“Governments don't want us using Bitcoin as a currency because it's too hard to track for taxation. They would prefer we stored our value in a medium that they can control but if it's not a MoE, it's less of a threat to them.”
Tax is part of it, no more GST if everything is considered “P2P” at the PoS.
The bigger reason is the risk of deflation.
If enough people opted out of any given fiat currency to an alternative MoE, that fiat is going to deflate and die. Governments don’t want their fiat to die because they like printing money - in a war they will say they **have** to print else they’ll get outspent and defeated and in peace time they need it to buy off the electorate.
Any popular acceptance of Bitcoin or any alternative MoE is therefore an unacceptable (read existential) threat to Governments, if they can’t quash it before people adopt it then they are fukt, and these are people who only know how to operate in monopolies rather than competitive markets, they don’t want to have to innovate and service “Users”.
Always thought the US was the best example of this, still using cheques and drive-thru Banks and weird shit, no chip/pin for years - it makes sense though if you think about it, what need to innovate did they really have when they have the biggest monopoly on the planet? None. Meanwhile poorer countries have adapted mobile minutes and been using QR payments for years because their money is shit so they tried to reduce friction to keep it in use as MoE.
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Interesting theory on the lack of financial innovation in the states. I just thought they were a bit slow to adopt tech (eg smart phones). You're theory makes more sense.
I'm just really glad that they can't stop Bitcoin or stop me from accumulating it. I'm not really one for paying much attention to narratives. I'll spend it or sell it as I see fit. Fuck em all. 😉