Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This week on Questions For Corbett, Coll writes in to ask about the bitcoin psyop. What is crypto and how does it work? Is it evil? James gets into all the Byzantine details.
Watch on Archive / BitChute / Minds.com / Odysee or Download the mp4
SHOW NOTES:
Episode 394 – Solutions: Survival Currency
Free Press UNDER ATTACK In Ottawa As DRUTHERS Has BANK ACCOUNT FROZEN Under Emergencies Act!!!
Episode 328 – The Bitcoin Psyop
“Blockchain” at the bitcoin wiki
Hidden Secrets Of Money – Episode 08 (Mike Maloney)
The Byzantine Generals Problem
How does blockchain solve the Byzantine generals problem?
Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money
Episode 415 – The Global Digital ID Prison
A billion people have no legal identity – but a new app plans to change that
No, Canada Did NOT Seize Any Crypto Wallets Connected With The #FreedomConvoy, Here’s Why
How Non-Custodial Crypto Wallets and P2P Exchanges Can Overcome Trudeaus Currency Controls
The lust for money is the root of all evil.
Give someone an inch and they think they are a ruler.
Yes you can reuse these. 🙂
Very interesting. Thanks.
I really hadn’t understood the detail/complexity of the subject. That’s partly because I have no interest in trying to escape from or fight overwhelming force.
From the other video ‘China is shutting down Bitcoin operations’. No nuclear weapons or cruise missiles were involved.
If they can freeze your bank account, they can put you in jail or break into your house and take your computer. Whatever. An encrypted digital wallet no matter how digitally secure seems like a very flimsy defence although admittedly useful in particular situations like the trucker donors .
A common view of cryptocurrencies is that they are speculative vehicles. As long as players like Max Keiser, Elon Musk and a host of others talk them up, the higher values will rise.
Yes, I would like to see further episodes on crypto.
If ledgers are evil in themselves, then why so?
Is it just because of privacy issues?
In that case what about privacy coins?
What about the other applications of crypto other than for currency?
The lust for evil is the root of all money.
Give someone an inch and they think they are a ruler.
Yes you can reuse these. 🙂
Interesting topic. I would see it as a portfolio problem. As pointed out it would not be advisable to put all your wealth/funds into just one system (i.e. Bitcoin). The world is changing. Many new digital currencies will emerge such as the E-Yuan (China), India was mentioned and other EU, US, CA, etc. For minimizing risk I would think about to put some part of funds into Bitcoin, then into other digital currencies in case something happens to the traditional currency. But there are questions: 1. Will access to all digital currencies still be available at all times? 2. How to divide funds to which currencies? 3. Are other forms of wealth storage systems also needed to minimize risks such as gold or diamonds?
Reality is most people’s funds are not present in traditional currency ready for the shift but “invested” in tangible items such as real estate. Real estate is of course bound to the question of property rights which can be taken away by governments.
For newer Corbett Report Members…
In February 2017, James Corbett gave away FREE 0.01 bitcoin to any Corbett Report Member who requested it.
Today, it has a value of over $400.
LINK – https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1592-brainstorming-solutions-live-on-air/#comment-97325
Corbett wanted people to become familiar with the crypto universe.
He was encouraging people to dip their toe in the water so they could test the temperature for themselves.
Like James points out here in QFC #086, he had stressed that people maintain a balanced and grounded approach – not go whole hog.
That FREE bitcoin giveaway epitomizes the heart of James Corbett.
Corbett is genuinely concerned about the welfare of fellow human beings. His primary motivation is not glory, fame or fortune.
He Voluntarily puts out free content.
VOLUNTARYISM.
He walks the walk.
I never took advantage of Corbett’s FREE offer, because I already owned some bitcoin.
In December 2016, I had sent some bitcoin to James for my annual 2017 CorbettReport Subscriber membership.
[By the way, I want to express my opinion…
$1 per month donation to CorbettReport ($12 annually) ain’t shit. Especially if you like Corbett’s content. What?!…less than a dime per episode? I realize that some of us are poor (I am), and that funds can be limited. Value is relative.]
