January 2017, during a talk with Coinbase employees, FluffyPony made a joke that investors might one day be kidnapped for having sacs of Bitcoin. The joke spread like warm Nutella over the days and months that passed. We all had a good laugh, images of future crypto-knapping action movies dancing in our heads. Not many, including myself, took it too seriously. Mabey, we should have...
(image capture from Cointelegraph)
#GetWoke
December 28th, 2017, while we were all celebrating our holidays, getting lit and turnt for the new year, UK-based Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Exmo Operator Pavel Lerner, was kidnapped. This news is initially shocking, and we should be shocked. However, as I repeatedly reread the headliner, I couldn't stop myself from asking the question... "Why?!"
Not because I knew the guy personally, or even remotely. Exmo is a small Bitcoin exchange with numbers equaling less than 1% of leading exchanges (ex.; GDAX, Bitfinex, etc... ). For noobs, that means Exmo is a minnow in an ocean full of whales and the kidnappers are the sharks. So, why would sharks be concerned with what amounts as fast food? I believe this is just a test.
If you've ever had kids or siblings, you know humans like to poke/ flirt with their boundaries - daily. They like to see what they can/ can't get away with and see failures as good plans that need a bit of tweaking. Any small success is a breach into the status quo, and a breach can be widened. Simply rinse and repeat.
Don't believe me? Try this social experiment...
Set out a piñata full of candies in the middle of a room with kids. Make sure all the children see you do this, explaining the different smells and flavors of the candy inside to great detail the entire time. Tell the kids the piñata is unbreakable, so bothering to get to the candies inside is pointless. Be sure to waive it around a bit, shaking the piñata well in front of them. Set the piñata back down and leave the room. Can you guess the fate of poor defenseless piñata? I can.
If you've ever been to a party involving a piñata, so can you. Hitting it seems counter intuitive, even mean. One, two, three solid whacks later - Pinkie Pie must die. Then one, solitary, candy falls out... it.has.begun! The madness at the party only stops when the adults jump in (maybe one or two adults are still acting like the kids) putting in turns, ordering lines by age/ size (usually the birthday kid and noobs/ youngest get first whack).
If you get that analogy, then you understand where I'm going with this. This new technology of crypto-currency is a colorful piñata not only to "decent" folk, but hackers and all who walk the nefarious life path. To state something is unbreakable, is daring those sorts to find a way to challenge it and break it.
Hacking and kidnapping suck, but it's only the beginning. Miners do honest work for honest reward. With hackers, they break the exchange codes/ piñata casings mostly for the shits-&-gigs. Once coin flowing through the smallest crack, shoving others around/ kidnapping... it.has.begun!
Smash time... don't forget to WRAP UP!
Yes, regulation is inevitable. I don't like it any more than you do, but it will happen.
The upshot is, crypto is getting more and more attention - from all sides. Downshot, more attention eventually leads to regulation. That's a rough pill to swallow, since a good bit of crypto-currency's recent upswing is due to all of this popularity. Crypto-currency's decentralization and self regulation are the key selling points. It's what sold me.
How do we get to keep our piñata and beat it too?
I will answer that question with another of my own: How was the gold rush in the west finally brought to a both profitable and safe point? That's how we need to be thinking if we are going to get ahead of this inevitable curve.
Off the bones of our herstory (yes, *sp was intentional) we need to find and create modern - yet better - versions of caballeras/ cowgirls, security guards (who were paid by the miners to keep them protected, and some hired by entire companies) and networks of service providers we can trust. When we can't trust them, be willing to move on. HODL is all well and good, until it's in a wallet that gets robbed once a week by the same bandits, (looking at you Gotham Bank) amiright?
Your life is an occasion. Rise to it!
I check daily and always respond to thought provoking stuffs! <3