USA, Russia, and Very Frustrated Bitcoiners

The USA and Russia could unite to stall the growth of Bitcoin with a series of bans and legal actions.

But this might birth a group of ardent cypherpunks from those frustrated Bitcoiners.

These could hit back by counter-banning Russia and the USA!

Bitcoin at the Mercy of USA, Russia

With the heated war in Ukraine, Russia and the United States of America are not best buds.

But they agree on one thing. Bitcoin is eating into the plans of their fiat currencies.

Why? Because with Bitcoin around, moves like QE in either country could facilitate the flow of rubles or dollars into Bitcoin, an international asset, and not state-bound assets like housing.

This thus undermines the traditional economic plans on the ground. Also, Bitcoiners are pretty loud in their criticisms and their voices shift some volatility from BTC into dollars and rubles.

Therefore, to curb this wild beast and its wild bull swings:

1. The FBI has warned American citizens against using Unregistered Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) Money Transmitting Services.

2. Russia will impose strict restrictions on crypto assets such as Bitcoin to strengthen the ruble's dominance.

And they are not bluffing. US authorities have already made some arrests, nabbing the founders of the crypto wallet called Sparrow in line with the aforementioned warning.

If Only They Just Accepted Bitcoin

In a world where more numbers of powerful people are willing to give away their power like Nelson Mandela, Bitcoin would be adopted by the USA and Russia and the wars would likely end.

Because fighting could destroy BTC servers, sending trillions of dollars worth of coins into a black hole in cyberspace. Not a good idea.

Dollars and Rubles can always be printed back. Gold cannot be destroyed by missiles.

BTCs vulnerability really tames the itch to launch missiles.

I am not sure what the people in the military-industrial complex would do once their jobs and funds dry up, but they could take a leaf from the people who worked on horse-drawn carriages.

Alas, polite calls like mine, for governments to come join the BTC bandwagon and finally pollute the air with unifying ASICS instead of disunifying weapons (nobody asks how much carbon is emitted by weapons but it is HUGE), are to no avail.

So one day, Bitcoiners and their currency (yes. It is theirs) shall be pushed to the wall. And they will act.

The Rise of Anarcho Bitcoiners

A child can punish its parents.

The geek shall inherit the earth.

The code is mightier than the sword.

In terms of power projection, Bitcoin is akin to the child while Russia and the USA are the parents/elders.

But if that child is like Matilda, it is way smarter than its gullible parents. So it can punish them.

If the US government were to persecute one too many Bitcoiners in the name of KYC, fully licensed P2P trading and confiscation of bitcoins without explicit proof of breaking some law (after due process), Bitcoiners could lock the government out!

Certainly, the FBI’s warning comes on the back of stopping money laundering services from continuing a lucrative trade of moving their money through crypto, hence "cleaning it."

Spikes in price value could especially make good cover for such illegality. As when the money spikes in value, the criminals could attribute their gains to crypto.

However, the government could also partake in the illegality of trying to meddle with a currency that is not its own.

Doesn't sound illegal? Well, it’s not exactly a good idea to meddle with a cypherpunk digital tool.

They could come back to bite you.

Say Bitcoin continues rising in value, so the itch to enact something like Executive Order 6102.

Maybe, more modestly, the USA and Russia acquire some BTC to hodl yet they persecute Bitcoiners still.

Worse, the USA does a successful 51% attack. To pay back some of that ballooning debt.

Andreas Antonopolous has how worthless it would be. They would change 1 block, then the community would sync their miners and kick them out of the chain. But here's what is even more interesting. The community could decide to hard fork Bitcoin and confiscate back all the coins that were stolen from them!!

What? Yes. You heard that right. A bunch of nerds with laptops and smartphones in their hands could take back their crypto taken away by the US government, Russian government, or any government.

Simply by answering an anonymized online poll.

If a node-holding majority consent, boom.

The mother of all hard forks can be effected.

Like a nuclear holocaust, except it is digital and shall only be targeting .gov wallets.

Like the collapse of the Soviet Union, no single bullet would be fired to effect the collapse of government hegemony enacted as confiscation schemes when it comes to crypto.

See, it would be the rise of Anarcho Bitcoiners. Call them AnBis. Liks Ancaps and Ancoms, except they have real power in their smartphones.

The government does not have to collapse. It would not be an anti-statist move.

“Its right to hold our crypto simply has to be undermined a little, or aligned as per our rules”, would say Satoshi Nakamoto if he ever resurfaced.

In 2009, something miraculous happened. Satoshi Nakamoto created the first decentralized, market-owned currency that no government could control or stop.

Especially after all the other cryptocurrencies out there also emerged on the scene, which act like a shield around BTC.

Also now, the hash rate really cannot possibly be overtaken. But if it is overtaken, that too will be good. It will help annoy and amalgamate Bitcoiners into a solid unit.

As Andreas explains, it will be quite good.

Secret papers can be intercepted. Secret messages and signatures across the web, a waste of time.

If the hate for surveillance and oppression has been well cultivated in AnBis by nation-states, one press of a button, in sync, and one or two bad parents could be officially locked out of the respective crypto community's cryptocurrency. Because it is theirs.

Always was, always will be decentralized.

If it gets centralized, it stops being crypto. I mean, there won't be anything cryptic about it anymore.