CryptoMom Again To Industry: Decentralize

The industry is being told how to operate. We see the warning signs as clearly as if they were posted in neon on a billboard in Times Square. What is in question is whether the industry will listen or continue to ignore what is being said?

Yesterday, in the article Regulation, Wall Street, and Cryptocurrency, I made the point how the industry basically asked for what is coming down upon it. In our quest for Lambos and mansions, we lost focus upon what this is all about. Due to greed, we made it all about the money.

Since that time, an article popped up providing more insight from CryptoMom.

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Decentralize Or Else

We often talk about decentralization but it is mostly a smoke screen. Perhaps many within the industry believe what we are saying but even the regulators know otherwise. This is either a completely blind spot or a true misdirection. Either way, it will come back to bite us.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler is well aware of this point. He stated it concisely to Senator Elizabeth Warren, certainly no fan of cryptocurrency. His statements were in an effort to get more regulation authority from Congress.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler also similarly said that many platforms claiming to be decentralized were actually centralized. He told Senator Elizabeth Warren in September that many platforms “are only decentralized in name only,” citing that “There is a user agreement.” In addition, he said many tokens listed on cryptocurrency exchanges are actually securities, telling Congress that they needed more regulation.

It is pretty clear how the SEC is viewing things. Obviously, the Chair is not going to be quiet about this either. He is intent on bringing down the hammer and getting cryptocurrency in compliance. That is his main goal, especially with DeFi (decentralized finance).

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, an advocate for cryptocurrency, has long warned the industry to decentralize. She is very open about the fact that the government is in troubled waters there.

“There is certainly difficulty on the part of a regulator to stay on top of developments in defi [decentralized finance] and crypto more generally,” Peirce admitted.

The commissioner added: “The decentralized world is one that is very new to us because we are used to dealing with large, usually large, centralized intermediaries. So true decentralized projects do pose a challenge.” Peirce warned:

Could it be any clearer?

Although she does not overtly come out and say it, there is really nothing the government can do with a truly decentralized project. For all the power, it was designed to target centralized entities. It is hard to see where they can have any influence over anything that is spread out at its core level.

Of course, Peirce put the onus upon the industry to "clean up its act".

Decentralized finance carries within itself inherently some ability to self regulate. And I think we need to take that into account as we design a regulatory system.

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Bitcoin Showed The Way

Bitcoin is consistently targeted by governments, at least in the rhetoric. The reality is that decentralization was already achieved. In other words, they cannot touch Bitcoin.

There are miners spread all over the world who are responsible for validating the transactions. Anyone can use the network, which cannot be shut down, to send funds from one wallet to another. As China showed, ban the miners and they pop up elsewhere.

We see the situation increase as more miners are continually being added. At this point, a 51% attack is near impossible, hence government control is the same.

How many other chains can actually make this claim? What projects are out there which are resilient to the point that the major vulnerability is not there?

When we view things through this lens, we get a different story.

Many of the blockchains have inherent distribution problems. At the same time, there is usually some team behind the project. For most, we can either look at the holdings to determine where there is vulnerability. It usually coincides with some type of company or development lab.

On Steem, this was the case since the inception. The "Ninja-Mined" stake gave control over to a single entity, Steemit Inc. While this ended up being sold, it would have eventually posed a threat from regulators has that not taken place. There is no way to truly claim decentralization to the authorities when there is one entity who has enough stake to influence how things operate along with the sole ability to code the chain.

What is interesting is that most other chains fall under this same situation. Even something like Uniswap can be influenced since that is coded by Uniswap Labs.

Of course, they did take the step of distributing a governance token to the users, moving in the direction of decentralization. Without knowing how the distribution of UNI looks, it is impossible to say how vulnerable it is. However, the point should be that anything that the regulators can target is a point of vulnerability.

If It Looks Like A Security

We all know the old saying about "if it walks like a duck...". It is the same thing here. If something looks like a security, the SEC is going to treat it as such.

This means that the project developers need to continually keep this in mind. The distribution of all tokens has to exceed their control. While it is a step that is difficult for many to take, it is vital to circumvent the SEC (and other regulators).

