The recent days were quite interesting to me in some ways. We have seen the regular bitcoin detractors gloat behind the words of Elon Musk and especially the havoc they seem to instantaneously transmit in the crypto market.
His words and actions may have been cutting like a surgeon's knife in the hearts of enough crypto enthusiasts, many of whom also likely believing in one or more projects of Elon Musk, if not the man himself. That's why I think there were extra spanks in the conversations and reproaches he received after making decisions about crypto like a child does about his favorite toy (always another).
I admit I didn't like the influence he had on the crypto market. How can one man play as easily with the price of crypto without even being heavily involved? But I've taken a step back and reflected on it a little longer.
What do you think would happen to the price of Tesla if he started to write on Twitter that they are looking into an alternative environment-friendly energy source for their cars. That would practically make all their EV models, recharging stations, batteries manufacturers obsolete instantly. And set no clear path for the future.
TSLA price would normally drop wildly as a first emotional response. So, in this regard, I don't think the stocks market would have reacted any better than the crypto market.
On the other hand, he probably would have kept his mouth shut (or his fingers in his pockets), because this is a solid reason to be dismissed as a CEO. Plus, under certain conditions, he would risk jail for manipulating the price of a security.
I wonder... is this seamlessly inconsistent play by him in the cryptosphere - and without consequences - a way to manipulate crypto enthusiasts into inviting and facilitating more and stronger regulation of the domain, just as we invited corporations?
I saw the question being asked again, following his recent actions, if we need crypto regulated.
Taskmaster is right when he says crypto can't be regulated, because changes in crypto far outpace any potential regulations, other than for centralized exchanges, maybe (we can see Binance avoids those as well).
But there is one risk: voluntary compliance with a set of regulations created by people who don't understand the phenomenon or who want it crushed.
By voluntary compliance I mean you can't be forced to, but you want/prefer to play by the rules which chain you. And it's not about individual voluntary compliances, it's about the voluntary compliance of big crypto projects.
What do you think? How much do you value freedom in crypto and would you trade it to shut the likes of Elon Musk up?