Want Greater Bitcoin Adoption? Engage With Your Government.

It’s been a good week for Bitcoin and its status in the eyes of federal deposit insurance corporations. (Well, there’s a weird sentence I never thought I’d write.)

On Tuesday, the anti-crypto U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman, Martin Gruenberg, announced he’d be stepping down in January.

And yesterday, Heritage Falodun, CEO of DigiOats, Nigeria’s leading Bitcoin education and consultancy platform, educated members of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) about the benefits of bitcoin and other digital assets.

Falodun, an indefatigable Bitcoin proponent, spearheaded a seminar for the NDIC entitled “Cryptocurrency in the Evolving Financial Industry”.

This week, @DigiOats alongside with #MassCyberTech completed a groundbreaking seminar for @NDICNigeria ????????on “Cryptocurrency in the Evolving Financial Industry”. We explored #Bitcoin adoption, regulation, and sustainable finance marking a key moment for Nigeria’s financial future pic.twitter.com/hpWQOqZt8L— DigiOats⚡️ (@DigiOats) November 21, 2024

In it, he highlighted the following points:

• Bitcoin can serve as a reserve asset for nation states, including Nigeria
• Using bitcoin (and other digital assets), banks can reduce settlement time
• Bitcoin can reduce capital controls, as its censorship resistant

Falodun and his team also provided an overview on the evolution of money and financial systems and also touched on the ways in which bitcoin and crypto are already integrated into traditional financial structures in efforts to convince the NDIC of Bitcoin and crypto’s importance.

“Nigeria must adopt balanced regulations that protect citizens and foster innovation,” Falodun told Bitcoin Magazine. “By embracing Bitcoin's uniqueness and engaging the Bitcoin community, Nigeria can lead the global financial revolution.”

Falodun knows that without properly educating government officials, Bitcoin runs the risk of being misunderstood and, therefore, regulated improperly.

“I would like regulators to understand that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature is not a flaw to be regulated out of existence, 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 go calling me a statist or some other silly reductive term, I’d like to remind you that even well-known cypherpunks like Adam Back have said that part of the struggle around greater Bitcoin adoption (and encryption in general) will include engaging with governments (and courts).

Proponents of Bitcoin should acknowledge our current political reality and make the case for Bitcoin to those in power if they want to see it flourish — or if they want to at least stop governments from crafting poor policy around Bitcoin and/or attacking the industry.

Take a cue from Falodun and do your part to educate 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 keep your country from falling behind.