This is what is largely under-appreciated: the U.S. of A. is a constitutional republic. There is not one individual, not one group that runs her. Her constitution, although much-diluted in potency and meaning from its original intent, is still interpreted and followed largely according to a fundamental idea. That idea is this: the U.S. Constitution is meant to control the government, not the people. Think about that. That’s why I continue to live here in the U.S., that’s why you have ties to the U.S. one way or another. How can this be? How can the most powerful nation in the world have a government that is controlled by a piece of paper? But it is. For more than 200 years now, the U.S. Constitution has reigned supreme. If you read the U.S. Constitution, you will see that 95% of it is meant to LIMIT government, not limit the people. That is the secret to U.S. sovereign longevity.

In light of this, we can see very clearly why the U.S. can allow cryptocurrencies to exist. The U.S. government is very constrained in what it can do (unlike China and India). And this is the reason why Bitcoin has been allowed to flourish. Remember: the law has apprehended bad actors (bad — according to its view, like Charlie Shrem and the Silk Road operators), but Bitcoin itself is a victim-less technology, and because of that, it cannot be banned by the U.S. government. Nobody is harmed by using Bitcoin, as opposed to things like Napster, which harmed the copyright owners.

The most powerful nation cannot act against Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, unless this technology can be rationalized as unconstitutional. Being the most powerful nation, its actions are followed by most other nations. This is the most plausible explanation of why cryptocurrencies flourished so far, and will continue to conquer the world.

There is a second part to this, which I published as a separate article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-cryptocurrencies-allowed-flourish-carlos-tapang/

— Carlos