but the genie makes it so that the government has no way and no intention of making any move against it, nobody is banning you from owning, nobody is taxing you, nobody cares about your KYC, AML, taxes, profit, any legal action against anything that involves Bitcoin is impossible and illegal, any seizure impossible as it would break the law, you're as free as one can be. But the price stays forever at $30,000.

No middle way, no trick, no further questions, no this or that, your choice and tell me why this and not that!

That first part was a fucking delight to read like why in the hell are you out there looking for used fleshlights lol. Anywho I'll humor your thought experiment (kind of) and give you my answer:

I'd choose the latter. Everything that the government puts its finger on dies and shrivels eventually. That happened with real estate, it happened with taxes, and now if bitcoin is to be handled by central government for sure some time in the future its death will be for certain. It doesn't matter if you're fiat-rich or bitcoin-rich anymore, cause wealth is going to be seized by the government to make up for the losses they will incur after just absorbing cryptocurrencies.

The latter, while it would stagnate bitcoin's price, is not going to really do anything bad since you can still use it as a payment service that doesn't track you or anything, plus you can easily trade it for other cryptocurrencies with price points that are not as stale as bitcoin for a quick buck. So profit is still not kicked out of the equation or something.

[Wend]

You are talking about decentralization and centralization and which should we choose? But how once bitcoin becomes centralized, can it increase in price 30x or 1000x? That doesn't sound unreasonable since the government will control its price and won't let the price rise like that if bitcoin becomes centralized. Looking at how the government controls and manages fiat, it will depreciate over time, not increase over time.

In contrast, bitcoin is not controlled by the government, its price is completely dependent on supply and demand, then the possibility of a price increase will be higher, like what is happening now. So your hypothesis won't happen.

[Smartvirus]

I was at the beach after having my evening half rack, same boring night walk scavenging for forgotten or used fleshlights and I was thinking, what if instead of one of those magic toys I get my macho pride stuck in a genie bottle? But after hitting the genie so hard in his head probably he will only be able to grant me one wish, and that on shitty conditions, what if I asked him to make me richer then Satoshi but I'd have to choose:

You’ll be better off picking the pace on your scavenging the beach for forgotten flashlights as you wouldn’t be getting any stocked up genie soon. Don’t want to spoil the fun but, I stick to what is real and wouldn’t want to dig in to the legend of the arid lands just yet.

A question, for you though;
Just how do you get to know Satoshi is rich?

On the other hand, I think instead of having all these wishes rain on the world, I’ll prefer the natural order of things to take its course as every shift in the evolutionary trend has got some unwanted effects to balance it up in time. Bitcoin is doing just fine with the rest of the world gradually adopting it individually while it increases in value.

[BRINIRHA]

Sometimes imagining like this can also build our imagination more and make us rethink about the future that will happen between the government and bitcoin. Because it does not rule out the first choice can really happen.

But in this case I prefer to choose the second. I love freedom. and isn't bitcoin created to realize that freedom. I don't care about the price even though it has to be stable at 30k even though that's impossible. But as long as has made me rich, it doesn't matter if the bitcoin price continues to be at 30k. Because I'm already rich and free.

[buwaytress]

If you're richer than satoshi (assuming you're thinking of the 1 million coins), then what does it matter, really, either way?

I'd probably go for option B though -- $30k with over a million coins puts me mostly out of range of my own capacity to spend. And I'd definitely want to see a lot of the world that the status quo otherwise wouldn't allow me to (those who don't play by the rules I mean).

I wouldn't be half mad to be forced to go for Option A though. Poor question. Would be harder to choose if you applied a specific number of coins to each option.

[rat03gopoh]

No need to wait for a magic lamp to grant one of them, you're the one who decides because now bitcoin can work in all of these ways.
By default, bitcoin is most decentralized. There's no stopping it unless a major accident blows out all electronic devices. On the other hand you can set yourself up to be a regulated rich sheeple by not using bitcoins onchain at all.

[Fundamentals Of]

This is a good yet difficult question to answer. I won't deny that both have weight. I mean, Bitcoin's price and what it truly represents. I think I would say, either of the two. If I were in the situation I would ask the genie if he could just make the decision for me and I would accept it completely.

