The move is quite predictable as many other fintech companies and banks have recently shown a strong interest in cryptocurrencies as payment currencies. Satoshi Nakamoto basically designed Bitcoin as an alternative to fiat(traditional banking system), but we all know that that's almost impossible. There's no way the Bitcoin blockchain could handle the number of transactions it would need to process in order to replace the current networks.
For this matter, stablecoins IMO are doing way better than Bitcoin as payment currencies. Aside from not being quite useful for everyday transactions, Bitcoin is now threatened when it comes to mining, too, in Europe. According to a recent report, The European Commission is preparing the minds of leaders in its member states as they may need to halt cryptocurrency mining on their shores should the strain on the energy industry in the region demand it.
That's nothing like the China ban, although not even that one had the ability to kill Bitcoin, there's gone be some unwanted and unneeded pressure on the shoulders of miners in the future though. But you know what's even crazier than that? We’re only several months away from somebody’s face acting like their private key rather than having to custody a mnemonic phrase potentially not in a language not native to them”, according to David Sneider, a builder at Lit Protocol.
The topic of using your biometrics instead of private keys as a security measure in handling crypto wallets has been already intensely discussed on Twitter by both @edicted and @whatsup. I personally would not opt for such a safety measure at all. It's basically against what blockchain technology stands for...
The whole thing is dystopian. On one hand, we say we want back the privacy we've lost many years ago, the freedom and transparency we probably never had and on the other, some so-called blockchain industry builders are calling for blockchain use cases that are against its main pillars. Login in some blockchain-dedicated app/wallet by using your biometrics is one thing, although I'm not too excited about that either, but removing the option of private keys and replacing these with biometrics is a whole different story.
We've heard lately of Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and even Kanye West and their tries at fixing the system, but the system can't be fixed. That simple. What we need is to start everything from scratch, be it banking systems, insurance, fintech, social media, governance systems, etc.
My simple-minded logic tells me that we will never have "good money" or properly governed communities unless we take the power and control over such things from the hands of the governments. What we(the crypto community) need to do is simply to build back better. Yes, we are the ones that have to build back better, not the banksters ruling over the political system.
Hive is a great example of building back better. Two years ago when Justin Sun came to Steem, it was clear that there was no way that system could be fixed anymore. We had to fork it, and in the same way, we need to fork ourselves now out of the current crooked system we live in. It's going to be hard considering how dumb and ignorant the masses are, but it's not impossible.
We need to have our own propaganda going on and we definitely have to start everything from scratch. Mastercard making it possible for banks to deal with crypto is not necessarily what I would call bullish news, cuz it's still the work of the establishment over there. We're living through some challenging times, but we sure have the potential at hand to make the way out of these challenging times a glorious one. It's everything on us, though...
Thanks for your attention,
Adrian