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

[hlat]

Interpreting everything that happens in crypto through a "crypto is a scam" lens is nothing but a cognitive bias.

If you care to harmonize the discussion below with your cognitive bias comment, I'd be interested in what you come up with.

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

A: Bridge to nowhere.

Q: (L) What do you mean, "Bridge to nowhere"?

A: Digitize, and then deprive common man of resource.

Q: (Joe) The kind of obvious idea about any digital currency despite what they say about them is that it's a transition away from physical money.

(Niall) Cashless society.

(Joe) And more control of people. If anybody thinks that that's not what it's about, you're naive. That doesn't mean you can't make money off it in the interim. But eventually, it's a bridge to, yeah...

(Niall) When the music stops...

(L) Yeah, it's a game of musical chairs.

(Mike) There are currently a lot of interests involved in cryptocurrencies, and cryptocurrencies seem to be heading toward ‘main street’ adoption at some point with ‘Web 3.0’ being worked on, created, and built. Whether or not TPTB (or elements of it) were initially involved in the creation of Bitcoin, what are TPTB’s current plans in relation to cryptocurrencies?

(L) Well, I think we just got the answer to that.

(Joe) The plan is to destroy the current global economy - for all sorts of beneficial reasons for the elite. And obviously when you destroy the economy, you rebuild it on what? A digital currency.

(L) Absolute control!

(Joe) They can shut you off at any time.

(L) Just remember that session where we talked about the Mark of the Beast and 666 and all that stuff. They were moving towards absolute control. You won't be able to eat without being a member under their control.

 

[Ryan]

If you care to harmonize the discussion below with your cognitive bias comment, I'd be interested in what you come up with.

You'll note the discussion was about the intended purpose that Bitcoin was created for. Bitcoin != all crypto. And it's pretty clear at this point that despite Bitcoin's original intended purpose, it has become a threat to the PTB, presumably because they thought they were going to be able to dispose of it fairly easy once they were done with it. Again, an example of wishful thinking being their downfall. At this point, Bitcoin is as much a scam as any money is.

BTW: For those paying attention to the crypto market, Bitcoin is likely to go to between $13K-$16K over the next few months as the general macroeconomic situation puts the squeeze on more speculative assets, assuming the dollar collapse doesn't cause a "white swan" for crypto.

 

[Antony]

All payments with the "digital euro" will be monitored, ECB President Christine Lagarde shared during a private conversation. According to her, only small transactions will remain out of control — no more than €300-400. @banksta

Банкста

Все платежи «цифровым евро» будут отслеживаться, поделилась председатель ЕЦБ Кристин Лагард во время приватного разговора. По её словам, вне контроля останутся только мелкие транзакции — не более €300-400. @banksta

t.me

 

[hlat]

You'll note the discussion was about the intended purpose that Bitcoin was created for. Bitcoin != all crypto.

Good show. I thought you'd come up with something and you didn't disappoint. Cognitive bias is strong.

what are TPTB’s current plans in relation to cryptocurrencies?

(L) Well, I think we just got the answer to that.

(Joe) The plan is to destroy the current global economy - for all sorts of beneficial reasons for the elite. And obviously when you destroy the economy, you rebuild it on what? A digital currency.

(L) Absolute control!

 

[Ryan]

BTW: For those paying attention to the crypto market, Bitcoin is likely to go to between $13K-$16K over the next few months as the general macroeconomic situation puts the squeeze on more speculative assets, assuming the dollar collapse doesn't cause a "white swan" for crypto.

There's been a reversal. The recent BTC pump to $30K occurred at a critical technical point in the market cycle, and was entirely manufactured by Tether and Circle (USDT & USDC), however a lot of people have bought into the bull market narrative, so it looks we're going to get at least 2-3 months of bull market in crypto. Some major headlines have accompanied this:

US Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says Bitcoin is an Escape Route For When The "Bubble Invariably Bursts"

Speaking on the FedNow CBDC, US presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Bitcoin is an escape route for when the "bubble bursts"

watcher.guru

Hong Kong’s Largest Virtual Bank To Act as a “Settlement Bank” for Crypto Exchanges

Hong Kong's crypto drive has been ascending without any major hurdles. It looks like all of the region's digital asset sector plans........

watcher.guru

U.S. Inflation Falls To 5% In March: Lowest In 2 Years

There is no doubt that U.S. inflation is cooling down. According to data, in March 2023, the annual inflation rate decreased.....

watcher.guru

https://twitter.com/x/status/1646250054670319617

Yes, I've been saying for years that Tether is a total scam. When they take down Tether, watch out.

