Anyone who knows anything about government, in general, knows that it likes to grow. This was true before Alexis de Tocqueville identified that principle in his massive masterpiece Democracy in America and it is no less true now. The only thing that really changes is what direction it’s trying to grow in.
One direction you can always count on government growing is towards anything that is currently outside of its reach. One of those areas right now is blockchain. Blockchain is a decentralized system of currency and information exchange not tied to any one government or its currency. Which of course means that it is not regulated by any government and that in turn means that the government doesn’t much like it.
A while ago, we talked about a lawsuit that the SEC brought against the digital payment processor Ripple. That lawsuit was considered by many to be an attack on the entire cryptocurrency world. Now, there are signs that the SEC will be making further moves to try and regulate, or at least contain cryptocurrency to minimize its effect on the US and other economies.
We see this in the recent appointment of Gary Gensler to the head of the SEC. Gensler comes with an impressive resume. He has served as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and at the moment is a professor at MIT. MIT may or may not be something you would immediately associate with blockchain but his focus is on teaching blockchain and digital assets. As such, he will be the first head of the SEC with extensive knowledge of cryptocurrency. However, is that going to be a net gain or net loss for those like TARTLE who push for decentralization? The signals are mixed.
On one hand, Gensler has openly praised both bitcoin and blockchain technology, remarking on its potential to be a ‘catalyst for change’. However, he’s also talked about crypto and problems with fraud and manipulation. While we would never say there haven’t been at least some scams and manipulation in the crypto world, it’s dwarfed by issues with the stock market.
Just look at all the insanity created by the Gamestop situation. A bunch of hedge fund managers were betting against the company’s stocks and shorted them, which of course drove the price down. Then a small army of independent investors, some of them amateurs getting into the market for the first time, disagreed and started buying up the troubled store’s stocks, driving them not just up, but through the roof. The result has been a small panic on Wall Street as some hedge funds teetered on the edge of collapse and of course an ongoing roller coaster ride as Gamestop stock rises and falls in ways that have nothing to do with the company’s performance.
What this has done has exposed just how easy it is to manipulate the stock market if you have enough money to do so, or enough people getting together with a small amount of money each and acting together. Point being, the SEC might want to look into securing the Dow Jones before it goes adventuring into cryptocurrencies. Sadly, that is not the way things typically work. Despite the fact, blockchain is much more difficult to manipulate and commit fraud with than the traditional market you can count on the SEC to start poking around and trying to figure out how to manipulate the crypto market for its own ends.
How to prevent that? One way is to decentralize yourself from the system. Start educating yourself on cryptocurrencies and getting a little yourself. How to get some crypto, you ask? You can sign up with TARTLE and share your data. Payments are made with Bitcoin so just by sharing your data you are contributing to making the crypto world stronger and helping to decentralize your finances at the same time.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
