Abra CEO Bill Barhydt explained why a Bitcoin ban in the United States is 'not possible' at last week's Bitcoin 2019 conference.
During his appearance at Bitcoin 2019, Barhydt focused on the legality of Bitcoin as a free speech issue.
“The edge of the network, I think, should scare all of us because it’s not a Bitcoin-specific issue. That’s, you know, a government overreach issue and a free speech issue that I think we don’t take seriously. We don’t hear enough of a narrative around Bitcoin as free speech. And free speech needs to be a protected human right across the board,” said Barhydt.
At this point, Keiser Report’s Max Keiser, who was moderating the panel, noted that a philosophy exists among many individuals in the Bitcoin space that effectively states: Bitcoin is code, code is speech, and speech is protected.While there have been plenty of government hearings regarding the potential money laundering-related implications of Bitcoin, Barhydt stated that there’s another type of hearing that he’d like to see take place related to this technology.
“Where is the hearing about how we’re going to guarantee basic human rights as it relates to access to this technology?” asked Barhydt. “That’s the hearing I want to see.”While Barhydt indicated Bitcoin bans could potentially happen in places like China and India, he also noted that such a ban would not be possible in the United States“It’s not possible,” responded Barhydt when the panel was asked how the U.S. government would potentially try to implement a Bitcoin ban.
Barhydt added that the fact Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency is not as decentralized as Bitcoin and involves much more than just ones and zeros in someone’s pocket is a problem for that project (
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