Mission creep seems to have settled in to the crypto community. I’m not particularly interested in conspiracy theories. Most of what happens in the world can be explained adequately by the fact that people are so easily divided. The Steemit bitcoin tag is surprisingly quiet about the Lightning Network. Lots of posts about the price action, but anybody can see that it won’t go anywhere without dramatic improvements to the technology, both in terms of scaling and usability.
It appears that an outright ban on crypto is not likely to be tried in most western nations since that too obviously exposes the weakness of the state. Instead, it seems that they might be positioning themselves to rewrite the code to make it more to the liking of state authority. Will they add code that simply taxes every single transaction regardless and ditch the capital gains model?
The most obvious way of positioning themselves properly would be to infiltrate Blockstream and other top players and get enough of your own people involved until those who love freedom become a minority. I’ve been skeptical of their ability to do this in the past on this blog, but it’s an issue that needs to be examined closely by those of us who are already in this space and aware of the issues.
source
Was the scaling debate part of this political pressure? Hard to say. Governments have been very expert at exploiting opposing factions in any debate to advance their own purposes. They’ve done that relentlessly by redefining whenever necessary what democrat and republican, left and right mean, and most people still fall for these labels every time while those at the top laugh at their stupidity. Why should it be any different with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?
They’re well aware that the average person has no idea of how bitcoin operates under the hood. Just as you can’t expect the average person to read the entire works of Plato to understand the philosophical workings of government, they know that all they need to do is convince a majority that bitcoin is “unavailable” or can’t scale and you’re ready for that good ole Hegelian dialectic replacement.
Like most everything else government does, it will happen in stages so you won’t even realize what is happening. Before you know it, they will have you so twisted around that you will swear that you must have been wrong originally and will be primed for the fall. Right now the state isn’t concentrating on the average person who knows little of the crypto world.
source
They will concentrate on buying out the movers and shakers of the industry as it is today, and convince them by showing them all of the horrible scenarios that can happen if they don’t add an option for inflation in the currency, add KYC (Know Your Customer) or whatever else they want. They will also go into detail on how each of these leaders lives will be ruined and how there will be nothing left for them to pick up. They will tell them that a bitcoin worth a million dollars isn’t that impressive if it takes a million dollars to buy a loaf of bread (this is where Germany was post WWI with the deutchmark).
Some are even hailing regulation as a good thing for crypto. I have a dire warning here: due to the absolute nature of technology and mathematics, there is no “moderation” possible here. We will either have hard promises that can be softened to provide consumer protections, or we will have soft promises which is just another word for a digital panopticon. The latter option is something that Hitler could not have even imagined in his greatest hopes.
(credit - Andreas Antonopoulos)
I was hoping that the millennial generation would see through the lies. Many of you probably don’t know that I was actually a supporter of Bernie Sanders in 2016. I’m old enough to not be naive that he could have changed anything and remember the political BS surrounding the Vietnam war and LBJ’s famous “I will not run again” speech. Socialism seems like a good option when you finally realize how you’ve been screwed by the billionaires who laid down the greatest banking heist of all human history using the Federal Reserve. It’s a slaves solution to a seemingly insoluble problem, but he was my choice between what seemed to be two lousy choices and one mediocre one, but I won't make that mistake again.
The lie that we’ve been living though is that we’ve had freedom and capitalism for the past couple of centuries. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Our system is capitalism by label only. What we really have is an unbalanced mixture of crony capitalism that capitalizes profits for the few and conveniently socializes losses for everyone else. If we fall for the coercion of a socialized spread of wealth, what we will get will be the scraps left over after the parasites scrape their profits off the top (like they always do).
We finally have a chance to disintermediate the parasites at the top and deliver true justice to the world. This is no time for vacillation in the goal toward freedom. We have one good chance. If we miss it this time, we may just end up extinct.
3FwxQsa7gmQ7c1GXJyvDTqmT6CM3mMEgcv
The second you put things into a siloed, central environment, you've lost.
It defeats the purpose of what crypto stands for. The state only wants to control it. People are tired of the central banking system and the controls being exerted over them without cause and without representation. Therefore the growth has been to go around it.
What most people don't realize is that not all ledgers are the same. If it's private, it's probably centralized. I don't trust those AT ALL. The state will count on the ignorance of this fact when trying to save face with the people as they enter the world of crypto.
