Role of Crypto/Cybercurrencies in the PTB's loss of control?

[Ca.]

Funny money goes south.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1538294391600664577

https://twitter.com/x/status/1537508867781046272

https://twitter.com/x/status/1538252125393899520

https://twitter.com/x/status/1537394260005240832

 

[whitecoast]

Seems like Ethereum has bent the knee to the PTBs under the guise of conforming to ESG requirements, and transformed into a system of verification where inordinate power over the ledger and blockchain wallets is given to a collection of regulated companies under heavy government control and regulation.

Ethereum becomes WEF coin, and a global CBDC is born

Marketed as a climate friendly alternative, a major digital asset becomes the frontrunner for a global central bank digital currency

dossier.substack.com

Completed under the big budget marketing campaign of a “climate friendly” and ESG compliant reshuffle, the Ethereum protocol moved from a proof of work system — which borrowed from Bitcoin’s model of distributed, decentralized computing power (work) for validating the network — to a proof of stake system, which relies on dominant stakeholders to do the same.

There is no longer any “work,” or energy output, required, which is why the ESG and climate hoax crowd has hailed the project as a revolutionary achievement. They seem to miss the fact that ETH now represents a digital fiat currency, as there is no longer a legitimate case for a value proposition attached to it.
{snip}
Unlike Bitcoin’s proof of work system, which provides for robust decentralization and individual security, ETH is now set up so a select few “stakeholders” can determine the outcome of the entire system. The dominant stakeholders can simply get together and manipulate the protocol as they see fit.[

Should a powerful government want to invalidate the ETH tokens held by Jon Doe, a labeled opponent of the regime, they can simply pressure Coinbase and the gang to blacklist his transactions. The same goes for Jane Doe, who a random bureaucrat could determined is a “criminal,” and force a major stakeholder to change the rules to punish Mrs Doe. Her Ethereum wallet can be blacklisted with the click of a button, rendering her entire wealth in this currency instantly worthless. /quote]

Seems like the PTBs are going to be relying on the Ethereum network to instill their digital control panopticon, perhaps starting with an official US digital currency. Based on this I think we can expect bitcoin's purchasing power to be purposefully undermined and marginalized as time goes on.

 

[Ryan]

Seems like Ethereum has bent the knee to the PTBs under the guise of conforming to ESG requirements, and transformed into a system of verification where inordinate power over the ledger and blockchain wallets is given to a collection of regulated companies under heavy government control and regulation.

The transition to Proof-of-Stake consensus has been planned for years and has nothing to do with "ESG". The main problem was Ethereum's lack of scalability which capped the maximum rate of transactions at about 10-15 TPS, causing huge bottlenecks on the network and the ridiculous and widely-mocked "gas fee" spikes, where a transaction to send a few dollars worth of ETH would cost hundreds of dollars in fees.

While it's true that a Proof-of-Stake model does centralise the transaction validations compared to Proof-of-Work, the reality is that Ethereum still has hundreds of nodes in different countries all around the world performing the validations, and anyone can participate as a full validator with a minimum buy-in of 32 ETH.

People who think that Bitcoin or Ethereum are the frameworks of some "NWO digital currency" are totally deluded. Governments aren't going to run their CBDCs on public blockchain networks validated by "Jon Does" - they will be on private networks with highly restricted access to the software and hardware.

BTW, it looks like the Russian government has decided crypto isn't so bad after all:

 

[whitecoast]

A Catholic Monastery outside Kansas City is apparently in the business of bitcoin cold storage, and they seem to see it just as another factor in low time preference thinking associated with the Benedictine philosophy of cloistering and outliving the crumbling society around you. Kind of interesting.

Meet The Catholic Nuns Who Are Building A New Church With Bitcoin

By adopting bitcoin, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles from Kansas City were able to build their church and focus on preserving Catholic traditions.

bitcoinmagazine.com

An observer of modern culture paying even the slightest attention might aptly compare today’s world to the Roman Empire in the sixth and seventh centuries. This was a period of cultural decline, where barbarian invasions destroyed cities, libraries, laws and even governments. During this time, it was medieval monks, such as St. Benedict, who preserved and built up Western civilization. The monks did this by preserving ancient texts, saving agriculture in Europe and preaching the Gospel.

Today, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, are doing their part to build up a civilization in the midst of cultural rot. And they are doing it with the help of bitcoin. These traditional Catholic nuns are a monastic order who follow St. Benedict’s rule and buy, receive and hold bitcoin in cold storage on behalf of their monastery. They survive on self-sufficiency and financial support from around the world — they have nuns from Mexico, England, Germany, the Netherlands and Lithuania — making bitcoin their ideal money.

