Bitcoin, the war on cash, Clif High, and the NSA's long range plans

[Hervé]

Posted by Hervé (here)
This interesting map gives, at a glance, a strong indication as to whom bitcoin is actually a financial tool of:

January 19 2018

As a follow up to what a glance at the above map reveals:

Kaspersky Lab claims bitcoins were created to help fund US and British intelligence services

Sputnik
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:03 UTC

© REUTERS/ Benoit Tessier/Illustration

Natalya Kaspersky claimed that Bitcoin was designed to provide financing for US and British intelligence activities around the world. The expert called the cryptocurrency "dollar 2.0."

The Bitcoin cryptocurrency was developed by "American intelligence agencies," Natalya Kaspersky, CEO of the InfoWatch group of companies and specialist in cyber security systems, said during her presentation at ITMO University in St. Petersburg.

Kaspersky was giving a speech on information wars and digital sovereignty. Photos of her presentation entitled "Modern technologies - the basis for information and cyber-wars," have been published on social media.

"Bitcoin is a project of American intelligence agencies, which was designed to provide quick funding for US, British and Canadian intelligence activities in different countries. [The technology] is 'privatized,' just like the Internet, GPS and TOR. In fact, it is dollar 2.0. Its rate is controlled by the owners of exchanges," one of the slides read.

She also claimed that Satoshi Nakamoto (the pseudonym used by its founder or founders) is the name for a group of American cryptographers.

The presentation also claimed that a smartphone cannot be considered as a personal gadget.

A smartphone "is a remotely controlled device designed for entertainment, work and at the same time for spying on its owner," according to Kaspersky, who is also the co-founder of Kaspersky Lab.

[Carmody]

Posted by Hervé (here)
Maybe:

• Bitcoin ban in Russia

• Bitcoins cannot be used in Russia - Prosecutor General’s Office

• Bitcoin mining still remains illegal in Russia, as the only currency that can be issued within the country is the Ruble. Users are, however, free to buy, sell, and transfer the digital currency with no restrictions applied.

IIRC, the Quebec government appears as if it might come down against allowing bitmining organizations or mining efforts...to gain traction in the province of Quebec. It is a fluid situation. apparently it is Chinese bitming efforts that are at play in trying to set up in Quebec.

I note that all this stuff actually still fits the projected scenario that came along for the ride in the whole Charles Saga. Admittedly, a lot of things can run through the same door, as it was not about specifics.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Michelle Marie (here)
Asking Bill about Ecuador. Is it illegal there as the map indicates?

MM

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I was surprised to see that... and I have no idea!

Ecuador banned cryptocurrencies last year (2017), apparently to make way for its own digital currency (digital, but not on a blockchain). They are apparently less aggressive about enforcing the ban than say Russia.

This article from May of 2017 Bitcoin Still Illegal in Some Countries states:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ecuador

Ecuador not only banned Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies, but it did so while establishing guidelines for the creation of their own virtual currency.

The National Assembly of Ecuador passed a bill that amends the country’s monetary laws in July 2014, banning cryptocurrencies and allowing the government to issue and transact in its asset-backed “electronic money.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This article from December of 2017 updates this with a bit more detail:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bitcoin in Ecuador

Ecuador outlawed Bitcoin and other cryptocoins in mid-2014 as part of its financial reform plans.

The ban on Bitcoin was seen by many as a way to reduce competition with the country's own digital currency system (Sistema de Dinero Electrónico). This official Ecuadorian currency isn't a cryptocurrency and isn't based on blockchain technology. It's simply a digital money solution based on traditional money and valued after the American dollar.

Anti-Bitcoin laws don't appear to be too strict in Ecuador as there are still several ways to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocoins domestically. Enforcement isn't as strict as other countries like Bolivia and Bitcoin is seen as something that might be technically illegal but is still used by a small number of the population.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[ThePythonicCow]

For the distributed consensus algorithm gear heads in the crowd (all one of us), here's Leemon Baird, the mind behind hashgraph, explaining the various kinds of distributed consensus algorithms and why hashgraph is a better such:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=S2MHCWMQXY8

[DNA]

Posted by Hervé (here)
As a follow up to what a glance at the above map reveals:

Kaspersky Lab claims bitcoins were created to help fund US and British intelligence services

Sputnik
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:03 UTC

WHAT!!?????

Holy freaking sh!t balls!!!!!
I jumped on here thinking, "man I don't know anything about bitcoin I wonder if any of this is going to be understandable to the layman".
This was pretty understandable.
Damn Herve, you should have a podcast or something.

[Flash]

Posted by Carmody (here)

Posted by Hervé (here)
Maybe:

• Bitcoin ban in Russia

• Bitcoins cannot be used in Russia - Prosecutor General’s Office

• Bitcoin mining still remains illegal in Russia, as the only currency that can be issued within the country is the Ruble. Users are, however, free to buy, sell, and transfer the digital currency with no restrictions applied.

IIRC, the Quebec government appears as if it might come down against allowing bitmining organizations or mining efforts...to gain traction in the province of Quebec. It is a fluid situation. apparently it is Chinese bitming efforts that are at play in trying to set up in Quebec.

I note that all this stuff actually still fits the projected scenario that came along for the ride in the whole Charles Saga. Admittedly, a lot of things can run through the same door, as it was not about specifics.

out of curiosity, can I know where you got this info please? I wonder why Quebec would not follow in the steps of other western countries, with Desmarais and Hampstead - leading the province, they usually always follow the rest of the western world.

[TargeT]

Ahhh the bitcoinery... I never thought this topic would go the way it has; but then I keep thinking we can actually do something about TPTB... which is patently false the more I analyze the situation.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FkhUn7nh33Q

Blockchains will change the world, but will the be permissioned (privately run) or permissionless(peer run)?

I could see Bitcoin potentially being tied to TPTB; once the realization of what a block chain is it would make sense to quickly hijack it and establish "brand trust" as a power/control move.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by TargeT (here)
... but then I keep thinking we can actually do something about TPTB... which is patently false the more I analyze the situation.

