Russia Showing The Power Of Cryptocurrency
Governments have a love/hate relationship with cryptocurrency. Thus far, it appears, they do not know what to make of it.
On one level, they cannot stand it. Cryptocurrency helps to provide rights to citizens they might not otherwise have. As stated on numerous occasions, this allows for the ledger of monetary transactions to be controlled by someone outside the banking industry.
This does not sit well with governments since they like to assert their power over the situation by regulating the banks. How effective this is can be debated. Nevertheless, the fact that we see politicians all over the world grandstanding shows how they like to inject their authority.
All of this leads to the knee-jerk reaction of "ban crypto". At a minimum, we see the efforts being made to regulate it. How all of this will turn out is going to be interesting.
There is another side to this discussion which some countries are just finding out about.
Not All Governments Are Treated Equal
Vladimir Putin might be one of the best things that happened to cryptocurrency. It is ironic how geo-politics is showing the power of this new technology.
Obviously, Putin and Russia are today's boogeymen. The West is aligned against it over the invasion of Ukraine. Following the typical playbook, one of the first actions taken is sanctions. Actually, those were put in place long before the actions towards Ukraine. The recent decisions only ramped them up.
It is not hard to figure out how being isolated from the global economy makes life very difficult. At the core of this is being able to make payments on a worldwide scale. This is what the West is trying to achieve with Russia. The idea is to isolate them financially to cause damage to the economy. If they can achieve this, the thinking is, maybe the Russian people will stand up and overthrow Putin.
To counter this playbook, we might be witnessing the emergence of cryptocurrency. As espoused, blockchain is designed to operate outside the reach of any government or central bank. This is in following with the Eurodollar system. Russia, along with anyone else, is able to take advantage of this.
Whereas the Eurodollar system is only available to banks, cryptocurrency can be used by anyone. Here is where Russians might become heavy users.
The government is thinking about letting its citizens use cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. This is an activity that was hindered severely by the actions by the West. Cryptocurrency offers a way around it.
Naturally, the government wants to retain control by having wallets issued through the central bank. Whether this is effective or not is of minor consequence.
What is important is that we are seeing the power of cryptocurrency in action.
Ends Financial Oppression
Anyone who seeks to financially control another is out of luck with cryptocurrency. This is something the world is going to wake up to. Russia might be the biggest entity to exhibit it but it is something that works all the way down the scale.
Since many blockchains are permissionless, they are available to anyone. The network does not care who uses it or for what purpose. As long as there is a wallet and access to the private key, transactions will be processed. The user can be doing so as an individual or at the request of a government.
This will, of course, get the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren going. She will scream about Russia avoiding sanctions and how cryptocurrency needs to be stopped. Anyone using it is a criminal and only people with nefarious intentions operate in this realm.
The reality is that, for all the talk about leveling the playing field, the attacks by those who espouse this are misguided. Cryptocurrency does exactly that. Russia, being isolated due to their actions, can provide its citizens with a mode of financial operation.
At the same time, citizens who are oppressed by their governments, traditionally at the mercy of power hungry politicians like Warren, have the ability to transact outside their reach.
When dealing with a blockchain like Bitcoin, or even Hive, we can see how the ability to stop things is impossible. Since nodes are located all over the world, it is only a matter of time before the size becomes too great. Laws by governments created in the physical realm tend to be less effective in the digital world.
Putin is starting to realize this. There is an ironic twist: the same rights will end up in the hands of the Russian citizens too. If Russia can utilize it to get around the West, the people in that country could do the same to circumvent the government.
Blockchain does not play any favorites. It simply processes transactions based upon the code. Who is in control of the wallet is of no concern to the network.
This is the power of cryptocurrency. The world is just starting to wake up to it.
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In this sense we would have to wait for a massive adoption by Russian citizens to use Blockchain and cryptos, we would also have to wait for Russia to loosen up a bit and allow on a large scale the use of cryptos. While it is true that it is the citizens who will have to adopt or not the technology, so far I do not know if Russia allows the use of Blockchain freely in the country.
That is true but the fact that they are seeking to allow cross border transactions using cryptocurrency is a big step forward. This means that we will see major volumes occuring.
I agree we have to see the things you mentioned for it to really explode at the individual level.
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Sounds like they have a typical marriage. :-D
Haha.
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The laws made in the physical are redundant in the digital when it comes to cryptocurrency. Sadly it will take conflicts like Russia isolated against the global economy at the expense of the ordinary person but in the end, cryptocurrency will be at the core of it serving whoever needs it.
