The Regulation of Crypto-Currencies

Bitcoin became a part of the financial system in 2008, but many people and countries are having trouble dealing with this new radical crypto-currency.

Only one country has declared bitcoin illegal, Russia. Russia felt that bitcoin made laundering of illegal monies easier and could be used to support nefarious terrorist groups in the Middle-east. Russia has an ulterior motive; it is here where much dark web and crypto-currency developments are taking place.

The worst aspect of using bitcoin was evidenced when The Silk Road website used bitcoin as its currency of choice. Silk Road was structured like eBay but sold illegal drugs and other illegal activities.
Bitcoin is the natural progression after “plastic money” (credit cards) and PayPal, which is tied directly to consumers bank accounts. Both these systems carried transaction charges that were assessed to the sellers. Bitcoin has no such transaction charge.

While regulations of bitcoin are not damaging, any government regulation usually presents problems for the development of anything new. Bitcoin is like free energy. When Nikolas Tesla offered George Westinghouse free energy, Westinghouse asked how this free energy source could be metered. Tesla’s funding from Westinghouse was suddenly cut off.

Bitcoin is becoming a universal currency, but its ideal use is among inventors, engineers, and programmers who need to pay collaborators and ultimately receive funds for each use by purchasers of their applications and sophisticated programming. Simply put, cell phone users currently buy an application for a one-time charge. With the next generation of applications, one-time charges will be replaced by a per usage charge.

World currencies fluctuate madly. These currency changes fuel the Forex (Foreign Exchange) market. As a country goes through an economic downturn, its currency loses value against other healthy currencies. Examine the value of the British Sterling Pound after the Brexit. One Forex investor, George Soros, made a $1 billion on a single Forex investment in 1992. Having a world currency like bitcoin protects against losses and devaluation of a country’s currency.

Bitcoin is also traded like stocks around the world and will increase in value just as the popular stock market indexes increase over time.