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536 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko 13 Apr 2022 \ on: I'm Romain Rouphael, Co-Founder of LN Markets AMA bitcoin
So, what is your opinion on Bitcoin in Europe? I feel like we are a lot further behind.
It may be because the Internet as a whole still feels like something new for a lot of people. E.g. Merkel famously said "The Internet is New found Land for all of us". And with a lot of boomers still looking condescending on smartphones. While even congress/senate politicians in the us being on twitter - quite unthinkable here.
Do you agree? Or do you see the issue more with the economics of a hard money being more controvers here? Or do you even agree that Europe will be the last ones to catch up?
I'm afraid I'll have to agree with on that.
It feels like Europe has decided to play the role of the regulatooooooor. We've seen it with AI. We can't compete with US or China on AI, so we'll try to be the leaders in regulation. And the same is happening for Bitcoin and crypto-assets.
There's a joke in France that says, when the administration sees an industry that tries to innovate, first it will tax it. Then it will regulate it. Then, when the administration is sure that nothing moves anymore, it starts subsidizing it. I'm afraid that might happen in France once again.
The recent debates at the EU parliament highlighted this approach. First on proof-of-work: some MPs just did not do their homework on this topic, instead relying on false data and easy narrative to try to ban PoW. And regarding KYC for "unhosted wallets". We don't know what it is but we're afraid so we'll push the hardest regulation possible.
But this doesn't affect Bitcoin at all. Bitcoin companies just go elsewhere were they feel more welcome, in Switzerland, in the UK, the US, Asia, etc.
What I find the most frustrating is that if we made a clear choice to support a neutral protocol like Bitcoin instead of toying with CBDCs ideas that will go nowhere, it would still be time to be a leader in the field..
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