I hope people wake up and realize there are other ways other than having to trust that same system as we've always done.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
This situation is almost like watching a battle. The blockchain sends out scouts with coins like Ripple, NEM, and Tether. Can these scouts bend the old system to their will, or shall the establishment send us back a Trojan horse in a defiant counter attack?
I view the new Goldman-Sachs currency as the Trojan horse. They will create coins out of thin air and then have nothing to back it up if the buffer falls. Any coin hard-pegged to the dollar is a threat to the cryptosphere because they are centralized.
The entire point of cryptocurrency is to create a currency that can't be controlled by a central authority. Centralized coins can do great things, but ultimately centralization breeds corruption.
These centralized coins are going to deal huge blows to all coins. Everything is connected. However, the web of decentralization that is crypto can't be killed so easily. There will always be new ways to improve decentralization. Once crypto suffers a few blows from Tether, Ripple, and Circle people will get the picture that decentralization is key and they'll stop foolishly throwing money at these Judas coins.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Nobody will be able to control this. Control 1s and 0s is an impossible task. Centralization doesn't breed corruption. All depends on the moral standards behind that group. Coins doesn't matter anymore. Currency doesn't matter either. It's all just value exchanges. It's so easy to exchange between different currencies that it doesn't matter what you have. Especially in the Crypto space since everything moves identical. Unless a coin massively crash for some reason.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I don't necessarily disagree with you but there is truth to the saying:
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Power only corrupts if you divide stuff and judge things differently. But yes most have a hard time to deal with power since it doesn't come with a manual.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
cryptocurrency without decentralisation is not innovative. Dollars are a digital currency already. Moving it on a "Blockchain" changes nothing. But as long as people think that makes it cool and modern we have a problem.
But I dont think the people will fall for this move. They will see that bitcoin can be mined by everybody, while USDCoin is mined by the banks. Then the natural question is why cant I be a bank? We should i give others the power to create and devalue my currency.
I hope that I am right on this because this attack is certainly coming in the next years and we have to inform as many people about the differences.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
People are ignorant and crypto is complicated. People are going to get tricked for a long time. When these centralized coins hurt the entire market because of corruption only then will Average Joe start to understand what's going on. It's all good though... all part of the process. Crypto may be volatile, but it's also pretty predictable.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I am sure many people will fall for their scams. There were much worse ones, like bitconnect, and many did believe it was legit. But I do have hope that we can get the message out to a lot of people. Opposed to bitconnect these centralised coins will not make their users rich, but only the banks.
There are really only two fake arguments by the state that seem to be believed by more than 50%
On the other hand, state coins draw a lot of attention also to real crypto and may help adoption there as well. It will be very interesting to see what happens the next years. I am ready.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Highly rEsteemed!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The government has already acted, the top in crypto came exactly at the same time as they allowed the bitcoin futures to trade. The G-20 (or the Fed/US-Gov't however you wanna view those in power) ended crypto-craze the same way they ended the gold and silver hoarding in 2011-- they coopted it with paper. You can't beat a player with infinite bankroll in a fair game, they can just keep allowing you to go "all in" until you finally lose a hand. They have you covered with paper.
But you are DEAD-ON that "the man" doesn't need to resort to declaring a law against crypto.
They can simply end the speculation by ruining the outcome.
Unfortunately, with the dishonest behind-closed-doors methods they employ, they only do MORE damage to the world. Everyone loses, they just lose last. In the short-run, those still speculating in crypto get harmed the most, as they continue to chase declining prices.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
“What we really have is an unbalanced mixture of crony capitalism that capitalizes profits for the few and conveniently socializes losses for everyone else.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Excellent analysis! I think that too many people are too naive thinking that the people in control aren't fighting back already. Taking over the development teams seems to be the easiest and most effective way to disrupt this space. I would be surprised if that hasn't happened already...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
At least the code is open source so if it happens, someone will notice and point it out.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Curated for #informationwar (by @wakeupnd)
Relevance: Knowledge is power.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Hi buddy
I've been away for past 3 weeks (short holiday) and finally im back :) Loads of catching up is awaiting me now.
I checked your profile and im glad to see that you're still very active on steemit.
How have you been doing?
Obviously upvoted.
Cheers buddy,
Piotr
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit