You might believe you can change the system (but it’s far more likely the system will change you)

I got into a great discussion yesterday about the wild, Wild West of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. 

The dialogue was with a new bright-eyed MBA graduate, who believes this is the future.  I felt pretty bad to be the old Gandalfian cynic, who saw opportunities here but poo-poohed the notion that you could have a currency without government. 

Am I just being an old cynic or is the youth too fresh-faced to see reality?  You tell me, as I’ve had this dialogue many times with the bitcoin aficionados, and the argument goes thus.

They: “we are creating a new world order where the world can exchange value without control.”

Me: “you cannot have a world without control.  It will be regulated.”

They: “we believe in crowd control and the community will regulate the currency.”

Me: “no way.  Governments will not allow it.”

They: “we can get around governments.”

Me: “no you won’t.”

They: “we’re creating a world that does not need government.”

Me: “you think so?  So what happens when your currency is used for terrorism, drug running and money laundering?”

They: “well, we can do that with cash.  What’s so bad if we do it on the net?”

Me: “you want to live in a world without government?  A world without regulations? “

They: “yes, we don’t need government.  We don’t want banks.  They can stay out of the way.  We will self-regulate.”

Me: “OK, so when you have a nuclear bomb explode funded by bitcoin, you won’t care who paid for it, who set it off or where it came from.  That’s the future you want?”

They: “Urm …”

It is this last point that is the critical aspect of why governments will regulate bitcoins.  If America is attacked by terrorists funded by a cryptocurrencies that is unregulated, and counter-attack those they believe set it off causing a rift with China and Russia … do we really want a World War III created by an unregulated net?

Their argument is that it’s happening anyway, so we’re going to have to live with it.  My argument is that the G20 will not allow it to happen.  He ended up saying that this divide of views appears to be a generational thing, with the millennials believing they can change the system and the boomers saying the system will change you.

It’s an interesting debate, and I would love to sit on the side of the bright-eyed, rose-tinted youth, but then I used to wear a t-shirt when I was 20 that had a picture of James Dean on it and the slogan “f**k the future”.

I’ve changed … as does everyone.  The best example, and maybe saddest, being John Lydon or, as used to be, Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols.

In 1976, he created an anthem: Anarchy in the UK.

An excerpt of the lyrics goes thus:

I am an antichrist

I am an anarchist

Don't know what I want

But I know how to get it

I wanna destroy passerby

'Cause I wanna be Anarchy

So John Lydon, the reformed singer, appears in the papers this week saying join the political debate, don’t shun it. 

His exact words were: “go to town hall meetings and give them f**king hell … if you don’t start locally, you’re not going to change the world”.

The Times in their infinite wisdom, thus rewrote Anarchy in the UK thus:

I am a nightmare

I want a day mayor

I know what I want

And I know how to get it

I wanna vote in elections

'Cause I wanna see Democracy 

Oh how we want to change the world but oh, how the world will resist such change.  Hence, when I hear the bitcoin brigade talking about a bright future of a world without government, I go: you gotta be kidding me.