Quote from: Free Market Capitalist on Today at 03:43:12 AM

Quote from: JayJuanGee on April 19, 2025, 11:18:23 PM

You are not wrong, but personally, I would feel MOAR better if there were to be a qualifier placed within your above statement.

Well, apparently in the EU until recently there were bitcoin ATMs where you could make transactions without KYC under €1,000, and although KYC for all transactions has a limit to be implemented in September practically all ATMs have already implemented it. USDT has been banned in Europe, you cannot use it legally (it is currently the third cryptocurrency, on its way to be the second in market cap). This coupled with things like what LoyceV commented before. And due to the EU's taste for over regulate I have a feeling that this is only going to be the beginning. Just think one thing, this €1,000 limit, even if they don't lower it, due to inflation in a few years is going to be a laugh.

Did you know that in some places in Europe the maximum you can pay in cash is just €500 (Greece) or €1,000 (Spain and France)? This is not just about cryptocurrencies is about control.

So seemingly, things are much worse in the EU than in the USA in this respect.

I likely was not commenting so much about how bad and/or draconian things have gotten in certain parts of the world, whether in the EU or otherwise, but instead commenting on how each of us likely needs to continue to be skeptical of governments and keep pushing them, even if they might seem friendly towards bitcoin and/or the industry.

Quote from: Lucius on Today at 10:26:13 AM

Quote from: Free Market Capitalist on Today at 03:43:12 AM

So seemingly, things are much worse in the EU than in the USA in this respect.

That's how it seems for now - but if after 4 years there are changes in the US, the next president can undo everything this one is currently doing and turn things back. Whatever the case, one should not delude oneself that the powerful countries of the world will let things take their course; they are protecting themselves and the system they have built over hundreds of years to rule the world with that system.

I doubt that we need to reserve our skepticism for 4 years down the road, and even though Trump seems to have had been moving in a correct direction regarding several aspects of bitcoin (and perhaps even crypto), there are ways in which whatever he is doing might not be enough, since as you seem to suggest, I doubt that we can presume that Trump et al is going to completely let bitcoin compete with the dollar in terms of potentially removing peer to peer transacting obstacles that are currently in place in regards to taxing and accounting and even the various incentives around the use of third party custodians and KYC ramifications don't seem friendly and I cannot see a whole hell of a lot of practical difference between some of the stable coins and CBDCs.. except private ways to attempt to accomplish control where public institutions might have more difficulties in accomplishing.

Quote from: Lucius on Today at 10:26:13 AM

Cryptocurrencies are currently just one small pebble in their shoe that sometimes reminds them that they need to do something, but they still don't mind so much that they resort to drastic measures. Realistically, all they need to do is declare cryptocurrencies illegal and ban all CEXs - how many people do you think would give up after that?

We are likely going to continue to see various levels of draconian measures, so surely if there is variation in jurisdictions, then there will also be some underground economies that end up playing out, since it continues to be quite difficult to create impervious barriers in regards to the movement of digits - so being against digits seems to be a losing battle, even though surely they might attempt to carry out such battle and some innocent people will get hurt, including folks who are discouraged from accumulating bitcoin for their own protection, wealth preservation and even financial self-sovereignty. I am not even claiming that it is easy for individuals to figure out how to act or even to preserve their own bitcoin in self-custodial wallets in order to attempt to better deal with various ongoing draconian governmental measures.