Shut It Down
I am guessing I am not the only one looking at some of these bright green upward slopes with a sense of relief - even though they might be short lived. While lows are the best time to buy, if already holding a fair bit, the lows can feel pretty low, even when they really aren't that low at all, compared to a year ago. It doesn't take long to get used to the highs when they are more than just a spike.
I did buy something the other day though, more SPS. I needed it for pooling with DEC so I pretty much doubled my holdings and took the gamble on the chance that it will go higher than the other stuff I was holding within the next year or so. It might have been a poor move, but if this market decides to do its thing and get back on track for an end of Q1 or start of Q2 drive, it should do okay. Hopefully, it is timed with some more news about how SPS is going to be involved with LAND, as that should drive the hype on it.
And in more good news:
Meta Threatens To Shut Down Facebook And Instragram In Europe
I live in Europe.
What a shame this would be!
The reason is that the EU is constantly changing the privacy laws and and there are conditions about transferring personal data into the US. Currently, they are working under an additional agreement, but if that loophole is removed, they will have to fundamentally change their business model. Their argument is funny:
“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we are unable to continue to rely on SCCs or rely upon other alternative means of data transfers from Europe to the United States, we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.”
Diddums.
Nothing mentioned about what they do with that data, but what would be interesting if they did lose access to transfer the data of 750M people into the US, would they still enjoy the protections the US government seems to afford them? Unlikely. This would mean that the massive stranglehold they have on the global population is weakened considerably and that would lead to more competition weakening their model further. On top of this, with less access to markets, their ad revenue will plummet massively, driving another nail into the coffin.
See how fragile centralization can be?
Looking at the share price that has continued to slide away another 10% in the last couple days, it seems that someone knew it was coming and bailed, setting off the collapse.
What is going to be interesting though is whether the EU is going to make exceptions for them, as for example, many schools have integrated Facebook and WhatsApp groups into their communication systems, which I think is ridiculous. What a security flaw. However, threatening Europe probably isn't going to end that well as despite what Americans might think, there are one or two tech companies here that will happily work out solutions to take up the slack. In the digital world - there are always options - and it would be akin to a forking out of Facebook. It would be disruptive, no doubt.
But, I think that more tech companies are going to increasingly come into the sights of regulators who are finally catching up to the fact that while these companies draw hundreds of billions out of countries, they don't pay much of that back into the country through tax and, they don't employee many people locally. Essentially, they are leeching value from three corners of the world and drawing it back to one and in an economy that is currently under pressure, the regulators are looking to keep more within their grasp.
Regulation is an inevitability in this world and while I do hope that one day the regulation will be through decentralized gateways that build common and open frameworks, all of the changes are going to open gaps for new business models to get some air, light and room to breathe. If there was a collapse of Facebook, it would be akin to Coca-Cola collapsing, leaving many of the drink isle shelves bare and customers demanding supply. All of those local businesses and small-scale manufacturers that couldn't compete, suddenly find themselves struggling to scale to the influx of growth.
I think currently, Hive would struggle under that kind of pressure and if for example as little as ten million active accounts signed up and wanted to go, it would be impossible. At the moment, the tools just aren't there and I don't know where they would even get that many accounts on short notice. his is part of the reason that development of the scalability of the chain is of paramount importance.
There is always the "too big to fail" argument when it comes to these large tech companies, but under certain conditions, they can be dismantled relatively quickly, because they are subject to legislations. The blockchains however which are also subject to legislations, don't fit neatly into a legislative package as they aren't run like businesses, they are messy, disorganized and spread all over the place. This makes them hard to wrangle and if that gap in the market opens up, it is the perfect environment for the many tendrils to escape and multiply, like a virus.
And, a virus is probably how they will be seen by the establishments, because they will find it hard to control so much of it, that they will constantly be having to do deals and make concessions in order to convince their own citizens to stay engaged. This weakens their bargaining position too, returning more power to those it used to control, for a rebalancing and readjustment of governance globally and locally.
It all sounds so easy doesn't it? But of course it is not and the disruption that all of this causes is going to be incredibly high and affect all of us negatively in some way. But, out the other side, perhaps we will have a chance to thrive, instead of keep trying to survive in a vampire economy that looks to suck us dry and leave us for dead.
