It's fascinating how easily interpretable the news becomes for some of us on Crypto Twitter. Just a few days ago, the announcement dropped about the EU banning "anonymous crypto payments," and that was all the plebs needed to start pouring their misguided ideas into the comments section of accounts sharing this news.
These individuals didn't even bother reading the entire news piece before leaping to the wrong conclusions. Typical of the masses, always lagging behind on matters of significance but quick to pass judgments that often hold no value.
So, what the EU law actually entails is prohibiting businesses from making payments exceeding 10,000 euros between each other, and crypto payments that exceed 3,000 euros to any businesses within the EU. The masses immediately jumped to the conclusion that the EU is banning self-custody wallets. How on earth would they even achieve that, even if they desired?
This is precisely why it's called a custodial wallet... Because you hold the keys to your wallet, and there's no entity that can block you from transacting on the blockchain. The most governments can do is make the on and off-ramps for crypto more challenging. That's it.
As long as one doesn't rely on exchanges to hold their crypto wealth, there's no reason to worry about anyone freezing assets (except perhaps USDT, which seems quite susceptible to freezing).
Over the weekend, I had the chance to catch up with an old friend whom I haven't seen in a while, and to some extent, he's the reason I'm into crypto right now. He's been into Bitcoin since 2016, introduced it to another friend of mine, who then told me.
This guy is indeed sharp, much smarter than I am, so I paid close attention to what he had to say. During one of our five-hour-long conversations, he shared his experiences in China. He worked as a software developer there for a while and spent about a month in China during his career.
He mentioned that Beijing was livable, but the communist aspect of China is peculiar for Westerners. For instance, he recounted witnessing the military police stop some random individual one day and conducting a search without any apparent reason. They searched his bag, wallet, and phone. Privacy is virtually nonexistent in China; Xi Jinping doesn't want China to be free, hence the prohibition on Bitcoin.
Living in a Western country, no matter its level of development, is likely far superior to living in China. What occurs there simply wouldn't fly here because we lack the cultural inclination towards such obedience. Authorities might attempt dubious actions here and there, but ultimately, they can't exert total control over us like the Chinese government does over its people.
Bitcoin is the cat that's out of the bag for Western civilizations, and there's no putting it back in. Those who refuse to accept it will be left behind by this train. Societies will be constructed based on blockchain technology, and regardless of how hard governments try to clamp down, they won't succeed.
You can't fight technology, and even if you try, you're destined to fail.
Thanks for your attention,
Adrian