Here is a more direct link to the FREE 0.01 bitcoin giveaway mentioned above.
Who Coined the Term “Useless Eaters”? – Questions For Corbett #034
https://www.corbettreport.com/who-coined-the-term-useless-eaters-questions-for-corbett-034/
Around the 21 minute mark is the “give-away”, but a person should rewind further in order to gain context.
NOTE the comments at that QFC #034.
I think that for the discussion of cryptocurrency the intention of the EU and the CBs to regulate cryptos and even the intention to ban it is much more relevant. Also, it has been said that the only thing needed to take down the whole thing is to break the block chain, which could be done with sufficient computing power (quantum computing?). Also, through the verifiable crypto users (those registered with publicly regulated exchanges) one can unravel the chain person by person.
There would be loads of ways to untangle cryptos if “they” really decided on it.
The doomsdays scenarios are… well… good entertainment, but ultimately waste of time.
So, James – have a look at the actually real ways of taking down cryptos…
I buy my groceries in bitcoin. It does require an extra step: buying a gift card at bitrefill.com, but I can work or trade for BTC, trade the BTC for gift cards, then trade the gift cards for goods. All the while dollars and banks were never involved.
It feels wonderful.
It would be better if the retailers accepted BTC, or even better if I could just find others to trade BTC for goods, and better still if I could trade my work for the goods I need barter-style, but one step at a time. Alternate currencies aren’t going to be accepted overnight, unless the TV told them to accept it.
Many local folk, like the hairdresser, wouldn’t mind being paid in Amazon and Walmart gift-cards, since that’s where the normies spend most of their money anyway.
There are a lot of hurdles, but they’re worth jumping to get to the finish line.
That’s a cool anecdote!
omfg
“Alternate currencies aren’t going to be accepted overnight”
v
reminds me of my first mentor. He used to curse the government and its taxing and regulating schemes. He told stories from the “great depression” (try to add a thick down-east accent while reading): “well, d’you realize i seen the time people’ld take a sears and roebuck pay check with signatures right down the back of it, rather than so called US currency.”
I thought an endorsement on the back of a check releases ownership, ,,typically to a bank, so that one can get more fiat, allowing anyone to use it as cash (that might not quite be right)?
apparently back in the day people could reassign authority or ownership of the “paycheck” from who it was originally written for, to anyone. sounds like printing money to me, no bank needed.
I would like to hear more about crypto. Most of this stuff goes over my head unfortunately. I’ll probably need to start my research at the third grade level.
Thank you again James, I appreciate your work.
Written by Xoxoxo…
Xoxoxo – SUB-THREAD “Tools to Win”
There are tools available, there are people building these tools…
https://www.corbettreport.com/givesendgone/#comment-130553
Thankyou Mr. Corbett!
The John Bush video: “How Non-Custodial Crypto Wallets and P2P Exchanges Can Overcome Trudeaus Currency Controls” is what I need to watch.
I’ve become disenchanted with cryptos in recent years as many governments have started to regulate them.
My desire is for a decentralized medium of exchange without government influence or oversight.
“Ease of use” in the crypto space has become more complicated if a person desires to stay off the government’s radar. As a novice, I haven’t kept updated with the alternatives in the crypto arena.
I want to recommend that people look through Corbett’s Zero Hedge link:
No, Canada Did NOT Seize Any Crypto Wallets Connected With The #FreedomConvoy, Here’s Why.
On March 5th, I posted it at Corbett’s Episode 413 – Give Send Gone, but with the Zero Hedge source article by Mark Jeftovic, founder of the Bombthrower blog and CEO of easyDNS.com.
https://www.corbettreport.com/givesendgone/#comment-131251
Even though many terms and concepts were foreign to me, the overall theme is easy to grasp.
I need to educate myself on the details which might work for me. And then, according to my personal situation, I can better decide how I want to move forward.
The idea of a secure and useful alternative way to exchange value has a lot of merit, but I suggest the loudest promoters of Bitcoin and the like are looking at it as a way to make money from the manipulation of money. Consider the comment by HomeRemedySupply noting the “FREE 0.01 bitcoin” is now worth $400.
