Lately, I've been reading about the banning of crypto in Nigeria in some insightful posts from @josediccus. As puzzled as I am about the decision, I understand how a greedy and corrupt government might fear losing financial control over the people. My goodness, if crypto adaption spreads, the populace might actually unbind themselves from the chains of traditional banking! The horror! Imagine crowdsourcing loans much like GoFundMe, while bypassing traditional sources. This sort of personal empowerment is exactly what those in power fear the most.
Which made me wonder... Why in the hell is crypto still legal here?
Locus of control
As I tried to evangelize about the possibilities inherent in this new instrument, I was met with responses of it being "fake money" that the government would never allow to get off the ground. Some even thought it was illegal at the onset and I must admit to being pleasantly surprised that the long awaited for boot, never came crashing down. In this country, the greed is so great, that if they could charge you for every breath you take, they would. Only now, has the business class awoken to the danger (to them) in this Gamestop/Robinhood saga of crypto in the hands of the people.
So it made me wonder if I lived in the fictional country of "Anticryptonia" how would I respond to crypto being made illegal? I mean, you spend all of this time building your stack and networking with others around the world, only to fear that it could all be at risk. Maybe I'd have a compatriot or family member in another country, safeguard a portion of my holdings until I see how things shake out. Are they going to be kicking in doors and demanding we hand over hardware wallets and crypto-keys? If so, the nature of the blockchain itself would provide a protective barrier to asset seizure.
The other thing I'd be considering, is having a backup plan to get the hell out of dodge in case the SHTF.
One side of immigration
You guys may not know it, but we have one of those notorious "immigrant processing centers" nearby. There are only three in the United States and one of them is in our area. Awhile ago, residents began noticing a strange thing. We started hearing black people wearing colorful garb, speaking beautiful french. At first we thought they might be tourists, before realizing they actually lived here, in the armpit of Pennsylvania. Why in Gods name would anyone want to move here, when the locals are all trying to get out? I think that may be why the "kids in cages center" was opened up here in the first place, along with a regional criminal justice facility, where other regions export their criminals. The crime rates in their cities were going down, while ours was skyrocketing. What was once of the 25 safest towns in America as recently as 1980, has turned into a mini-Mogadishu with gunshots ringing out into the night.
The local English, Irish and German population whose ancestors founded the city over 250 years ago, now flee to the safety of the suburbs, leaving the African-American and destitute white population to face the violence together. This has caused the tax base to crater, forcing tax rates up in order to provide services for migrants who work under the table and send their money out of the country. One of my classmates has a mother who came here illegaly in the 90's and now has a job where they pay her in cash. She avoids paying taxes and so does the employer. They share an apartment with two other families and all extra funds are sent back home to the Dominican Republic.
The instructor explained to him how this hurt our local economy, where services are provided like school, police, firefighting, 911 and hospital that aren't paid for, yet they don't contribute to the upkeep due to avoiding taxes. However, he informed her that the need back home is so great that this is the reason they do it. This is shortsighted. But the warning was given that as this behavior continues and the population increases, they will kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The business course instructor explained that at some point, with so much money being siphoned off and sent overseas, America will experience yet another Great Depression, due to so much taking out and not enough paying into. With a million new people arriving every year in the United States, I wonder how much longer this can keep going on. Someday, the land of milk and honey will arise from their slumber to find that every drop has been lapped up with nothing left to drink. What will happen then? Hopefully I won't be around to find out.
And the other...
However, there's hope amongst the chaos...
We have a huge number of people from Central America and surprisingly, Conakry, Guinea and Nigeria as well. And what I see is the hope in their eyes and the possibilities in their voices when I ask why they came here. The response usually is: "No matter how bad it may seem to you here, it can't begin to compare to the hell we left back home." This allows me to see my country through their eyes. A woman from Mexico told me that she's grateful that her children can actually learn here while getting a free lunch at school. She works and pays her taxes, which helps the city's finances. "In Mexico they give us nothing, while here, my child gets an education and something to eat." It used to be that schools only offered lunch, but in some areas with high immigrant populations and food insecurity, they now serve breakfast as well. Sometimes you live in this country and you forget how things are in other areas. I'm glad that people can start a new life filled with hope for the future.
The entrepreneurial mindset of the crypto investor, is exactly what you need to make it in America and a source of support for yourself, your family and the futmure of our country.
It's heartening to see people surviving on LEO and HIVE. That may just be the solution in these countries that have made hope illegal by banning cryptocurrency. What if crypto adoption spread to such an extent, that taking it from the hands of the people would be almost unworkable? Failing that, the very real prospect of a digital "brain drain" of the brightest minds, will begin to hollow out the nation, leaving the future even more uncertain. One hopes that if nothing else, the powerful will see the ability of crypto to fatten their own bags and unlock the benefits for all of the people.
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For a country that is made mostly of immigrants, not the immigration is the problem. 0.3% can't bleed it dry. Most make minimum wage and can barely afford a living.
The focus on immigration and terrorism is much higher than the focus on organized crime. In the USA you have a lot of problems due to substance abuse and other serious stuff.
Also the lack of education is keeping a country poor. That is why the richest countries have a higher an average higher educated people and I mean both formal and nonformal education. The thing is to be specialized in a field that the society needs, where a double major in bagpipe singing and advance Sanskrit will not bring you far enough.
The USA is still a country of all possibilities, but the view angle needs to be adjusted. Crypto can bring a lot to it, that is for sure. Also in terms of education, crypto educates the financial noob in terms of moves and that in a very fast way.
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Trust me when I tell you that my city is being bled dry by people who come here with nothing, work under the table for cash without contributing to the tax base and send their money out of the country. We have one of three national immigrant detention centers not far outside of town. The migrants want it closed and so do the local citizens. I would bet, that if you spoke to Americans living near the other two federal detention centers, they would feel the same.
The problem concerning the violence, isn't the women and children, it's the husbands and boyfriends that arrive after them. The MS13 gang was unknown here until the arrival of that center. This brought us our first beheading in the city. The first ever police officer killed in the line of duty in over 250 years. Human smuggling and women being held for forced prostitution, was unknown here until now. Even the most pro-migrant activists have had enough.
The last straw for most people was the elderly woman who was seen being robbed in broad daylight. A woman watched it through her window, before she realized what was going on. She was in her 80's and a 20 year old guy demanded money from her. She reached into her purse and handed him the money. He started walking away, then turned back and for no reason, he punched the senior citizen in the face knocking her down. She hit her head on the icy sidewalk and died two days before Christmas.
Why?
The elderly cigar store owner who was gunned down even after he handed his money over. My friend Jose, who gave credit to poor people in his grocery store whenever they needed it, shot to death in front of his wife when he refused to hand his hard-earned money over. I could go on and on...
People are tired of the violence in this once peaceful city. We want immigrants to succeed, but not at the cost of the good people that live here. The detention center has brought misery not only to us, but to the migrants as well. If any locality wants our federal immigrant detention center to be relocated near them, they are most welcome to have it.
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Its virtually impossible to take away crypto from people unless you want to ban them from using the system to process it. Many people in Africa, Nigeria depend on the system to process their crypto into fiat currency but then its been taken away, it'll get to a stage where people will totally be independent of the system and Crypto trading will be untouchable to every government institution
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You can use VPNs if they block your access to the blockchains. There are so many means to fight against tirany.
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What is surprising is that they don't have the foresight to see this and plan otherwise. We just had a change in leadership here that did not seem possible just one year ago. Here's to hoping for a brighter future for us all.
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