Japan Just Killed the “Bitcoin Will Be Banned” Meme

One of the most durable claims of cryptocurrency skeptics is that “governments will ban bitcoin once it threatens their fiat currency or their control.” Ben Bernanke recently gave voice to this claim as if it was received wisdom.
Sorry, crypto-skeptics: Japan just killed the “bitcoin will be banned” meme. Japan has established itself as the safe haven of all legit cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges. Japan is not just the world’s third largest economy; it is a keystone of the global economy in supply chains, ownership of overseas assets, capital flows and technology. Japan’s embrace of cryptocurrencies suggests the Japanese understand that adoption of crypto and blockchain technology offers whatever nation is firstest with the mostest in legal protection of these technologies will have a powerful competitive advantage. Many crypto skeptics claim the U. S. can browbeat adopters of bitcoin into banning cryptos via various threats such as limiting access to U. S. banking. Memo to skeptics: Japan is too strategically important for the U. S. to browbeat over something as small in scale as cryptos. Furthermore, Japan is long past the point where it will automatically comply with every self-destructive demand of the American Imperial project.

This post was published at Charles Hugh Smith on MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2017.