But, okay, if the genie won't allow that, perhaps I would just go for the second option. The only problem, to be honest, is that many have invested into Bitcoin. That includes me. Many of us spent money not entirely so that we could use a currency way better than fiat but because there is this mathematical supposition that 21 million coins versus the world's 8 billion people means each coin will rise in price.

[Sim_card]

Bitcoin decentralization has made it more unique than any cryptocurrency and this is why it can't be manipulated by the government. Financial freedom is what majority of people  loves in bitcoin and the government don't like it that is why they are looking for any means to see if it is possible for them to control but no way because bitcoin is beyond their power. If it happens that they eventually find a way to centralized bitcoin,then it will no longer have its potential and the price will be controlled by them. But my happiness is that for it is impossible for them to make this happen. I hate anything centralized because there is no privacy.

[mk4]

I get that this is just theoretical, but situation #1 is very unrealistic because bitcoin wouldn’t even get traction or even get off the ground in the first place if it’s as badly centralized as you described.

[Helena Yu]

1. Not every Bitcoin holders want to link their coins with centralized site especially the Bitcoin maximalist. Maybe 70-80% coins would be controlled by the government, but the other 20-30% are still free in decentralized exchange or P2P.

2. Are you a god so you can make sure Bitcoin price is always stay at $30K? the last Bitcoin ATH was $69K.

Both of your scenarios wouldn't work, I'm not choosing any of them because the government's adoption toward Bitcoin will make it more centralized, we can still trade Bitcoin without third party and there's no guarantee the price will went up to 1000x times.

[davis196]

- Bitcoin gets accepted everywhere, every government legalizes it, all mining is centralized, everyone must register every address with the local IRS, you're not allowed to send money outside legal addresses and miners are refusing those, every single transfer is taxed, the government can decide at any point to seize your coins and can do that with ease. BUT the value will go up 1000x times to 30 big ones!
- Bitcoin is not legal tender, but the genie makes it so that the government has no way and no intention of making any move against it, nobody is banning you from owning, nobody is taxing you, nobody cares about your KYC, AML, taxes, profit, any legal action against anything that involves Bitcoin is impossible and illegal, any seizure impossible as it would break the law, you're as free as one can be. But the price stays forever at $30,000.

Registering a Bitcoin address at the local IRS? Do you mean registering a Bitcoin/crypto cold wallet at the local IRS? Registering a BTC address doesn't mean anything and won't help the government officials to keep track over all your coins.
The first option described by you is basically impossible to happen, because no government in the world could achieve full control over crypto mining, crypto cold wallets and crypto transactions.
The second scenario is also impossible to happen, because the BTC price cannot stay at 30K USD forever. It will surely move up and down, but it won't remain stable.
I'm sure that most people will choose the second option. Being free seems way better than being a rich servant of the status quo.

[nakamura12]

1. Not every Bitcoin holders want to link their coins with centralized site especially the Bitcoin maximalist. Maybe 70-80% coins would be controlled by the government, but the other 20-30% are still free in decentralized exchange or P2P.

2. Are you a god so you can make sure Bitcoin price is always stay at $30K? the last Bitcoin ATH was $69K.

Both of your scenarios wouldn't work, I'm not choosing any of them because the government's adoption toward Bitcoin will make it more centralized, we can still trade Bitcoin without third party and there's no guarantee the price will went up to 1000x times.

Well, there are some platform that are not decentralized but the platform isn't owned by the government so the coins won't be link with the government therefore you wouldn't have to worry about it. For the choice if someone will ask me is I do the same as you but if I didn't know any trusted decentralized platform then the centralized one is what I have to use for the moment untill I found a trusted decentralized exchange.

[DapanasFruit]

As for me, I would be choosing the B Option where Bitcoin remains to be under the very vision of Satoshi Nakamoto where the government has limited interference and the people are more empowered away from the control of many financial institutions. Why? All because I am sure that in that scenario nobody can control its price not even the intelligent genie so there is no way of fixing it at $30K level. Of course, things can really be easy when we are looking them at black and while, in the real world we are dealing with harsh realities and conditions that are not so ideal.