Credit where credit is due. You were correct about this. It's one thing to have fractionalised or badly audited reserves, it's another thing altogether to effectively print USD to pump the market at critical junctures:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1645480545109803034

Revisiting Scottie's post:

Today I received several crypto newsletters, all of which are pushing people to buy - big time.
This is what I think will happen:

1. Economic troubles increase
2. Crypto will again shoot up
3. Oops, the economy is 'broken'...
4. Crypto will climb even more
5. Oops! Cryptos are 'broken' - massive plunge (very much like Dotcom bubble bursting)
6. Gov't steps in with CBDCs or some 'quasi-crypto 2.0' to Save the Day®

That's a hunch, but keep in mind that it was my hunch for awhile now and it's quite strong. As I have learned more and more about cryptos, the hunch has been strengthened - not weakened. Most of the time, when I have a hunch like this, I ignore it at my peril.

I suspect that we're at step 4 in the above prediction. It did look like we were at step 5 late last year with the FTX collapse, but it seems like there's at least one more bull market cycle to go, and this time I think it will be accompanied by a lot of "step 3" news - we're going to hear a lot more about the "broken economy" this year, and crypto is likely to pump to an all time high. We may even see the reputed $100,000 BTC.

Bitcoin Hoarding in Personal Wallets Signals Support After Jump to $30,000, BofA Says

Bitcoin’s stellar 2023 rally may have room to run if flows between cryptocurrency exchanges and personal digital wallets are any guide, according to strategists at Bank of America Corp.

www.bloomberg.com

Wonder what prompted this announcement?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1644321558780055554

MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Stake 'in Profit' Finally: Investors Add Ethereum, XRP

Crypto fund flows have yet again started painting a favorable picture. Institutions have started re-directing funds towards Bitcoin as..

watcher.guru

I think that this bull market cycle needs to be watched very carefully, because at some point the bubble will burst, and unless the BRICS wildcard is played to save Bitcoin & crypto, steps 5 & 6 of the above prediction will play out. Fwiw.

 

[hlat]

Seems to me that crypto is just a big money laundering operation and another method of political control.

Those Stanford law school professors sacrificed their son for money and power.

ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

FTX Sues Bankman-Fried's Law Professor Parents To Recover "Fraudulently Transfered And Misappropriated Funds"
BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, SEP 19, 2023 - 10:45 AM

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has sued the parents of founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who were just profiled by Bloomberg in "How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Elite Parents Enabled His Crypto Empire", even as the article forgot to mention all the others who enabled SBF's criminal spree...

... to recover millions of dollars in "fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds," the company said in a court filing late Monday alleging the "effectively altruist" parents were instead complicit in their son's crime, and spent illicit money on hotels, real estate and others.

The company, operated in bankruptcy by new management, alleged that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both Stanford Law School professors, "exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves, directly and indirectly by millions of dollars,” at the expense of the debtors and creditors, the company said.

Hilariously, when the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed last November, Bankman-Fried's parents remained by his side as his legal advisers, the Journal had reported. Which may explain why their son had his bail stripped from him and is now rotting away in prison ahead of his trial.

Worse, Bankman had been a paid employee of FTX for almost a year. He joined his son in meetings with Washington policy makers and expanded the company's "philanthropic" endeavors.

"Bankman played a key role in perpetuating the culture of misrepresentations and gross mismanagement and helped cover up allegations that would have exposed the fraud committed by the FTX Insiders," the company estate alleged.

