We’re closing out one of the wildest and most significant weeks I can ever remember in the three years I’ve been involved the crypto-space. Those years of experience have conditioned me to not let the market volatility influence my emotions. I’ve learned to take a step back and observe how the market reacts to positive and negative stimuli.

This week was not one of the weeks I could fully shield myself from the feelings of panic. More than once this week I had reoccurring thoughts of moving to a country that's more crypto-friendly. The truth is in a connected world there’s nowhere to run, this issue must be confronted head on. However, every time we live through these kinds of events we can learn something from them.

The messages being delivered in the mainstream media this week weren’t anything we haven’t heard before. They were the same scare tactics and lies that have been delivered by bad actors for years to exploit and manipulate the emotions of the uninformed.

However, this time it was a coordinated, three-pronged, attack by the President of the United States, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

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“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and of other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.” ~ Donald Trump

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There was a clear effort to paint cryptocurrency as the currency that fuels criminal enterprise. Mnunchin even called Bitcoin a “threat to national security”. In reality, the cash is still very much the king when it comes to currency being used for nefarious means. All of that aside, the focus should be on the crimes themselves instead of the currency used to fuel it.

Surprisingly, shortly after Trump’s Tweet the price of Bitcoin held steady and even bounced up a bit. Next came the shock waves from comments from Mnunchin and Powell. After this, the crypto market took a steep dive. The events that followed were interesting and filled me with optimism. The market recovered a significant amount of what it lost in just a little more than a day. This proved just how resilient crypto is becoming.

I’ve also watched some of the Facebook/Libra hearings this week and have been appalled by the Congress’ lack of understanding of the basics of how cryptocurrency works. It was like witnessing dinosaurs speak. Members of our government should be required to maintain at least a general understanding of issues they’ll eventually be voting to regulate.

There’s no denying that this was definitely the week cryptocurrency went mainstream. Things just got very real. I’m heading into the weekend with this thought…

It is imperative for us all who believe in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to become more involved in the narrative.

I’ve seen Justin Sun doing exactly this, reaching out to educate crypto critics in these last few months. This is something we all should be making more of an effort to do.

Those of us who understand how this technology works must educate as many people as we can in these months leading up to the 2020 US Presidential election. I can guarantee you that cryptocurrency will now be an election issue and legislation will be passed to regulate cryptocurrency in the years immediately following.

Us early adopters must come to terms with the fact that our baby is growing up. It’s getting increasingly difficult for me to envision a future that doesn’t involve blockchain and cryptocurrency. We must pay very close attention to political candidates’ understanding of and stances on cryptocurrency and vote as if our future depends on it. In truth, it very much does. Decisions our elected officials make in these next few years will have an impact on future generations for decades to come. It’s going to take millions of voices to drown out the FUD.

(Gif sourced from Giphy.com)

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*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.

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