High-voltage Bitcoin wires ruining a nice sunset

India just enacted strict regulations on Indian exchanges trading Bitcoin. They intend to prevent Indian banks from working with cryptocurrency exchanges, presumably to make it more difficult for Indians to acquire Bitcoin. This is the cryptocurrency industry equivalent of India severing banking ties with companies that publicly trade water. It will not stop the growth and adoption of Bitcoin in India, as we have seen with the spike in peer-to-peer over the counter trading of Bitcoin in the country, and it only serves to harm India in the long run by putting it behind the rest of the world. Bitcoin is the discovery of an open, leaderless, and scarce resource of the Internet. It is maintained by a group of volunteers worldwide, and it is available for everyone who needs it. It requires no permission to use, and cannot be killed by regulations.

Bitcoin was created and is being maintained specifically for you, and using it is your right as a human. Your ability to access to Bitcoin should be viewed similarly as access to electricity or water (except Bitcoin is not managed by your government.) A key difference between a traditional public utility and Bitcoin is that Bitcoin access is exclusively your responsibility to protect. Your government’s opinion on Bitcoin is just that — opinion. They do not have the ability to prevent you from using Bitcoin, and their motives should be questioned if they try.

Bitcoin’s future is your responsibility. If you don’t like the direction Bitcoin’s development is heading, the onus is on you to code up changes or run the software that you believe in and gain consensus from the community. Any other strategies to change Bitcoin will fail in the long-term. Sure, you can use another cryptocurrency, or start your own, but you’ll still have to convince people to use it, and you already haven’t convinced a majority of Bitcoin Hodlers by failing to achieve consensus with a proposal to enhance Bitcoin.

Your right to use and participate in Bitcoin is in stark contrast with other cryptocurrencies and most other products you interact with daily. Are you angry about Facebook harvesting your data? Too bad. It’s run by a central authority that doesn’t charge you for its use. Is Twitter banning you for some reason? That’s their right, and you have to abide by their version of the truth when you use their platform. Don’t like the direction that your favorite alt-coin is taking? You shouldn’t have bought into something with so much centralized control. Here’s my guide to picking the right cryptocurrency. Are you upset about your country banning Bitcoin? It appears that your government is no longer working for you, but is instead working to control you.

Bitcoin is a global, public utility. Nobody has the right to restrict your access or take it from you.

Additional Resources:

My guide to getting started with Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@philgeiger/a-gentle-introduction-to-bitcoin-c8f6e55855c1

Find a Bitcoin ATM near you to try it out: CoinATMradar

USD Exchanges/Bitcoin banks: Coinbase, Gemini

Euro Exchanges: Bitonic, Bitstamp

Be your own bank on your phone or computer with a BTC wallet: Android — Samourai, iOS- Edge, from a computer — Electrum