Mayor of Miami: it is too late to regulate Bitcoin

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez believes the widespread adoption of Bitcoin will make it difficult for regulators to impose severe restrictions on cryptocurrency firms and the digital asset industry. Speaking at the Ethereal Summit, Suarez said that it will be difficult for the US authorities to control the activities of firms working with digital assets, even if the necessary changes to the legislation are made. 

This is since the adoption of Bitcoin is at a sufficiently high level, therefore, legislators will not be able to fully control cryptocurrencies. According to Suarez, "the genie has already been released from the bottle."

Suarez likened the development of the first cryptocurrency to Uber, which began operating in Florida in 2014 and nearly threatened the entire taxi industry in Miami. At the time, many Uber drivers were not licensed to carry passengers, and this did not meet safety requirements. At the same time, there were not enough police and special bodies that could monitor the observance of the rules by Uber taxi drivers. The city administration had to conclude a "deal" with Uber and its competitor - Lyft. Transport network organizations were required to obtain a license, but this allowed contracted drivers to bypass many of the requirements for taxi drivers. Suarez drew an analogy between this situation and Bitcoin, saying that regulators are working on outdated models and do not take into account the advantages that cryptocurrencies are endowed with due to the innovative technologies underlying them.

Since the inception of Bitcoin, there is still no clear regulation of digital currencies in the United States. Thus, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have different views on the cryptocurrency regulation system in the country. Only recently was a bill passed in the United States requiring both agencies to form a working group to develop regulations to oversee the cryptocurrency industry in the United States.

The Mayor of Miami recalled a January conversation with the founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss. Then Suarez said that he intends to make Miami "the most competitive capital of cryptocurrencies." He began to promote an initiative regarding the city's budget investment in Bitcoin but faced regulatory restrictions - Miami state laws do not allow investing in all types of assets. Regardless, Suarez believes that cryptocurrencies have reached a "tipping point" despite some countries trying to ban cryptoassets. 

"If governments wanted to kill cryptocurrencies, they could do so at the very beginning of their emergence. But not right now. Now cryptocurrencies are ubiquitous and becoming too difficult to regulate,"

Suarez said.

Recently, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said that banning crypto assets would be a big foolishness, and people would have to turn off the Internet to do so. 

SOURCE