When it comes to cryptocurrency, regulation is something that’s more specific to a particular country or region; not necessarily a coin or project. Some regions are notoriously more favorable for hosting blockchain projects than others, especially when it comes to allowing for fund solicitation (ICOs), and how the business operations are incentivized, monitored, and taxed. For instance, Switzerland has proven to be a supportive region. US, Europe, and Australia also seem to be relatively accepting of blockchain.
Regions can also take measures to prevent its citizens from participating in blockchain. For instance, China was very encouraging of blockchain as the technology was initially emerging, however they have recently taken measures to slow (if not stop) its proliferation, from within Chinese borders. Even though countries can try to set boundaries against such behavior, they cannot commit changes to the code to change how the blockchain runs. One of the most beautiful and liberating parts about blockchain is that it exists online, where anyone can participate (run an node), as long as they have access. As countries try to block access, citizens can set up VPNs (virtual private networks), in order to participate. Supposedly, this is becoming commonplace in China, as China cracks-down on blockchain. Many Chinese projects and investors are also choosing to move to places like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan in order to escape increasingly strict laws.
Bitcoin is a wise case study to examine when it comes to regulation. There is no organization that started Bitcoin, thus there is no specific country or set of laws that the protocol must answer to. Bitcoin is a more pure form of decentralization; there wasn’t even an ICO. “Satoshi Nakamoto” is just a pseudonymed person(s) who developed the open source protocol, then set it loose on the internet to evolve organically. Bitcoin can still be affected indirectly, by regulation of derivative businesses that help Bitcoin find use cases and relevancy, thus grow in value. However, the underlying protocol itself, cannot be directly affected by any country on a power trip. The program itself, the coin itself, belongs everywhere, for everyone.
Check out more detailed research I’ve done that goes over how strict regulation on blockchain and crypto is, by country: http://www.cryptkeepers.club/
Also made a video specifically related to Bitcoin and regulation (or lack thereof):
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