We won't achieve final victory over TPTB ... but neither will they, over us.

The struggle will continue, in perpetuity.

[littleOne]

Thank you Paul, excellent article!

[Hervé]

Now that everyone knows there was no piggy bank in the bag but a cat that got out... here is some other derived deductions by Jim Stone:

Quick comment:
Considering the flaws in Intel processors, crypto is probably DOA now that the NSA's secrets got out. All the hacks against crypto traders are probably (most definitely) happening via exploits that can never be sealed up.

If you are not going to lose your butt, it might be a good idea to at least partially pull out. Bitcoin was a good idea until Intel screwed it. Zero security is zero security and that is that. If you think you can trust the NSA to not rob you, when they can just blame hackers, you will be among the losers.

--------------------------------------

It seems that Apple co-founder ended up coming to the same conclusion from a different route:

No Bitcoin, No Cry: Apple Co-founder Got Cold Feet and Sold All His Coins

Sputnik
15:41 27.01.2018
(updated 15:42 27.01.2018)

At the Nordic Business Forum, Steve Wozniak confessed that he got rid of all his bitcoins because he was tired of all the fuss around its price.

The tech icon shared that he had purchased the cryptocurrency last summer when a coin cost $700, as he wanted to “experiment with it.” Although later when things got insane on the crypto market with bitcoin’s price reaching almost $20,000, he decided that enough was enough and sold it all.

"When it shot up high, I said I don't want to be one of those people who watches and watches it and cares about the number. I don't want that kind of care in my life," Wozniak said in a Q&A with Seth Godin.

Full article: https://sputniknews.com/business/201...-sold-bitcoin/

--------------------------------------

Of course, Soros preaches a similar thing for different purposes:

Soros Calls Cryptocurrencies 'Typical Bubble' Based on Misunderstanding

Sputnik Business07:46 26.01.2018
(updated 11:39 26.01.2018)

DAVOS (Sputnik) - Renowned investor George Soros on Thursday called cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, a speculation that is based on misunderstanding, during an informal dinner on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

"Cryptocurrencies are a typical bubble, which is always based on some kind of misunderstanding. Bitcoin is not a currency, because a currency is supposed to be a stable store of value, and the currency that can fluctuate 25 percent in day cannot be used, for instance, to pay wages, because wages could drop by 25 percent in a day. So it's a speculation, it's based on misunderstanding," Soros said in Davos, Switzerland.

The value of bitcoin, a pioneer in the cryptocurrencies market, surged in 2017, jumping up to about $20,000 in December amid debates on its reliability as an investment, but then tumbled below $10,000 last week.

Full article: https://sputniknews.com/business/201...encies-bubble/

[ThePythonicCow]

After reading Joseph P. Farrell's latest article, NEW GOLD STANDARD IN BLOCKCHAIN COMING?, in which he anticipates that blockchain tracked global standard 1 kilogram gold bars will become the new standard in gold, I'd like to extend further his high octane speculation.

Looking back over whatever was the backing of past dominant currencies, I see a repeating pattern.

The "unit of currency" has something "backing it". That something is valued by individuals, businesses and governments, and the currency either embodies some amount of that valued substance (as in a gold coin), or can be traded freely for that valued something (as in gold backed currencies or US Treasury backed US Dollars.)

This is so whether the currency be Roman gold and silver coins (formed from metals mined in the lands conquered by Rome), Spanish pieces of eight (formed from silver that Spain took from the New World, in the 1600's), various paper currencies such as the British Pound in the 1800's (backed by British gold), the US Dollar itself between about the 1930's and 1960's (backed by US gold), or US Dollars since then (backed by US Treasuries.)

In each such case, that "backing" or valued substance is:

• Something that the wider population values and considers relatively limited in supply and difficult to forge.
• Something that the elite have in abundance and can easily forge or create more of.

Another favorite instrument of the elite banksters, has been, for many centuries now (at least), debt, which is the exchange of present value for future obligation. This too is something that individuals, businesses and governments value highly, as almost everything is financed by debt, but that banks can easily fabricate out of thin air, at the stroke of a pen, or press of a key ... but I digress.

Back to money ... it is always and forever something that the most powerful have in abundance, but that the rest of us, individually and institutionally, are desperate to acquire, in sufficient amounts as to sustain or advance our life style.

Notice, as one example, what happened to the US Dollar in the 1970's. At the beginning of 1970, other nations could exchange any excess Dollars that they acquired in trade with the US for gold, provided by the US Treasury. But early in that decade, US President Nixon closed that exchange facility, and early in the next decade, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Paul Volcker drove up the interest rates on US Treasuries to nose bleed levels nearing 20%.

... huh ... now I've just lost my ... hopefully plural ... reader(s).

Tutorial on bond interest rates:

Any given US Treasury bill/note/bond can be traded on the open market. The value of that Treasury will depend on how much time is left on it (until when the US government promises to repay that bond), and on the face value of that Treasury (how much the US government promises to pay, when that time arrives.)

This pricing structure depends on (1) the time to maturity, (2) the amount paid now, and (3) the amount expected at maturity. That gets complicated, even I suppose for some bond traders. So bond traders and financial analysts usually think of this in a different way. Consider for example buying a US Treasury for $100, that will pay out $150 in five years. That's placing the same value on US Treasuries as buying one for $1000 and expecting it to pay out $1500 in five years. That's also placing about the same value on US Treasuries as buying one for $100 now and expecting it to pay out $138.30 in four years (less return, but you didn't need to wait as long.) In each of these three examples, one gets the equivalent of 7.78% return per year.

Notice that three examples, with varying amounts paid, for varying amounts paid out at maturity, for varying times that the buyer must wait for the bond to mature, all reduce to a single number: 7.78% return per year.

Bonds from financially stable nations, such as from Germany at present, go for very low return ... near zero, even slightly negative. You might actually be able to sell a German bund that pays say 1000 Euro at maturity in a year, and get say 1020 Euro now. That's negative interest. German bunds are highly valued at present.

