This is my first real post on Steemit.
I have been very interested and optimistic about bitcoin since I heard about and used it very early on. I never brought and kept any bitcoin, but I suppose most people didn't either. There can't be that many Bitcoin millionaires around. I met a guy on an Australian Computer forum, who last year was holding 30% of all bitcoin that he mined very early on with a server farm or something that wasn't even his. I no longer post on the forum, but I wonder if he has been able to sell it all or any meaningful amount for that matter. I can't see it being possible in Australia to sell any large amount of bitcoin unless you are selling it to another party for goods/services/cash outside of an exchange.
This is where I see the first problem we have. The regulation that has already been imposed on bitcoin exchanges in western countries is stopping it from being used as real money. You have to jump though so many hoops to buy and sell any meaningful amount most people simply don't bother with it.
https://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/xi/en/xim12354usen/XIM12354USEN.PDF
The underlying tech, we call the Blockchain though has so many applications its boggles the mind. After coming across this book on a steemit post and reading it over the last few days, I have some to a realisation. With big business getting into blockchain and realising what it can be used for, we indeed have to be scared. This tech will finally make it possible for the Governments of the world to impose their wet dream of a total police state where everyone and everything is tracked in real time. They will make each person a blockchain identity like we have an account on Steemit. Then every aspect of their lives will use that. Like a digital birth certificate. While this is good for business as it will decrease costs and increase efficiency, it also means its will be much harder to conduct business outside of the government and banking system. Unless the community reaches critical mass usage with secure, safe and incorruptible systems first, we will be overtaken and the governments of the world (or a world government) will steal our technology, to use it against us for the very things the tech was designed to stop.
While this is indeed a scary proposition, there is hope. The community is very clever and is always innovating new systems to outdate the government. However if the mind controllers beat us to market with a critical mass system, everyone is screwed.
What does everyone think about this?