Bitcoin black swan

Chairman of the CFTC Made Surprisingly Thoughtful Comments About Bitcoin Today

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It’s not often you’ll hear me say positive things about a U.S. government regulator, but I nearly fell out of my seat when I heard what the Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Christopher Giancarlo, said at today’s hearing with the Congressional Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

In case you missed it, here’s his opening statement:

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The 1% Has Started to Embrace Bitcoin – Why It Matters

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Other than widespread fascination over its meteoric price rise, much of the discussion around Bitcoin in 2017 has revolved around questions over the future direction of the protocol, most specifically the highly charged scaling debate and the implementation of SegWit. With the forthcoming fight over the 2x part of SegWit2x, the blocksize issue remains unsettled and the community will stay firmly focused on this over the coming months, as it should.

While I have my own opinions on the subject (I’m against forcing a blocksize increase just because some companies agreed to it), I don’t spend enough time on Bitcoin to consider myself any sort of authority on the matter. Therefore, I pretty much keep my mouth shut and let people who spend all their time on the topic have at it. Nevertheless, when I feel I have something to add to the Bitcoin conversation I certainly don’t shy away, which is what inspired today’s post.

A headline that caught my attention yesterday was the following published by CNBC: Real Estate Project in Dubai to be the ‘First Major Development Where You Can Purchase in Bitcoin.’ Upon reading the article, it appears the move is in large part a marketing gimmick (a smart one), but I don’t think it’s just that. I believe those involved in the development genuinely find Bitcoin interesting and want to support it, which is consistent with a significant conclusion I’ve arrived at based on many other data points.

2017 has been the year when an increasing portion of the 1% finally started to embrace Bitcoin. Not a huge percentage by any means, but certainly enough to affect the price. We can call them the early(ish) adopters of this wealthy class. Specifically, this real estate project highlights the fact that adoption of Bitcoin amongst people with significant financial resources is happening faster than many realize. Why does this matter?

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Protest is Increasingly Becoming Criminalized in America

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The historical space available for Americans to engage in public protest has been declining for many years, and is a topic I covered on several occasions during the Obama administration. For instance in the post,  The War on Free Speech – U.S. Department of Justice Subpoenas Reason.com Over Comment Section, I noted:

Readers of Liberty Blitzkrieg will be well aware of the gradual erosion by the state of the civil liberties of the American public. Such attacks are typically sufficiently under the radar, so that the average citizen has no idea what is happening until it’s too late. I have written about such calculated assaults on many occasions, but the holy grail target of the status quo is the First Amendment of the Constitution, which enshrines a right to the freedom of religion, speech, the press, and the right to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

Many aspects of the First Amendment have been neutered in practice. For example, the right to assemble peacefully and effectively is often prevented in practice by the need to secure permits and other hindrances (see “free speech cages” and “protest zones”) . Meanwhile, on college campuses, where activism is historically most vibrant, many schools have embraced the Orwellian concept of “free speech zones” in order to prevent free speech.

Unfortunately, it appears this trend is about to get a lot worse following the DAPL protests and increased activism we’ve seen since Trump’s election. As The Hill reports:

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