A plea to Parliamentarians. Look at this so we in Britain do not get left behind or left out.
You know Google is fined every year by some Government or other? Sometimes billions. Hold that thought.
I know in my years of fund management, what attacks on companies and their share prices to take note of as fatal (very few – eg Napster) and which are warning shots, requiring pivots (eg Netflix). Cryptos are Netflix, Google and not Napster.
Recent falls in Crypto have centred around the Asian attitude to regulation (control) compared to the Western (liberal). So what does the future hold.
Oh, don’t weep for Crypto owners – in the past 3 months Bitcoin cash holders are up 700%, so are Ripple holders, and poor Monero and Litecoin holders are only up 300%. They’re doing fine.
Something this useful and popular will not be outlawed, anymore than alcohol could be, as the Americans discovered. Instead, we need to think how Governments are likely to work with it.
Decentralization, the novel idea that was proposed by a still unknown person or group by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto has had the unforeseeable effect and traction that no one ever thought was possible. The idea that no one is in ultimate control, and that no single entity is answerable to, not even government is the core idea that has been fueling the rapid rise of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry and one of the reasons it continues to attract billions of dollars in investment and media attention all over the world.
Utopian as it may seem, the idea of a decentralized non-answerable infrastructure where people can add and transfer anything of value without having to use banks or any kind of middleman has had untold negative consequences that even its initiator, we might safely assume didn’t want to happen.The cryptocurrency industry through its lure of billions of dollars with profits promises has become a hot bed for fraudsters who make up products without ever having the intention of delivering. Pumping it up to attract investors and then cart away the money into thin air, with investors holding on to what are useless tokens.
With the increase of case of fraudulent ICOs, and epic debate rages on with some saying it is high time the industry submits itself to some form of regulation governmentally, which will protect investors and guarantee the industry does not create a backlash with investor apathy. Others say the lack of any form of regulation is the intrinsic magic that attracts people into this brave new world and as such any form of regulation or restriction in the way funds are raised for its growth will amount to a betrayal of the basic tenets of capitalism. With the raging debate and no compromise seeming to be possible in the nearest future between the aforementioned parties, a third column has recently been getting more vocal and gaining supporters as a compromise between privacy and usability of the blockchain technology on one side and integrity and ridding itself fraudsters on the other side, is being mulled over.
Proponents of this new call say that both proponents and detractors of regulation in the crypto world have valid points which are not necessarily going to last in the exclusivity of the other. They say that in order to move from an industry that is frequently labeled anarchic in nature and enable it finally reach its true potential, the blockchain technology with its crypto sector taking first step needs to structure up a self-regulatory mechanism that will both protect its users and lend the system the credibility that is exclusively enjoyed by their centralized rivals.
Britain has to take a lead and give a direction other Governments can follow. If not our way, then we will end up following solutions set by others to suit themselves.
Alpesh Patel