What about the person who simply wants to go to the store to buy food? A stable environment is where an hour of labor today is the same as the hour you did the week before and not adjusted due to the value of your money changing.
Blockchain, or rebranded Merkle trees from the 1970s, is complexity surrounded in hype to give an impression of security. The list of holes is huge, but the promoters will offer yet more complexity to justify their position or attack you.
There are rational alternatives, such as ShofarCoin and similar ones, but they have the issue that there is no money to be made on the manipulation of money. It is a way to exchange value, so there is no financial gain it the system. Therefore there is no promotion of the system, since the bankers want a cut of everything and control of all.
I did make an attempt to bring ShofarCoin to life with Paul Grignon some years ago, but alas nothing came of it.
Can you image a world where people make money by delivering a product or service and not manipulating money. Nah, no one seems interested.
I am interested in exactly that. Just to let you know …. 🙂
I’m the tech guy and can do the nuts and bolts, but someone else needs to drive it.
It is described at: http://shofarcoin.com
Contact information is there to for anyone who could use it.
Related to What Is The Bitcoin Psyop? – Questions For Corbett #086
James Corbett says:
“…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….”
Taken from Corbett’s 12/2/2017 article:
Bitcoin $10,000: What Does It Mean?
https://www.corbettreport.com/bitcoin-10000-what-does-it-mean/
The question of “but what can you buy with it?” is why I took the decision not to buy Bitcoin in 2012 when it was valued at $20. Ah well. Once crypto became associated with speculation few people seemed bothered about what it could actually be used for. People are starting to take a more practical look at crypto now. I’ll definitely look into Bitrefill etc.
When I first started buying crypto, there weren’t any “kyc” exchanges so you had to take your own measures to protect your trades. I only traded small amounts for that reason. The only loss I had (worth about $20) was when the Cryptsy exchange disappeared.
I opted for bitcoin in 2019 with a modest investment. As it peaked at about $59000 in 2020 I cash out with an outrageous %150 profit. I then used other people’s money to buy back in at a much lower level ($32000) and now cannot lose. WhoHoo!
This is a great thread.
I agree that there’s no way the “authorities” can freeze crypto assets, but if anyone really steps on their toes, the example of Ross Ulbricht shows what the gangsters in charge will be prepared to do.
I chuckled when you said that the invention of the telephone must be the root of all evil. It was invented by a eugenecist.
Seriously, in my mind, the fact that cryptocurrencies can be databased efficiently is what scares me. I agree that they have advantages that make them less endearing than CBDC,such as decentralization, but transactions can still be blocked and monitored. The way the upcoming world is planned out to be, your every move will be monitored. That includes Bitcoin and all others like it. Sure, a SIN card is a form of tracking, and so is a traveler’s passport. However, as they are now, it’s not that easy to restrict an unwanted person’s movements. That will change soon enough, and cryptocurrencies will help do that. I don’t see how they’ll be excluded from the eye of Sauron.
After all, aren’t cryptocurrencies just like clouds? If clouds are considered unsafe because you’re putting your documents and files on someone else’s computer, so are cryptocurrencies… you’re putting your money on someone else’s computer. To make matters worse, we still don’t know who created Bitcoin, right? And we’re supposed to trust that entity? Where is the history to prove they are trustworthy?
On top of that, if Musk says blockchains and mining are not environmentally friendly, who says cryptocurrencies won’t be shut down? If they’re labeled as a source of pollution, they’ll be shut down quickly enough. What then? I’m not even thinking of internet shutdown since the chances of it being turned off forever are so small it’s not even worth considering it, and the interviewer in the clip you showed made a good point about zombies, should there be a short-term power outage. I’m wondering how likely the PTSNB would allow cryptocurrencies to live. Decentralization is the opposite of what they want, isn’t it? They want environmentally friendly money only, right?
