Crypto CONTROVERSY – Human Rights Advocates Speak Up!
(RepublicanPress.org) – In 2009, Bitcoin (BTC) was created as the first decentralized currency existing virtually in a digital space. Cryptocurrency has exploded in recent years, with people around the world taking advantage of its benefits. However, it isn’t without controversy. In the US, there’s support on both sides of the aisle to regulate cryptocurrency. Most recently, lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill this past week to give the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies.
While many find cryptocurrencies such as BTC too risky an investment without government regulation, human rights advocates called for lawmakers to leave the currency deregulated to keep it accessible to those whose physical currency is unstable. They argue that siccing a regulated body onto digital currencies would leave them without financial means.
Those for Regulation
Some 1,500 technologists, computer scientists, and software engineers banded together to pen a letter to Congress stating they disagree with the potential future of cryptocurrency. The experts said the blockchain is flawed, not secure, and “poorly suited” for use in the economy as a whole. They are concerned about how digital assets are marketed toward everyday investors who are unaware of the risks associated with such a speculative technology.
The tech experts also point out the potential for money laundering and ransomware attacks perpetrated by criminals looking for a way to skirt US financial laws. They claim the dangers of unchecked technologies such as these will happen and are happening because of the nature of the assets themselves existing without regulation in a digital space.
Chief Strategy Officer for the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein, said most of the writers of this letter live in either the US or Europe, where they have access to the American dollar or the euro. The authors of the next letter aren’t so lucky.
Advocates Against Regulation
Following the submission of the tech’s letter to Congress, more than two dozen human rights advocates submitted a plea of their own. The group consists of individuals from 20 different countries who claim millions of people depend on Bitcoin and stablecoins on the blockchain to survive. They suggested that without the deregulated currencies, many people living in countries with unstable currencies or authoritarian governments would no longer have easy access to the global economy.
As it exists, anyone around the globe with access to the internet can use, buy, and hold (HODL) cryptocurrencies, allowing them to survive when their home country is flailing. They also told Congress that virtual coins played a role in helping Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion in the early days of the war.
While the advocates admit there are problems with BTC and the like and digital currencies are not without risk, they implore the US government to concentrate on teaching citizens how to sniff out scams instead of imposing regulations that could harm people around the world.
Do you think cryptocurrencies should remain without regulation, “open and permissionless” for anyone to use, or do you think the government needs to step in?
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