US forecast: unfortunately, it is full of people who do not have an in-depth understanding of crypto technology but still insist on talking about it publicly.
Such is the case with Brad Sherman, a member of the US House of Representatives since 1997.
Who is Brad Sherman
Sherman is a Democratic lawyer, and a specialist in tax law. In contrast, he has no specialization in information technology or regarding financial markets.
Moreover, he is considered a defender of civil liberties, but apparently he is not a defender of financial liberties.
He has been spewing bluntly about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies since 2018, to the point of calling for a ban on cryptocurrency mining and trading in the US. In short, a “champion of freedoms” who wants to ban people from freely using the currency they want.
Despite this, he is a member of the Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion, and the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy.
The electoral campaign
Although Sherman has been a detractor of cryptocurrencies for years, it is possible that he has made his voice heard on the matter again in the run-up to next year’s election campaign to elect a new US president
Many Democrats, belonging to the party of incumbent President Joe Biden, are already campaigning using cryptocurrencies as a weapon to try to convince those who despise finance.
On the other hand, there are many Republicans who conversely are already campaigning using cryptocurrencies as a tool to try to convince those who are more demanding from the point of view of financial freedoms.
So Sherman’s prediction falls within this framework of electoral clash between Democrats and Republicans.
USA: Sherman’s prediction on crypto
During a recent television interview with CNBC, Sherman said he hopes cryptocurrencies will disappear.
However, when asked explicitly about whether the current crackdown could spell the end of cryptocurrencies in the US, he replied “I don’t think so.”
So although he continues to be such a detractor that he wishes cryptocurrencies would be wiped out, if nothing else he has realized after several years that cryptocurrencies will not disappear.
Probably from dealing with the subject he must have learned a few things, but for electoral reasons he seems compelled to insist on the concept of the possible elimination of this technology.
However, the fact is that it is absolutely impossible to “uninvent” Bitcoin, so as long as citizens continue to care about it, it simply cannot disappear. Bitcoin is censorship-resistant, unhackable, immutable, so the only way to stop it would be to shut down the Internet, worldwide, forever.
Moreover, Sherman seems not even to be able to distinguish Bitcoin from altcoins, and especially from the thousands of shitcoins that are constantly being born and dying.
US: the issues raised by Sherman and the prediction about crypto
According to the congressman, cryptocurrencies would serve no purpose except to evade international laws and sanctions.
He evidently missed what the Fed did in the 2020/2021 two year period, when it created more dollars out of thin air in less than two years than had been created in all of history up to that point. Bitcoin in February 2020 was worth just over $10,000; today it is worth $25,000.
But Sherman does not care about the huge and very important differences between Bitcoin and altcoins.
In fact, he claims not to understand why, for example, Bitcoin is more valuable than Hamster Coin or Cone Tribe Coin, making clear his inability to distinguish between real cryptocurrencies and shitcoins. Then again, his knowledge on the subject seems to be only slightly above zero, so it is not surprising that he is unable to understand.
Another issue he raises is that they do not serve as means of payment.
Again, he demonstrates that he does not understand what Bitcoin is for at this precise moment in history, because by now everyone knows that as a means of payment it is not currently particularly useful. He just fails to see what its other real utility is.
Finally, he argues that cryptocurrencies serve only criminals, when in fact it is blatant that there are millions of people in the world who use them without being criminals, and without having the goal of using them for criminal purposes.
Moreover, calling everyone who invests in or speculates on cryptocurrencies a criminal is bordering on the crime of defamation, but this is all simply the result of his ignorance on the subject.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/06/16/us-forecast-crypto-not-disappear/