What’s the main reason for the 5g internet network? If they’re going to take the time to verify every single face that walks every street in all areas of the globe, they’ll check your cryptocurrencies. They’ll stop you from spending on what you want to buy. They’ll find a way. If someone created blockchain, someone can or will figure out how to bypass it. Or an AI will.
I have no confidence that the NSA can’t somehow hack into anything computerized. Blockchain currency has a place for small transactions where the currency is purchased immediately before the transaction, but as far as holding large amounts of wealth in crypto, no thanks.
ANECDOTE – My first Bitcoin Buying Experience …and last weekend.
…and the…
JIM MARRS EVENT: “Population Control”
https://archive.ph/NFRVi
http://911blogger.com/news/2015-11-20/september-2015-actions-north-texans-911-truth
[Scroll down the page to see photos and details of the event, along with screenshots of advertisements promoting the event. If you click the LINK to the Backpage ad, you will see the FBI Notice of seizure which happened some years after 2015.]
Years ago, Backpage.com got its start from The Dallas Observer newspaper which had “backpage ads”. The Dallas Observer was an extremely popular online and print hardcopy newspaper. There were a variety of Backpage ad categories. One category was a girlie section with escort ads which probably added to Backpage’s popularity. As opposed to print ads, a person could run an online Backpage ad for cheap.
A Mastercard/Visa credit card ban on The Dallas Observer’s Backpage.com prompted me to purchase bitcoin August 27, 2015.
That August night I was trying to place an ad on Backpage.com in the “Events” section, because our 9/11 Group had an upcoming event: Jim Marr’s “Population Control”. Ads were fairly cheap and photos could be posted. I had run event ads on Backpage before. After setting up the script/photos for the ad, I get to the checkout ready with a credit card to pay about $25, but…
…I find out that Backpage could no longer take credit cards. The credit card companies stopped doing business with Backpage, because Backpage had an escort ad section which suddenly got national press. With the bad PR, the credit card companies withdrew from Backpage. However, Backpage could take Bitcoin.
Dang! I was up all night, learning about Bitcoin and then trying to buy some. It was a struggle back then, having to send photos of myself holding a piece of paper with the date, along with my checkbook and drivers license to some guy who I think was in Russia or Latvia or eastern Europe. The bitcoin seller was very cautious and there was a lot of back-n-forth emailing and verification. Repeatedly, I would be asked to send other verifying photos. I was very hesitant about putting my personal info out there, but gambled that it would be copacetic.
I spent a total of about $200, paying the guy a premium.
0.53651906 Bitcoin itself cost me $150.
That same night (August 27th, 2015), as the sun was rising, I sent Backpage.com 0.1775 Bitcoin, and finally got the ad placed.
(…continuing to present time…)
(…continued…)
Backpage.com eventually started taking credit cards again.
In fact, when they did, I ran some “Event” ads on Backpage which promoted the CorbettReport’s “How Big Oil Conquered the World” YouTube video images with links. It ran in the North Texas area for about 6 months.
Then later, the FBI seized Backpage.com
Over the next two years following 2015, from this same platform’s wallet, I sent out most of the remaining bitcoin to grandkids or Corbett. I had about 0.09 bitcoin left.
After 2017, I never looked at the platform’s wallet…until…coincidently, just last Friday March 18th, 2022. But aggh! I couldn’t login. I sent a message to the Help Desk.
I really needed some dough. My finances were tight. Plus, I had decided that I was going to cash out the bulk of my crypto holdings for now. If the stock market does a sell-off, crypto might also sell-off because many investors are leveraged on borrowed funds.
Fortunately, on Saturday morning when I tried again to login on this platform I could. I was relieved. My wallet holdings were there.
[BACKSTORY: A few years ago, I had also opened a crypto account on the Coinbase platform. I liked it for ease of use and acceptance of my credit card.]
So here I am logged into the original 2015 platform, looking at my wallet…
…But when I tried to send the bulk of the bitcoin to my Coinbase account from this original platform, the platform wouldn’t let me. Aggh!
There was a highlighted message that I needed to be “ID Verified” before I could send any bitcoin.
