Who’s Afraid of Decentralized Currency?
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon in my 12 years of watching the news headlines for a living: Stories often pop up in mirror image pairs.
Take these two recent stories, for example.
One from the US Department of (in)Justice: “Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Arrest Of United States Citizen For Assisting North Korea In Evading Sanctions.”
And the other courtesy of the Pentagon . . . uhhh, I mean, the MIT Technology Review: “China may be just about to launch its digital currency in two cities.”
Just glancing at the headlines, it would seem that these are two completely unrelated stories. But once we look at the details, we will see how these two tales represent a fork in the path. Down one path we can see the promise of currency decentralization and the real threat that it poses to the existing establishment. Down the other path lies a future in which all transactions are centralized once and for all, a nightmare of constant and total surveillance from which there will be no escape.
Once we recognize this fork in the road for what it is, we can make an informed decision about which path we wish to follow. But we don’t have long before this window of opportunity closes and the elitists choose our path for us.
The problem, as usual, is that most people are unaware we are even at this fork in the path, let alone that we have a decision to make. So let’s examine these stories and see what they tell us about where humanity is heading in the next decade.
Learn about the future of currency and how it will shape our future as a species in this week’s edition of The Corbett Report Subscriber. Then, stick around for this month’s subscriber exclusive video where we’re joined by Vinnie Caggiano for some music analysis.
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Blockchain, or essentially rebranded Merkle trees of the 1970s, are marketed as decentralized, but are anything but. Complexity is added, disguised as features, which keeps other players out of the market. The drive is to get in early and make your fortune on the backs of others who get in later. The late comers are the ones who bring the fortune to the early, not the value of the system.
I attempted an alternative where there is no money to be made by the system (http://ShofarCoin.com), but who would be interesting in a monetary system just for exchange rather than one where I can make money by the manipulation of money (see Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15, and John 2:14).
Paul Grignon of http://MoneyAsDebt.net describes it well in his article “Bitcoin and all such coin-model cryptocurrencies are theftâ€
Blockchain will remain the news, but not the solution.
Your demonstration concerning the paradoxical weakness of the collective allows me to congeal some of my own fleeting, fluttering ideas of late…
As with Mr. Corbett’s headline watching, two very different but coinciding events took place in my neck of the woods recently resulting in two seemingly unrelated questions posed:
Every year Lyon is home to a now internationally reputed “lights festival” that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.
And this year it took place within a context of massive multi-sector strikes that had, as massively, been organized with and by the state.
The first question was from my son who asked me with some indignation why I wasn’t striking and I gave him a partial answer: which was that I had no faith in the power of organized, state-approved and protected strikes to put pressure on the government to act in the interest of “the people”. (The yellow vests were originally mavericks and thus initially obtained a symbolic gesture before the blitzkrieg effect had worn off and they were totally reigned in.)
At the same time I was also trying to explain to colleagues why I was mostly annoyed by the lights festival which boiled down to the essential fact that the magic’s been usurped by glitz and a centrally organized profit-seeking budget.
Indeed, what used to be truly magic about December 8th in Lyon was that on that evening, in home upon home upon home, countless dazzling candles would gradually appear as evening turned to night, ultimately blazing in the windows of the entire city.
Nobody was going around forcing anyone to put candles in their windows: the success of this brilliant show of spontaneous cooperation was guaranteed by each separate participant according to their own desire that particular day to contribute or not. Nothing was centralized except the knowledge that this event took place on the 8th of December to commemorate some vague legend of Mother Mary protecting Lyon from the plague epidemic several centuries earlier. But mostly, everyone just loved the warm feeling that the hoped-for and precarious appearence of all those flickering lights produced. Each and every separate participant just wanted to be a part of making it happen. It was beautiful and inspiring in its glorious individually invoked simplicity.
This magic has literally been drowned out by the totally blinding commercialization of today’s “lights festival” which prefers high-budget sensationalism to heart-warming human-scale simplicity.
By keeping things local and voluntary, universal wonders can appear; perhaps even with no need for built-in pseudo anonymous safety measures?
’tis the season to be idealistic…
Loved hearing this anecdote about “Illuminating Organically”.
I figured that the central banking oligarchs would not tolerate for long the idea of a decentralized user-controlled currency.
In fact, I predict that the digital currencies they will pimp will co-opt the term “decentralized” (leave to them to lie through their teeth to hoodwink the public) when in reality it would be centrally controlled.
I also predict that the collapse of the “dollar” will yield to a government issued “cryptodollar” of some sort that will be advertised as the solution to that coming, engineered crisis.
And, oh sure, it will be advertised as “safe” and “backed by real assets” to compete with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all of the other plethora of cryptocurrencies currently available.
One thing is for certain though, is that there hopefully will still be choice to choose other currencies.
Also, they will not be able to stop the advancement of blockchain technology…which according to Vitalik Buterin (Ethereums co-founder) is the real decentralized technology that I doubt even the current old-guard of globalists completely understand – let alone the average gum-chewing public.
