Facebook's token, the Libra, is getting the attention that one would expect with it coming from one of the largest companies in the world.
Unfortunately, not all attention is good. Facebook is already starting to get the ire of some.
This is an interesting situation since the threat posed is to the established banking system. There are many starting to question whether Facebook should be allowed to proceed unimpeded. We are seeing the path being paved with regulators being called upon to step in.
We must remember that regulators do not exist to protect the population but, rather, those who are in power. In this instance, it is the bankers who are being looked after.
Here is an example:
Meanwhile, German member of the European Parliament Markus Ferber said the new currency could turn Facebook into a "shadow bank" which should, "set off alarm bells for regulators." Italian politician Francesco Boccia similarly voiced concern, tweeting that Libra would join the existing cryptocurrencies "without regulation."
While the article mentioned data, let us be real here, they could care less about data. Facebook and other companies have been loose with data for more than a decade with little done. This is all about the money and the fact that Facebook's new child is a threat to the banking system and the fiat currency it uses to manipulate the wealth of the world.
Of course, Facebook is not a defender of the people either, so trusting them is not wise either.
Which brings me to crux of the issue.
The regulatory environment is circling the wagons. We now see that it is recommended that crypto exchanges be treated like banks meaning that all transactions require KYC and AML on both sender and receiver.
Cryptocurrency is a major threat to the present system and the powers that be are well aware of this. They are going to do all they can to put this genie back in the bottle.
For this reason, the best place for Steem is to fly under the radar. Cause no waves and garner no attention. I know this goes against what many on here feel but the "out of sight, out of mind" could be the best place to be.
Let the Facebooks of the world walk around with the bull's eye on their chest. It is much better for the Larimers to get the attention of the authorities rather than Steem. If people believe that Steemit Inc went bankrupt and is out of business, so be it. Tron can have all the lunches with Buffett they want, it only helps to draw attention away.
Steem is one edict to follow: put the nose to the gridstone and keep creating. Developers, content creators, and all else on here have a role to play. Our place now is just to keep expanding as much as was can. We have a lot of things piling on top of itself meaning we are seeing some major progress.
A lot of what is being built upon the Steem blockchain could hold great attraction to others down the road. If regulators start to make life hard, having things as decentralized as possible is the best defense. Redundancy means that it is harder to take things down since they cannot go after just one or two entities.
For those old enough, think back to the early days of file sharing. The best known of this was Napster but they were not the only one. There were other services such as Limewire and Kazaa. The challenge the authorities had was that as soon as one was shut down, two more popped up. To make things worse, the Usenet is still running without fail with millions of files posted there each day.
Steem-Engine is providing the ability for anyone to create tokens. We already saw a massive expansion in this area. With the introduction of PALnet, we now see another tokenized blogging platform that runs along side of Steemit.com. The next step is going to be the introduction of "Tribes" which will combine other applications on one website.
Consider what things will look like when there are a couple hundred communities established on here.
As I have written before, this is not a case of Steem versus EOS or Tron. It is the crypto community taking on the bankers. They are the established entities that are being disrupted by the technology we are building upon. Reinventing the Internet, Web 3.0, as the world becomes more digitized is a powerful position to be in.
Our time in the limelight will come. There will come a day when the predators after us will have been obliterated. That day, is down the road a bit. In the meantime, we just keep creating, improving, updating, and growing.
This is a story for the long haul.
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