Binance Showing That Crypto Is Not Crypto
By now most reading this heard that Binance and CZ are being targeted by the CFTC for regulatory violations. At the heart of the matter are accounts that are owned by CZ and the firm, both trading against their customers.
This a clear violation of the laws and will deliver a major blow to Binance. Some are theorizing this could take down the exchange. At best, we are looking at heavy fines, most likely totaling into the billions.
Of course, some would say this is just another example of the anti-crypto sentiment and an attack on it. This would not be without validity. However, that is only a piece of the story.
Exchanges are an interesting animal within cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, they were the epicenter for many of the frauds we saw over the past few years. Now Binance is being shown to be in the same light as FTX.
Hence, we have to draw a line to determine what is cryptocurrency versus more crap pretending to be it.
Be Like The Bankers
CZ certainly is acting like a banker.
Cryptocurrency was designed to get humanity away from the banks and have it operating in a different manner. Unfortunately, it seems all we did was recreate the same animal.
What we are seeing in cryptocurrency is not crypto. Instead, it is more Wall Street antics. This time, only the players changed.
The charges against Binance are nothing new. We saw them many times in the past. One incident involved Goldman Sachs. During the mortgage back security (MBS) craze leading up to the Great Financial Crisis, the investment bank was selling these securities to its clients. The only problem was the firm was also shorting them out of another division.
In other words, the firm was selling an asset that it was actively betting against. Ergo, the situation with Binance is nothing new.
To Goldman Sachs, fines are just a cost of doing business. The firm paid out billions for its "crimes" and went along its merry way. You can bet the result was a net positive for their earnings, once again proving who is really running the show.
CZ might not be so fortunate since this could cripple his firm. However, it does show how the centralized exchanges are really nothing more than Wall Street replicas.
A Decentralized Future
If we want things to change, we have to get away from this.
The last 24 months were important lessons in not your keys, not your crypto. It is something that people learned the hard way. This is just another example.
Decentralization offers a great deal of promise. To get their, people need to be willing to endure a bit of inconvenience.
How often do we hear people complaining about how difficult decentralized applications are? They refuse to spend the time to learn how it works, giving up. This is usually followed up by moving funds to a CEX, further enhancing their powers.
That isn't to say that development is absolved from focusing upon ease of use. This is something that is required. Nevertheless, people have to be willing to step out of their comfort zones.
It is time that cryptocurrency be taken over by those who are concerned about the tenets and what it brings to the table. The last 5 years (at least) saw the industry hijacked. This was done as Wall Street entered. People got excited because they had dreams of their favorite coins mooning. Unfortunately, that is inviting the wolf into the hen house.
Hive is fortunate in that it is overlooked. Very few exchanges carry it. Thus, when bans start coming, Hive will be outside the target range.
That does not mean all is rosy. A lot of work is required. Hive is going to need to develop its own on ramps to provide entry into the ecosystem. This is going to get more difficult as time passes. The regulators will throttle things, we can count on that.
Size Does Matter
Hive has a major advantage. It is very small.
Many will look at this as a problem. However, if we look at the numbers, we can utilize what is taking place to our advantage.
The reality is that all on ramps cannot be stopped. With cryptocurrency, there is always a chance that goods and services can be purchased using this medium of exchange. This means that we will always have a few ways to enter and exit.
Another is the fact that we have a basis with social media. This can attract people setting off the network effect. At the same time, we see the main coin, $HIVE, being an access token. That means the greater the number of users results in a correlated increase in demand.
Hive is dealing with something like 10K daily users. What happens if this number reaches 150K? The numbers dictate this will impact demand in a large way. Naturally, with Hive's design, we see that the coin is not just acquired but also staked.
This is the major difference maker.
Tough times are ahead. The advantage for Hive is to build around what the established bringing to the table.
Here is where the tenets of cryptocurrency truly reside.
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