Merchants have still been using it, allowing it even before any legality and regulations were ever discussed before, that 10k BTC pizza was bought when nothing was being regulated.
That was a mare exception buddy! There was stories about a lady who bought a car using bitcoin as well. But can we consider this as a mass adoption?? Definitely not! But to see mass adoption of bitcoin or other cryptos, we need regulation so that it can be considered as a legal tender. The way we are using paytm (since you are from my country, you will understand), probably then we will be able to use bitcoin for our daily transactions. Without regulation it is not possible!
I reiterate, that I don't support over regulation like Japan is trying to do. A simple regulation is what I am supporting!
The country you're talking about, is the country I live in. I believe that most people in our Government have got poops in their minds and based on their own stupid analogies, they're giving silly statements that BTC is ponzi, BTC is too volatile to be regulated, etc. Now, when they are seeing that too much money can be made through this investment (though risky, but still highly rewarding) and they can either put people in jail for various unreasonable reasons or take huge taxes over gains from this, they're now going to regulate these markets.
I truly support this statement! Our government doesn't have much understanding of cryptos and that's why they have stated that bitcoin is a ponzi. The problem here is with the society itself, where you need to have post graduation to get a private company job but no education requirement to become a political leader. Even if there are bureaucrats helping them to understand the matter, the decision making power is still on that politician.
Tell me, why the heck were they stopping everything (including banks) from dealing with crypto-related exchanges? And what's the guarantee that after taking a full hold of everyone's finances in crypto space, they won't stop everything once again and take back everything from us when BTC would once again be at its new peak?
Our government is stopping banks from providing service to crypto related businesses is a precaution from larger impact. Frankly, I don't have much hope on our government that they will understand the power and impact of crypto. However, at some point of time, if they legalize crypto and later decides to ban it, they can't provide retrospective effect on that.
Just for an example, lets assume that alcohol is legal in your state and you enjoyed few pegs at your home today. Now if the state government decides to ban alcohol from 15th January, they can't arrest you for the drinks you had on 6th January. That's unethical and no political administration will do that thinking of their votebank.