The other day, I had a call from one of my friends. The guy on the other end was saying that there was a news about the law enforcement of my country taking the illegality of crypto more seriously from now on! A few arrests were made, so he warned me to be more careful as he knew I dabble in crypto! Well, it's not news to me! While studying criminology, I have had the privilege of making some friends in the upper tier of our law enforcement! Well, by that, I mean I am friends with some of them who like to gossip about anything crime! So quite a few times, that has led me to some heated discourse among ourselves about crypto while I was on the side of how it has a high margin of probability to succeed and turn our world into a cashless society while they said otherwise!
If you carefully assess the outcomes in every other possible scenario of how the future looks like, crypto over paper money is what is bound to happen! A digital renaissance of sorts, one might say! Yet, along with a few other countries, like Bolivia or Vietnam, Bangladesh is one of the last remaining strongholds of paper money, even so much so that it has turned into some sort of fundamentalism against digital currency! No matter how absurd it sounds, to them, it is like forbidden fruit from the heavens! On the one hand, the Bangladesh government is poorly revising their policies so entrepreneurs can reap the benefits of branching out in eCommerce and the gig economy. On the other hand, they are discouraging the use of cryptocurrency, which might someday become the backbone of virtualization!
But that is not where the problem lies! The thing is, sentiment regarding bitcoin in this country has two contrasting dynamics! Such is the issue because crypto in this country has only a soft banking ban defined by obsolete old policies! Yet, the recent crackdowns are becoming harsher and kinda threatening as time progresses.
On the one hand, our government has a few vague policies under which cryptocurrencies fall, such as FERA 1947 and MLPA 2012, where the foremost one explains how citizens should approach trading in foreign exchanges, which in the context of crypto is exchanges like Binance and the lot, with caution. And the latter defines how money laundering using currencies not recognized by the central bank leads to a few separate and different crimes! And on the other hand, our tech sector is already knee-deep in blockchain technology, trying to understand what, in retrospect, decentralization could mean for the countries infrastructures and already is outsourcing for many of the big names!
Do you see where the hypocrisy in this scenario is? If you do not, please allow me to elaborate a bit more! Both of those two acts have a few significant loopholes. Primarily, Bangladesh stock exchanges are already paired with different international exchanges in commodity trades! Like the rest of the world. So, in that context, the debate of Binance and the similar exchanges being foreign, unregulated by a central authority and thus illegal does not work! Secondly, our central bank is yet to recognize crypto as either currency or commodity! So if anyone trades crypto in Bangladesh, they are in a way not violating any laws!
And the final apparent major problem that I see in this whole mess is that MLPA 2012 defines any trade using unauthorized currencies to be punishable and even as money laundering! Even if we are not violating any specific rules per se, we actively participate in money laundering if we are using crypto in any transaction! It is like that moral dilemma a lawmaker faces! Until you criminalize and politicize something to be a crime, it is not a crime! For example, throwing away trash in the streets in a clean urban neighbourhood might be considered loitering and thus punishable crime! As that is defined by law for that specific area! Outside of that area, it is not! In this example, that dilemma lies within how the policymaker draws a boundary where the law is applicable!
In the past fifteen days, law enforcements have made quite a few arrests! Some of them are innocent small-time traders and a few whose portfolio is filled with absolute maleficence! Most notably, a guy named Rayhan who has been running a money-laundering racket in quite a few countries! and he now has the opportunity to manipulate those aforementioned loopholes. As the provisions against such crimes are outdated and not adequately revised, that guy with the money he has, he will be out of jail in no time while letting the small fishes hang out to dry!
Except for the few countries that have banned crypto, the rest of the world understands that there is no clear direction to take against these loopholes! So what they are doing is instead of criminalizing, they are forming regulatory bodies so better tax provisions could be implemented! And here is our idiot morally corrupt policymakers missing out on the future only to further their selfish gains! But, Mass adoption is only a matter of time! Back when covid started to wallop us, a few hundred thousand RMG workers marched a few 100 miles and entered the capital only so that they could get paid what they are due! To them, dying from starvation was more frightening than the pandemic itself! And due to that, a mass infection spread covid to even the remotest corner! So imagine what could have happened if defi was mass adapted in that context! It could have actually saved lives!
Oh well, someday I might too go to jail simply because I write blogs on a decentralized platform that rewards its authors in cryptocurrency! Such a crude joke, one might say:3
Here is something if you want to learn more about this!
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Well this is sad..
Crypto currency has also been banned here in Nigeria too. Banks are closing accounts of people who performed transactions that had anything to do with crypto.
They're all fighting a war they can't win.
Yeah! They always do dont they!
See you there! Nothing to say more then that.
The situation will change someday i hope!!:)
I am not sure if I have understood everything correctly. You'll probably think of me as a killjoy too, who knows? But I don't think governments -also not your government - are or will continue to be against crypto trading and cryptocurrencies per se. They are only against the fact that people have entered the crypto market on their own initiative and some with the interest of breaking the money monopoly.
What governments and what banks want is not only to keep the money monopoly, but also to continue to control it centrally. That's why I don't think that platforms that simply establish a complementary currency that others then jump on will remain decentralised in the long run without more powerful interests intervening and knowing how to regulate the whole thing more according to their own needs and have passed or will continue to pass laws to do so.
One thing my somewhat longer life has taught me is that ordinary people should do exactly what the system intends them to do and think. Civilisations have no interest in the formation of decentralised interest groups because they could get the idea of wanting to regulate and organise themselves and, through too great a degree of freedom, act against the interests of those who rule over them.
Do you predominantly see a blessing in the digital currency, i.e. the abolition of cash? I am extremely sceptical, but before I give my reasons, I would like to hear what negative consequences you think the abolition of cash could have for people like you and me? By that I mean for people who count themselves as ordinary mortals.
First, let me apoliogize for taking so long to write a simple reply. I was busy throughout today as i had some errands that needed taken care of!
No you are not a killjoy 😅 and you are probably right! I too dont think they will continue to be against. But my problem with their policies are that while they slack and waste time, even tho we have the much needed resources to participate in developing blockchain based infrastructure, the world moves forward and we get left behind!
And no, i dont see a blessing in abolition of cash, but its happening anyway! Let me give you an example. The country i live in, people for the most part of their financial errands use mobile banking system. We use cash only when we need a substantial amount to transact witg or if we are using services that require smaller increaments or is strictly paper cash based commodity, things like groceries! So then we are allready paper cashless in a way. Well, one might say if that is your example of abolishon of cash then credit card is doing the same too! How is that different! Well, a credit card doesnt have a screen!:3 but you can access your smartphone, use your wallets anyway you choose! With no credit cap on it!
Another thing you are right about is us humans having no interest in being decentralized! I would say partially because some actually do have interest whilst they clearly know its only theocratically possible! I too am guilty of such utopian thoughts. But but, It doesnt have to be decentralized and it never will be. As long as wallets with more money then the others exist, we will always be centralized. But cashless society is a society with less clogs! Less clogs mean less anomie and less strain on socio-economic infrastructures. Makes us more efficient! And god knows we need to be more efficient, among a lot of other things!