Steam started coming out of my ears as I followed the ID prompts. First two steps were to send a photo of the front and then the back of my Driver’s License. After much effort, I finally finished those steps.
I was about to explode when Step 3 wanted facial recognition. I started throwing profanities at my computer screen, but finally relented by pulling back the tape covering the monitor’s camera. There were several failed attempts as my middle finger gestures to the camera might had hampered things. Then the instructions went to another default and requested that the DL photos and facial recognition be done on my phone. The system sent an email which I accessed from my phone. When I hit the link, it was a quick 1,2,3 as my phone’s system was hijacked and I followed the prompts. I felt trapped and extorted by the whole experience, but I did send the btc and cash out.
reinventing currency to be based on electric fluctuations as apposed to the system of physical bills and coins, is just an obsession, a fetish, an attempt to completely abstract the element: work is concrete, being compensated in ones and zeros is to convert real stuff into almost fiction. ever reducing to the absurd.
I get why the dominators want it.
True, mob bosses may force the herds to comply with this or that system, but in the end the keepitstupidsimple default really shines. Here the cell tower was burned and for a week with no signal the foldable spendible was the only game in town, it happened seamlessly.
it’s the same with people holding and flipping the pages of a book vs. donning blue-light filter glasses and staring at glowing liquid crystals for hours.
I agree until/unless I hear something significantly enlightening or astounding enough to change my mind.
Thank you for this, James. I’ve wanted to understand btc for years but my mind swims every time I look into it. Finally I feel comfortable enough to explore further, and will have a look at the links.
there has been a lady in these parts who advertised in the classifieds, “sex for carpentry”. she certainly caught attention. work began in earnest, but I never heard if her reno got finished..?
James,
What if your on Social Security from the government and your money is automatically direct deposited? or on SSI? Seems they have us retired or disabled people by the balls.
As someone who has worked with Social Security and SSI recipients for years, I can offer a few suggestions. First off, it’s my personal opinion that if you have limited income and or assets you might want to consider other types of anonymous investments. SSI recipients are by law limited to the value of assets they are allowed to own. Having said that and if you can afford it, a good way to start building your safety net of anonymous assets is to allocate $30-50 a month and start buying pre 1965 US silver coins. Take your cash to a local coin store and start there. Just a suggestion. Good luck.
Hi James,
I noticed that there is no source “per se” on the book by Yasha Levine that you recommended. And that’s obvious why.
However, in order to fill that gap in the shownotes (and if the book is not available in archive.org), why don’t you add the reference to a isbn database like
– isbndb.com
– isbnsearch.org
In this case:
https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9781785785719
Just a suggestion.
(Also a reference from goodreads.com would do)
Aren’t we hurtling toward a new world order which will involve living in a virtual digital panopticon where activity will be recorded and tabulated in a social credit score ? Privacy could well be illegal.
‘We are the dead,’ he says. ‘We are the dead,’ repeats Julia behind him. Suddenly an iron voice declares behind them, ‘You are the dead.’
George Orwell 1984
Although couldn’t they just tell Google, who owns the Play Store after all to not have any crypto related apps on their platforms? So maybe the only way then to get a crypto wallet etc might then just be their website. Of course they could possibly tell the browser/search engine companies to not offer anything crypto related. I use the Brave browser now but are they going to be the next one to cave to the censoring?
My phone is degooglized, many of my apps are not from G. And the few ones I have that only be found on G.store, I got from else where.
Browser are not the point of censure, Search engines are.
The only way, that I see, to shutdown the entire crypto space would be to shutdown internet telecom… which would also shutdown most banking telecom. And further more, THEY need internet to track everyone… and distribute their propaganda.
Just my grain of salt.
Regards.
My neighbor (a German guy from Venezuela who lives next door to me in Costa Rica) plays with Bitcoin. The other day I asked him how it was going. He’s still a believer. But he said his Costa Rica bank suspended his bank account so he couldn’t do any transactions. WTF!
