The recent rise of BitCoin has seen the US government trying to regulate the online currency much like how the music industry tried to regulate Napster over 10 years ago.
BitCoin is very much like Napster – it was a first of a kind type project. With Napster being the first P2P file sharing program which let people share media files such as music which meant there was no need for the music record labels.
Along with the revolutionary aspect, BitCoin like Napster has unsettled a lot of people in high places. As the music industry realized the downloading of music illegally would destroy their business model and bankrupt them the top firms recruited a team of lawyers to pursue and sue Napster.
Eventually after a legal battle Napster was forced into bankruptcy but that did not change anything. In fact it was the start of something bigger and worse. Just because on P2P program was eliminated it didn’t mean more would not come. What actually happened was a major increase in the number of P2P programs from Kazaa to Limewire the list is endless.
What people fail to grasp is that the idea of Napster is larger than the program itself. Once the idea was launched there would never be a way of stopping it. This can be said for BitCoin too; it may have its flaws but the idea is much bigger than the actual company.
No one knows what the future holds for BitCoin and even if the US government decides to regulate the currency to the point where it is rendered useless to Americans the idea will still be strong and continue to flourish.
The possibility of sending money around the world anonymously is too big an idea for people to instantly forget. In my opinion it would be best for the US government to try and work in conjunction with BitCoin to reach a solution which is best for them both or they face the possibility of an unregulated market filled with online currencies which they will not be able to control.