[serveria.com]

I was at the beach after having my evening half rack, same boring night walk scavenging for forgotten or used fleshlights and I was thinking, what if instead of one of those magic toys I get my macho pride stuck in a genie bottle? But after hitting the genie so hard in his head probably he will only be able to grant me one wish, and that on shitty conditions, what if I asked him to make me richer then Satoshi but I'd have to choose:

- Bitcoin gets accepted everywhere, every government legalizes it, all mining is centralized, everyone must register every address with the local IRS, you're not allowed to send money outside legal addresses and miners are refusing those, every single transfer is taxed, the government can decide at any point to seize your coins and can do that with ease. BUT the value will go up 1000x times to 30 big ones!
- Bitcoin is not legal tender, but the genie makes it so that the government has no way and no intention of making any move against it, nobody is banning you from owning, nobody is taxing you, nobody cares about your KYC, AML, taxes, profit, any legal action against anything that involves Bitcoin is impossible and illegal, any seizure impossible as it would break the law, you're as free as one can be. But the price stays forever at $30,000.

No middle way, no trick, no further questions, no this or that, your choice and tell me why this and not that!

That intro, bro... 

Anyways, I think the very idea of Bitcoin and Satoshi's vision was to be free of any limitations. Both options you offered have limits, very serious limits I should say. Total government control is unacceptable for Bitcoin it kind of defeats the whole idea of Bitcoin, but so is the price limit, because Bitcoin was designed to be deflationary and only be worth more So, what I'd do in this case? Most probably I'd quit Bitcoin, cash out etc. Bitcoin won't be so fun and exciting for me anymore...

[Fiatless]

No middle way, no trick, no further questions, no this or that, your choice and tell me why this and not that!

Option A looks enticing because I expect my small Bitcoin holding to make me rich. But the consequence of having more is loss of freedom. And financial freedom is better than having all the money. If Bitcoin's price grows but it is highly regulated, it is like having more and owning nothing. Centralization gives the government total access and control over your coin. Just like a savings account in the bank, you can't claim ownership of funds in the bank. The government can decide to enact a law and confiscate all the funds in banks.

So I will gladly choose option B that gives me total ownership of my money. I might not have much from my Bitcoin investment, but I own and have full control over my coin. Privacy is a priceless asset. I don't want people to cheaply know how much I own because living a private life has many advantages.

[kryptqnick]

It's a good ethical dilemma. I think that in practice, we won't have any of these options but something in the middle. However, if there was a choice like that, I would choose the second option, where Bitcoin stays at $30k, but people have freedom of using it without having to pay taxes, go through KYC etc. I don't really focus on the prospect of growth of the price, I'm okay with the current one. And this way, Bitcoin fulfils its purpose better, being a currency that gives financial freedom rather than another investment asset that is fully integrated into mainstream economy.

[OcTradism]

- Bitcoin gets accepted everywhere, every government legalizes it, all mining is centralized, everyone must register every address with the local IRS, you're not allowed to send money outside legal addresses and miners are refusing those, every single transfer is taxed, the government can decide at any point to seize your coins and can do that with ease. BUT the value will go up 1000x times to 30 big ones!

Register addresses is like KYC. How do governments control what addresses you own. One person can own many addresses with non custodial wallets and governments can only know what is your address if you KYC on centralized exchange. They only give you one deposit address to use and you have to KYC on their exchange so it can be leaked to governments.

With non custodial wallets, it is impossible except if governments prohibit all non custodial wallet softwares. But how will they succeed to do that? I believe they won't.

- Bitcoin is not legal tender, but the genie makes it so that the government has no way and no intention of making any move against it, nobody is banning you from owning, nobody is taxing you, nobody cares about your KYC, AML, taxes, profit, any legal action against anything that involves Bitcoin is impossible and illegal, any seizure impossible as it would break the law, you're as free as one can be. But the price stays forever at $30,000.

If things go well like this, how will price not go up?

Your two scenarios are purely non sense and unlogical. The first one is bad and price goes up 1000x times while the second scenario is good and price stuck. Impossible.