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This hits hard and makes the digital world faceless, it will always take the shape you want it to, where some use this for criminal activities, and others use it to benefit and enrich their community - take the borehole project for example.
We are now realizing how much we need crypto now more than ever in human history.
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Yes it does make it faceless and this is only the first step. I have a feeling we are going to see more privacy development which will make things anonymous.
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Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin declared cryptocurrencies could be a “safe alternative” for cross-border payments…. According to him the Russian government needs to intensively develop innovative areas, including the adoption of digital assets. This is a safe alternative for all parties that can guarantee uninterrupted payment for the supply of goods from abroad and for export.
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it is certainly a love-hate relationship since they want to give us the freedom we seek but when we become very independent they want to take that benefit away from us
Blockchain equals freedom and I love it.
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Putin saved the world from COVID (hysteria) and now he's promoting cryptocurrency.
I view these things favourably.
I don't understand why is he such bogeyman when he is just doing exactly what the US, UK, France and all the European countries have done for centuries and are still doing - attacking other countries. The only difference is that Ukraine is next door to Russia and has some historical affinity to it - unlike the US that invades countries half a world away.
"The West" has not succeeded in isolating Russia. Instead it has isolated itself and created a huge energy crisis that will destroy Europe's economy and allow Putin to dominate Europe without a fight.
Hopefully the US Dollar's reserve status will end and Bitcoin will become the world's new reserve currency. Then ALL governments will have great trouble funding wars (because they can't print money to pay for them).
You are either in favor of global poverty or you do not understand money.
We are experiencing what deflationary money is like and all we get is slowing growth rates. And you want more of it?
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The world's productive and consuming population (1st and second world working age cohorts) has been shrinking for some time and is in long term decline.
Real economic growth is impossible in such circumstances and massive money printing has been used to paper over this reality.
Bitcoin with its very slow rate of increase is the correct solution for a global reserve currency in these circumstances.
If Putin and China implement their own digital coins, i cant believe that free blockchain and free speech are welcome. Authoritarian regimes normally do not like that.
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Throw in the authoritarian regime this guy leads also.
Go on market place in Russia or china and talk about Hive and a free world with no leadership, do the same in the US or Europe, maybe you find the difference.
Let’s see if that difference is here in 5-10 years. The West is going fascist fast.
I see more of a trend toward a multicultural society similar to Canada. Germany alone needs 600k new professionals every year, otherwise the demographic change will destroy the economy.
How can you argue like that, do you like autocratic societies? Hitler, Stalin, Mao would be good reasons against it, but it's your utopia.
No but there is nothing they ultimately can do to stop it. As I stated, once the door is open, it will be walked through.
The more these countries try to stop it, the worse the situation gets for them since developers are incentivized to come up with a work around.
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Funny how things turn out as something bad could actually be good in an around about way. Putin will do anything to piss off the West and he knows the game they are playing with Crypto so he will do the opposite to what they want.
He will do what’s best for them. Not just opposite of the West but just different of what fits. The West has gone full fascist but Russia is not a freedom loving government by any means. Although with all the propaganda it’s hard to know exactly what’s what.
Not sure he is letting the west dictate his decisions at that level. If there is a benefit to Russia, he will take it.
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I fear about this from the time the sanctions were made and I knew they will somehow utilize this, and with effect, the cause will make Russia one of the users of crypto and cold cause a ban on crypto for a certain amount of time. I do not see a way that crypto will not be a blacklist for the government and maybe this could cause only true decentralized blockchain to only stand while the others with founders closed or bankrupt somehow.
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The awakening seems a little agonizingly slow tho!! Lol guessing it takes minimum another 5 yrs. Mby 10. Which hopefully plays well for earliest adopters like us!! Haha
I love reading when governments and politicians grasp the winds when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency. I am impressed with this new technology and how it became popular during the height of the lockdown via NFT blockchain-based games and now its power is being demonstrated again through this geopolitical tension.
Governments' and politicians' luck has been over-extended. Great to know that it is now shutting down with the advent of this revolutionary technology. I love to hear Warren screaming curses on crypto criminals but powerless to do anything about it. Let the nodes continue to grow in size all over the world until these parasites realize that the regulations they are making are limited when it comes to the digital world.
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I will always bet on developers over politicians.
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The network works both ways but I do agree that it's going to be an issue for the people in control because they don't have any disadvantages in the fiat realm.
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With cryptocurrency being introduced to Russian citizens by their own government, it would be interesting how it is going to play out in the long run.
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