Bonds from nearly bankrupt "third world nations" (which may include the United States if we aren't more fiscally responsible) require a higher return.

Presently, the 10 year German bund earns about 0.6%, the 10 year US Treasury earns about 2.6%, and the 10 (actually 9) year Brazil bond earns about 6.6%. The more investors trust the future monetary stability of a nation 10 years from now, the more they will pay for that nation's 10 year bonds, and hence the less interest they will demand to compensate for the risk of loss due to a currency losing value or debt not being paid at all (default).

Ok - back to my main point. Fed Chairman Paul Volcker raised the federal funds rate to a peak of 20% in June 1981, which drove the interest rate on US Ten Year Treasury Notes to over 15% at that time.

Ever since June 1981, the interest rate on US Treasuries has been, by and large, declining. In the 36 years since 1981, the rate for the US Treasury Ten Year Note declined from 15% to less than 2% in 2017. This mean that US Treasuries kept getting more valuable over those 36 years (even as the quantity of Treasuries in circulation grew from $0.5 trillion to $20 trillion ... a nice trick if you can do it.)

US Treasuries have been the "gold" standard for the last 37 years or so, the dominant core asset that all (but a few pariah) central banks look to hold, and the dominant collateral for swaps, futures options and derivatives.

===

Once again, as before, the core asset of the world's dominant monetary system has been something that was valued by all, and abundant to few. The supply of US Treasuries has doubled about every eight years, as the US moved increasingly into debt. Treasuries were freely convertible to and from US Dollars. They were very difficult for ordinary individuals, businesses or other nations to counterfeit. They were available in abundant and growing supply to the dominant central bank of the world, the US Federal Reserve and its handmaiden, the US Treasury.

Just as gold backed US Dollars ceased being the "most trusted name in currencies" in the 1970's, so I expect that US Treasury backed US Dollars will cease being the "most trusted name in currencies" in the near future.

What will replace US Treasury backed Dollars as the primary base monetary asset?

The new "base" for the world's monetary system will once again, I predict, be something that is scarce, valued, easily converted into national currencies and seemingly impossible for ordinary individuals, businesses or governments to "hack" or "forge."

This new "base" will be, as Joseph P. Farrell conjectures, and as I concur, blockchain tracked global standard 1 kilogram gold bars.

===

This forecast has a powerful implication for the price of gold in coming years and decades.

Historically, the elite do NOT force the "value" (in units of the major currencies) of a new monetary base asset (gold, silver, or US Treasuries) to sky high valuations, early in the life cycle of that base asset. Rather they make that base asset increasingly difficult to obtain, over time, in order to squeeze out more wealth. It gradually (and then rapidly, in the "final" collapse) becomes more difficult to purchase essentials such as food and energy, or to repay debts and taxes, as the necessary funds, or the equivalent amount of the dominant base asset, becomes increasingly difficult to obtain.

When Rome devalued their coinage by diluting the gold and silver with base metals, that made it more difficult for the typical Roman citizen to obtain a given amount of gold and silver (lots of coins, but less gold or silver.)

Meanwhile Rome conquered more and more lands, extracting more and more gold and silver, gaining increased power and control over the monetary system of Western civilization.

===

I have long (increasingly so for several years now) begun to doubt the "gold bug" hope, told far and wide now, that the US Dollar price of an ounce of gold will "shoot to the moon" ... perhaps to $10,000 or $50,000 (from $1349 today.)

That sales pitch will keep those holding gold Hanging On for Dear Life ("HODL" as the crypto-investors call it.) Gold hoarders may well reap substantial returns, but it will take decades for that to play out. Blockchain tracked global standard 1 kilogram gold bars will be the "safe" investment for the next 30 years, not the "get rich quick" investment for the next year or two. Get rich quick investments (such as cryptocurrencies for the last few years) are not announced far and wide for years ahead of time through the "alternative" media.

===

The period we are nearing the end of now, with the $US price of gold kept down in the range of $1060/oz to $1350/oz for the last four years, is like the period of high inflation in the late 1970's, early 1980's, during which the value of US Treasuries (being setup to become the next "core monetary asset") was driven quite low (remember from my tutorial above - high interest rates equate to low bond value.)

Then after a climatic event (or rapid sequence of such events) announcing the transition to the new "core asset", this time being (I predict) blockchain tracked global standard 1 kilogram gold bars, the value of this new "core asset" will rise, and rise some more, but will do so gradually, over decades.

===

The powers that be, aka the "elite bastards", have and will increasingly have access to a great abundance of that core asset, 1 kg gold bars tracked on a blockchain, both through existing hoards of gold never known to the public, and through transmutation (aka alchemy) of base metals into gold using means powered by new "zero point" energy. They will once again use their abundant supply of, and control over, the world's core monetary asset in order to maintain and extend their control over human civilization.

===

Similarly, and hand in hand with this change from US Treasuries to blockchain tracked gold, there will be a new primary energy source, replacing US Dollar denominated petroleum. But that's a story for another time and place. I've gone on long enough in this post.

Control of the primary monetary base asset, control of the primary energy supply, control of the dominant military force, control of the dominant political and corporate institutions, control of the food, water and air, control of the dominant media, education and research, control of the command, control, communication and financial infrastructure, control of mass propaganda and memes, ... thus are some of the means of control used by the elite bastards.

This post focused on one of these, the primary monetary base asset. I join with Joseph P. Farrell in expecting that the primary monetary base asset is about to shift from US Treasuries to blockchain tracked global standard 1 kilogram gold bars. I explored some of the implications of such a shift, over the coming decades. I forecast a gradual but steady rise in the value of gold kilo bars, over the coming decades.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Paul (here)
Then after a climatic event (or rapid sequence of such events) announcing the transition to the new "core asset", this time being (I predict) blockchain tracked global standard 1 kilogram gold bars, the value of this new "core asset" will rise, and rise some more, but will do so gradually, over decades.