It gets better: Bankman and Fried are "renowned", in Bloomberg's parlance, legal scholars and taught at Stanford Law School. Bankman is an expert on taxes, while Fried’s specialty is ethics.

“This is a dangerous attempt to intimidate Joe and Barbara and undermine the jury process just days before their child’s trial begins,” attorneys representing Bankman and Fried said in a statement. “These claims are completely false.”

Despite “knowing or blatantly ignoring” that FTX was insolvent or on the brink of insolvency, Bankman and Fried discussed with Bankman-Fried the transfer to them of a $10 million cash gift and a $16.4 million luxury property in the Bahamas, the filing said. The pair also “pushed for tens of millions of dollars in political and charitable contributions.”

Bankman seemed keenly aware of the company’s risk of downfall, according to the filing. He started conversations about how to ensure that assets — including primary residences — were safe from bankruptcy a year before FTX collapsed into Chapter 11.

The filing includes details of spending escapades, particularly by Bankman, who was employed by FTX Philanthropy starting in 2021, according to court papers. In one instance, he gave a former law student a “free trip to France,” which included tickets to the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which cost several thousand dollars.

Although Fried was not formally employed by the crypto exchange, she too wielded influence over the company’s finances. The lawsuit describes her as the “single most influential advisor” over her son and FTX’s political contributions. As evidence of that, she had Bankman-Fried give millions to a political action group that she co-founded, court papers show.

While Bankman-Fried has claimed that his parents “weren’t involved in any of the relevant parts” of the business, the FTX Group was self-described over the years as a “family business,” according to the filing. And in the months leading to the company’s insolvency, Bankman’s role appeared to become only more involved.

FTX asked for the court to award damages whose value would be determined at a trial. Bankman-Fried's own trial on fraud charges will start on Oct. 3.

Finally, in the latest vivid example how lawyers always win, SBF's parents are being sued for tens of millions, while the FTX lawyers are taking in about $1 million in fees every day. It remains unclear how many billions SBF himself managed to stash away in various crypto and offshore accounts, which will wait for him when he emerges from prison.

The adversary proceeding is Alameda Research LLC, et al. v. Allan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, 22-110678, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

ZeroHedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

SBF's Parents Steeped In Democrat Dark Money And 'Illegal' Election Tactics
BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, SEP 19, 2023 - 08:05 PM

The parents of alleged crypto-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried were involved in Democrat dark money and 2020 election tactics deemed 'illegal' by a right-leaning political research firm.

Allan Joseph Bankman and his wife, Barbara Fried (who are currently being sued to claw back some a portion of $26 million to "fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds" as part of FTX's bankruptcy), have found themselves in the middle of fresh controversy.

In a Monday lawsuit seeking the clawback, the pair were accused of siphoning off millions in firm funds to benefit their "pet causes," with Bankman - who says he helped FTX "navigate tax issues," allegedly "considered having funds made available by Sam through Arabella," one of the largest dark-wing money advisory groups in the USA, whose board Bankman sat on according to court documents.

"This meant that Bankman had unfettered access to the FTX Group’s financials and corporate structure — two things that would have alerted him that money was moving between and among the FTX Exchanges, FTX Insiders, and other legal entities," reads the filing.

Bankman's advisory role was revealed in a footnote on P. 19 of the lawsuit.

Arabella manages major left-wing nonprofit groups which then sponsor entities that pay no tax. The company has come under heightened scrutiny from conservatives over this "dark money" arrangement, the Washington Examiner reports.

Bro the story is that Sam Bankman Fried's dad was on the board of left wing dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors and you're mad conservatives are calling them out?! https://t.co/jJt0vy551q

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) September 19, 2023
The lawsuit, which seeks to claw back funds Bankman and Fried allegedly "fraudulently transferred and misappropriated," cites the "New Venture Fund," which "offered a platform through which FTX.US and its donors could contribute to select charitable causes."

Lawyers for Bankman and Fried hit back, saying that "This is a dangerous attempt to intimidate Joe and Barbara and undermine the jury process just days before their child’s trial begins."

Illegal election tactics?

