Analyzing CBN and the Bitcoin ‘Ban’

Guest Post by Charles Jaja-Sackey

In The Egalitarian Room on Clubhouse last Friday, a number of contributors were attempting — and failing — to make a case for CBN’s unsurprising knee-jerk decision on cryptocurrency.

What was interesting about the entire conversation was that they kept repeating phrases like “me, I don’t understand cryptocurrency, but I think it’s a good thing that CBN wants to regulate it…” They aren’t, by the way — they banned financial institutions from honouring crypto-related transactions.

The other party were trying to plant their arguments on the side of “…what’s the value of cryptocurrency? I’ve not seen any value. It’s not a fiat currency so why do we need it…”

The third group were with the “…it’s too volatile, why should we let people put their money in a volatile market, the government is probably right right ban it…”
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How can you be so uninformed, yet so bold in your views? It’s the effrontery for me, beloved.

You don’t understand cryptocurrency? Ok.
So how do automatically claim that this government — with a rap sheet of some of the most reprehensible, anti-business, anti-progress, net-negative policies this side of the Fourth Republic — has passed a right policy?
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What’s the value of cryptocurrency?
Are you kidding me? A digital asset existed without necessity? Did you all not learn from the previous digital asset disruption when it came to movies and music?

Forget that for a moment. Let me state a common example. Consider this:
If I want to send £1,000 to someone in Nigeria. Unless another person takes physical GBP cash to the recipient, it will cost me MORE than £1,000 — in commission and transaction fees.
Cryptocurrencies has eliminated that.

In most cases, if I wanted to make transfers, the cash in question is exposed to inflationary and regulatory measures that diminishes the current value of the money being sent to you.
Cryptocurrencies has eliminated that.

I could go and on about the “value” of cryptocurrencies, but that point should be obviously moot — because necessity is the mother of all inventions and cryptocurrency wouldn’t exist and sustain itself if there wasn’t a value that is overwhelmingly net-positive.
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Cryptocurrency is volatile?
Really? 🤦🏾‍♂️ this is the most redundant of all reasons if you ask me.

Volatility? In a global financial market where there is a huge enterprise built on speculation? What the hell do you think hedge funds are if they aren’t speculators creating complex financial products based on speculation and volatility?

Ok, you don’t understand that far. Fine, take a look at your own Naira.
Today an item costs 1,000; next month it’s N1,200, by month four it’s almost N1,500. You want to talk about volatility? How about you ask Emefiele why he keeps dumping $200m every couple of weeks to prop up this kangaroo currency called the Naira?
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The other laughable excuse is that the cryptocurrency market is used to aid and abet crime 😂😂😂 Apparently, there were no financial crimes in Nigeria prior to cryptocurrencies. Apparently this nation was the bastion of anti-graft and honesty.

You know, EFCC used to stand for Economic and Financial Charity Commission — the trillions stolen were mere stories we told children to make sure they ate their greens and say their prayers before bed.

If cryptocurrencies aided and abetted crime, why didn’t you close the entire banking institutions that poli-thiefians and their cronies have been using to embezzle money before cryptos?

Banks are culpable, right? Why not ban banks?
Criminals use cars to evade robbery scenes, right? Why not ban cars?

You want to “protect people from losing their money to volatility?” Fine, shut down the stock market and ban the entire financial services industry; after all they’ve plunged us into too many recessions and crippled economies.

“We need banks?” Says who? We can exist without banks. We existed BEFORE banks. We existed before the stock markets, so why not ban them all? Since your solution to everything is a hammer, because to you they’re all nails.
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Look, you can promise all you want, you can tout “ease of doing business” all you want, it’s your actions that matter. And once again this government has shown it lacks the intellect, is inept, and/or is conniving in corruption, to stifle anything that it it cannot wave its mantle of destruction over.

The only reason that makes sense for this ban is that they’ve found something that has very little room for political corruption and bribery, and no opportunity to use it as a political tool to force citizens to their kneel — so that they’ll come out as the “saviours”, only to pour more misery.

But we know that this won’t work in a decentralised market like cryptocurrency. It will thrive, and they’ll continue to chase shadows.

Go ask India. Go ask Algeria, Bolivia, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Even China that tried to ban it have realised that it’s the largest mining destination.

Isn’t it interesting they the countries that have realised the strength in cryptocurrencies are the most thriving? From Germany to to Australia, to Denmark, Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom to name a few.

Continue 😏