Net Neutrality Death May Or May Not Kill Bitcoin, Experts Disagree With Each Other

One of the biggest hot-button topics in the American political landscape right now is Net Neutrality and the upcoming vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to kill it. While many fear that the death of a free internet will give way to ISP abuses, there is also the impact on cryptocurrency to consider. Some experts believe that the death of Net Neutrality could also spell the end for Bitcoin, but others disagree.

With the debates regarding the upcoming FCC vote on repealing Net Neutrality heating up, several experts have weighed in on the potential consequences of the event. A recent post on The Next Web, for example, argued that FCC chair Ajit Pai’s decision to gut the free internet could lead to the death of Bitcoin.

“For one, ISPs may decide (or bend under government pressure) to effectively end cryptocurrency by shutting off access to make deposits or withdrawals from popular (and trustworthy) exchanges. This would leave enthusiasts and speculators few options, but those that remain would undoubtedly be sketchy offerings or those well outside the reach of law enforcement,” the article reads.

On the other hand, there are also cryptocurrency experts who think that Bitcoin won’t be affected by the FCC vote regardless of which way it goes. One of them is ConsenSys chief marketing officer, Amanda Gutterman who told Futurism that cryptocurrency will be just fine even if Net Neutrality dies.

“I do not see the repeal of net neutrality as necessarily changing the face of cryptocurrency,” Gutterman said.

She argues that cracking down on cryptocurrency would involve targeting all peer-to-peer transactions. Sending Bitcoins would look the same as users downloading songs, for example, which would make it very difficult to make life hard for cryptocurrency traders. As such, ISPs would not be able to do anything that would dissuade people from using Bitcoin, unless they overhaul the internet itself.