"And then they fight us" [85]

It's no longer a theoretical war on crypto; regulatory crackdowns have reached epic proportions

“And then they fight us.”

About seven months ago, I wrote an editorial here in these pages talking about the impending war on crypto from the powers that be as I packed my belongings away and readied myself and my family for an extended stay on the dime of Uncle Sam for the crime of transacting Bitcoin peer-to-peer. I warned that a crackdown of epic proportions was on the horizon and that my two-year battle with the feds was just a canary in the coal mine of what was to come.

I think now, given the long string of epic shutdowns and criminal cases underway specifically targeting cryptocurrency that this is no longer a theoretical war, but a hot one.

I’m still technically under BOP custody for my efforts, but I’m in a lower custody situation that allows me frequent furloughs and greater access to news media, and I’ve been awash in all the stories in just the last month as this hot war reaches a fevered pitch.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the worldwide enforcement class has decided to go after every major cryptocurrency company (including highly regulated and scrutinized companies like Coinbase, Binance, and Tether) simultaneous to cascading bank failures are also occurring worldwide.

It’s been a multi-year-long operation first to cut off the exits by applying a chilling effect on P2P trading (a story I’m still triaging in my head how to better contextualize for you given my recent experiences, my reader), and then turning their focus towards more well-scrutinized payment rails via the few banks left who attempted to work with the crypto industry.

In 2013, the feds undertook something called “Operation Chokepoint,” a highly documented campaign by the Department of Justice to apply extrajudicial pressure to the banking industry to debank “risky ventures,” but mostly seemed to be politically targeted toward purveyors of lewdness and guns, amongst other things. It had the particularly unsavory effect of endangering an entire class of people who relied on certain types of lending and certain types of payment processing in the alleged interests of the greater good.

It has been suggested by a large number of journalists covering emerging technology that it’s absolutely clear that a clapback action from entrenched interests inside and out of the DoJ is engaging in “Chokepoint 2.0,” including this one, and it primarily seems to be targeting technology companies, entrepreneurial class businesses, and the crypto industry.

I personally believe it’s irresponsible for us to sit by and let this continue. Blockchain and cryptocurrency represent the single most effective invention of this century towards the protection of privacy and civil liberty. We cannot let innovation and liberty be chased away into the shadows, particularly now.

We need to encourage its usage to those around us like never before while simultaneously pressuring the leaders, civil servants, and bureaucrats in our government’s employ to see crypto for what it is: inevitable and necessary.

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Blockchain Bulletin

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Blockchain Behind the Scenes

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