1. Crypto only
REAL use cases are evading currency control, speculation, and illegal activity.
2. There is no value in any real coin, beyond the value of its
actual use - for currency controls, speculation, illegal activity. There is no network effect to crypto: in fact the more people use a coin, the slower transactions get, the fees get higher and the worse it becomes as an actual currency.
3. Unless you yourself are a criminal, most likely your "use" of crypto is pure speculation.
4. If you are a speculator, good for you- treat it like a speculation. If you are a short-term trader\speculator, crypto is a blessing and can make you very
rich quite fast. Make the most of it and try to exit before the rug is pulled from underneath you.
1. My entry into crypto wasn't about speculation or illegal activity. It wasn't about evading formal currency control. It was merely about the bad rates, high fees, delays and bureaucracy of the legacy banking system. I was using PayPal and sometimes spending 10% to rebalance some quite small sums. Sometimes I'd rebalance in both directions - 10% twice in one month was painful. Even though $1k at a time back then was small beans, crypto gave me a simpler, faster and cheaper way to do what I needed to do.
2. There is no value to a BTC. There is no value to a
USDT or USDC. But if we really ask about the value, what are we guaranteed to get for our USD, EUR or GBP? Nothing. PAXG ("oh no!!! a crypto!!!") is backed by something in the way that USD hasn't been since 1971.
3. I didn't speculate on crypto since my dabbles with ANS, XRP and 4 ICOs in 2017. So if I'm not speculating, I'm probably a criminal? Really? Prove it. It is not a criminal act to provide liquidity to 21st century financial markets that are not directed by legacy regulators, where I live. It is not a criminal act to send Litecoin across borders to provide very cheap access to money, where I live.
4. Speculate all you want. My mean holding time is under eight hours. That is not speculation, that is trade. There is a difference.
My prediction is that there will be Yuan,
US Dollar, Euro and Sterling cryptos within two years. But ask yourself this, would you rather hold those tokens (or fiat backed tokens such as USDT, USDC) for the next five to ten years, or would you rather hold PAXG? As we start to get tokenised copper, Lithium, etc. do you really want to be holding the bag on USD with your pitiful % interest? You're welcome to it.
People think they're heroes because they can make a few % per year on their fiat
investments. Now adjust those for monetary inflation, to see that you didn't even keep up with the baseline.
Back to the topic of
KYC and wallet transfers, I would bet money that P2P
privacy coin transactions will be banned in more and more countries. I would bet money that VASPs are going to get more and more regulated when it comes to transacting with private wallets. This walled garden can be defended on terrorism grounds but it's really about tax. This has been the trend since 911.
The bigger question is not KYC, it is the ability for central banks to practice Modern Monetary Theory in a heterogeneous currency environment. They're addicted, and that won't end well. Some people in this thread seem committed to living within the scope of inflationary currencies. Other people seem quite skeptical. I am pretty skeptical.