P.S. -- The value of gold in inflation adjusted dollars will rise gradually. However, the collapse of the US Dollar as the world's reserve currency, and the substantial trade deficit of the US, will combine to impose substantial stress on the US economic, financial and monetary systems.

Whether that means that something that used to cost $10 now costs $50 (but you only have $25 and can't afford it), or that it now costs $2 (but you only have $1 and can't afford it), depends on the monetary policies imposed on the US by the Federal Reserve (or whatever replaces it), the US Treasury, and various more powerful entities.

[Michelle Marie]

TargeT mentioned that Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies are different things, not to be used interchangeably, and how it is important to understand the difference.

Then, I got a link to this article:"James Corbett explains the differences between Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital currency. They may all sound like they are the same but they are not, and the differences are extremely important for anyone hoping to keep up with the rapidly evolving lead-up to the cashless society. Don’t miss this one. Full transcript is provided in link. -GEG" https://needtoknow.news/2018/01/jame...bitcoin-psyop/

https://www.corbettreport.com/bitcoinpsyop/

Episode 328: The Bitcoin Psyop

I did read through it once and gained 'some' understanding. But I admit, I'm going to have to study it further to really grasp it and have it sink in.

The video is within the link, the Transcript is here:

TRANSCRIPT

"Yes, the blockchain is truly revolutionary.

Yes, bitcoin is Tulipmania 2.0.

Yes, cryptocurrency is a nail in the coffin of the bankster parasites.

Yes, digital currency is a tool of the totalitarian tyrants.

No, these statements are not contradictory. But don’t worry if you think they are. You’re just a victim of “The Bitcoin Psyop.”

This is The Corbett Report.

So what’s the bitcoin psyop? Well, look at a headline like this:

“Former Chairman of Federal Reserve to Speak at Blockchain Conference”

If you immediately think “Aha! I knew it! The Fed is behind this bitcoin nonsense, after all!” then you might want to stop and contemplate this headline from two years ago:

“Ben Bernanke: Bitcoin Has ‘Serious Problems’”

Do you think there’s some kind of contradiction here? Or do you think that Bernanke has “flip-flopped” on the issue? Or do you suspect that Bernanke was always secretly behind bitcoin but couldn’t admit it until now?

If so, then you have fallen for an embarrassingly simple trick. That trick is to use the words “bitcoin” and “blockchain” and “cryptocurrency” and “digital currency” interchangeably, as if they are all the same thing. They are not.

Confused? Well, fear not! Our good friends at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have written a handy-dandy article that explains everything to you in simple, everyday language. They’ve even illustrated that article with easy-to-understand infographics!

Just kidding. Their unwieldy article on “Central Bank Cryptocurrencies” is a predictably hot mess of monetary jargon and Venn diagrams that somehow make things look even more complicated than they sound.

Now, to be fair, their proposed new “taxonomy of money” has real explanatory power, and the diagrams that result are genuinely insightful, but it hardly makes for light bedtime reading. So, let’s see if we can make it a little easier, shall we?

A blockchain is a cryptographically secured ledger that can be permissionless and decentralized.

The geeks in the crowd will appreciate the fact that the blockchain is a stupendously elegant solution to some incredibly complicated problems in the obscure recesses of arcane subjects like distributed computing and payment processing. But for the non-geeks, perhaps this will suffice: Some of the oldest documents ever discovered have been ledgers of one sort or another. Medical records, legal and business contracts, accounting ledgers; as long as there has been civilization, there has been the need for secure and accurate record-keeping of transactions and events. And since the birth of civilization there has only been one way to keep those records: a system where a recognized central administrator stores, secures and updates that ledger.

Until now, that is. With the advent of the blockchain, an accurate ledger can now be maintained without a single, central point where that information is stored, maintained or updated. Registrars? Notaries? You might as well be talking about farriers and chimney sweeps.

So how does it work? And what does it do?

Mike Maloney, the filmmaker behind the popular “Hidden Secrets of Money” documentary series, describes it this way:

The system that bitcoin runs on is called “blockchain.” Think of it as a modern version of an old-fashioned bookkeeping ledger, but instead of a handwritten list of entries and calculations, a blockchain is a digital list of entries and calculations. A “block” is simply a bundle of transactions. Think of a block as a whole page of transaction in the old-fashioned ledger. A blockchain is just a chain of blocks. It’s the same as a whole series of pages in the old-fashioned ledger.

Easy, huh? Here’s how it works: The Bitcoin blockchain actually exists in every one of the millions of computers on the network as exact copies of each other. However, for this example, so that we can zoom in and you can really see just how a blockchain works, I’m going to show it as one giant blockchain in the middle of a small network of computers.

Let’s follow a pizza transaction with bitcoin. When the transaction occurs it first appears on the network in a pool of unconfirmed transactions along with thousands of others from all around the world. Millions of different computers from the network then gather some of these transactions and place them in their own blocks. The computers are all creating blocks constantly in the hope that theirs will be the next one added to the official chain.

A new block is added to the chain every ten minutes or so, when one of the computers wins the right to have its block recognized as the next in the chain and is rewarded with a prize of newly created bitcoins. The way a computer wins the prize is by trying to guess the answer to an extremely difficult math problem. In fact, the problem is so difficult that even with millions of computers making guesses billions or even trillions of times per second it still takes roughly 10 minutes to find the answer. Once one of the computers guesses the correct answer and wins, all of the millions of computers on the network that did not win are instructed to throw away all the work they have done, update their ledgers with the block from the winning computer, and start again with a new math problem.

In doing so, the computers use an immense amount of power and cost a literal fortune to run. So why do they do it? Because it can be very profitable. This is where the term “mining for bitcoins” comes from. Instead of striking gold by mining for precious metals in the wilderness, these computers are hoping to strike bitcoin by mining precious numbers on the blockchain.

