It’s been a good week for Bitcoin and its status in the eyes of federal deposit insurance companies. (Well, there’s a weird sentence I never thought I’d write.)
On Tuesday, the anti-crypto chairman of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Martin Gruenberg, announced that he resign in January.
And yesterday, Heritage FalodunCEO of DigiOatsNigeria’s leading Bitcoin education and advisory platform, has educated members of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) on the benefits of Bitcoin and other digital assets.
Falodun, a tireless supporter of Bitcoin, led a seminar for the NDIC titled “Cryptocurrency in the Evolving Financial Industry.”
This week, @DigiOats next to with #MassCyberTech completed a groundbreaking seminar for @NDICNigeria 🇳🇬about “Cryptocurrency in the evolving financial sector”. We explored #Bitcoin adoption, regulation and sustainable finance mark a key moment for Nigeria’s financial future pic.twitter.com/hpWQOqZt8L
— DigiOats⚡️ (@DigiOats) November 21, 2024
In it he emphasized the following points:
- Bitcoin can serve as one reserve assets for nation statesincluding Nigeria
- Using Bitcoin (and other digital assets), banks can reduce settlement time
- Bitcoin can reduce capital controls because it is censorship resistant
Falodun and his team also provided an overview of the evolution of monetary and financial systems and also discussed the ways in which Bitcoin and crypto have already been integrated into traditional financial structures in efforts to convince the NDIC of the importance of Bitcoin and crypto.
“Nigeria must adopt balanced regulations that protect citizens and promote innovation,” Falodun told Bitcoin Magazine. “By embracing the uniqueness of Bitcoin and engaging the Bitcoin community, Nigeria can lead the global financial revolution.”
Falodun knows that without proper training from government officials, Bitcoin risks being misunderstood and therefore improperly regulated.
“I would like regulators to understand that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature is not a flaw to be remedied, but a feature that offers unprecedented opportunities for inclusion, economic freedom and optimization of financial rails,” he added.
I respect Falodun’s efforts.
Before you start calling me a statist or some other silly limiting term, let me remind you that even well-known cypherpunks like Adam Back have said that part of the fight around greater adoption of Bitcoin (and encryption in general) involves with governments (and courts).
Bitcoin advocates must recognize our current political reality and advocate for Bitcoin to those in power if they want to see it flourish – or if they want to at least prevent governments from making bad policies around Bitcoin and/or attacking the industry.
Follow Falodun’s example and do your part by educating local government officials, members of state-level administrative agencies, or even federal-level bureaucrats about Bitcoin.
It’s one of the most important things you can do to prevent your country from falling behind.