5 ms·

Except by then the cat is out of the bag and significant % of the population/institutions holds it and you can't hurt your own population without swift oppositi

Except by then the cat is out of the bag and significant % of the population/institutions holds it and you can't hurt your own population without swift opposition. It's pretty clever if it works out.

ethbr0 5y ago
The inversion of monetary control is the biggest reason my mind boggles that governments haven't clamped down harder. The only explanation I can come up with is that institutional banking / government regulation is so stodgy that they haven't played out the decade+ repercussions. Because after viable value is established, it's going to be a hard genie to put back in the bottle. It's much harder to make something that appears to have value, not. Than it is to keep something that appears to not have value, not having value.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > institutional banking / government regulation is so stodgy that they haven't played out the decade+ repercussions Crypto is massively profitable. Wall Street hasn't seen margins like these in a long time. There aren't clear and present harms accruing to the electorate. That leaves no incentive, in countries without capital controls, to bother with it.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    Afaik, the big (US) money was still prohibited from flowing into crypto? Or did leaks spring in that firewall?
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  I think they haven't taken it seriously in the same way that newspapers didn't take internet seriously and by the time they did, it was way too late.
ineedasername 5y ago
I don't think we've hit that critical mass yet though. And increased regulation can simply kill it by inches so there's no sudden cliff to drop off of that gets people too upset.
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  To me, the Coinbase IPO was a major milestone in achieving critical mass, if you look through their numbers, it has already achieved pretty massive scale compared to it's age. Jury is still out, but I'm confident the cat is more or less out of the bag.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    However, 1) Most people on Coinbase are speculators, and... 2) Coinbase follows government regulation ...so it's not really much of a step towards "[having] a real impact on the ability to collect taxes and control money transfers." I think Coinbase (and Robinhood) offer pretty good avenues towards... > And increased regulation can simply kill it by inches so there's no sudden cliff to drop off of that gets people too upset. ...by doing something like blocking bank transfers/credit card transactions to offshore exchanges and blocking cryptocurrency transfers to random addresses by most users from Coinbase/Robinhood. That would kneecap the ability to use cryptocurrency to bypass government regulations but still allow the average Joe to speculate.
  - lottin 5y ago
    Coinbase is a centralised exchange, they can ban it right away, no?
  - nly 5y ago
    Ah Coinbase...where apparently you can't even exchange dollars for dollars (USD for USDC) without paying a hefty fee, and where I was only able to buy Tether and not USDC for...some reason.
twox2 5y ago
That wouldn't be a big hurdle to overcome. They will just outlaw self-custody and make it illegal for you to own your own wallet/private keys without some kind of money license. The institutions will be unaffected if they still want to play with crypto for whatever reason, but other folks are going to be screwed because they won't be able to move their money in and out of fiat.
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  Who is "they"? Nobody universally and single handedly decides rules and regulations. For every person that will advocate for what you're suggesting, there will be even more fierce advocates for the reverse of that.
  - twox2 5y ago
    "They" = the federal government. Also, I'm not suggesting that this should happen, I'm just saying that it would be pretty easy to throw a wrench into the crypto machine.

Except by then the cat is out of the bag and significant % of the population/institutions holds it and you can't hurt your own population without swift opposition. It's pretty clever if it works out.

ethbr0 5y ago

The inversion of monetary control is the biggest reason my mind boggles that governments haven't clamped down harder. The only explanation I can come up with is that institutional banking / government regulation is so stodgy that they haven't played out the decade+ repercussions. Because after viable value is established, it's going to be a hard genie to put back in the bottle. It's much harder to make something that appears to have value, not. Than it is to keep something that appears to not have value, not having value.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> institutional banking / government regulation is so stodgy that they haven't played out the decade+ repercussions Crypto is massively profitable. Wall Street hasn't seen margins like these in a long time. There aren't clear and present harms accruing to the electorate. That leaves no incentive, in countries without capital controls, to bother with it.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  Afaik, the big (US) money was still prohibited from flowing into crypto? Or did leaks spring in that firewall?
rawtxapp 5y ago
I think they haven't taken it seriously in the same way that newspapers didn't take internet seriously and by the time they did, it was way too late.

ineedasername 5y ago

I don't think we've hit that critical mass yet though. And increased regulation can simply kill it by inches so there's no sudden cliff to drop off of that gets people too upset.

rawtxapp 5y ago
To me, the Coinbase IPO was a major milestone in achieving critical mass, if you look through their numbers, it has already achieved pretty massive scale compared to it's age. Jury is still out, but I'm confident the cat is more or less out of the bag.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  However, 1) Most people on Coinbase are speculators, and... 2) Coinbase follows government regulation ...so it's not really much of a step towards "[having] a real impact on the ability to collect taxes and control money transfers." I think Coinbase (and Robinhood) offer pretty good avenues towards... > And increased regulation can simply kill it by inches so there's no sudden cliff to drop off of that gets people too upset. ...by doing something like blocking bank transfers/credit card transactions to offshore exchanges and blocking cryptocurrency transfers to random addresses by most users from Coinbase/Robinhood. That would kneecap the ability to use cryptocurrency to bypass government regulations but still allow the average Joe to speculate.
- lottin 5y ago
  Coinbase is a centralised exchange, they can ban it right away, no?
- nly 5y ago
  Ah Coinbase...where apparently you can't even exchange dollars for dollars (USD for USDC) without paying a hefty fee, and where I was only able to buy Tether and not USDC for...some reason.

twox2 5y ago

That wouldn't be a big hurdle to overcome. They will just outlaw self-custody and make it illegal for you to own your own wallet/private keys without some kind of money license. The institutions will be unaffected if they still want to play with crypto for whatever reason, but other folks are going to be screwed because they won't be able to move their money in and out of fiat.

rawtxapp 5y ago
Who is "they"? Nobody universally and single handedly decides rules and regulations. For every person that will advocate for what you're suggesting, there will be even more fierce advocates for the reverse of that.
- twox2 5y ago
  "They" = the federal government. Also, I'm not suggesting that this should happen, I'm just saying that it would be pretty easy to throw a wrench into the crypto machine.