A fictional tale of two possible outcomes of crypocurrency in our lifetime.
Imagine a cross road, just like the Devil's Crossroads described in the fabled song by Robert Johnson.
Now that you that picture in your mind, we are first going to explore where one of those roads lead.
The Road to Blockchain Freedom
In our first possibility, we start in the year 2030 and look back at the 2020's. Bitcoin sits at over 500,000 $USD, as the last Bitcoin is mined in the spring of 2030. Government issued FIAT all over the world has gone the way of the Paper Mark and down the path of the Jiaozi. No longer able to print money to cover their reckless spending habits, politicians the world over are forced to privatize everything and turn government into a skeletal libertarian rule set ultimately directed by the commons.
Not unlike the demise of the tally stick system, old accounting ways of the double entry ledger were perceived as outdated by the common people, politicians and even the business elite. It was time for a great reset. In order to facilitate such a reset, the world's FIAT system was to be replaced by the now vastly popular cryptocurrencies, whose adoption had come to rise well above critical mass in the early 2020's. It was the glorious privatization of monetary policy, yet in the hands of the public at large not the private interest directing the government. This was the first time ever in recorded human history that governments did not retain control over the people through monetary policy. Instead the people reigned in the rampant government incited waste, spending, wars and poverty through monetary liberation via cryptocurrencies.
The Road to Blockchain Tyranny
In our second possibility we again start in 2030 and look back on the 2020's. This road appears to be an exact opposite and in stark contrast with the Blockchain Freedom Road. Bitcoin (and all non-government issued altcoins) are now banned as contraband all over the world through various treaties. Altcoins are even banned in international waters by a unique UN resolution addition of cryptocurrencies to a completely unrelated 1994 treaty to stop disposal of nuclear waste at sea!
Prior to banning in 2027, governments around the world had initiated an amnesty program, whereby anyone could trade in their Bitcoins and altcoins at a fixed exchange rate for the government issued cryptocurrency of their country of citizenship. The events that led to this are shrouded in mystery as there was a ban of all public discussion and debate concerning the treaties which was enforced with a period of global martial law for a period of several years. Prior to the great reset of 2027, the internet was a place of freedom and public discourse that had been moderately censored by countries such as China, and lightly censored by the corporate owned internet giants of the western world.
We do know that there was an internet terrorist event which brought down multiple power grids in 2023 right before the Bitcoin and altcoin bans were proposed. Some say the cyber terror events were planned events coordinated by governments around the world as a reason to shut down and fully reset the internet. We do know that the internet that came out of the reset was a vastly different internet. The primary use of the internet was no longer a collection of productivity, communication and information tools for the people, but instead a vast tracking, censoring and propaganda tool for governments and big corporate interests.
Every bit of crypto now tracked and at the control of governments to tax whatever they wanted. Every asset tracked on a blockchain and taxed by governments, sometimes multiple jurisdictions on the same asset, without any measure to circumvent government taxation on asset transactions. Government enforcement for using non government issued cryptocurrencies is so harsh altcoins have ceased to trade altogether, that the only types of transactions which can circumvent the government issued cryptocurrencies tax regime is direct barter of goods and services. This also is nearly impossible considering that 99% of goods and services include a robotic or internet automated task somewhere along the value chain. Oh those days of freedom do we remember, looks like we picked the wrong road!