Thank you China???

I am an American in every sense of the word.  I love the freedoms that are afforded to me.  I moan and gripe about any type of infringement on that freedom.  I participate where I can in our democratic process.  I think our government is horrible and full of horrible, greedy, and sometimes inanely stupid people but I am glad I can say that without fear of reprisal.  And I am subtly arrogant enough to mean people of the United States when I say American even though that term is valid for Canada, Central, and South America.  Although it is kind of like the term Asian never referring to Russians.

All that said, thank you China!  United States "paid for" representatives have been more than ready to brand bitcoin as "illegal activity" at the behest of their main financial supporters.  It was too small for anyone to actually make any actions against it, but the language was clear enough.  Germany showed interest in bitcoin by acknowledging it and defining its use and how the government would deal with it, but they are our allies and still a small percentage of our economic might so business continued as usual.  Then China did roughly the same thing and the whole game changed.

When it come to the only fight that matters (economic dominance) China is a real contender and they contend.  The move for China to embrace bitcoin as legitimate can only be viewed as a direct shot at the the US.  The notion that China would embrace a pseudo-anonymous currency it cannot control because it thinks it is a good idea is absurd.  China loves the idea that maybe there is a financial instrument that will undermine US dollar dominance as a reserve currency and they can get in on the ground floor and take a large stake.  Now when being attacked, when self preservation is at stake, US representatives actually take notice and start acting like maybe they are not paid to create laws for the short term benefit of large private donors.

Language about bitcoin in the Senate hearing did a full 180 including some Senators recanting things they had previously said with the tried and true "I never said that, you just misunderstood what I was saying."  It was a great moment for bitcoin and was brought about by competing markets.  Some part of me marvels at the timing of the China stance and the Senate hearing.  I do not believe it to be coincidental but I am not ready to put in an opinion on what it might mean.