[arcticbull]

There's great reasons not to. Unless we nip this in the bud, we face a potential repeat of the 1997 Albanian Ponzi crisis that brought about the total collapse of their economy. Everyone in Albania jumped in and started participating in a number of big Ponzi schemes. Their finance minister tried to stop them, so they threw him in jail. They then had a civil war about it, and the IMF had to drop in big bags of money. [1]

This is what the maxis are after.

If we don't cut this off ASAP, we all stand to lose.

[1] https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2000/03/jarvis.ht...

[imgabe]

> This is what the maxis are after.

When you find yourself saying that the people you disagree with are deliberately seeking catastrophic outcomes, it's time to take a step back and reconsider. I don't think anyone wants to destroy the global economy and cause a global war. Maybe the Bitcoin maxis are wrong about the long-term viability of Bitcoin, but I doubt very much they are some kind of nihilistic death cult bent on destroying civilization. Maybe dial it back a notch.

[arcticbull]

That's fair, and I walk that back. I don't think they're intentionally taking us into a Mad Max future, but I don't think their intent changes much if they get their way.

[hackingforfun]

There is no nipping this in the bud. That's the point. It's already too late.

[arcticbull]

I reject that thesis given the Chinese sure managed, in like a week. No Bitcoin in North Korea either. The longer we wait, the more painful it'll be.

[hackingforfun]

China vs crypto has been going on since 2013 [1]. Open source, decentralized crypto is a direct competitor to China's CBDC, which they have already developed and are trying to distribute [2]. Of course China would want to squash all competition. Jerome Powell from the Federal Reserve said in a video from 9/30/21 that he has no intention to ban crypto like China did, although it sounds like stablecoins may be regulated [3]. Jerome Powell has also said that the US is considering a CBDC [4]. The SEC has also already said in 2018 that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities [5]. The current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, taught a course on blockchain for several years at MIT, and here is a set of his videos [6]. How do you think this technology is going to be completely banned, or that everyone will forget about it and it will totally go away? The seeds are already planted, and as I said, there's no nipping this in the bud now.

[1] https://www.btctimes.com/news/chinas-history-of-bitcoin-bans

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/china-digital-currency-beiji...

[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-09-30/powell-says...

[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/22/the-fed-is-evaluating-whethe...

[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/14/bitcoin-and-ethereum-are-not...

[6] https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-s1...

[arcticbull]

> China vs crypto has been going on since 2013 [1].

True, the saga went on for a while, and I suspect their recent kibosh had more to do with domestic financial instability and a shaky power grid than ideology.

> Jerome Powell from the Federal Reserve has said from a video from 9/30/21 that he has no intention to ban crypto like China did, although it sounds like stablecoins may be regulated [2]

Yeah, and frankly, that may be enough to pop the bubble. I have long maintained the position that most price action in crypto is driven by rampant manipulation and un-backed stablecoin issuance. Once number stops going up, I don't think people will care at all anymore.

> The SEC has also already said in 2018 that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities [3].

Yes, Bitcoin is not a security because it's distributed solely by mining. Etherium is and always was a security, as it plainly fails the Howey test like every other ICO, in line with the formal guidance issued by the SEC. The SEC elected not to treat it as one, however. They have also indicated that every other ICO is at risk of being treated as a security.

> The head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, taught a course on blockchain for several years at MIT [4].

Yep, he's super smart, and I have a lot of respect for him.

> How do you think this technology is going to be completely banned, or everyone will forget about it and it will totally go away? The seeds are already planted, and as I said, there's no nipping this in the bud now.

I think stablecoins will be regulated, price action will subside and nobody will care anymore as we were on track to seeing before the printing spree of 2020. And I think most ICOs are going to get smacked down as unregistered securities offerings.

The China model of removing the bandaid would be much better though.

That's a best case though, and you could totally be right.