The Crypto Regulatory Climate Has Inverted To Common Sense
During the innovative and fast-changing days of the industrial revolution, many technological breakthroughs were fabricated… some mere concepts, and others inventions that would go on to be produced in mass quantities for the betterment of society. The mass production of time however, was still a problem to be solved for the staff who operated in the factories in and around Great Britain.
Because alarm clocks were neither abundant, nor dependable (much less affordable), the workers employed the services of the 'Knocker-Upper'… a profession that ensured that the workers woke-up early and were able to get to the factory on time. While there were thousands of workers in various factories at the time, being employed in a factory enabled many to provide a decent living wage, to which if anyone arrived late a few times, they would either be reprimanded (usually without pay) or simply let go.
The Knocker-Upper used a large stick (or a long pea-shooter) to tap the windows of the sleepy folks, ensuring they had ample time to wake up and get to work. A lucrative position indeed, and although the proprietors of this niche business had to wake up extra-early in which to earn their keep, they were also rewarded by taking the rest of the day off to either do what they pleased (or also join the others at the factory if they so desired). A whimsical and perhaps romantic notion today, but back then it was serious business.
Today, if we wanted to, we could acquire an alarm clock at the local thrift store for a buck or two, with the added convenience of a snooze button to add to the utility, but even this is old-fashioned as it comes free-on-board as a default-app with any smart-phone. The obvious point is this… technological breakthroughs put an end to the position of the Knocker-Upper, and many other professions in the decades since for the benefit of mankind. Some ideas for progress are obvious such as the proliferation of the alarm clock, but others did not come without a price.
Hoist By One's Own Petard
As time moves along through the decades and centuries, there are moments when a shift in the way we progress as humans change things forever. It could be a savings in time, or change in the economy, but regardless the medium, you can be absolutely certain there will be someone with a bee in their bonnet that will stop at nothing to spoil the progression of the idea for the rest of us.
The automobile had their fair share of horse-and-buggy enthusiasts who tried to kill the innovation, further stalled by the regulators of the day that had a man stand in front of the car with a red flag, walking very slowly for "safety" reasons. Old-thinking luddites were wary of the telephone because they were fully convinced it would put operas out of business due to the fear of microphones broadcasting the event. Laughable by today's standards, but as much as things change, they stay the same with this sort of malarkey playing out in the crypto market.
But… like the Car and the phone, crypto could not (and will not) be killed off by a few special interests… and they certainly gave it their all. It's a game as old as time itself where powerful lobbies proclaim to look here, and not there while at the same time spreading fear, but as the asset class has matured from the early days of regulatory capture and intentional FUD by the media, Cryptocurrency is moving ahead and regulations are being relaxed.
Banks, governments and even traditional investors who were once wary of Bitcoin are now singing a different tune, and it's being reflected in both the decreasing supply as well as the price. But perhaps a bigger catalyst is the adoption rate and promise of what the blockchain was meant for in the first place… speed of execution over mainframe-like performance and low-cost transation processing where projects such as ChainLink are playing a role in the movement of goods and services or the near real-time settlement of value from Ripple Labs.
Silence From The Lamb
For those who are familiar with the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, you'll recall the scene where Indiana Jones is paired against the big swordsman, with the humorous ending. That scene in the movie almost never happened, as the original screenplay was written to have Jones and the swordsman have a long fight with Jones' whip. However, due to montezuma's revenge, a shorter (and many of us will likely agree… better) outcome prevailed.
The night before this scene was to be filmed, Harrison Ford thought he would try the local fare in Tunisia by indulging in some street food which contained a variety of ingredients including mutton. While the meal was likely an appetizing dish, the next day, his stomach was telling him otherwise, and as you can imagine, his energy level suffered because of it, which is visible in the movie where you could see his lack of enthusiasm just before 'meeting' his rival. Indeed, he was in no mood to film a long, drawn out battle scene, and finally he just said to Speilberg… "Can't I just shoot the guy"? and the rest is history.
Ford basically took a bad situation and used ingenuity to his advantage to the delight of the movie-goers who, without knowing the history of this scene, had a good laugh. This is basically what is playing out now in the cypto space with clever, modern solutions being battle-tested and ready for prime-time for the benefit of everyone, and the best part is… they don't even know that behind the scenes, it's cryptocurrency that is facilitating the transaction.
With the G.E.N.I.U.S. Act now passed, and the Clarity Bill soon to be voted on, things that seemed almost impossible just a year ago are being deployed. Where before the sentiment was "Bblockchain not Crypto" this has been replaced with a new flury of digital entrepreneurs providing cutting-edge services, not just in the transferrance of money, but in healthcare, construction and a multitide of other areas.
Keep Abread Of The Facts
Perhaps you are still on the sidelines of whether or not to consider Cryptocurrency as an investment because of what you were told years ago. Who knows, you may have even heard the 'Blockchain not Bitcoin' phrase (which was a cute statement put out by the same sort of folks who tried to stop the phone and car). But in letting the facts speak for a second, the trepidation could have been well-founded when the total Crypto Market Capitalization was about 1 Billion but now that we have north of a 4 Trillion dollar market, the facts are no longer in dispute.
Like Blockbuster, this statement has aged link a fine milk
If one but simply did their own research they would find that crypto is being used to solve real problems today, and yes… much of them are on a small-scale due to past reulations (even prototypes) in comparison to where this is going in the years to come, but with a favorable regulatory climate, and much-needed clarity coming to the asset class, the charlatains and fraudsters are being cornered while the true developers and innovators with their many blockchain-based use-cases are about to go mainstream.
For those who have been in the space for awhile, the future could not be more obvious, as in tackling modern problems such as moving money as fast as an email simply cannot be done with old tech. It's basically like trying to find the bug(s) in a large equation thtough a search engine, compared to knowing the answer in seconds via AI.
When mass adoption comes, the crowd will flock in extremely fast succession to crypto and proclaim 'we needed this all along' but there are only a small fraction of us that realize this today, while the opportunity is still available. The SEC, FCA, CFTC, DOJ and others are relaxing their stringest laws which for so many years have halted the means of production, but they all know what's at stake in being left behind, and, like the internet in 1996-2000 when laws were relaxed to let the market thrive, the result will mean gains for everyone.
Gains in the economy, in jobs and in novel ideas that can only come from crypto and for those who are unaware… you cannot have blockchain without crypto. Ignorance of this fact, and holding on to a romantic idea such as paper currency or slow tech will seal the fate of those same people, who will, by choice, end up on the negative side of the future.
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Title image by Eirini Lachana | Raiders of the Lost Ark by Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas
Great Exhibition, 1851 by George Cruikshank | Blockchain not Bitcoin / Blockbuster art by phneep