A major part of this is self-funding. The SEC is accustomed to dealing with the Venture Capital world. They know the art of raising money like the back of their hand. Applying Securities Law to that realm is something the SEC excels at.

For this reason, no matter how the funding mechanism is established, the SEC will see through it. That is why Gensler claimed that most of cryptocurrency is a security. When something, even a token, is swapped for money during a fund raising campaign, it is a security to them.

Here is where we see the idea of DAOs entering. On Hive, there is a fund that is set up to fund development and other projects. It is coded into the blockchain and all funds are distributed based upon the votes from the community. No person or entity is in control of that. Projects that receive money are not selling any tokens. Instead, it is funded through monies held in the DAO.

There is no point of vulnerability here. Each day, the fund distributes based upon the votes tallied. Nobody can go in and stop it or alter where the funds are sent. The only way a change can take place is through the addition or removal of votes by stakeholders.

Over the long-term, it is likely that the change from this technology will come from those that adhere to the words of CryptoMom. Most of what we see now will end up regulated. That does not mean those projects (or chains) will fail. Quite the contrary.

What we are going to see is the cost of operation increasing. Regulation makes things more expensive. Hence, anything that comes under the banking laws, will require compliance. That means larger entities who have the knowledge and resources to comply will dominate.

Therefore, if you want to find the disruption, look outside those areas. Rarely does this come from the big behemoths.


If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.

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Posted Using LeoFinance Beta



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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
!LUV
12

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Decentralization is the main key to the whole puzzle.

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Excellent wiring as usual! Decentralization needs to not only be a buzz word, but a goal to keep striving for as a means of survival against regulation. My only question is that CryptoMom is mentioned in the title, but I don't see any quote or link to her, and I don't know who she is (maybe I've been living under a rock?).

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It needs to be the focus, not a buzzword. You are right.

Anything that is not decentralized will have to adhere to regulations. As stated, it will still work, just make it more expensive.

That is what regulation does.

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There is a joke to be made about the word "Cryptomom" but I can't find it, it just sounds funny to me :)

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🤪

I prefer CRYPTOMILFs myself

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:))) that was kind of an obvious one

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Yeah, but needed said out loud!
This pic above looks like Steve Mnuchin in drag 😳

🤣🤣🤣

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Now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance :))))

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I have discovered many cryptomilfs on Twitter.

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Any ideas on how the average Hive user can help increase the decentralization of the network?

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  • Keep accumulating Hive.
  • Bring on new users and support them
  • Encourage people to power up
  • Involved oneself in tribes to help their success, spreading the wealth out even more
  • Support proposals and initiatives that have decentralization, especially in the DHF.
  • Support different witnesses to ensure we have a strong representation, not only in the top 20 but through at least the top 50.

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I guess I had never realized just how crucial DAO's and governance tokens were until you explained it this way. A lot of times I see a project say they are coming out with a governance token and I am just like ho-hum, another governance token. Now I see just how important it is.

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Now I see just how important it is.

Importance and a lifesaver depending upon how it is distributed. Just throwing one out to the founding team does nothing.

The points of vulnerability need to be removed.

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DAOs are going to be the future! It’s why we are teaming up with a DAO creation platform that we are doing the first video for today! I agree decentralization is truly key. That’s why I have the majority of my funds in Hive and Bitcoin. Keen working on building those Monero stacks too, cause you never know, lol. Great article as always. Reblogging for https://coin-logic.com

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It amazes me how the legacy people can’t even fix their own system. Yet, they are making every effort to control the crypto narrative.


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The entire point of their legacy system was control. Now that they fear crypto might really turn out to be something, they want control of that too.

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It's hard to hit a truly decentralized entity since you can always spin up a new node if they target one of the parts. However I think it's hard to fully decentralize anything as being centralized allows things to move along faster. However by the time things pick up, the ones in power might not want to give up their power.

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I can't wait! I heart decentralization. I hate regulations. One thing that throws me for the time being is that I just don't understand how these governance tokens really worked. I've read some of the paperwork on a few, and it just goes right over my head.

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These regulators will just keep fighting and trying, decentralization will always win.

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