I agree with you, though I think my belief is a little more middle of the road. There is no doubt "traditional big finance" is rife with manipulation and crookery. But it is also coming. And there will be no stopping it. The good news is it does not yet understand the voltage of the wire it's about to pick up.
I believe the power of Bitcoin and Monero (I see virtually NO other useful blockchain projects) will be stronger than the power of traditional finance. And as the "big boys" pick it up to "fix" it, control, it etc they will be changed more than it is.
But there is no way we do not see traditional finance entering. Did anyone see the presentation from yesterday by the ICE folks about Baakt? They UNDERSTAND Bitcoin, and have chosen ONLY Bitcoin to start with. They still seem to me to be very guarded as to their ultimate designs, which is understandable, but somewhat worrysome. But in the end I think if they handle Bitcoin the wrong way it will mow them down just like it has everyone else that has tried to "tame" or control it.
*IF* their involvement is neutral or positive from a cypherpunk sort of ethos then I would love to see them start to work with Monero as well... but we have much to see before that happens.
But here's what I think is the best news for Monero in all this... If the mainstreaming of Bitcoin turns out to be negative AT ALL then we will see a renaissance for XMR. If it is positive, then it is only a matter of time before Monero is recognized as the only other really useful blockchain project.
Even though it pains me to say it, CBOE and TPTB have done a great job of taming BTC this year and I hate them all the more for it.
I really would love to run into this fucker on the street.
https://www.coindesk.com/cme-groups-leo-melamed-well-tame-bitcoin
Frankly speaking, ETFs, stocks, etc. are the real playpen of crooks and manipulators... Joe Public needs to wake the fuck up and realize his retirement savings (401k, IRAs, etc.) that he's been dumping into for decades are in the hands of these crooks and don't give a fuck if you successfully retire on time or not.
Since we are alluding to the US when we are talking about the SEC; we can't ignore the fact that there is a President in the Whitehouse that will do anything to ensure that on paper, it will look like he single-handedly brought about the most robust economy ever in the US. ... A.K.A manipulation. SEC, ETF's and the like are all manipulated by governments (at the whim of what political party is in power) to look like everything is fine and the economy is stable, so Joe Public feels confident in buying his son, Timmy Public, that Xbox One for Christmas without fear of losing his job in the near future. There will always come a time when kicking the can down the road comes back to bite everyone in the ass, and Mr. Public has to fund bailouts for those crooks who caused these issues in the first place and lobbied the government to look the other way.
Point is... It sincerely irks me to hear the Joe Public's of the world talk about how much of a "Ponzi" cryptocurrencies are and how you could never use something like Crypto as a currency because it's full of market manipulators and is simply too volatile; while they are banking on their 401(k) to achieve a ROI on their IRAs, 401(k)s, etc. great enough to live out their golden years (without any guarantee of how much inflation there will be in the near future).
Edit: I literally just turned on the TV which had the news on and the headline is "Trump Threatens To Cut GM Subsidies Over Job Losses" ... lol
Since we are alluding to the US when we are talking about the SEC; we can't ignore the fact that there is a President in the Whitehouse that will do anything to ensure that on paper, it will look like he single-handedly brought about the most robust economy ever in the US. ... A.K.A manipulation. SEC, ETF's and the like are all manipulated by governments (at the whim of what political party is in power) to look like everything is fine and the economy is stable, so Joe Public feels confident in buying his son, Timmy Public, that Xbox One for Christmas without fear of losing his job in the near future. There will always come a time when kicking the can down the road comes back to bite everyone in the ass, and Mr. Public has to fund bailouts for those crooks who caused these issues in the first place and lobbied the government to look the other way.
Point is... It sincerely irks me to hear the Joe Public's of the world talk about how much of a "Ponzi" cryptocurrencies are and how you could never use something like Crypto as a currency because it's full of market manipulators and is simply too volatile; while they are banking on their 401(k) to achieve a ROI on their IRAs, 401(k)s, etc. great enough to live out their golden years (without any guarantee of how much inflation there will be in the near future).
Edit: I literally just turned on the TV which had the news on and the headline is "Trump Threatens To Cut GM Subsidies Over Job Losses" ... lol
IOU 1 sM+