He went into the bank to find out why and was told he had “suspicious” transactions making transfers to the crypto exchange where he buys Bitcoin. To restore his account the guy at the bank first consulted another employee, then called the main branch in the city where authorization was given to restore the account. My neighbor was told that as long as he was using his bank account to transact with his crypto account he would be having this same problem at that bank, which is the biggest of Costa Rica’s 3 government owned banks that offer the best security for your fiat bank deposits. You can play with crypto but it might f*ck up your access to the bank accounts you depend on to pay your real bills and expenses.
About a year ago I looked into crypto. I got a wallet (easy and free) and looked for an exchange where I could use my bank account to buy crypto to put in my wallet. There are only a handful of exchanges that operate legally in Costa Rica. Several of them are very shady looking with headquarters in Caribbean gangsta countries. I began the process of opening an account with the least shady looking and discovered that to open an account requires providing the semi-shady crypto exchange with ALL of the same very invasive personal and financial information that you need to satisfy the “Know Your Client” (Conozca a su Cliente) requirements for opening a bank account. Um, no. Hell No!
During my crypto research I looked into the fees that the various exchanges charge for transactions to convert fiat into crypto and crypto into fiat; i.e. to buy crypto with fiat and to sell crypto for fiat. The “best” exchange wanted 6.99% to buy or sell crypto with dollars, and 8.99% to buy or sell crypto with colones. That is, if I pay $10,000 of fiat to buy however much Bitcoin, the exchange takes $699. If I sell the Bitcoin to get dollars the exchange takes another $699. If I’m hoping to use crypto as a “store of value” to evade fiat devaluation, well I already suffered a 14% loss – $1398 – just by buying and selling the crypto. I began with $10,000, now i have $8602. If I do it again I lose another 14% just in exchange fees. And that is assuming Bitcoin did not suffer one of its wild devaluations between the time I bought it with spare dollars, and the time I sold it because I needed dollars to pay my bills and costs of living. No. Hell no!
[SNIP – Please keep comments to 500 words or less. Longer comments can be split into multiple posts. -JC]
My neighbor has never sold crypto and used his exchange to buy dollars (or CR colones) to deposit back in his bank account. That is, it is easy to get electronic fiat money (bank deposits) “into” your crypto wallet but it is another thing to get the money back “out”. To pay your utilities or buy food and other stuff here you have to pay with either dollars or colones, either in cash or bank deposits (by debit card or online banking). Almost nobody who sells the things you need for day to day life accepts payment in crypto. But most accept bank deposits and everybody accepts fiat cash money, dollars or colones.
When Bukele made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador most of the merchants rejected it. They neither knew how to accept crypto payments nor wanted to learn. Most of them will never accept crypto. Most of them do not have the ability to accept electronic debit card payments so they deal in paper cash money and physical coins, nothing else. Millions of people and 1000s of merchants and businesses in Central America work exclusively or almost exclusively with physical cash money: fiat banknotes and coins.
Cash is universally accepted as money payment by virtually everybody who sells anything for money. Electronic bank deposits are accepted by everybody who has a bank account, and by every merchant who has bought the hardware and pays for the hardwired connection to the banks’ electronic payments system (and pays a fee of 1.5-3% to the banks or credit card issuers for every electronic payment they receive; whereas merchants pay no fee and receive full price for accepting cash payment). Gold and silver coins are accepted by almost nobody. Crypto is accepted by almost nobody.
If what you offer as “money” is not accepted as payment by the people who have the stuff you want to buy, then what you offer fails to function as “money”, as a widely or universally accepted payments medium.
Fiat cash money remains King of all Monies. “Fractional reserve” bank deposits are legally payable (by your bank to you) in fiat cash money. When you pay with a credit card you are paying with bank deposits because you pay your credit card bill online with bank deposits. To fund your Paypal or ApplePay or WeChatPay account you use bank deposits. To buy China’s central bank digital currency you pay with bank deposits from your Chinese bank account, and you have to be a resident in China to get a Chinese bank account (I tried, and failed, to convert some of my money into yuan).
Commercial bank issued bank deposits remain overwhelmingly the most accepted form of electronic money, and central bank issued banknotes and coins (physical cash) remain the only really universal form of payments money that everybody accepts.