Meanwhile, according to a report from a right-leaning political research firm, Barbara Fried authored a memo in late 2019 that encouraged Democrats to donate to a 501(c)(3) known as The Voter Registration Project or Everybody Votes, the NY Post reports.

The Stanford professor argued that getting more Democrats registered to vote would be far more effective than simply donating to candidates, and encouraged donors to give 90% of their election contributions to Everybody Votes.

“Non- partisan voter registration” charities are “4 to 10 times more cost-effective” at “netting additional Democratic votes,” Fried wrote in the memo.

The charity ended up raising a whopping $190 million, according to recent filings cited by the Capital Research Center.

Since charities and foundations don't reveal donations until years after the fact, they are specifically forbidden from operating to benefit a political party, in effect or in intent, according to the author of the report, Parker Thayer.

Fried also told people to keep quiet about the strategy, which "managed to stay out of the news and as far as we know out of Republicans’ sight-lines," she wrote. "It will come as no surprise to Republicans—and be of little interest—that yet another organization is trying to fund voter registration in battleground states.

"But the magnitude of our efforts, the details of targeting, and the names of the organizations we are recommending would be of great interest to them."

According to an anonymous longtime GOP fundraiser and strategist, "This is the darkest of dark money."

The news comes just days after federal prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of using $100 million in stolen customer funds for political donations. While there’s no evidence that he gave money to voter registration efforts or that his mother was involved in any wrongdoing, it underscores the impact the entire family had on politics.

In 2020, Vox reported on the memo from Mind The Gap and the millions the group raised aimed to raise.

But the new report from Capital Research Center reveals how effective the memo was with Democratic mega donors. Warren Buffett’s charitable foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, donated $5 million to voter registration efforts while George Soros donated $10.4 million, the report adds.

So many fingers in so many pies...

 

[hlat]

(Mike) In general, who is the person (or people) that created Bitcoin?

A: CIA.

I guess the CIA is spreading a disinformation campaign to blame the NSA, just like Snowden.

Nic Carter doubles down on theory Bitcoin was invented by NSA

Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter has again added his weight to the theory that Bitcoin was a result of a “lab leak” by the NSA.

cointelegraph.com

Martin Young
SEP 22, 2023

Nic Carter doubles down on theory Bitcoin was invented by NSA
The decade-old “NSA created Bitcoin” theory has again made the rounds on social media, with one Bitcoin advocate adding more weight to his ongoing theory.

Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter has come out to reiterate his support for the theory that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) had something to do with the creation of Bitcoin.

On Sept. 15, Iris Energy co-founder Daniel Roberts seemingly revived the decade-old theory on X after posting screenshots of a 1996 paper titled “How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash.”

The paper is one of the first known discussions of a Bitcoin-like system, which proposes using public-key cryptography to allow users to make anonymous payments without revealing their identity.

The footer notes show the research paper was “prepared by NSA employees.” Sources included cryptography expert Tatsuaki Okamoto, who co-invented the Okamoto–Uchiyama public key cryptosystem in 1998.

On Sept. 21, Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures, doubled down his support for the notion, stating, “I actually do believe this,” before adding:

“I call it the ‘Bitcoin lab leak hypothesis.’ I think it was a shuttered internal R&D project, which one researcher thought was too good to lay fallow on the shelf and chose to secretly release.”
Carter has actually held the theory for several years, proposing back in 2020: “If Bitcoin was written by NSA cryptographers as a monetary bioweapon, if you will, and the code escaped those sensitive confines... does that make it a virus... that escaped from a lab?”

In 2021, he stated, “The only decent thing the NSA ever did from the world was let bitcoin leak from the lab.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1702440110002729356

However, he went on to say that this doesn’t imply that the United States government secretly controls all the Bitcoin, another theory that often piggybacks on the Bitcoin/NSA conspiracy theory, which suggests the NSA created a backdoor to the Bitcoin code.

“In my version of this made-up idea, the researcher did it without permission of the NSA and chose to leave the coins behind so as to preserve his anonymity.”
“There’s a ton of other circumstantial evidence which supports this [theory],” he added.

