It is hard to imagine that Friedman, who died in 2006 at the age of 94 and survived four industrial revolutions, was thinking about the early digital transformation of the Web 3.0 economy, bitcoin and crypto assets.
I assume at minimal we would have witnessed a wry smile throughout his face on the belief that a $2 trillion marketplace have been created through the humans with elegant computing and no kingdom or legacy economic marketplace support, and little advantageous intervention withinside the early days, all within a decade.
The Digital Space Race
It is time for politicians to fully understand and participate in the race for the digital space. The role that blockchain and digital technologies can play in enabling societies to create wider, more open, free markets and prosperous economies for all citizens has emerged as the power of crowds and free economies prevail.
In a mixed capitalist system, most people expect government policies and regulations to protect consumers and businesses from malicious persons and criminal activity. Most people and businesses don’t violate the law, launder money, or deceive taxes, but most pay for systems that try to protect us from the few who do. Political decision makers should strive for wise regulation and compliance, rather than protecting laws and systems that sometimes fail.
Progress in crypto and digital asset policies and regulations has been delayed as many governments labeled the sector as largely irrelevant in the first half of the decade and blamed it in the second half. Given its importance to governance and society, it is scandalous that most political decision makers do not understand technology.
The crypto and digital asset sectors are themselves at a disadvantage to facilitate their story. The libertarian messages of their anti-government and anti-institutional revolution often contradict their great social utility and government democratic model and send the wrong message to policy makers. It’s also a very fragmented sector, and nowhere is it documented as much as the response to the proposed US infrastructure bill.
To Serve And Protect
Consumer protection calls in the less regulated crypto and digital asset sectors from regulators and central banks have also increased significantly over the past year. In a market largely formed by retail, it is now worth over $2 trillion. Who are the politicians trying to protect consumers?
Politicians’ fear of blockchain’s financial crimes appears to be low compared to other digital or analog sectors, and public security experts praise public blockchains for its transparency in quickly tracking and isolating assets related to criminal activity.
Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater
As with the COVID19 vaccination, where the government and private companies worked together to resolve the time bomb, we can consider a proactive approach to crypto and digital assets. Why are we taking an accelerated approach to the COVID19 vaccination test and not applying it to products in the blockchain and crypto and digital asset sectors.
Similar to the accelerated clinical trials of COVID19 vaccination, the government’s demand for secure shelters and industrial sandboxes in the crypto and digital asset sector to test off-market products and services in low-risk environments. It’s a way to better deal with money and capital to work together to solve major social problems.
The government is advised not to throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to politics and regulation of crypto and digital assets.
Bloomberg Economics analysis is a good shot beyond the arcs of free market makers around the world. For free market proponents, it’s not good news that democracy will continue to decline for another year. It is worth noting that US allies often appear to be leading anti-democratic prosecutions.
The last word on this topic belongs to Friedman, “There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”