SOURCE: From Bitcoin To Hashgraph: The Crypto Revolution – Hidden Secrets Of Money Ep 8

But talking about the blockchain is like talking about the printing press. Yes, it’s revolutionary. Yes, it will change the course of history. But what, specifically, does it print? Well, whatever you want it to, of course. A papal bull or the Ninety-five Theses, the 9/11 Commission Report or The Road to 9/11, a GMO cookbook or The Anarchist Cookbook, colorful pieces of toilet paper or Federal Reserve notes (but I repeat myself).

So what does the blockchain record? Well, whatever you want it to, of course. It can be used as a tool for creating smart contracts or registering land ownership or creating decentralized cryptocurrencies.

This is where bitcoin comes in.

So what’s bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency whose transactions are recorded in a public blockchain ledger.

There are three things to note about this description of bitcoin.

Firstly, bitcoin is just one application of the blockchain ledger technology. They are not the same thing. Bitcoin is not blockchain. Blockchain is not bitcoin. Bitcoin uses the blockchain innovation to run an electronic payment system.

It’s important to stress this point. Confusing these terms is a purposeful tactic that a lot of 21st century snake oil salesmen are using to sucker a public that sees the bitcoin bubble and believes this is the next great investment opportunity. This “baffle them with BS” technique has been ridiculously effective in some cases. In one infamous example, “The Long Island Iced Tea Corporation” recently rebranded as “The Long Blockchain Corporation.” They still make iced tea, they just added blockchain to their name, and the market responded: The company’s stocks doubled overnight.

This is the exact phenomenon we saw emerge during the dotcom bubble when any company that added “.com” to their name saw their stock price rise. And it is a sure sign that people are being baffled by techno-speak that they don’t understand in the slightest.

Andreas Antanopoulos provides some straightforward advice for separating blockchain from BS:

So let’s get started. What exactly is going on here is this: the greatest technological innovation and explosion of innovation since the mobile internet, or maybe even the internet itself. Or is this the greatest load of hype ever arranged around the technology in the history of technology? Both. And in fact that’s a characteristic of advanced technologies.

I often say that where bitcoin and the other open block chains are today is approximately where the internet was in 1992. In terms of technology, in terms of infrastructure deployment, in terms of adoption patterns, this technology is approximately where the internet was in 1992. But the hype around blockchain is exactly where the hype around the internet was in 1998. You know what comes next.

There will be a shakeout. When the waters recede you can tell who on the beach wasn’t wearing a swimsuit. They stand there naked. It’s an empty promise this will happen in the blockchain space. There is a lot a lot of bull**** being peddled to VCs, to investors, to initial coin offering buyers, to uneducated investors. There’s a lot of Ponzi schemes, there’s a lot of pyramid schemes, there’s a lot of empty promises, there’s also a lot of business as usual disguised as innovation. Disguised as disruptive technology.

[…]

Now out of that came this fantastic saying: “blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin,” which is incorrect. Blockchain is one of the four foundational technologies behind bitcoin and it can’t stand alone, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying to sell it. Blockchain is bitcoin with a haircut and a suit that you parade in front of your board. It’s the ability to deliver a sanitized, clean, comfortable version of bitcoin to people who are too terrified of actually disruptive technology.

And so you get into this very strange world where the words no longer mean anything. Can you define “blockchain” for me? I think a few people in this room could probably define blockchain but the real challenge would be can you define blockchain in such a way that I can do search and replace with the word “database” and still make that sentence work? Because that’s the challenge. If what you’re doing is a database with signatures, it’s not interesting, it’s boring.

What is the essence of bitcoin? It’s not blockchain. The essence of bitcoin is the ability to operate in a decentralized way without having to trust anyone. The essence of Bitcoin is to be able to use software to authoritatively, independently, without appeal to authority, verify everything yourself. You don’t trust the other nodes you’re talking to; you assume they’re lying. You don’t trust the miners. You don’t trust the people creating the transactions. You don’t trust anything other than the outcome of your own verification and , through that you end up trusting in something more important: the network effect.

Bitcoin introduced the concept of decentralized security through computation and this has not yet sunk in. What bitcoin does is it allows you to replace a security model that is based around concentric circle most of access and control with an institution in the center with a security model that is inside out, open and accessible to everyone. A security model that is based on market forces and game theory. It is the first market-based security model where a series of incentives and punishments ensure that the ultimate result is you can trust the platform itself as a neutral arbiter, that is not controlled by anyone. Without third parties. Without intermediaries. Bitcoin revolutionizes trust.

SOURCE: Blockchain vs. Bull****: Thoughts on the Future of Money

The second thing to note in our definition of bitcoin is that it is a cryptocurrency. That means it uses cryptographic functions to secure and verify transactions on the network and to control the issuance of new units. Bitcoin conforms to a certain protocol, and that protocol defines the rules by which the bitcoin network operates. You can tweak those rules and create similar-but-separate payment systems, each with its own qualities. These bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies are called altcoins.

Thirdly, bitcoin uses a specific kind of blockchain ledger called a “public” or “permissionless” blockchain. This means anyone can join the network and contribute to the maintenance of the ledger (“mining,” in the bitcoin parlance). There is another kind of blockchain, called a “private” or “permissioned” blockchain, that requires nodes to be invited to join the network or otherwise given permission to participate in maintaining the ledger.

And as a further level of analysis, it should be noted that all cryptocurrencies are digital currencies, but not all digital currencies are cryptocurrencies. Oh, and then there’s virtual currencies, which are, technically speaking, another thing altogether.

OK, this is starting to get confusing, isn’t it? This is about the point where we’d need to bust out the Venn diagrams and start coloring the overlapping parts, right? Well, if you’ve followed all of this, good for you. If not, don’t sweat it. The point for today is simply to recognize that there are a lot of separate-but-related concepts here, and to talk about them as if they are all just one big monolithic thing is not just unhelpful but purposefully misleading.

So, with all of this in mind, let’s look at those Bernanke headlines again:

“Former Chairman of Federal Reserve to Speak at Blockchain Conference”

and

“Ben Bernanke: Bitcoin Has ‘Serious Problems’”

Are you at least beginning to get a handle on how those headlines are not contradictory? How it could be that a central banker could be interested in blockchain technology but dislike the bitcoin application of that technology?

