Bitcoin bingo and the erosion of financial stability [Autocrats in panic mode]

Last week, Bitcoin broke the $52,000 mark, underscoring a double standard in the U.S. financial system.

A gaggle of federal financial regulators largely known by their abbreviations (the FRB, FDIC, OCC, NCUA, SEC, FHFA, CFTC, CFPB and FSOC) and an array of regulators in each of the 50 states expend precious resources competing with one another to regulate every aspect and movement by banks. However, financial companies that are not banks but engage in bank-like activities — and make up most of the financial services market — are barely regulated when it comes to their financial health and strength.

Bitcoin is a glaring example of the financial threats that can be nurtured by asymmetrical regulation. It doubles as an investment and as money, though neither is backed by anything of credible value, offering consumers computer code generated by an algorithm invented by someone we can’t even find. It is charmingly decentralized, controlled by a group of five people who have the keys to the software, and gleefully devoid of government intervention. That last characteristic has made it the facilitator of choice for online criminals, terrorists, hackers and traffickers.

Latest example of concern trolls "worried" about bitcoin as a cover for trying to squash it and keep all the slaves on their financial reservation. A few points:

1. The article claims bitcoin is "controlled by a group of five people." This is dishonest hogwash. It presumably refers to the github repository most people download bitcoin node software from, which has nothing to do with any control whatsoever. That's like complaining that 5 people have the PW for a wifi hotspot to share with you, as if you couldn't just go to a million other points to connect to the internet, and would if they gave you any problems. 2. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have grown from 0 to a $2 Trillion dollar asset class in just 15 years not because of wonderful regulation, but precisely because governments have not been able to screw things up. In a free market each person is a consumer advocate for themselves, seeking the best outcome for their needs and wants. We don't need 3rd parties pretending to represent one when in fact they are precisely the opposite, representing themselves over and against our interests. 3. As a case in point, I've been trying to trade some ERC-20 tokens I've had for years; I'm running into trouble because the trading tool I'm using doesn't like it when I use a US-based VPN connection. Apparently some pointless mafia "regulator" has threatened somebody, of course without legislative backing (this has been happening a lot). How does that protect anyone? How is it "serving" me when I can't sell my own assets? US customers are 2nd rate citizens in the crypto world due to this sort of mafia-regulator interference. 4. The article does the usual whine about crypto being used by criminals, without admitting that crypto ledgers provide unprecedented traceability and tools for apprehending financial criminals. That's why criminals in the real world so prefer the US dollar and other traditional instruments that are difficult to trace. One need look no further than the wealthiest part of the US - that is, the counties around Washington - and all the untraceable cash shuttling around there for criminal purposes by the elites.

Yeah, I know, Bitcoin is the modern tulips.

But you couldn't spend tulips.

And the number of tulips could go to infinity.

They can print an infinite number of US dollars, and appear to be willing to do so.

There can only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoins, and 19,000,000 have already been mined, unlike other me-too "cryptocurrencies" that can be adulterated at any time or gold coins that are too valuable to spend easily and can be adulterated with other metals.

It's imperfect, but when TSHTF Bitcoin will go through the rooof.

Another very ignorant article. No it is not the facilitator of choice for criminals, terrorists and traffickers. Every transaction is recorded on the ledger. Bitcoin can be tracked a lot easier than paper money. There are privacy tokens that cannot be tracked like Monero, but Bitcoin is not one of them.

A lot of the attraction of cryptocurrencies is that they are decentralized (or at least some of them are and others are striving to be) which means the army of lawyers and bankers and government regulators the hill dreams of assembling - and no doubt lining their pockets with this lucrative new market - have no power to regulate them. A country can try to ban it like China has several times but such efforts are doomed.

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