What if Crypto were Regulated?

Cryptocurrency is very popular and unique because of its independence from the government. This means the government has no control over the crypto market. Making crypto a non- regulated business. What if crypto was regulated? What would this mean, how would it affect the consumers, would it be beneficial for the government?


The Process of switching to a regulated Market

Is it possible? Yes, Is it worth it? Probably not. By the government taking charge of crypto there would have to be a change in blockchain technology. This is because changing to a regulated platform would require different POWs (proofs of systems) and a database that cannot be manipulated but also accessible to the public. This would be very hard to do because it would have to erase the old data and turn it onto a new system.


Impact

Crypto being regulated would impact the entire economy. There are pros and cons to the regulation. Pros would be that regulation would help protect people from scams and fraud. With the government's involvement data would be more secure and couldn’t be manipulated. However if the government had control over crypto currencies they would most likely tax transactions and trade. The main idea of crypto is that it is independent and regulation would ruin this.


Conflict

Another problem regulation faces are the different laws and limitations by state and county. These different laws would prevent the different governments from trade and a complete crypto market. For example Minnesota has different crypto laws and taxes compared to Texas. These two states could not compete in the same market and would have to be independent making it a much smaller trade. Same with different nations like the U.S.A and Mexico.


WORKS CITED

https://youtu.be/voKyft2c0rQ

https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/the-competing-priorities-facing-u-s-crypto-regulations-bitcoin-ethereum/

https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/brief/cryptocurrency-laws-and-regulations-by-state/

https://www.coindesk.com/powered-by-consensus/crypto-regulation-new-laws-2023/

https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/01/24/us-crypto-regulation-approach/

By Andrew Larson