While driving through the hills north of Kansas City, Missouri, en route to the monastery, I wondered, “What could possibly be the connection these nuns have to bitcoin?” Father Matthew Bartulica, chaplain of the monastery put it to me this way:

“The monastic life is probably the greatest example of low time preference! It’s all about passing on the traditions to future generations … This also has a huge impact on the culture, because it’s not all about satisfying one’s immediate desires, but building a better future. Today’s world doesn’t offer much hope because nothing is valued, partially because the money is broken — just like it was in Ancient Rome. The Benedictines helped rebuild civilization 1,500 years ago and I believe that the life of the Abbey is like a citadel, a popular term with bitcoiners, that will help to rebuild civilization in the 21st century.”

Father Bartulica is the orange-pilled, Catholic priest at the monastery. He ably references Dr. Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard,” on issues such as fiat architecture and fiat food. I was introduced to the priest by a mutual friend. “You’re a Catholic who is into bitcoin … you have to meet this priest!”

It was Father Bartulica who set up the sisters with hardware wallets and taught them how to send, receive and get on the path toward financial sovereignty. He is on a mission to convert local Catholic parishes to a bitcoin standard. So far, the Benedictines of Mary have been most ready and able.

You can see some parallels between the bitcoin ethos and the way these nuns live. The sisters walk the walk by dedicating their lives to the long term, even into the eternal. Following the model of “ora et labora,” which means work and pray in Latin, they demonstrate low time preference by praying eight times a day, growing their own produce and raising their own cattle and chickens. These nuns even release award-winning and soul-lifting chant and hymn music.

Mother Abbess Cecilia is the young and vibrant abbess of the monastery, and put it this way:

“What we are doing is building up civilization. We are hanging onto the traditions of the Church and the traditions that built up Western culture. We are stable, we have order, we know what we’re supposed to do and we do it every day. We do it with love, with diligence.”

ne thing I was immediately struck by when visiting the monastery is the brand new, awe-inspiring church that dominates the grounds. I expected to drive up to a modern, utilitarian building, as (disappointingly) can be expected from any average suburban church today. Instead, the sisters built an architecturally beautiful structure that includes hand-painted murals, Italian marble, vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows.

This was possible thanks to generous bitcoin donations made in 2017. These donations allowed the Benedictines to build a church for the ages without the burden of debt financing. Mother Cecilia described her first encounter with bitcoin in 2017:

“They [their bitcoin benefactors] knew we had a need to build the Church and, boy, did that help us! I mean, wow, what a blessing. Without it, I don’t know if we’d still be paying off a loan on this beautiful building.”

So despite the reputation that Bitcoiners may have as miserly hoarders, generosity shone through and the nuns were able to sell proceeds (tax-free) for the purpose of building their Church.

“We have had such beautiful success with several very large bitcoin donations to help build this house of prayer. If I were someone who had means, I would want to assist in making tangible goods, not something that is slapped up to last for 50 years; something that’s going to last, something that will be passed down from generation to generation, to last a thousand years, this beautiful monument to God’s glory. — Mother Cecilia

At first glance, it may seem incongruous to see traditional Catholic nuns embracing bitcoin — these are nuns who wear the full habit — but technology has assisted them in seeing significant growth in their order of religious sisters.

Many young women have discovered the Benedictines of Mary by searching for Catholic monasteries online, and traditional Latin mass ones in particular. The internet, and now the Bitcoin network, have also made it possible for generous benefactors around the world to easily play a role in building a monastery. Their music has now been streamed over 3.5 million times on platforms such as Spotify; the sisters’ prudent embrace of technology has paid off.

My favorite part of the trip, beyond the spiritual benefits, was witnessing the number of things the nuns do to prepare their own food. The sisters treated me to a lunch of vegetable and beef soup, homemade rolls and butter, all produced on site. The conversation was over ideas on honest money, how the Church could benefit by adopting bitcoin and the health benefits of raw milk.

“Who knows how to farm anymore? This is one thing we do and are hopefully getting better at every year, just self sustaining. So we can work closely with the ground, the soil and God's creation, and produce our own food right here. It's really a beautiful thing.” — Mother Cecilia

While admittedly foreign to many of us living in the clown world, myself included, the desire to join traditional religious life is growing. Every year the Benedictine sisters host over 150 visiting women from around the world to discern the process of joining their order. Out of these women, around 10 will take permanent vows. As a result, their space is bursting at the seams and plans are in the works for another new monastery to be constructed in southern Missouri.

