TD₿: Can Governments Stop Bitcoin? by Alex Gladstein
TL;DR In the end, the only way to kill Bitcoin may be to make it so that people don’t need it anymore.
Hey Bitcoiners,
Last week, New York State Legislature unexpectedly passed a bill in the midnight hour that would impose a two-year ban on new cryptocurrency mining permits.
This is the first time that a piece of legislation is attempting to order how people use their computational resources and will certainly hinder mining operations trying to build in New York.
The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Hochul where she has until December 31st to make a decision. NY-based Bitcoin mining companies will certainly continue to fight against this ridiculous legislation.
This is what Foundry Digital had to say about it…
“As a Rochester-based company committed to growing the city and state economy through job creation and economic stimulus, we believe this legislation limits jobs and innovation in New York for the foreseeable future.” - Foundry Digital
Not only will this bill only serve to harm New York, but it also won’t even do much of anything at all to stop Bitcoin mining as the bill intends to do.
Bitcoin miners will now be incentivized to move their operations to other more Bitcoin-friendly jurisdictions.
Furthermore, if the hash rate did drop as either A.) new NY mining operations have to suspend their start dates, or B.) existing NY mining operations decide to re-locate, then this would only serve to make other miners more profitable as the difficulty adjustment shifts downward.
In the long run, this piece of legislation will only hurt New York, highlight Bitcoin’s antifragility, and provide a stage to watch Bitcoin’s game theory in action. Just like the recent Chinese mining ban, it will only end up displaying how difficult it is for governments to stop Bitcoin.
It reminds me of this article that Alex Gladstein wrote that posed the question, “Can Governments Stop Bitcoin?” (02/21/2021).
New York could have been the epicenter of Bitcoin. With the infamous BitLicense and now this, it seems New York is dead set on driving innovation and entrepreneurs out of the state.
Thankfully, other states are happy to accept Bitcoin miners with open arms and will reap the benefits for generations to come.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
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Quote of the Day
“Governments can’t ban Bitcoin, so they’ll join the Bitcoin revolution.” - Max Keiser, Founder of El Zonte Capital
Meme of the Day
What keeps governments from outlawing payments to government programs with Bitcoin as well as outlawing currency exchange between digital currency and the fiat currency they control? All this takes is for the powers to be to determine that an independent financial system is a threat to national security and all kinds of civil rights violations become authorized.
Governments will speed up bitcoin adoption. Few .