Chaper 9: LET’S INNOVATE?—?NOT REGULATE

When something is new and threatening, our reptile brains scream “Stop!”, “Run away!”, “Control!”. In this new daunting world of the blockchain, that’s exactly what we are seeing. Our power institutions are regulating, trying to protect us from the unknown and possible evil. Or are they really? Perhaps they are actually just trying to protect themselves and their pure existence. And in the meanwhile restraining us citizens from something purely magical.

Following his new book on digital strategy How To Become A Digital Marketing Hero, Rufus Lidman is now translating all his knowledge to the most revolutionary field in the world. A field in desperate need of a digital strategy. In a series of articles, we will get an upclose view of this new mind-blowing market, seen through the eyes of a digital strategist.

Chapter 1: The Revolutionary Technology That Will Change Your Life, >> Chapter 2: The Birth Of The Future, >> Chapter 3: A Real Revolution in Practice, >> Chapter 4: A Metamorphosis You Are Not Prepared For, >> Chapter 5: The Apocalypse of the Establishment, >> Chapter 6: The Secret Recipe To Reach The Absolute Top, >>Chapter 7: The Simple Answer To The Global Problems, >> Chapter 8: Crypto Hits Rock Bottom - But Is It Really That Bad? >> Chapter 9: Let's Innovate, not regulate >> Chapter 10: The Winner Takes it all >> Chapter 11: Wrapping it All Up.

As we saw earlier, this year opened with a stock market hiccup. The entirety of the crypto market suddenly deflated as a result. Following an untenable increase of 3 300 percent during 2017, it dropped by 46 percent during a five week period at the beginning of this year. Then bouncing back with an equally shocking 48 percent rise. And has been going strong ever since.

Then bitcoin gained even more unwanted attention, following a report claiming that over 25 percent of all bitcoin users are criminals involved in drug cartels and organized crime.

Scary, huh? All of this stuff about crypto and the blockchain is just so appalling! These cryptocurrencies are so dreadful, you’d do best not to have any contact with them. At all! So, we have to do something about it!

Right?

Well, then maybe you should use the same logic regarding US dollars, considering it’s the most used currency throughout the history for drug cartels and other criminal activity.

Five years ago, a credible study showed that 2 billion (!) outstanding dollars are being used for illegal activities at any given moment — corresponding to an astounding 12 percent of the yearly BNP (14 percent for the entirety of the OECD). We’re talking 24 000 times the amount of bitcoin being used for the same purpose.

So, still think this whole crypto thing is so foolish and bewildering, that it’s best that we all just pull the break? I mean, taking the crypto path would mean the abandonment of any kind of gold standard as a historical basis of value. Gold, mind you, being the most functionally overvalued and useless substance used for trading.

But hello, isn’t it GOLD we’re talking about here!

If you don’t follow me, read Harari. Or just stop and think about it. Whether gold has any value beyond what has been agreed upon, apart from being a ”snuggle blanket” for bankers.

Do you know how speculative gold is in its financial worth? During a single year, its value went up 150 percent, following the last stock market crash. Only to drop 26 percent to a markup of over 900 billion USD today. Compare this to the combined value of all 1550 cryptocurrencies in the world — estimated at barely 57 billion USD.

And still, the foundation of the entire notion of economic stability in a country is exactly that, the ”gold reserve”.

Guilt By Association

Anyway, back to crypto, and its hardship. When I look at what’s acting out in the market in front of me, I note that the burden of proof seems to have all but disappeared in favour of what I chose to call “guilt by association”. Meaning the following:

1. Those who use bitcoin or altcoin automatically get associated with something atrocious, either organized crime or drug dealing.

2. Those who buy into bitcoin or altcoin are automatically associated with idiocy, expected to be financial speculators and scammers, since these are the people who used bitcoin and altcoin in the past.

By default, this is a weak argument and a logical illusion — an association fallacy. Like most fallacies, it is not addressing the matter itself (cryptocurrency), but draws a false equivalency that because it has beenassociated with evil, it must be evil.

But hey, just because you live in the same apartment complex as a tax dodger, you must be one too, right? If your child went to the same school as a bedwetter, then probably your kid is one also. And yes, if you play golf, you must be a cocaine addict, serial cheater and — a murderer! After all, both Tiger Woods and OJ Simpson play golf.

“The banks are openly terrified, crying wolf and even banning its employees from buying BTC.”

So what’s the net result? In my native Sweden, we go out and use the same instinctive reptilian brain-guided behavior that’s been intact since the cro magnon era. Even though 100 000 people invested in Bitcoin in Sweden alone (over 100 million worldwide), the governor of the Swedish Central Bank publically relinquishes all responsibility, warning the general public that they do so ”at their own risk”. The Financial Supervisory Authority further scares the hell out of people, issuing public warnings and risk statements. The banks are openly terrified, crying wolf and even banning its employees from buying BTC.

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