If not, think of it this way: The same DVD player that can play Century of Enslavement can also play The Federal Reserve and You. The same printing press that can print Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy can also be used to print The Warren Commission Report. The same web browser that can take you to corbettreport.com can also take you to NYTimes.com (and no, I’m not recommending that you go there!).

So, yes, the blockchain could be used to create digital currencies that represent the very vision of a totalitarian tyrant’s wildest wet dream. Central banks could use private blockchains to administer national digital currencies that permanently record and track every transaction in the economy. That currency could be distributed through government-issued digital wallets that act as an individual ID and allow the government to track everything you ever purchase back to you personally. It could be used to create the perfect system of panoptic oversight, and the totalitarians could, as sole proprietors of the private blockchain, target anyone they saw as a threat for removal from the economy by simply revoking their wallet.

And, yes, the blockchain could be used to create a digital currency that represent the banksters’ worst nightmare. Free individuals could use a public blockchain to create a cryptocurrency not issued by or subject to any central authority. Or they could use it to raise untaxable cryptofunds for agoristic start-up ventures through unregistered ICOs. Or it could be used to transfer value or property instantaneously across the imaginary lines on the map that define the supposed boundaries of the would-be tyrants’ geographical monopolies without the permission of said tyrants.

Are you starting to get the picture?

A gun can be used by a jackbooted minion of the police state to murder you and your family, or it can be used by you to defend yourself and your family. It is a tool, just like the blockchain, and can be used for good or for ill.

So what I’d like to equip you with is a set of criteria to understand when you are being presented with something, perhaps to invest or to be employed or to engage in some way, and it calls itself a “blockchain” or a “distributed ledger” or one of these other names that are coming out. How can you tell blockchain from bull****? They both start with a “B.” What’s the difference? If you can replace the word “blockchain” with “database” and the brochure reads the samel it’s business as usual. It’s not decentralized, it’s not borderless, neutral, censorship-resistant, open. It re-establishes trust in intermediaries. It’s just a database and that is not disruptive.

The idea “we’re going to take this technology and use it to improve the operating margins of centralized institutions of trust so that they can continue business as usual,” I’d say it’s abhorrent but that’s a strong word. It’s just boring. Really, really boring. No one got into this in order to make a few billions for a financial services clearing house, and if you did, I’m really sorry; that’s boring. What’s really exciting is the possibility of fundamentally changing the way we allocate trust on this planet. Opening up the ability to collaborate, transact, engage on a global level with everyone. Simply by means of downloading an application you can become part of a giant platform of trust that doesn’t care who you are or where you came from. That doesn’t require permission to participate or innovate. Where a 12 year old JavaScript programmer has the same influence and power as JPMorgan Chase. More, in fact, because they’re doing open source and feeding into a community of collaboration that is creating a tsunami of innovation. Taking this technology and using it to strengthen the same centralized institutions so that they can improve their bottom line is boring. That is not what blockchain is, that’s just a database, and it doesn’t change anything.

In fact, there are some rather disturbing possibilities in this model. Let’s think about it for a second. The most commonly expressed application for these new distributed ledger technologies is to replace the function of a centralized clearing house with a consortium of n participants where n is 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 known, permissioned, controlled participants, who will assemble transactions and assign them, rather than compete through market forces in a security model like bitcoin. We discard currency as the underlying mechanism for building market based security. We discard proof of work as wasteful because all it allows you to do is decentralize a secure, neutral, censorship-resistant blockchain. And we trust five named parties to sign transactions. At that point, they don’t need to assemble these transactions in blocks, they can just sign the individual transactions. They don’t need to chain them together, because absent proof of work and a system of currency incentives. rewriting that is easy; there’s no immutability. So it’s not a blockchain anymore because there’s no blocks and there’s no chain.

Now that’s at a technical level, but let’s look at the more important level. What do you achieve by replacing a clearinghouse with a consortium of players? You know, there’s something unique a clearinghouse does. If you understand the role of a clearinghouse. one of its most important functions is that it is not a participant in the market. It has no skin in the game. The New York Stock Exchange is not an active trader. That’s not an accident. That’s called separation of concerns. The clearinghouse is an independent party with oversight that is not a market participant. If you take that party out and replace it with five banks, all of which have skin in the game, how do you run a consensus algorithm when the incentives to cheat, front run, manipulate the market and break the consensus rules (even adversarially against the other four parties) are so high there’s no incentive to keep the consensus rules. All you’re doing is you’re saying “trust us, we’re in a consortium.”

Trust us? These five banks? Where were you in 2008 where were you when Libor was fixed? Where were you when the gold markets were fixed? Where were you when front running and high-frequency trading was creating these monsters of crony capitalism? Trust us? Hell no!

Removing the clearinghouse and replacing it with…What’s the word? It’s not consortium…”Cartel!” That’s the word!…with a cartel of the same market makers who have manipulated and compromised every market in history, and doing that in a way that closes this from transparency, that’s not a recipe for efficiency, immutability security, transparency. That’s not a blockchain. That’s a bull****. It’s a very profitable bull****. It requires you to have confidence in the game. A “con game,” as it’s known.

Be careful what you evaluate when you see these technologies. Taking something whose fundamental purpose is to remove trusted intermediaries and create an open, borderless, neutral system and turning it into a tool for a bunch of untrustworthy trusted parties to manipulate markets is going to be a disaster. And they’re going to do it.

SOURCE: Blockchain vs. Bull****: Thoughts on the Future of Money

Now let’s look once again at the statements that opened this podcast episode.

Is the blockchain revolutionary? Well, since no decentralized, peer-to-peer ledger has ever existed before, yes, it is that rarest of rare things: something new under the sun.