Meanwhile, some users drew attention to one of the cryptography academics, Tatsuaki Okamoto, listed in the 1996 paper, suggesting the name sounds very similar to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.

“The name could have been used as inspiration for Satoshi. That’s not really a critical part of the theory, though,” Carter said.

Meanwhile, Matthew Pines, director of intelligence at cybersecurity firm Krebs Stamos, believes it was most likely a “cross-fertilization of NSA crypto nerds and cypherpunk nerds,” adding:

“I suspect Satoshi (or at least his/their close intellectual collaborators) has close NSA work associations — but I don’t think Bitcoin itself or the white paper were officially sanctioned.”
Former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal has previously shared his own theory. In an interview with Impact Theory earlier this year, he said:

“I think the U.S. government and the U.K. government invented it... which is the NSA and the GCHQ in the U.K., who are the two world centers of cryptography.”

In August, Cointelegraph did a deep dive into the conspiracy theory and interviewed former NSA cryptanalyst Jeff Man, who said that, while it was “feasible” that the NSA could have created Bitcoin as a means to gather intelligence about its enemies, it is highly doubtful.

However, Man concluded that even if they did, it is likely we’ll never find out the real story behind the world’s most popular digital asset until it doesn’t matter anymore.

 

[Ca.]

Seems to me that crypto is just a big money laundering operation and another method of political control.

Bitcoin As Legal Tender: Joana Cotar Of German Bundestag Proposes Groundbreaking Legislation In Germany

Joana Cotar, a member of the German Bundestag, federal parliament, has recently declared her support for recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender in Germany.

www.forbes.com

Susie Violet Ward Contributor Bitcoin Journalist and Financial Analyst.
Nov 17, 2023,03:00am EST

Joana Cotar, a member of the German Bundestag, federal parliament, has recently declared her support for recognizing Bitcoin BTC 0.0% as legal tender in Germany. This revelation came to light during an interview, where Cotar discussed her ambitions to bring bitcoin into the mainstream of German finance.

Cotar revealed her intentions to spearhead a "preliminary examination" to craft a legal framework that would formally recognize bitcoin in this capacity.

Cotar emphasized the importance of establishing a balanced regulatory environment. "This includes ensuring the legal security for companies and citizens," she explained. Her approach addresses potential risks such as money laundering, tax evasion, and other illicit activities often associated with bitcoin usage. Yet, Cotar is keen on preserving the innovative and liberating aspects of bitcoin, stating, "But without stifling innovation and the freedom aspects of Bitcoin."


To advance her cause within the German legislative body, Cotar has launched the "Bitcoin in the Bundestag" initiative. This effort is designed to enlighten her parliamentary peers about the myriad benefits of bitcoin, enabling more informed legislative decisions. "We need to promote the freedom aspects of bitcoin," Cotar stated, highlighting the need for privacy protection, robust security standards, and a regulatory approach that avoids excessive restrictions.

Unlike many of her contemporaries who often cast a wider net over the crypto spectrum, Cotar focuses exclusively on bitcoin. "Establishing a formal Bundestag committee that recognizes the technological differences between bitcoin and other crypto assets and mainly deals with the importance of bitcoin for our society is very important for us,” she said. Her stance is unequivocally bitcoin-centric, as she confirms, "My initiative is Bitcoin only."

Cotar's position also includes a clear stance against the digital Euro. She sees bitcoin as a more suitable digital asset for the country, primarily due to its decentralized nature and potential to enhance financial freedom and privacy. Cotar has expressed concerns about potential surveillance and overreach by central banks. She fears a digital euro could lead to total monitoring of citizens and advocates for financial privacy, drawing parallels with China's social credit system as a cautionary example.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1723622758201094299

Envisioning a future where bitcoin becomes an integral part of Germany's regulatory framework, the proposal includes accepting bitcoin for taxes and fees and leveraging bitcoin mining to stabilize the power grid.

This push towards recognizing bitcoin as legal tender in Germany signals a significant potential shift in the country's monetary ecosystem. If successful, it could position Germany as a pioneer in adopting decentralized digital currency at a governmental level, potentially influencing other nations to reconsider their stance on Bitcoin.