It may be the case that the importance of traditional religious organizations, such as the Benedictines of Mary, adopting bitcoin will become more essential as the creeds they profess grow more deplorable among the mainstream. The sisters are familiar with their unpopularity in the eyes of our conformist culture and have even been the target of shootings in recent years. One can imagine this sort of animosity being used as justification to impede an organization’s use of their own bank account, as in the Canadian truckers’ situation in early 2022 — even for a group of unassuming religious sisters.

While churches and monasteries exist to stand as a refuge against a declining culture, their own finances are still at the whim of artificial inflation and the traditional financial system. The permissionless nature of bitcoin ensures that these spiritual citadels can be immune to financial censors while simultaneously interacting with the global monetary network. So long as they choose to adopt bitcoin.

 

[hlat]

More vaporization of the common man's resources by crypto. Someone at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is going to have some explaining to do about the disappearing $400 million.

This one FTT is down 75% in a day, nearly $2 billion. One day the big one Tether will go to zero in a day.

Sam Bankman "Fried" Nearly All Of His $16 Billion Fortune | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Sam Bankman "Fried" Nearly All Of His $16 Billion Fortune
BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, NOV 08, 2022 - 06:45 PM

Binance’s Changpeng Zhao appears to have cast the death blow on competitor FTX and its "billionaire" founder/CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried's fall from grace has been one of the more stunning losses of net worth in recent history. Despite there likely being issues under the surface prior to Tuesday, a massive $6 billion in withdrawals forced the company into a liquidity crisis. Its FTT token then crashed before SBF reached out to nemisis Zhao at Binance for a bailout.

The situation culminated in all of crypto crashing on Tuesday - including pulling down the entire stock market at points - and Bankman Fried losing a substantial portion of his net worth, according to Bloomberg. In fact, reports say he has lost 94% of his $16 billion fortune.

His fortune was $26 billion at its peak, the report says, but the future of it all is now "in doubt". Now, in a eulogy out Tuesday afternoon, Bloomberg says his fortune "will be annihilated at the hands of his billionaire rival". Going down with the SBF ship are investors like Softbank's Vision Fund (of course), Temasek and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. which had $400 million invested in FTX at a $32 billion valuation.

SBF had a 53% stake in FTX that was worth about $6.2 billion prior to the week's events. The other $7.4 billion of his fortune was tied up in Alameda Research, which now appears to be completely insolvent. Bloomberg's prognosis was bleak, to say the least:

"The Bloomberg wealth index assumes existing FTX investors, including Bankman-Fried, will be completely wiped out by Binance’s bailout, and that the root of the exchange’s problems stemmed from Alameda. As a result, both FTX and Alameda are given a $1 value. "

They estimate that SBF's remaining fortune will be about $1 billion, or a loss of 94%. We're guessing SBF is going to need some of that remaining $1 billion for legal expenses, too.

Competitor Zhao - now at the top of the crypto heap, at least for the time being - had a fortune was as high as $97 billion back in January 2022.

Recall, we have followed the FTX/Binance story all day today - you can read our coverage and wrap up of the day's events here.

 

[thisplacerocks]

At the beginning of this week, luna's total value/market capitalization was about $21 billion.

View attachment 58602


Looking at today's top 10 cryptocurrencies, that means luna started the week around a top 6-10 cryptocurrency. It was actually number 9 at the beginning of the week, below solana and higher than binance.

View attachment 58603

In less than 5 days, luna has gone from a top cryptocurrency to zero.

View attachment 58604

That is what it looks like when the music stops.

Anyone who's familiar with Gurdjieff's "food for the moon" idea will avoid investing in a "luny" coin.

 

[dennis]

A digital Bernie Made Off-

Update (155ET): Binance has confirmed in a statement on Twitter that it will walk away from the FTX rescue deal. The decision comes after the initial due diligence...
...
It turns out that FTX was some mutant combo of Lehman (illiquid, undercapitalized) and MF Global (illegally used client funds to fund its own terrible investments).

FTX has halted all withdrawals...
...
With all eyes on what the most powerful man in crypto, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, will do next now that Sam Bankman-Fried (or rather Bankrun-Fraud) has been exposed as just another Ponzi-running fraudster (read this thread for details on how FTX did everything it could to delay the inevitable implosion of his trading group Alameda), and how long until his "non-binding" agreement to acquire FTX collapses, Bloomberg reports that in a memo to employees, CZ said that there wasn’t a “master plan” to take over FTX.com and the collapse of the rival crypto exchange “is not good for anyone in the industry” (of course he would say that).