Is bitcoin Tulipmania 2.0? Yes, in the exact same sense that the dotcom bubble of the ’90s was Tulipmania 2.0. Just as Pets.com and other ventures that earned (and lost) hundreds of millions of dollars in the blink of an eye were the result of a speculative frenzy, so too are the sudden run-ups and run-downs in bitcoin’s price the result of a speculative frenzy. But the bursting of the dotcom bubble wasn’t the end of the worldwide web anymore than a future bursting of the bitcoin speculation bubble will be the end of cryptocurrency (or even bitcoin).

Is cryptocurrency a nail in the coffin of the banksters? Yes. Cryptocurrencies can now be (and already are being) used by millions around the world for instantaneous and virtually free international remittances, all without the aid of a bank account. Start ups have raised billions of dollars in capital through ICOs without a VC predator or investment bank underwriter in sight. More broadly, a whole host of banksters and their associated cronies in the third-party middleman parasitic class are already openly contemplating the fact that they have already been made obsolete by the blockchain technology which underlies the cryptocurrency boom. So is the blockchain the one and only silver bullet that will end banking all by itself? Don’t be ridiculous. But it’s one more arrow for the quiver.

Is digital currency a tool of the totalitarian tyrants? Well, we’ve already seen how the BIS is musing about central bank-issued cryptocurrencies, and we’ve contemplated how that nightmare scenario of control and surveillance might unfold. It hardly takes a Nostradamus to envision how the forces of centralization are going to push as hard as they can to put the cryptocurrency genie safely back in the bottle of central-bank issued fiat.

Are any of these statements contradictory? Nope. But the bitcoin psyop might have made you think they were. And now you know better.

So, here’s a test of your newfound, nuanced understanding of the intricacies of digital currencies. Can you explain how this headline:

China’s Central Bank Has Begun Cautiously Testing a Digital Currency

And this headline:

China Is Shutting Down All of Beijing’s Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Are perfectly compatible?

If so, then give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve just seen through the bitcoin psyop."

******
Sorry if this has already been posted. I'm not keeping up on this because it boggles my mind! However, I can keep collecting pieces a "bit"[coin] at a time!!

MM

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Paul (here)
Ever since June 1981, the interest rate on US Treasuries has been, by and large, declining. In the 36 years since 1981, the rate for the US Treasury Ten Year Note declined from 15% to less than 2% in 2017.

This StockCharts.com graphic, prepared by NorthmanTrader, shows this decline in interest rates (which really means the rise in value) of Ten Year US Treasury Notes (TNX), since the 1980's:

Since the above chart was prepared, last week, the Ten Year Treasury (TNX) has jumped another 0.037% today, from 2.662% to to 2.699%.

The single most reliable indicator that I know of to mark the end of a stock and bond bubble is a collapse in the bond market, which shows up in these rising interest rates. The Ten Year Treasury (TNX) is perhaps the largest traded longer term bond in the world. If this rise continues, it will mark the beginning of the end of the largest financial and monetary bubble in (recorded) human history.

[TargeT]

A bubble that's been building since the 1980's?

are your predictions finally coming true?



Dow plunges 400 points, on track for biggest points drop since June 2016

"We've had a unilateral move higher [in stocks] to start things off and people are realizing this is not sustainable," one strategist said.
The Dow was on track for its biggest one-day point drop since June 2016, when it fell 610 points.
Long-dated Treasury yields climbed further on Tuesday, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield trading near levels not seen since 2014, amid fears of higher inflation.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by TargeT (here)
A bubble that's been building since the 1980's?

Thus seems to be the cycle of monetary assets, even including the "foundation" asset which is the "backing" for all other such assets, whether that foundation be gold and silver coins, the gold backing British Pounds, the gold backing US Dollars (prior to the 1970's), or the US Treasuries (in conjunction with world-wide debt, OPEC oil, opioids, arms sales, and such) backing US Dollars (since the 1970's).

"Backing" of any such currency system means that there are two items, that can be freely traded with each other, one such asset of (presumed) limited supply (such as gold, silver or US Treasuries), and the other a convenient currency (such as pounds or dollars).

But in each case, the asset of limited supply turns out to be more abundantly available to the most powerful elite than to the rest of us, and the corresponding currency looses value over time. Well, perhaps more accurately, some of the value of the currency is siphoned off to the projects of the most powerful elite, and the currency's value to the rest of us looses value over time.

Then every 50 or 100 years, a major economic, financial, monetary and security crisis is staged, in order to reset the monetary system and to usher in a new monetary basis and currency.

It would seem to me, at present, that blockchain tracked national (and likely, off publicly visible blockchains, BIS and Vatican) gold stores are being setup as the next currency basis, and that various national currencies, tradable on blockchains, as the currencies. If that's the case, then sometime much later in this century, it will become clear to the public that there was or is more gold and silver, either in historically hidden stores, and/or able to be created using "zero point" energy in accordance with a new physics, than almost anyone at present imagines.

Posted by TargeT (here)
are your predictions finally coming true?

Perhaps .

Though I should keep in mind that it usually takes several years, from the time that the crisis is evident to most people, until the resolution of the crisis, and the new world monetary order, is evident to most people.

[Hervé]

Posted by Hervé (here)
This interesting map gives, at a glance, a strong indication as to whom bitcoin is actually a financial tool of:

January 19 2018

Well, India switched from "orange" to "red":

Cryptocurrencies crash after India vows to eliminate their use

RT
Published time: 1 Feb, 2018 13:01
Edited time: 1 Feb, 2018 14:04
Get short URL

© Dado Ruvic / Reuters

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are falling substantially on Thursday after India announced a crackdown on their trading and circulation.

The largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, dropped over nine percent below $9,300, the lowest level seen since November.

The Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday made bitcoin illegal and announced an upcoming ban.

“The government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender or coin and (will) take all measures to eliminate the use of crypto assets,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

India is one of the largest bitcoin markets, with a 10 percent share. Cryptocurrencies have not been regulated there, but the government started a de-facto crackdown on cryptos last December. Users have been facing troubles with deposits and withdrawals from bank accounts linked to digital money, and the Indian Income Tax Department raided bitcoin exchanges across the country, seeking to identify cryptocurrency traders.