Regarding the impact of such a development on bitcoin's value, it's plausible to anticipate an uptick in demand and, consequently, an increase in price. The formal endorsement by a major economy like Germany could bolster bitcoin's legitimacy and appeal, attracting more institutional and individual investors. This could lead to a more stable and potentially upward trajectory in its valuation, especially considering Germany's economic influence in Europe and globally.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725544088517087656

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725685436545368482

Related

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725740867707687207

Bankrupt FTX Wants To Sell $100 Million Of Crypto Per Week, Will The SEC Stop It?

With cryptocurrency markets rising, the failed exchange is preparing to sell billions of digital assets held in its coffers. That’s great for customers but problematic for regulators.

www.forbes.com

 

[Ca.]

New updates every day may indicate that hard currencies may be on the way out.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725979934022160614

De-Dollarization: What Is It, and Is It Happening?

A decline in the dollar’s share of allocated foreign exchange reserves has fueled talk of de-dollarization, which involves reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.

www.investopedia.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725899195926671819

The “50in5” program – so-called because it aims to introduce DPI in fifty countries in the next five years – began with a live-streamed event on November 8th.

For those of you unsure what “Digital Public Infrastructure” is, the 50in5 website is quite clear:

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) – which refers to a secure and interoperable network of components that include digital payments, ID, and data exchange systems.

There’s nothing new there, for anyone who has been paying even the slightest bit of attention. Digital identity and digital payment systems are self-explanatory (and we’ve covered them before). “Data Exchange Systems” essentially means national governments will share identity and financial records of citizens across borders with other nations, or indeed with global government agencies.

The key word is “interoperable”.

As we have written before, the “global government” won’t be one single health care system, identity database, or digital currency – but dozens of notionally separate systems all carefully designed to be fully “interoperable”.

As well as being a project of the UNDP, UNICEF, and the Inter-American Development Bank, the 50in5 is funded by various globalist NGOs and non-profits including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and (indirectly through an NGO called “Co-Develop”) the Rockefeller Foundation.

The eleven counties taking part in the program so far are Bangladesh, Brazil, Estonia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Moldova, Norway, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Togo. A careful spread from every continent, including first, second, and third-world nations.

It is a list noteworthy for including NATO, EU, and BRICS members. Interesting implications on supposed “multipolarity” there.

In related news, on the exact same day the 50in5 program launched, the European Parliament and Council of Europe agreed on a new framework for a region-wide European Digital Identity (eID) system.

According to the official press release [emphasis added]:

The revised regulation constitutes a clear paradigm shift for digital identity in Europe aiming to ensure universal access for people and businesses to secure and trustworthy electronic identification and authentication. Under the new law, member states will offer citizens and businesses digital wallets that will be able to link their national digital identities with proof of other personal attributes (e.g., driving licence, diplomas, bank account). Citizens will be able to prove their identity and share electronic documents from their digital wallets with a click of a button on their mobile phone.

This comes on the back of announcements that the European Central Bank is moving on to the “next phase” of its Digital Euro plans this month. The digital euro will – according to former IMF (and apparent numerology nut) Christine Lagarde – afford some “limited control” over people’s spending.

India, another BRICS nation, has been at the forefront of DPI development for years, and now articles are appearing in publications like Forbes, claiming “India Has A Digital Infrastructure, America Needs One”.

At the same time, China is making strides toward ending online anonymity, while Western politicians like Nikki Haley say we should be doing the same.

As the world focuses on Hamas and Israel, the global re-organization phase of the Great Reset is just quietly going about its business. Building a net and waiting to tighten it.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725980005442986211

The Federal Reserve will spend $931.4 million to print bills in 2023 — but there’s a problem with U.S. cash.

“We haven’t modernized or changed our currency. That’s probably a mistake,” Aaron Klein, senior fellow of economic studies at Brookings Institute, told CNBC. “We should have dollar coins instead of paper notes.”

Physical currency has been updated around the world but not in the U.S., and while an increasing number of Americans are ditching cash for electronic payments, experts say cash isn’t going away.

