Quick Summary Of My Beliefs On Regulation In The Crypto Space

This post is going to be very controversial due to the fact that the bitcoin community is split between whether or not it should engage regulators or ignore them. I happen to personally be in the camp of people who believe that we as a community should work and engage with regulators, but not give up the fundamental attributes of that make it revolutionary. I want to gain the greatest amount of exposure to bitcoin and I honestly believe we do that with not only businesses that ignore regulators, but with ones that engage with regulators as well. If we offer easier onramps for both types of people seeking different things out of bitcoin, we will be better off as a community. I want bitcoin not only to be for the anarchist techie, but also for the 40 year old working man who can buy a few coins in an etf and save for his retirement. With that quick summary, I want to go into why I believe together as a bitcoin community we should hire lobbyists.

Lobbyists Can SOMETIMES Be A Good Thing

So when I originally saw the idea about hiring a bitcoin lobbyist about 2 years ago, most people were opposed to the idea purely based on the notion that lobbyists are the spawn of Satan and only add to corruption. While this is sometimes the case, if you have lobbyists for both sides of a problem it can actually have a beneficial outcome. A lobbyists main goal is to educate and try to persuade a politician to vote for their cause, but also to educate them on the subject they are lobbying. Obviously depending on who hired the lobbyist, the information they provide can be biased or misleading, but this is why having two opposite sides lobbying can be a good thing. If two sides lobby an issue a politician is able to see both sides of the debate and get a better understanding of a topic. Being a politician in America means that you are constantly voting on bills you really aren’t very knowledgeable about. The wide range of topics is just too much, that very few people could know everything about what they vote on. In this respect, politicians rely on third parties such as advisors and lobbyists to give them short summaries on why or why they shouldn’t vote a certain way. In this regard, just informing politicians about the benefits bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies bring, could open their eyes.

Lobbyists Are Already Lobbying Against Bitcoin

It has become quite obvious with recent anti cryptocurrency bills coming to fruition in places like California, that banks and payment processors like Mastercard are lobbying against bitcoin. We knew this from disclosed records a year ago and it seems like if they had their way, the US government would be banning bitcoin. Despite no one being able to stop the use of bitcoin, a negative sentiment like a ban would ultimately limit growth and the amount of people bitcoin could reach. If the goal is to reach a large amount of people, other countries tend to follow the US in terms of regulation and might choose similar laws. If we hire a lobbyist to combat the anti bitcoin lobbying that is currently going on, we could have the politicians see both sides of the argument and see the potential of the system to bring jobs and wealth to the US.

True Mainstream Adoption For The Masses, Won’t Come Without Regulated Businesses

Despite what many bitcoiners think , most people invested in the currency need viable on and off ramps with reputable companies to make it worth it to hold large amounts in bitcoin. Someone who wants to invest a million dollars into bitcoin isn’t going to be bothered selling on localbitcoins. They are going to want mainstream solutions to invest and secure their coins. Regulated businesses might not be a perfect outcome but it will definitely help in making the system more robust. If we can make the bitcoin market cap 100 billion rather than 10 billion it becomes a much sturdier and less volatile system. These things are essential in getting mainstream third world acceptance and use of bitcoin. Third world countries don’t and won’t have access to payment processors or any onramps to their own currency besides person to person trading, so a less volatile commodity would benefit them greatly. People would be much more likely to use bitcoin if it didn’t fluctuate 5% a day, and it becomes much harder to do that when you have a much larger market cap and mainstream organizations trading it. This is exactly why you rarely see the DOW or Gold swinging 5% daily, because it just takes too much to move it that much.

In Closing

In closing I believe that we should explore all options to help mainstream adoption of bitcoin as a currency and adding a lobbyist would help. I believe lobbying works and we should pursue it as an option. I think certain types of businesses don’t need to be regulated and that startups should not have to pay exorbitant fees just to create something. However I think that a lobbyist can express all these problems to politicians and speak to them in terms they can understand. If politicians hear about how it can create jobs and bring massive amounts of wealth like the internet did, they would be much more willing to explore it more, rather than shunning it because all they think about is how bitcoin can be used to buy drugs. A lobbyist can help change minds in Washington and I think that is the most important part to acceptance in the US at this point in time. If you have anything you wanted to add, questions or comments ill try and respond to most. Thanks!

-Calaber24p