"Beyond Our Ability To Help" - Binance Abandons FTX Deal; SBF Admits $8 Billion Shortfall, Bankruptcy Likely | ZeroHedge

 

[dennis]

Amid the liquidity issues of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and possible takeover by Binance, the naming rights of the Miami Heat’s arena have come into question 17 months after the facility formally changed to FTX Arena from AmericanAirlines Arena.
...
The Heat on Wednesday said, “It is far too premature for us to comment,” even as it is possible FTX soon will cease to exist.

Miami-Dade County in March 2021 agreed to a 19-year, $135 million contract with FTX for naming rights to the facility alongside Biscayne Bay, with the official renaming coming three months later.

Last month, the FTX logo was formally placed on the arena’s roof, replacing the airplane logo of American Airlines.

Heat arena could be in for another name change amid collapse of FTX

 

[dennis]

big bucks to big politicians, effective altruism in action (with a touch of bias)

That, as The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a person familiar with the matter, is what set the stage for the carnage and chaos across the crypto space that has happened in the past few days as the reality of FTX's alleged commingling of funds and massive shortfall became public thanks to Binance's CZ's due diligence and CoinDesk's reporting.

FTX extended loans to Alameda using money that customers had deposited on the exchange for trading purposes, a decision that Bankman-Fried described as a "poor judgment call."
...
All in all, FTX had $16 billion in customer assets, according to the person, so FTX lent more than half of its customer funds to its sister company Alameda.

Bankman-Fried 'Lent' Billions In Customer Funds To His Trading Firm, Setting The Stage For Implosion | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Bankman-Fried is a supporter of effective altruism and claims to pursue earning to give as an altruistic career.[23] He is a member of Giving What We Can and has claimed that he plans to donate the great majority of his wealth to effective charities over the course of his life.[4]
...
In the 2020 election cycle, he contributed $5.2 million to two super PACs that supported the Biden campaign.[41] He was the second-largest individual donor to Joe Biden in the 2020 election cycle, personally donating $5.2 million,[43] second to only Michael Bloomberg.[23][44]

Contributions for June 2021 through February 2022 went to members of both parties. They included direct donations to the Republican campaigns of senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.[41]

Contributions for the year 2022, through August 15, 2022, also went to members of both parties, with $105,000 donated to conservatives, and $35,872,000 donated to liberals, a ratio of 1:341 in favor of liberal candidates.[45]

Sam Bankman-Fried - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[hlat]

The number 12 crypto right now is Solana at about $6 billion, and it's down -50% in a week. Solana was a top 10 crypto at number 9 when luna went to zero.

 

[hlat]

Hundreds of millions vanish from collapsed cryptocurrency giant FTX -- Sott.net

An estimated $662 million in digital assets has reportedly been withdrawn from FTX in 'unauthorized transactions' Failing cryptocurrency exchange FTX has begun moving assets offline, after more than $600 million in tokens was allegedly pilfered...

www.sott.net

It's unbelievably still getting worse. FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to stealing customers' money and giving it to his hedge fund Alameda, and now the money is gone from Alameda too so the stolen customers' money is totally gone. Then FTX filed for bankruptcy. And there's more, after filing for bankruptcy, another $600 million was stolen from FTX and customers who had money in their accounts found a new $0 balance.

 

[Alejo]

(Mike) For what purpose did they initially create Bitcoin?

A: Bridge to nowhere.

I was just reading about FTX's collapse, and the above came to mind as well... talk about a bridge to nowhere, and how that means that all that money is simply gone to who knows where.

I was also reading that the head of Binance was forecasting a huge collapse in other industries caused by FXT's and how it would eventually mean more government regulation.

Either way, it's nuts.

 

[Bluegazer]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1591849887234244609

 

[Ryan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1591849887234244609

Yup. Russia and the BRICS economy are the only things that can save crypto.

 

[Bluegazer]

Yup. Russia and the BRICS economy are the only things that can save crypto.

Save from what? What worries me is the implementation of CBDCs. Then the common man will be deprived of his resources. (you can't buy and you can't sell if the government doesn't like what you have in your head.) Here I adhere to what the C's have said.

All very nice in the short term, but greed is a disease and at the end of the day it ends up breaking the sack.

In the end it is preferable to buy the house, have arable land and plant potatoes.

Sorry if the comment seems aggressive, but the scam is too obvious at this stage of the game.