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Regulations will push the crypto community off the edge

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@belemo
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Living in a country puts you at the mercy of certain laws and rules. In the case of crypto hodlers, regulations by the government are those rules and they generally have an influence on the perception of crypto in that society.

In Nigeria for example, crypto represents freedom, defiance from archaic rules and an opportunity to earn a living in a system that's transparent.

In Nigeria, there are also no actual regulations in place for crypto, so we're not "protected" by the government. Thank God for that by the way.

The US of A

In the US where regulations and policies are no joking matter, the government simply can't keep their lips off crypto. Every day it's one thing or the other and now a recent decision has gotten some people worried.

According to a non-profit crypto group known as Coin Center, the recent decision to give the State Treasury to make certain decisions unchecked might come back to hurt crypto.

The America Competes Act describes some of the powers that the Treasury Department will have, amongst other things. It is also fascinating how the activities of China concerns the US but that's a story for another day.

“[The law] would hand the Treasury Secretary unchecked discretion to forbid financial institutions (including cryptocurrency exchanges) from offering their customers access to cryptocurrency networks. The Secretary may not use this discretion immediately, but it is not power the Department should have.”

In this case, this could mean that the Treasury Secretary could just place sanctions or even shut down any exchange that is deemed "dangerous".

Well for what it's worth, crypto exchanges have always been the easy fall guys. They're fighting a potentially hopeless battle against forces that will NEVER accept them.

This move in the US will undoubtedly lead to some negative press and interest in crypto.

The change could also enable the Treasury to have uncompromising access to US citizens' information. So this is the government telling US citizens that we had you by the balls all along, now we're going to squeeze them.

This situation caught the eyes of Cointelegraph and many other outlets.

The privacy issues might highlight the need for privacy coins and all but that's also a story for another day.

What does Yellen think?

It is hard to decipher what Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary thinks. On one side, she has mentioned a couple of the benefits of crypto but she's also not exactly in support.

On a couple of occasions, she has stated that as far as she can tell, cryptocurrencies are used for "illicit" transactions. So it sounds like much of the same.

In a publication on The Washington Post as far back as April of 2021, Yellen was described as a stumbling block on the path of crypto adoption in the US;

Cryptocurrency supporters and investors have hoped for some sort of validation by the federal government that stops short of enhanced scrutiny, and Yellen appears to stand in their way.

Washington Post

If Yellen was a stumbling block when she needed public opinion to function, imagine how dangerous she can be when she pretty much has veto power.

Cut out the middlemen

The powers that be, only have an influence on people that try to get their approval. So, in essence, we're referring to crypto exchanges in this case.

The moment we find permanent Peer to Peer solutions and have solid payment networks across the world, the crypto industry will move towards DEXES.

I consider central exchanges to be the middlemen in the crypto industry. I also consider them to be a very important on and off-ramp for passive and active investors.

Sadly, they're constantly getting a lot of heat from the government because while regulations can come in, the crypto market is evolving at a much faster rate.

I can't see a future where crypto regulations will become a "norm" like the way they've done fiat. Unlike the traditional system that has stagnated for hundreds of years, the crypto industry presents a new challenge for governments.

Exchanges are the fall guys in everything and that's unfortunate because of their huge role in the industry.

I believe this is just a phase of the evolutionary trend because, in the near future, these same exchanges will morph into more powerful and complex beasts that governments simply can't handle.

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