11/25 ANDY HOFFMAN (CryptoGoldCentral.com): “Banning Bitcoin” - LOL
Easily, the longest running Bitcoin FUD issue is Chinese “ban” announcements that have occurred as regularly as the sun rising, for nearly all its ten year history. To wit, ambiguous statements have been made by the Communist, totalitarian Chinese government since 2013 about “bans” – and yet, Bitcoin continues to be mined and traded as freely as ever. In fact, a rumored mining ban was all but officially quashed by State-owned media this summer – a strong sign Bitcoin isn’t leaving China anytime soon.
Yes, ICO funding has been banned – that frankly, is not a bad thing. There are tremendous amounts of ICO scams - so if the goal was to protect citizens, goal accomplished…though its quite ironic that an institution supporting dozens of fraudulent zombie banks would be considered “helping” its citizens by banning ICOs or “fraudulent” crypto exchanges. Or any nation, for that matter – like the Fed supporting the financial system with trillions of repos; or allowing Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and other bankrupt financial entities to operate.
Again, Bitcoin is not a “competing currency” with the Yuan – or a “company” that can be closed down; and if Bitcoin mining was banned, it would occur irrespective - and migrate to more mining-friendly locales. As would trading – which in many cases has, to the dozens of Bitcoin-friendly nations and safe havens (like Malta, where Binance moved).
Is Bitcoin a “threat” to the status quo? Of course, but not any time soon. At just a $100 billion market cap, of an asset few understand, it hardly challenges the Yuan, Rupee, or Ruble. However, governments clearly understand its power – which is why many, like the Chinese, Russians, and Venezuelans, are creating their own “digital currencies.” And ironically, supporting gold purchases, as they KNOW gold is no longer a threat.
The funny thing being, that the Venezuelan Petro and soon-to-be Digital Yuan are not “cryptocurrency” at all – but instead, electronic versions of existing fiat currencies…with the added feature of governmental ability to follow, and censure, any transaction it wants. And LOL, such blockchains will have the same scaling issues as Bitcoin – which would make it hilarious if one day they require a MimbleWimble hard fork!
There are hundreds of exchanges to buy Bitcoin on – with more decentralized options each day; and frankly, it won’t be long before MOST exchanges don’t even have a “home base.” As for nations, like India and China, who attempt to ban bank funding of exchanges, new ways of funding fiat to crypto will be found by their citizens, from localbitcoins.com to more sophisticated operations. To that end, there are dozens of crypto-friendly nations – like JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA, and FRANCE, that would gladly accept international investors seeking crypto exchanges.
Frankly, I don’t have enough strength to address this idiocy anymore, as it bores me. China is not banning Bitcoin, and couldn’t if it wanted to. The world has seven billion people, and millions of them will be finding ways to buy Bitcoin when they put their minds to it, including Chinese citizens. Use the current FUD to your advantage – as like all the other Chinese Bitcoin obituaries, they will soon be forgotten.