So if you are looking for a form of Doomsday money that will be accepted as payment by the people who sell the stuff you need, stock up on fiat cash. If cash is banned there will be a very large black market where fiat cash still works as money. If you are looking for a long term store of value against fiat devaluation or collapse – a monetary insurance policy – stock up on gold and silver coins buried in your favorite hiding spot.
If Doomsday comes you will need physical money to pay the local merchants who sell what you need – food and water. You will need fiat cash money. And if fiat fails you might be able to pay with gold and silver coins, though the value of the coins is way too high to buy aguacates and bananos from a vendor who can’t make change for a coin that is “worth” $2000. Which means fiat banknotes and coins will remain the best form of money, as long as there is an “economy” where you can still buy real stuff and pay with money. If the economy fails and you’re not a self-sufficient peasant farmer way back in the hills far from the starving hoards, then you will die along with everybody else who depends on “the economy” to provide your daily necessities of life.
I am not stymied by the technical aspects of dealing in crypto. I reject crypto because it is for the most part a racket run by crooks and crypto will never be a viable form of payments money, and crypto is a very questionable store of value.
After looking into crypto I came to the realization that crypto is a racket in which insiders take money from outsiders. The exchanges don’t care if you lose or gain on crypto price speculation. They get their (big) cut coming and going. The 1000s of coin issuers get paid “real” fiat money for the crypto coins they conjure out of nothing and sell to suckers. There is one born every minute, I’ve heard.
Tues March 22 – Bankless Times via Zero Hedge
Top 2 Richest BTC Wallets Hold 2% Of All Bitcoins
[Graph of richest Wallets in article]
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/top-2-richest-btc-wallets-holds-2-all-bitcoins
EXCERPTS
According to data compiled by Banklesstimes.com, the top two wallets globally hold 1.2% and 0.80% of all BTC in circulation. The two wallets, which hold 252,597, and 168,010 Bitcoins are held in Binance and Bitfinex exchanges, respectively.
The comprehensive data also includes more details on all the Bitcoin holders. There are currently over 41 million holders. An analysis of the top 100 holders show that they account for 14.11%, with the amount of Bitcoins held ranging from 252,597 to 9,000 BTC coins.
Most Bitcoin whales are HODLing
The data further reveals that most of the Bitcoin whales are HODLers. The data presented of the top 100 wallets showed no change in the holding addresses for over a week. Only a handful of these addresses made transactions to either add or reduce the amount of BTC in their wallets.
The current crypto markets are turbulent and with so much going on, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what direction the digital currencies will take. Most crypto investors are unsure what to do with their coins, which explains why most of the wallets remain unchanged over the last week.
What’s even more interesting is that most wallets that recorded a change over the past week, recorded declines in the amount of BTC held. The holding address with the largest transaction in this front made a transfer of -2950 BTC.
On the contrary, the largest BTC deposit into any of these addresses amounted to over 5200 BTC coins.
Binance, OKEx, hold the largest amount among exchanges
The data reveals that Binance and OKEx are the leading exchanges in the amount of BTC held. The two exchanges account for 1.2 and 1.12% of the circulating Bitcoin supply.
Other exchanges that hold a significant percentage of Bitcoins include Bittrex, BitMex, Bitfinex, Coincheck, and Poloniex. These hold about 0.15%, 0.07%, 0.92%, 0.16%, and 0.08%. Other smaller exchanges hold more than 96% of the circulating BTC.
Out of the total 21 million BTC coin supply, 90% is already minted. We can, therefore, expect the number of holding addresses to increase as more people become aware of digital currencies in the coming years.
IMAGE
Where The World Regulates Cryptocurrency
https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/27069.jpeg
FROM Zero Hedge…
zerohedge.com/crypto/where-world-regulates-cryptocurrency
[Article discusses countries and CBDC.]
Related sideways…
Peter Schiff: Beware of Gold Scams (and silver)
https://schiffgold.com/peters-podcast/peter-schiff-beware-of-gold-scams/
— Normally, I don’t follow Peter Schiff, but he gives some good advice if a person is wanting to purchase gold or silver from a dealer.
