Hey fellow Steem-Os. Just got back from a weekend trip to Tokyo
and was surprised to find the once thriving free-market crypto areas of the city napalmed by mass regulation and licensing mandates, resulting in an almost total lack of available Bitcoin ATMs and trade opportunities outside of the new celeb-endorsed (see thumbnail) trading platforms popping up online.
Whereas just a year prior I could hit up Roppongi and find 4 or 5 ATMs in the area, now they are all gone. After talking to a couple employees of the establishments where the ATMS used to be hosted, I was told that licensing restrictions and other government red tape, in the wake of official recognition of Bitcoin as a currency, had resulted in the removal and shutting down of at least 4 ATMs in that area. Looking at CoinATMRadar (an app showing various BTC ATM locations) I noticed that most of the others are gone as well. This means about 7 or 8 perfectly good Bitcoin ATMs in the city have been disabled.
As I hit the McDonald's in Shimbashi this morning, I saw a gigantic billboard of a sexy Japanese celebrity promoting Bitcoin via the DMM exchange. It appears we are all being funneled into "legitimate" (read: monitorable, trackable, privacy-invasive and highly taxable) avenues of crypto exchange, while the thriving free market of exchange is being discouraged more than ever.
For some, celebrity endorsement spells higher BTC prices, and thus, success. For others like me, this is interesting, and we hope the price will rise, but the deeper, underlying feeling is one of grim understanding. This is what we knew was coming. The very systems that BTC was created to disrupt, are engulfing and co-opting it.
I think the tech is here to stay, and remain enthusiastic and optimistic. That said, I'm no dummy. Individuals utilizing the free market freely is something the state has never liked. and it will be interesting to see how things evolve over the next few years.
What do you think about the state of the crypto in your neck of the woods?
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~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Tube Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)