Ethan, are you aware block chain technology was being developed by US intelligence long before the emergence of Bitcoin? And early on it was clear Bitcoin was supported by the highest levels in central banking including powerful Trilateral Commission member Larry Summers (Sec of Treasury, World Bank economist, Goldman Sachs exec, IMF wonk, etc). Compare the neutral to favorable media coverage given to Bitcoin to the draconian way Bernard von NotHaus’ Liberty Dollar project was treated, zero tolerance, despite being transparent and within the guidelines of federal law.
Blockchain technology is the backbone of a centralized NWO Technocracy data collection system. That’s likely one reason a common ‘solution’ to censorship has been to flee to small blockchain platforms as online free speech zones. A few years ago IBM purchased one of the largest medical records companies in the US and has been converting that system to blockchain. SWIFT, a ledger system for central bank transactions, is being replaced globally with blockchain. The overall conversion is rapidly expanding in every industry globally, no nation excluded, and the government still holds the mains keys for decryption. There’s a great breakdown of some aspects of this process by MIT computer scientist Kevin Lawton in a two part interview he gave to Sarah Westall. Have you noticed the Luciferian symbolism of Ethereum? Caveat emptor, my friend.
I always felt something was up when after tossing Ross Ulbricht into the dungeon for life, the “authorities” put his bitcoin up for auction…
very mixed message… about both cryptocurrency and crypto-blockchain tech…
??
Good point, manbearpig, all sorts of mixed messages out there typically coming from the same power center. Plus the endless théâtre de l’absurde. Keeps people confused and squabbling. C’est aussi épuisant par conception.
Yes, Blockchain is rebranded Merkle trees and while physically decentralized it remains a single logical entity.
The ShofarCoin model uses fixed amount coins, like physical coins, which removes one of tracking holes in Blockchain. There is no mining process, and the buyer and seller do not have to identify each other. But there is the fundamental problem. There is no control offered to a central party, and even more, there is no money to be made with the system. So the likelihood of the ShofarCoin model or anything similar to it, is around that common occurrence of pigs flying.
Thanks for describing the ShofarCoin model. Appreciate the insight.
IMHO, seems the heart of the matter is we can’t correct a fundamental problem related to apathy, lack of critical reasoning, and a general loss of a moral compass with new methods of accounting no matter how fascinating the technology may be.
Surely by now the Chinese are working on a genetically engineered combination of avian and porcine DNA. Flying bacon? lol
I followed the prosecution of Bernard Von Nothaus, and wrote a letter to the Judge which I CC to Bernard. To my surprise, I received an email from Bernard thanking me for that letter.
In a nut shell, this lady that bought a $50 liberty coin at one of the Liberty Coin outlets (I think in IL) took the coin to a Bank in Maryland where the Bank refused to cash it, thus giving her (actually the Federal Reserve Banksters) a case for fraud against Bernard. It did not matter that she could have cashed the Coin at any of the Liberty Coin outlets, nor did it seem necessary for the case to be tried where it was purchased, and that Bernard was Constitutionally entitled to a Jury of his pears (people in IL that were familiar with the Coin). Indeed, he was railroaded by a Federal Reserve System that clearly fears honest money and the Liberty Coin was exposing them.
The bottom line is that Federal Reserve Notes have been given “Legal Tender” status (by bought off Congress critters), and thus by putting an implied money value on the Liberty Coin Bernard had committed Fraud.
In my letter to the Judge, I quoted the definition given to a United States Dollar from the 1792 Coinage Act and explained that the Federal Reserve was far more guilty of Fraud than Bernard. Although nether the Liberty Coin nor the Federal Reserve Note complies to the definition, the Liberty Coin was clearly more honest.
U.S. Government agents raided and stole all of Liberty Coins Gold and Silver, however, Bernard got a “Deferred Sentence”. I have seen a short interview where he said that he was living at a friends house near the coast in CA. It appears that as long as he stays out of the public eye, his sentence will be deferred indefinitely.
You can sell an Ounce of Silver as a Ounce of Silver, but don’t call it a Dollar unless it conforms to the definition given it in the Coinage Act of 1772
Wow, thank you for sharing your experience and insight. I greatly admire your action of writing a letter to the judge.
What if the coins had been named Liberty Bells, Liberty Eagles, etc., with an image of the chosen mascot on the coin? Perhaps I’m oversimplifying a strategy here but it seems clear the case had no standing with regard to intent to defraud, simply some similarities in the description, especially the term dollar.
I suspect you know this. Ironically, the word dollar apparently originated from a German word related to the name of a town near a silver mine which provided raw material for the coins used in the area. Joachimstaler -> taler/thaler -> daler ; circa 14th century, modified to dollar in English by 1600. etymonline(dot)com/word/dollar
Doesn’t seem right the Federal Reserve has a monopoly on an old word it no longer even faintly resembles. Monopoly money seems to be a fitting pun for the the USD.
