Crypto: First The Banks, Then The Governments
Change is in the air.
It is amazing how quickly things can change. I recall writing a little over a year ago that the banks were done. For this, I got a great deal of pushback. People were saying that the banks were not going anywhere; they were too powerful and a part of the establishment.
In short, some thought it was a foolish outlook.
Why believe some individual on the Internet? Instead, let us look at someone who is involved with what is taking place.
“Human beings need financial services, they don’t need banks.”
This is a quote made by Brian Brooks, the acting Comptroller of Currency (OCC). What is that?
As Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Mr. Brooks is the administrator of the federal banking system and chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC supervises nearly 1,200 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks that conduct approximately 70% of all banking business in the United States. The mission of the OCC is to ensure that national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner, provide fair access to financial services, treat customers fairly, and comply with applicable laws and regulations.
Essentially, this is the top overseer for the banking industry within the United States Treasury. In other words, this is not a statement from some anonymous guy on the Internet. Here is someone who is immersed in the daily workings of the banking industry.
Brooks also had some other tidbits that are very interesting.
“We see a future where decentralization is very likely an unstoppable force out there. Decentralized networks, by definition, are cheaper, faster, and more resilient than any kind of centralized structure.”
Again, we see a concept that is espoused by many who are involved in cryptocurrency. We are seeing the transformation of an industry occurring before our eyes, much in the same way as music was forever altered almost two decades ago.
“It is possible for you to just go online and say, ‘Hey, listen, I’ve got $10,000 here and I’d like it to earn five percent’ […] the algorithm will find someone who does, and all of a sudden there’s no longer a value in the bank aggregating all of that money together.”
Full article:
https://blockchain.news/news/mainstream-adoption-defi-dlt-is-coming-replace-banks-us-currency-comptroller
Ultimately, technology is replacing much of what banking does. When you have an aggregator, in this instance for financial purposes, we are now in a world where that can be handled via software. This is a lot of what blockchain coding does. The entire premise of block validation by code run all over the world is to aggregate much in the same way as banks.
Of course, there are some services that banks provide which are not available in DeFi. This is likely only a temporary situation as more development is taking place. There are people out there who are looking at every facet of the banking system and trying to come up with ways to automate it. Since it is an industry that deals with numbers, it is fairly easy to do since it is already digitized for the most part.
If the banking industry is coming under fire, can we exempt government from the process? Again, many feel this establishment is too powerful to be torn down. However, a case could be made the entirety of the banking industry is more powerful than governments. Unlike the later, the former does not deal with national boundaries. They are truly global in scale.
The digitization of the world changed things a great deal. We are about to embark upon another leg with the development of virtual reality. This will take people deeper into a new world and economy.
Which means new governance systems are going to be in play.
Presently, we are seeing the struggle between government and mega technology companies. The governments of the world are beginning to realize how much power companies such as Twitter, Alibaba, Facebook, Google, and Amazon really wield.
It is interesting to think about how much of a direct impact these companies have. Leaving aside the censorship and some of the more noticeable activities of late, even a simple change in the terms of service be Facebook could have much greater impact upon an individual than a law passed in Congress (or Parliament). These platforms tend to affect us a great deal more in a direct manner.
As the idea of a "networked" life takes on greater meaning, where does government fit into this. We already see a country like Estonia leading the way in terms of its digital adoption. It even went so far as to create a "digital citizenship" where people can become online citizens which then allows them to register businesses in that country. This can be done from anywhere in the world.
Is it an idea that will spread?
Naturally, if decentralized networks keep growing, the line between our physical and online world is going to blur. Each year, where we are physically located is becoming less important in terms of finance, economics, sociability and commerce. As this occurs, decentralized platforms will operate outside the scope (and thus regulations) of any single government. Unlike the mega technology companies, the lack of physical presence removes the point of entry to regulate them.
So yes, there will be a period of time, likely the next two decades, where we see the power of physical governments diminished. This will not happen overnight but will start as a slow "bleed". Along the way, financial setbacks will handcuff many governments, causing them to collapse. The larger ones, like the U.S. and EU will keep things spinning, but will also face the same situation. Essentially, downsizing will take place.
An online game, developed by a few people located in different areas of the world, using digital assets and cryptocurrency as well as a URL that is outside the reach of the regulators (such as an ETH site) is basically operating outside any economy, government, or legal framework.
Now, the situation becomes clear if we repeat this a couple million times.
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