At the Blockchain Global Summit event in Hong Kong, anti-virus pioneer John McAfee said that war between world governments and cryptocurrency has already started.
Conflict is an integral part of life. A person struggles to find their way in the world, and businesses compete with one another to earn your dollar and trust. It is in the economic realm where conflict is constant, and the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have led to struggles in multiple arenas. There is the ongoing fight for acceptance by the general population, and there is the never-ending fight between decentralized digital currencies and sovereign national governments. It is this latter regard in which John McAfee, the anti-virus pioneer, remarked that the war between digital currency and world governments has already started.
Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War
During the recent Blockchain Global Summit event held in Hong Kong, John McAfee gave some interesting remarks to the South China Morning Post on how he views the relationship between world governments and Bitcoin and its compatriots. He said:
Today will go down in history as the beginning of the war between the proponents of cryptocurrency and the world governments. If governments aren’t able to know what the movement is they will be unable to collect revenues. That’s going to cause panic in some countries. China sees it already.
There are some serious rumblings from world governments in regards to the proliferation of digital currencies. The most notable comes from China, who has banned ICOs and will not allow their citizens to invest in such ventures. This has led to several major Chinese exchanges, such as BTCChina and Huobi, to shut down.
How Serious Will This War Be?
Of course, the actions taken by China have caused some stir in the cryptocurrency universe, but it is to be expected. John McAfee is right in that a war is underway between world governments and digital currencies. The reasons for this are quite simple: control and revenue. Governments hate not being able to track the flow of money, which means that they can’t squeeze everything they can out of people via taxation. The rise of Bitcoin also puts a dent into their control over the economy. The new digital currencies have taken the creation and distribution of capital out of the hands of sovereign national governments, and they don’t like that one bit. There’s also the fear of capital being drained from the country’s economy into cryptocurrency.
How will this conflict between governments and cryptocurrency shake out? It’s too early to tell, but the increasing acceptance of Bitcoin and other currencies cannot be denied. There’s definitely going to be an increased push from governments to exert some form of control over the cryptocurrency market through the use of regulations. Another interesting development is that some countries are making (or considering) their own digital currency. Estonia and India are two notable examples. A researcher at the Central University of Finance and Economics, Huang Zhen, has said that China should create its own cryptocurrency as well.
It’ll be interesting to watch the twists and turns this conflict between digital currencies and world governments will take. No matter how some governments take a dim view of cryptocurrency, they cannot deny the profound possibilities of blockchain technology and the staggering monetary worth already associated with digital currencies. Plus, the genie has already been let out of the bottle, and you can’t put it back.
What do you think about the remarks made by John McAfee that war has already begun between cryptocurrency and world governments? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, and Bitcoinist archives.