“The rest of the world has moved toward basically polymer notes, which are a form of plastic which lasts something like four times as long as the old paper notes,” said Douglas Mudd, curator and director of the American Numismatic Association.

In 2017, the $100 bill surpassed the $1 bill as the most popular currency denomination. Some speculate that the rise in $100 bills in circulation may be to avoid taxes or for illegal activity.

“The $100 comes from the U.S. currency being a global currency. And a lot of those hundreds are outside the country and they’re being used for store of value,” said Franklin Noll, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Payments Specialist.

Accessibility has also determined what bills and coins get circulated in the U.S. The $2 bill is rarely seen, yet it remains in circulation. Meanwhile, bills such as the $500, $1,000 and $5,000 were discontinued in 1969 because they were rarely spent.

“The $2 bill has lost its place in everyday usage more than anything else, because … it was left out of the vending machine market. For denominations like the $2 bill or the half dollar coin, because there was no space made in the actual cash registers, they became less popular and less used. … In the 1960s, the half dollar lost its place because it wasn’t included in the use of parking meters,” said Mudd.
Watch the video to find out more about U.S. currency.

 

[Natus Videre]

Accessibility has also determined what bills and coins get circulated in the U.S. The $2 bill is rarely seen, yet it remains in circulation. Meanwhile, bills such as the $500, $1,000 and $5,000 were discontinued in 1969 because they were rarely spent.

The trillion dollar bill will soon be the most used note in the US.

 

[iamthatis]

The economist Michael Hudson lays out a possible danger for govt's or companies using cryptos:

The Dumb Luck of Dollar Hegemony | Michael Hudson

michael-hudson.com

K: Okay, Michael, this next question may get you going, but our new major Patreon supporter Anthony Dimitri says, can Bitcoin play a role in international settlements? If not, what currency can play the role of the dollar in emerging markets, and maybe I should just say, how about blockchain rather than Bitcoin?

M: It’s completely different. Blockchain, you know where the money is. Bitcoin and any cryptocurrency is like a mutual fund where you put the money in, but unlike mutual funds, you have no idea where the money is put. The whole philosophy behind Bitcoins is if you do peer-to-peer, then you can avoid the banking system, which you don’t like. You can avoid the government security system, which people don’t like. It’ll be peer-to-peer. Well, a peer-to-peer is you to the person who’s running, to Bankman-Fried, for instance. He’s your peer.

The money doesn’t get put into a bank or a government security. It’s put into his own personal bank account, and he gives it to his friends and politicians or does whatever he wants, and you have no idea of what’s happening to it. That’s the problem, and if you look at Bitcoin going up and down, that is not a stable measure of value.

You can see what happened when Ecuador tried to use Bitcoin, so it’s just not suited. It’s rife for criminal activity, and imagine what happens if you lose the special email address that you have to do. Then you’ve lost all of your national reserves. All that happens is the government building blows up, and Bitcoin gets billions of dollars, so no, it’s not an appropriate investment.

I think Bukele has a lot of crypto...

 

[axj]

Ecuador is doing very well now with its Bitcoin holdings and may even be able to pay off all its debt.

There is also no "email address" to access your personal Bitcoin wallet. This guy doesn't know what he is talking about.

 

[KJS]

This guy doesn't know what he is talking about.

Yeah, surprising weak arguments. You can also trade gold with cartels or head-chopping Saudis, so what? You can lose a bag of cash, and there will be nothing you can do about it. Is it so hard to remember a 12-word seed mnemonic?

This is interesting remote viewing data regarding the technology that PTB has or will have in the near future. It feels like a supercomputer that is able to subvert the quorums of PoC-based cryptocurrencies. Something that surpasses even quantum computing estimates.

(...) Next, I'm looking at racks of computers. Server, very sophisticated, very powerful. Cooling is a problem. There is so much computing power that they have difficulty cooling it. Quantum computing, not silicon-based. Some kind of new computer technology, involves blockchain. Blockchain that is supposed to be decentralized with many nodes, but this tracks all the nodes. This is tracking all the blockchains simultaneously. Like a central clearing point.

