2016 is concluding with several forward-looking comments that may or may not bode well for the crypto world in the coming days and months. One comment that continues to resonate is that made by computer programmer and businessman John McAfee, in an interview with RT.
McAfee believes that the operational approach of the Federal Reserve as the central banking system of the United States would be disrupted by the emergence of cryptocurrencies, which he foretells would be on a large scale, significant enough to affect income revenue collection.
The Pandora box has been opened
McAfee’s point seems logical at a time when there is a perceived war on cash with governments worldwide planning to enforce cash limits.
He said in the interview:
“The market economy will control its own interest rate. Guaranteed. It did before the Feds arrived and it will when they are gone. Whether or not the Libertarian party or someone else abolishes the Fed, it’s a mute point because cryptocurrency is coming. I promise you. It may or may not be Bitcoin. It may be something else but it is coming. It is like the Pandora box that has been opened, you’ll never get that idea back in the box and when it comes, the Fed will disappear. The paper money would be gone and the world would be in crisis for a while. It’s the absolute truth.”
But the question still needs to be asked: Could McAfee’s insinuation be a possibility? Such a weighty consideration is based on the attendant issues that would go with such a disruption - if it ever comes to pass.
Put in another way, if it could be possible, how soon could this become a reality? A conjoining question is whether the crypto ecosystem is fully equipped with the necessary infrastructures capable of handling large scale transactions. There are no plausible answers yet.
Global desire for change
However, there have been reports that cash has been facing a global crackdown as governments have been moving to take control over transactions, creating a growing global desire for change.
With the likes of McAfee, who has been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, making assertions that spout confidence in a positive outlook for the top cryptocurrency, which has also been tipped to become more valuable with time, such views can not be waved aside.
“Governments will not be able to collect income taxes because there will be no record of any income for anybody. It will be a very very strange set of affairs. But it is coming and when it does, surely thereafter, there will be no Feds. You cannot exist in the world of cyber currency. I mean, we are in a world of digital transactions, and the digital glue that holds everything together. Do you think that paper money or gold standard have any meaning whatsoever in that world? It does not.”
While McAfee’s direct interest in Bitcoin mining firm MGT may be considered the catalyst for his standpoint, he is not the only one who believes that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may change the status quo, and end involuntary taxation.
The CEO of Bitnation, Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, believes Bitcoin is the beginning of the end of the nation state and that the Ethereum and Rootstock Smart Contract technology are suitable to power a decentralized post-nation state jurisdiction.
Until it becomes a reality, these views will remain conjectures as they may seem today.