Recent moves in the US have flagged potential obstacles that could appear for cryptos over time...
I have long maintained that there are three basic threats to the future growth and ultimate success of cryptocurrencies. Firstly. internal manipulation or malfeasance e.g. pump & dumps, Secondly, external criminality e.g. mainstream theft, ransomware driven payments, 'illicit' transactions in general and the negative press that it all generates. And finally misguided, inappropriate or simply malicious government regulations.
Events in the US Congress over the past few weeks have demonstrated the good, the bad and the ugly of this latter point and overlaid a rich dollop of their national political machinations.
So what has been driving recent legislative moves in the US? Essentially, it appears to be money! Quelle surprise?!? And political opportunism!
The latter point is that President Biden's domestic agenda and his much vaunted Infrastructure bill, a massive government funded series of programmes to completely rebuild the transportation system across the country, has presented a legislative vehicle to which an attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies could be hitched.
Damanick Dantes
I guess you could distil the monetary aspect into two separate threads - firstly, tax...
The love of money is the root of all evil
Biblical quote
...and supposedly related to that is the notion that rampant criminality and massive tax evasion is pervades the asset class and needs to be reined in.
Damanick Dantes
Remarkably, one of the staunchest defenders of the sector, for reasons which appear to be based on his recently refurbished libertarian political platform, has been Senator Ted Cruz. If I sound cynical, it's because I am but I don't have the will to dig further into his motivations. I could be wrong, I mean when have vested interests and commercial lobbyists ever tried to influence policymakers?
Of course, this being the Congress of the United States of America, its hidebound procedures and calcified traditions have done their best to make passing anything almost impossible and this bill was proven to have no immunity to this body politic.
Damanick Dantes
Pork Barrel, a close neighbour of the Filibusters in the suburb of US Legislative Absurdity, was the guilty party but the saving grace here is that at least we know where we stand with the status quo...yeah, right!
Onwards!