 

[Mike]

I'm reading these three essays by Whitney Webb. They are long, but I think worth the time, if you are interested in understanding some of what TPTB want to try to implement.

Binance's Noah Perlman: Ties to FTX, Epstein and Gemini Earn

After Binance’s settlement with the DOJ and the removal of its longtime leader Changpeng Zhao, one of the most important figures at Binance – Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman – is poised to have an outsized role over the activities of and data held by the world’s largest crypto exchange...

unlimitedhangout.com

Unmasking Farmington: FTX, Fluent Finance and the Coming Digital Dollar

A former partner of Farmington State Bank, the tiny rural bank embroiled in the FTX scandal, is now building the rails for CBDCs in the Middle East and beyond. Their recent activities may finally reveal the true motives behind Sam Bankman-Fried's and his allies' use of Farmington, with major...

unlimitedhangout.com

Tokenized, Inc: BlackRock's Plan To Own The Fractionalized World

In the aftermath of the recent Bitcoin ETF approvals, BlackRock's Larry Fink revealed that soon everything will be "ETF'd" and tokenized, threatening to fractionalize not just existing assets and commodities, but the natural world, reducing most living things into Wall Street financial products...

unlimitedhangout.com

I had heard recently people like Catherine A. Fitts and Martin Armstrong say in the US that the CBDC would not be issued and controlled by the Federal Reserve but instead be created and maintained by private banks in concert with and support by the Fed and US Govt. I was wondering why they were saying this. This seems to be a big departure from what the rest of the world has been testing and likely to implement for CBDCs. The second link above describes the details of that and how it might shape up. The short of it is that the major banks would issue or partner with others, such as Circle (who is likely to have an IPO this year and be a public company that is traded), to issue official US dollar stable coins that are backed by US Treasuries... and with that the US trying to maintain dollar dominance throughout the world. I've seen people in the crypto world hoping for regulatory clarity and legislation about stable coins and we can now see why that is a likely possibility to happen.

 

[Natus Videre]

The short of it is that the major banks would issue or partner with others, such as Circle (who is likely to have an IPO this year and be a public company that is traded), to issue official US dollar stable coins that are backed by US Treasuries... and with that the US trying to maintain dollar dominance throughout the world. I've seen people in the crypto world hoping for regulatory clarity and legislation about stable coins and we can now see why that is a likely possibility to happen.

(Mike) For what purpose did they initially create Bitcoin?
A: Bridge to nowhere.

Q: (L) What do you mean, "Bridge to nowhere"?
A: Digitize, and then deprive common man of resource.

Q: (Joe) The kind of obvious idea about any digital currency despite what they say about them is that it's a transition away from physical money.
(Niall) Cashless society.
(Joe) And more control of people. If anybody thinks that that's not what it's about, you're naive. That doesn't mean you can't make money off it in the interim. But eventually, it's a bridge to, yeah...
(Niall) When the music stops...
(L) Yeah, it's a game of musical chairs.
(Mike) There are currently a lot of interests involved in cryptocurrencies, and cryptocurrencies seem to be heading toward ‘main street’ adoption at some point with ‘Web 3.0’ being worked on, created, and built. Whether or not TPTB (or elements of it) were initially involved in the creation of Bitcoin, what are TPTB’s current plans in relation to cryptocurrencies?
(L) Well, I think we just got the answer to that.
(Joe) The plan is to destroy the current global economy - for all sorts of beneficial reasons for the elite. And obviously when you destroy the economy, you rebuild it on what? A digital currency.
(L) Absolute control!
(Joe) They can shut you off at any time.
(L) Just remember that session where we talked about the Mark of the Beast and 666 and all that stuff. They were moving towards absolute control. You won't be able to eat without being a member under their control.

One way to construct a "bridge to nowhere" would be to regulate the crypto world to such an extent that people begin to view it as a "safe heaven." However, it seems like this plan is not going too well (cash survived Covid!). The PTB will need another crisis to accelerate their agenda, but then here come earth changes!