The European Union is set to vote today on the Markets in Crypto Assets legislation. Among other things, this could make bitcoin and other energy-intensive proof-of-work currencies illegal. However, they removed the relevant part at the last minute. It’s still a very big issue though; here’s why:
EU parliamentarians among others have been using energy concerns as an excuse to try to ban proof-of-work cryptocurrencies. According to Coindesk, they want to ban it even with “renewable” energy. “They fear that renewable energy could be channeled into proof-of-work computing rather than the national grid destined for public use”.
But stop and think for a moment. Isn’t bitcoin “public use”? There are two possibilities here. One, they simply want to ban bitcoin and are looking for a way to do it that appears justified. Two, they want to introduce the concept of frivolous use to the public so that later they can bring in anything else and deem it “frivolous”.
Either way, they are behaving exactly as we would expect them to behave. People who want to govern—by definition—want to control others’ actions. Bitcoin threatens that control and the fact that they have backed down (for now) should give us an insight into who has the real power.
Why It Doesn’t Matter.
If the control freaks win, we have a problem. If they don’t win, they will just come back and try again in six months or so. Either way, we have a problem and it’s not just one silly rule by one silly group, it’s an entire institution with millions of willing enforcers worldwide. We will have to either face up to that at some point or carry on descending into the ant-heap of totalitarianism.
No matter which way any vote goes, we have a big problem. Bitcoin is a part of the solution which is why the problem is busy trying to either ban it or replace it with their own clunkycoin.
We must not get caught up in the minutiae of the day-to-day manifestations of tyranny. It’s time to stop worrying about what some little group of petty tyrants and their ignorant followers do. The bitcoin price has to stop being manipulated by fear. The price reflects our collective confidence in it. Let’s stop living in fear and send it to the moon.
Screw the rulers and their soulless world of restrictions and edicts. Humanity has an enormous potential to be any or all of the amazing things our fantasy and sci-fi authors wrote about. All we need to do is cast off the parasites and free our minds.
Once our money is worth more than theirs, they are finished.