Great exchange, Liberty Dan. Thanks again and kind regards.
Corbett quote:
“Heavens to murgatroid! Shut the barn door! Won’t someone think of the children? “
Gosh! It has been a long time since I heard those expressions.
Again, this was a great article by Corbett expressed in a very real way. An easy to digest read.
– FREE BITCOIN –
Back in late February 2017, James Corbett gave away free to any Corbett Report Member requesting it, 0.01 Bitcoin
https://www.corbettreport.com/bitcoin-10000-what-does-it-mean/#comment-46109
– Corbett article “Bitcoin $10,000: What Does It Mean?” –
From that article, James Corbett says:
“…It doesn’t matter. That’s right, it doesn’t matter…
… What matters is that the world has transitioned from a pre-World Wide Web economy to a World Wide Web economy, and we are still dealing with the ramifications of that…
…What matters is that the cryptocurrency idea will survive this period, whatever happens with the bitcoin bubble, just as the World Wide Web didn’t go away when the dot-com bubble burst. Now you might love that fact or you might hate that fact, but it’s a fact…
…Can a cryptocurrency that lives up to the “pirate money†ideal be created, or is the idea destined to be neutered, co-opted and wrestled back into the service of the banksters?
Now that is the question that matters….”
So on one hand you have freedom and on the other, Brazil.
People talk a lot about China as an image of the technocratic hell that is upon us, but Brazil is much more suitable in my insignificant opinion. In its core it’s an absolute Technocracy, but on the surface it’s cool, looks free and happy, it’s sunny, the girls have big arses, the beaches are wonderful and every single ‘citizen’ defends whatever comes out the screen more devotedly than the apostles, despite the apparent ferocious differences.
For me and very few like me – last survivors of the more or less old times – the good news is that we already passed the fork long ago, so all we can do now is watch and hope. The new people are already on, over, into, in and working hard to install, reinstall, implement, maintain and further this horrifying collectivist system, and also offend, insult, denigrate, report, denounce and ostracize anyone or anything that doesn’t go along with the program – all done with a huge smile, a very warm hug and phrases like “man, you are fantastic, we shall do many things together in the future”. Brazil is the image of the future hell because no one will ever notice, ever. If a tree falls in the desert, how do we know it made a noise? And all that.
One thing to think about is what to do when you’re finally in hell. Do you go along or do you continue fighting to keep your senses like Winston? I had a dream last night where I was in a bed, held down by people that wanted to inject me with syringes etc, and I was pissed off, screaming, kicking and biting (biting the syringe actually), doing everything I could to let them know I was not OK with it. It’s a depressing dream, and thought, and maybe related to something more personal, but it’s a good example here because it is like that. At least it can serve as an example for people who still can do something about it, if there’s still time, as James and others say. The story doesn’t end at the fork. It goes on and on, and what can you do then? And then…and then…?
In tune with Corbett’s article “Who’s Afraid of Decentralized Currency?”…
– Centralized Currency ANECDOTE –
I keep some funds in my Brokerage Account.
When I logged-in this early afternoon (12/19/2019), there was a top header notice:
“Special Notice: Posted : Thu, Dec 19, 2019
The Federal Reserve is experiencing a processing delay which means you may not have immediate access to your funds. We are actively working on the situation and will update you as soon as we can.”
Later, I went to Zero Hedge and saw this article:
Federal Reserve “Network Issues” Cause Nationwide Direct Deposit Outage
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nationwide-direct-deposit-outage-hits-due-federal-reserve-network-issues
(The article is interesting…lots of ticked-off folks who did not receive their paycheck.)
I’m wondering if the Federal Reserve’s Funds rate (Repo) has anything to do with this supposed “glitch”. (i.e. Corbett Report article Everything (g)Old is New Again: What QE4 Means For You)
Regardless, “Who’s Afraid of Centralized Currency?”
I am.
Reminded me of Collor times (president Fernando Collor here in Brasil in 1990), when he announced that everything upwards of around 4.000 dollars (today’s money) was going to be “withheld”. I didn’t have anything, so it didn’t affect me, but a friend of mine suffered quite a hit, like many people. The interesting part is “announced”. Out of the blue they just went on TV and announced it. In Argentina they just closed up the banks and went home (wherever “home” is – Switzerland?). So…yeah, me too.
I really enjoyed the Beatles analysis. While the technical details go over my head, my youngest son might appreciate it. He was interested in learning guitar, and recently mentioned he started watching some guy on themtube (if memory serves, Learn Guitar with David Brent is the name of the series). Anyway, I don’t really notice any improvement, except that he’s been coming up with some rather odd musings, singing stupid songs and apparently following the man’s lead for inspiration by reading the writings of Churchill and Ghandi. Oh well.
Merry Christmas!