“After today’s announcement, people are getting scared,” said Anshul Vashist, Delhi-based support manager at the cryptocurrency exchange Coinsecure, as quoted by Bloomberg.

“We have seen some dumping of bitcoins.” Coinsecure has a volume of about 100 coins a day, he said.

Bitcoin has now fallen more than 53 percent from the record value of $20,000 seen in December 2017. January was the worst month for the cryptocurrency since 2015.

Ripple, bitcoin cash, cardano, and other leading digital currencies plunged even more than bitcoin, losing over 10 percent of their value each.

Ethereum was one of the few to survive the meltdown, trading one percent up. Only six seven of the top 100 cryptocurrencies were gaining as of 2:00 pm GMT, according to CoinMarketCap data.


Related:
India cracking down on ‘illegal’ cryptocurrencies

Maduro announces pre-sale of Venezuela’s oil-backed cryptocurrency

[Hervé]

Cryptocurrency mining malware infects over 500,000 PCs with NSA exploit

RT
Published time: 1 Feb, 2018 14:49
Get short URL

© Michael Weber / Reuters

New cryptocurrency mining viruses have lately spread to infect Windows computers as virtual currency-related malware becomes popular and profitable among cyber criminals.

The viruses are being spread using same EternalBlue exploit, which has been developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA). The exploit was recently used as part of the worldwide WannaCry ransomware attack.

According to researchers from Proofpoint, a massive global botnet dubbed ‘Smominru’ is using EternalBlue SMB exploit to infect PCs and secretly mine monero cryptocurrency (valued at $245.47) for its master.

They said the botnet has already infected more than 526,000 Windows computers, most of which are believed to be servers running unpatched versions of Windows.

Cybercriminals are using at least 25 machines to scan the internet for vulnerable PCs. They also use leaked NSA's RDP protocol exploit for infection.

The botnet operators have already mined almost 9,000 monero by stealing computing resources of millions of systems.

“Based on the hash power associated with the monero payment address for this operation, it appeared that this botnet was likely twice the size of Adylkuzz,” Proofpoint researchers said.

Adylkuzz virus appeared after the WannaCry attack, creating a network of compromised computers which it could remotely control.

According to experts, the highest number of the new Smominru infections has been observed in Russia, India, and Taiwan.

“As bitcoin has become prohibitively resource-intensive to mine outside of dedicated mining farms, interest in monero has increased dramatically. While monero can no longer be mined effectively on desktop computers, a distributed botnet like that described here can prove quite lucrative for its operators,” said the researchers.

They added the operators of the botnet are “persistent, use all available exploits to expand their botnet, and have found multiple ways to recover after sinkhole operations.”

They expect those activities to continue “given the significant profits available to the botnet operators and the resilience of the botnet and its infrastructure.”

Cyber hackers are also widely adopting ‘cryptojacking attacks’ when browser-based JavaScript miners utilize website visitors' CPUs (Central Processing Unit) power to mine cryptocurrencies for monetization.


Related:
Bad Rabbit cryptoware attack: New virus hits companies in Russia, Turkey, Germany & Ukraine

[earthdreamer]

I just saw a news scroll about Facebook banning all ads for bitcoin. Here's confirmation by article from The Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a8186646.html

Andrew Griffin
@_andrew_griffin
Thursday 1 February 2018 09:35 GMT

Facebook has banned people entirely from advertising bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The site's new policy is just the latest expression of concern that the rising price and interest in bitcoin is allowing malicious scammers to try and defraud people interested in investing in cryptocurrencies.

Facebook said it had found a huge number of people using the site to advertise misleading and dangerous offers. It identified a range of different, popular scams, which often use wording like: "Use your retirement funds to buy bitcoin!"

It said it would now ban ads that are related to cryptocurrency, initial coin offerings, or binary options. Facebook noted that all of those things can be used legitimately – but that a worryingly large amount of ads marketing them were actually just scams.


The ban is wide-ranging and removes one of the most popular kinds of advertising on Facebook. But the company said it had designed it to be that way, so that it could ensure the policy covered all of the various problems that are seen on the site.

This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up across our platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram," Facebook's blog post read. "We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve."

Mark Zuckerberg has said that he is keen to integrate the technologies powering cryptocurrency into Facebook. It would be a way of removing some of the increasing centralisation and control that companies like Facebook represent, he said.

There are important counter-trends to this – like encryption and cryptocurrency – that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands," he wrote in a post earlier in the year, in which he promised to fix Facebook. "But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services."

Also:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1FL57N

excerpt:

In a development welcomed by cryptocurrency investors, the finance minister of South Korea, a major hub for digital coin trading, said on Wednesday there was no plan to outlaw their buying and selling after regulators had earlier pledged to do so.

Critics call cryptocurrencies a speculative mania that will end in tears for thousands of retail investors. Supporters say the price volatility is a distraction from the value of the underlying technology.

Those backers believe cryptocurrencies and the “blockchain” technology underpinning them will transform the way money is stored and transferred, upending the conventional banking system.

“Short-term pessimism misses the point that it [regulation] could make the ecosystem thrive in the long term,” said Charles Hayter, founder of London-based Cryptocompare.

International regulators are set to debate how to address the risks posed by the market at the next G20 meeting in March.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said this week that the G20 needed to consider how easily digital coins should be converted into other central-bank issued currencies, as well as the role of anonymity, as “a lot of the underlying use of these currencies has been illicit activity”.

[ZoSo925]

Wow, what a Bloodbath, it's currently 6758.44 US Dollar. I'm personally not a fan of Bitcoin and don't trust it being safe long term.

It seems like this was all setup to steal people's money. These institutions have been manipulating Gold, Silver, Zinc, Oil and needed something new to manipulate and shave money off.

The whole market is a form a gambling and playing Craps Table Game with all these side bets going on. It's like a whole system of shifting money around and re-distribution of wealth. Aside from Bitcoin that has emerged there is also Bio-Tech Stocks. It's like new Chess pieces added to the game.