John Reed Stark – former head of internet enforcement at the Security and Exchange Commission: “Crypto is a scourge. It’s not something that you want in your society. It has no utility, it’s pure speculation. There’s no balance sheet to crypto. There’s no financial statements. There’s no SEC filings. No public disclosure mandate. There’s no audit inspection examination, no net capital requirements, no licensure of the individuals involved, and there’s no transparency into it… BUT THE OTHER PART that people don’t talk about enough are the dire externalities that are enabled by crypto. Every single crime you can conceive of is easier to do now because of crypto, espescially ransomware, human sex trafficking, sanction evasion, money laundering. North Korea is financing their nuclear weapons program using them.
Ray’s note- And the most obvious of the crimes that it enables is tax evasion. And who will be using crypto to avoid taxes? The richer or the poorer? duh. Just because anyone can buy a lottery ticket doesn’t mean it is not tantamount to a tax on the poorer. And just because anyone can buy crypto does not mean it will not increase the wealth gap. And now with its
PAC Fairshake contributing many millions to candidates, it may become as big an influencer in congress as the NRA.
