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The Bitcoin conspiracy theorists have been suspecting that the U.S. government is working towards the shutdown of the world-wide famous cryptocurrency ‘Bitcoin’. Price explosion, early adopters, made millionaires overnight, and their versions of bitcoin created by some world’s biggest technology companies, and things like this have been seen by the last of bitcoin.
In 2012, Katie Haun, the Federal Prosecutor-Turned bitcoin and cryptocurrency expert, was asked by her boss at the U.S. Attorney’s office to look into ‘shutting down’ bitcoin was revealed. In a wide-ranging interview, Haun informed CNBC that they said that they have a perfect assignment for her, there’s this thing called bitcoin and we should investigate it, also by adding that a fellow worker of hers asked her to take down Bitcoin. That was the first time when Haun ever heard of Bitcoin in her entire life.
For the next few years, Haun would teach a class on cryptocurrency at the Stanford Law School and would go and sit on the U.S. Bitcoin Board and the Cryptocurrency Exchange Coinbase. Whenever the U.S. Department of Justice made any serious attempt to shut down the BitQT they always ended up with nothing in their hands and Haun also stated that saying ‘let’s go prosecute cash’ would have also been similar.
Haun is now the first female to be a general partner at the U.S. Venture Capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and is co-heading its $350 million cryptocurrency fund.
Since Donald Trump entered the White House, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have become far more transparent in opposition to the U.S. government. Earlier that year, Trump sent shockwaves throughout all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry by branding bitcoin as ‘unregulated crypto assets’ when he tweeted a brutal attack on facebook’s bitcoin rival plan.
Trump also stated that the dollar is by far the most dominant currency available anywhere in the world, and it will always stay that no matter what. The others in the U.S. government quickly toed the line including The U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who added his voice to the assault on bitcoin, the Libra Crypto project planned by Facebook, and other cryptocurrencies, by warning that they can cause a ‘national security’ risk to the country.
Trump also made it clear that competitors to the dollar are not welcome. The dollar is stronger than ever, it is both reliable and dependable, and it is the only real currency available in the USA. Facebook was sparked by Trump and was already counting almost one-third of the world’s population in its monthly users and was also creating a ‘global currency’ based on Bitcoin’s blockchain technology.
Tim Cook, the Apple chief executive, has also warned other companies against creating their cryptocurrencies. Haun also mentioned that what they heard with Libra was the same amount of criticism and the fact that Facebook was involved and because of its high profile nature, they got more attention and were heightened. She thinks that shutting down a technology before it’s even built properly will be a terrible thing and also a lethal example also.
Over the last week, Facebook’s Libra has been under fire, with internet payments with PayPal and suddenly pulling out of a Libra’s Association member on Friday. Facebook’s founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was hoping to clear Libra’s path with global regulators to launch in June 2020. Still, it seems that Mark has underestimated the amount of opposition he would be getting to this scheme. The ‘global currency’ Libra was likely to never really materialize.
Some in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community were worried because of this approach. Still, fortunately, these highly decentralized cryptocurrencies and blockchains such as bitcoin and ethereum are very resistant to censorship and government having control over them. However, some other countries, including China, Russia, and Iran, have restricted the use of bitcoin by cracking down on banks and companies offering crypto services.
Conclusion:
Previous attempts to ban or even shut down bitcoin have all failed as we have seen in the case of Katie Haun, so it’s almost impossible to shut down or ban bitcoin as it is evolving day by day. Now thousands of people are earning through it, including some famous companies.
