What would happen to the world if all Bitcoin operations suddenly disappeared? What if some governments decided Bitcoin was harmful and all its exchanges should be shut down? There’s a mental exercise for you.
This is, actually, an important question that should be asked more often, especially because a lot of governments are showing signs of wanting to shut down or even prevent Bitcoin exchanges.
The biggest problem would be that Bitcoin would still be mined, but without a defined value it couldn’t be transferred or spent. Why? Because Bitcoin’s protocol and rules are all about creating this digital currency, not defining its value. To do that, you need a market, but if all exchange markets finished, what would happen?
Some operations would continue, as individual efforts. But that doesn’t suit Bitcoin’s desire of becoming an important currency, one that could take on the dollar or the pound.
That’s why Max Keiser, the inventor of virtual specialist technology and co-founder of the Hollywood Stock Exchange, suggested that an entity, maybe the Bitcoin Foundation, could create a market to rule Bitcoin and broadcast a current price for digital currency, one that could be used as a benchmark. However, this market should be free of the regulators’ action.
This is the first step to turn Bitcoin into the real deal. Without a set of rules, this digital currency is just child’s play.