The wave is spreading.
It is becoming evident that the new Trump administration is going to be friendlier to cryptocurrency than Biden (or Trump's previous term) was. This is providing an optimistic outlook for anyone associated with the industry.
Wall Street, for better or worse, is building a host of products tied to crypto. It is also working on providing the foundation which will lead to the tokenization of real world assets.
We are looking at the potential for another boost, this time from China.
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China Legalizes Cryptocurrency
Chinese citizens can now legally own cryptocurrency. This is important considering this is the second largest country, by population, in the world. It is also the second largest economy.
In a groundbreaking move, a Shanghai court confirmed that personal ownership of cryptocurrencies does not violate Chinese law.
This unexpected clarification provided much-needed legal assurance for crypto holders in mainland China. This signaled a shift in the country’s stance on digital assets.
Many countries are starting to change their stance on cryptocurrency. As always, the financial side gets all the attention but this is, at its heart, technology.
Therefore, the issue at hand is to get on board or risk getting left behind. In this era, when technology is moving so rapidly, a few years delay could place a nation decades behind.
We saw this with the Internet, an innovation that emerged from the West which, not surprisingly, dominated for a couple decades. This was most led by the United States.
China did eventually catch up but it does not want to find themselves in that position again.
That said, there is a bit of a twist.
Despite the ongoing ban on cryptocurrency transactions that was imposed in 2021, this ruling offered a significant legal distinction. This highlighted that personal possession of digital assets does not violate Chinese law, even as regulatory restrictions on crypto trading remain in place.
The view that speculation is wrong means the ban on transactions is illegal. What we are seeing is a step in the process.
Governments: Get Out Of The Way
Government support for cryptocurrency is not required. This is something that will succeed on its own.
The key is to not have governments hindering the progress. Unfortunately, we found ourselves in this situation in many parts of the world. Overreaching politicians and bureaucrats have caused untold amounts of damage. It probably set the industry back 5 years.
With the sentiment (along with regulatory approaches) changing, perhaps we will see an acceleration of development. Many are no longer fearful of the ramifications of creating software that could get them in trouble.
At least we seem to be heading in this direction.
Personally, I never felt there was a fight between governments and crypto. It was a done deal before the battle was started. Governments were impotent against crypto. While they could delay things, ultimately, they would get run over.
Between the Gary Gensler and Operation Choke Point 2.0, the Biden administration could not have been more anti-crypto. In spite of this, the industry managed to grow.
This took place with serious headwinds from the United States. To this day, there is still a lack of clear regulation from that country. The EU is a bit further along in this area, helping to attract companies.
Neutrality from the government is all that is required. If, however, there is a tailwind, where supportive legislation emerges, this could actually accelerate things. For me, I find this unlikely since government bills are packed with so much stuff they end up creating unintended consequences.
Development Is Key
One thing that does not change is the need for builders. Development still remains key.
This is especially true with open source and decentralized systems. We know the major corporations will dive in headfirst once they have clarity. The challenge is they are rent seekers, looking to extract as much as possible from the system.
We can see how this is a problem when coupled with AI. The centralization of LLMs within Big Tech is evident. Since we will likely see a coupling of crypto and AI, this can result in a dangerous situation.
The industry must counter this in every way possible. Building outside the Web 2.0 realm is essential. Crypto is part of the foundation of Web 3.0.
We must ensure it is not hijacked by the combination of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
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