I've said many times over the past year, that in 2-3 years, the entire global stock market will be one market and will trade 24/7 like cryptocurrencies do today.
With respect to your point about not needing regulation, I get what you say and what a lot of people are saying. But regulation will ultimately lead to a more ordered market and allow it to thrive. And, the SEC mandate is to protect people. Most people are ignorant. I'm sure many people have turned to the cryptos like gambling at a casino and have lost their shirt in this massive correction since February. We are not the average ignorant investor. I think there is a place for some basic regulation.
I expect later this year that China finally releases their new regulation they are working on. When this happens and the Chinese are able to once again invest, there will be a firehose of demand injected into the cryptocurrency market. They are currently working on creating an entire digital economy on blockchain. I'm deep in the weeds. I subscribe to an expensive financial newsletter focused on blockchain investments. This new technology is rewriting the way business and world will function. It's an exciting time regardless of if bitcoin or the whole cryptocurrency market is down. It won't be long before real blockchain businesses and applications will drive their own demand and valuations.
I totally second your point about regulation. When I read @krnel:
I immediately thought of the repeal of Glass-Steagall and all the arguments from financials for less regulation which we've heard since.
The banking system is already a significantly regulated industry that functions in an orderly fashion. With respect to the repeal of Glass-Steagall for small to mid tier banks, this will take off the handcuffs when all the banks were lumped into one bucket. The cost to small and midsize banks to meet the same requirements of the large banks held them back. Now they will be more free and watch the small and mid sized banks undergo a bunch of M&A with their newfound freedom.
Well said, yes. I think that it would need some SEC type regulation to an extent. But regulation isn't always a great thing. It typically means fees, taxes and other people trying to take your money. There are certainly pros and cons to it. It's more adopted and more people know about it but with that inevitably comes them stealing your money.
Blockchain technology though, aside from crypto, would be fantastic to see in many more avenues. There are great implications for it in the financial sector yes, but also in other sectors as well. I envision it could help the healthcare system and once I learn more about it I will be able to formulate a decent hypothesis on what it could do.
Just like banning crypto, regulation will not work in the long run. Both require worldwide consensus. That's never going to happen. The establishment wants to add friction to this revolutionary technology by taxing and regulating it. No surprise there. Money money money greed.
The problem with this is that other countries are going to respond by not adding any friction to the system at all. These countries will see huge benefit from their decision to embrace crypto with no strings attached. Crypto is corruption resistant and rewards good behavior.
These visionary countries will be able to create frictionless platforms on top of a frictionless foundation. In turn, they can build even more frictionless applications on top of the frictionless platforms. The end result is going to be a completely efficient and fluid ecosystem where everyone benefits. This end result is impossible with the added red tape of regulation.
Countries that choose greedy short term gains over the awesome power of cooperative capitalism are going to get left in the dust. Now that everyone is actually paying attention because Bitcoin hit 20k, the blockchain has the power to radically shift the balance of economics worldwide within 20 years. Never before has an open source project had the means to fund itself and every other open source project.
Regulation will not allow crypto to thrive, it will stifle it. It will pump the market with dirty money from the old corrupt system that we should want nothing to do with. It will add friction to a perpetual motion machine. I support regulation because America doesn't deserve to be a world power anymore. Regulation will ultimately funnel wealth into the hands of the communities that saw the value of cooperation over greed.
I get your point about regulation relative to other countries if we do more of it then other countries. However, there is too much money in the future of blockchain and the cryptocurrency market and too much risk of being locked outside this market. I don't know of any sizable country who is considering no level of regulation. I also don't agree that regulation requires worldwide consensus. Instead, one government will make a move and the others will watch and adopt the parts that work. There is zero chance any meaningfully developed country lets the crypto market freely build. That's simply a fantasy.
The other point, is that institutional money will only flow into crypto market en masse when there is some order to the market. They won't just enter to gamble. That is what will set this market on it's multi-trillion dollar expansion. The first step was to approve the futures and options markets last year. This allows institutional investors to hedge their portfolios, which is required. Next is for large financial institutions to hold actual cryptos on behalf of their clients, called custodian service. Finally, without some sort of ICO regulation, all the big money will bi-pass these and go to direct funding of the business (blockchains), which is happening now. June 11th.
Update: June 12th.
Here's a small quote from Dr. Smith, a PhD mathematician who is the founder of TradesStops service, who wrote an article on this topic today:
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Nice response. I agree to an extent. Sometimes I like to go full idealist. I'd like to think that blockchain can self-regulate. It's already been demonstrated that blockchains for a platform of voting and government are a real possibility. Just look at DPOS.
Yeah, blockchain and crypto are lined but not exclusively connected. Blockchain is going to change many things regardless of cryptos success.