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U.S. Senator Vows to Bring Bitcoin Debate to National Level

20 November 2020 13:13, UTC
Nick James

The coronavirus pandemic had its toll on the cryptocurrency, but Bitcoin managed to get back on its feet and exceed 18,000$. In various industries, it is widely used for payment services and some countries are contemplating introducing it to the national level.

One of the main proponents of this is American politician Cynthia Lummis who was recently elected to the U.S. Senate and thus became the first member of the upper house of Congress to publicly declare her assets in Bitcoin. On Friday, Lummis gave an interview to ABC News, during which she confirmed that she "hopes to bring the Bitcoin debate to a national level."

Lummis declared that she is a former state treasurer and invested in long-term state assets, so she has always been looking for a good savings tool, and Bitcoin fits that definition. She notes that the USD is prone to inflation, while Bitcoin is not. There will be 21 million Bitcoins and all, it is a limited emission. She believes that Bitcoin will undoubtedly be an important player in the financial industry.

At the same time, the arguments of the leading ABC News that Bitcoin can be used for money laundering and tax evasion, she chose not to comment.

Lummis first purchased the cryptocurrency in 2013 at a rate of about $300, being the state treasurer. The state of Wyoming, from which she was elected to the Senate, has recently taken various measures to regulate cryptocurrencies more orderly and recently issued a banking license to the Kraken exchange.

It should be noted that a number of trusted Forex brokers are expected to lobby this senator into implementing BTC as soon as possible due to anticipated competition. Whereas other analysts suppose that these forex brokers will lobby against the implementation of BTC in the economy simply due to competition avoidance. When thinking about it, it does make sense for the industry to be pretty divided in regard to this issue.

What could hamper the spread of Bitcoin?

Even though Bitcoin is widely used in the world there are threats that its spread will be limited by various reasons. Despite the fact that many states are trying to ban cryptocurrency, they simply will not be able to stop the interaction of citizens with the network. Today, Blockstream satellites transmit blockchain data in Africa, North and South Africa, as well as in Western Europe. Soon the service plans to cover the whole world, so a very acceptable installation of the satellite will allow you to connect to the blockchain without going online.

As for transactions, there are several ways to send cryptocurrency, including an anonymous Tor browser, VPN, SMS message, encrypted email or text message, and even shorthand. Thus, it is simply useless to ban Bitcoin, as its code will be rewritten faster than the next ban on its use will be ready. Even a well-coordinated legal attack by the UN and the WTO is likely to lead to Bitcoin going underground and developing confidentially.

  • Cyberwar

Cyberwarfare is hacking and various kinds of illegal manipulation on social networks. Bitcoin, despite reusable hacking attempts, has shown its excellent resistance to hacker attacks. This cryptocurrency is a really strong nut, and it owes such a high level of protection to its Proof-of-Work system.

Even if hackers manage to change the Bitcoin code, the network will immediately reject such transactions. The more independent nodes in the network, the less likely attacks are. To date, more than 12,000 such attacks have been recorded.

It should be noted that the owners of cryptocurrency and various services for its service are under attack much more than the cryptocurrency itself. Moreover, they are more vulnerable.

  • Attacks by the state

Due to the fight against money laundering, the pressure of the state on cryptocurrency only increases, which often leads to the theft of personal keys and the deanonymization of users. The authorities dictate their rules and require cryptocurrency exchanges and exchangers to provide personal data of users. It is difficult to say whether they will ever be made public at all, as it should be taken into account the fact that, one way or another, anonymous trading takes place.

By giving out their data, users put themselves at great risk. If the cryptocurrency service is compromised, the data may be leaked. In addition, the service can be a major attack (both online and offline). It is possible that soon the data of users will be interested in the tax authorities, as happened with Coinbase.

Conclusion

Bitcoin is indeed money for the future. It does not matter whether it will take 10, 20 years — people will finally embrace it. The efforts from governments to somehow block Bitcoin or make it regulated will only make matters worse because people will still find ways to move everything to the underground.

As for Cynthia Lummis, her predictions are really clear-cut and apparent. The senator believes that introducing the Bitcoin debate in US politics, will only make matters better.

About the author:

Nick James is passionate about financial trading and technology. He mostly trades stocks, major FX pairs and most recently he started looking into crypto assets. Besides that, his hobbies are online poker and affiliate marketing.

Image from Politico