He talks about “bait and switch”.
He suggests a reputable dealer.
I had good success with MilesFranklin in the U.S. when I bought American Eagle silver dollars a few years back. Very professional and transparent.
In order to avoid the “KYC” trap (Know Your Customer: meaning you lose all privacy), I recommend the Bisq platform:
https://bisq.network/
https://youtu.be/og7tqVK8c1E
To be honest, the growing interest in cryptocurrencies doesn’t solely come from the fear of getting your account frozen.
For many, cryptocurrencies are starting to look like a safe investment as we keep hearing from the alt-media that we’re going to hit a massive recession and all traditional currencies are about to lose their value.
I have numerous concerns about virtual currencies.
They don’t deal with the underlying problem of fiat currency. If I’m going to switch to, or participate in, anything, I want it to be MORE ethical, not equally or less ethical. What is the value based on?
I went without a bank account for 20 years (1998-2018) and only got one again a few years ago under duress, so I can cash checks. I (grudgingly) use fiat federal reserve notes for everything, sometimes purchasing post office money orders for larger amounts being sent through the mail (which I think could be purchased and used as cash if not filled out until someone decided to “cash it in.”) I quite often send cash through the mail, as I recently did to pay for my CR membership.
I don’t use credit cards. I did have a sears charge back in the early 90s. I only ever bought something on credit 2 times. I had enough money to pay for both items, but I was young and was told I needed to get a good credit rating. The stress of having those payments hanging over my head was too much. I made double and triple payments to get out from under them and I never bought anything on credit again.
I think credit cards are a step toward a cashless society, which I don’t want any part of. All virtual payment methods seem to me to be leading toward and assisting in this goal.
I have issues with Wall Street. For years I have said it is rich men’s gambling. I don’t believe in gambling. I also have issues with usury so would forego interest payments on a bank account. Cryptocurrencies seem to conflict with both of these concerns.
Plus there are concerns about government and tracking etc. etc.
There is probably more, but that’s a start.
As I said, I would have to hear something extremely convincing to reconsider.
dragonfly, I agree with you completely. We may be heading for time that if you do not hold it in your hand it’s not yours.
People say that crypto is gold. I understand and people are making fiat currency by investing in crypto but…
What if we have no electricity?
What if the internet is shut down due to national security reasons?
What if an EMP device explodes above our heads?
Sorry but still old school here. Gold, Silver in physical form, outside of the banking system, outside of any system for that matter. It will still allow you to barter or trade in community.
In Lak’ech
brooks1
I thought your latin deserved translation lest it get overlooked:
“There is an infinite number of fools… Buyer beware”
I agree, abstracting from the grand fiction of fiat to the nifty nonsense of just numbers held in magnetic suspension,, somewhere? yet being willing to trade physical stuff for it. Brave fools, but hey, it sort of works, or aside from the exoplosion of novelty beyond the chop wood carry water days, does it make for billions of mini me I am king minds?
I see the fiat as an abstraction being dreamt and affected/steered by many players. Where-as the digital abstraction finally eliminates the uncontrollable/unforseen influencers. AI might run the whole show (some will say it already is).
,,,Or so the electrical junkies thought, until, suddenly, noone ever saw it coming,, It’ll either be an EMP or the plug will get pulled, the generators shut down, some hacker will hack all hackability, end of story in a skinny second, done.
At that moment I suggest singing, and lotsa love-making. As we dawn our way through the next cosmic ray.
By Didi Rankovic via Activist Post
Friday March 25
Canadian Government Laments Fact that All Bitcoin Donations to Civil Liberties Protesters Can’t be Seized
https://www.activistpost.com/2022/03/canadian-government-laments-fact-that-bitcoin-donations-to-civil-liberties-protesters-cant-be-seized.html
EXCERPTS
…But those who decided to contribute to the cause with Bitcoin may have been somewhat more successful, reports quoting several Canadian law enforcement outfits – including the police services in Ottawa and Ontario, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), now say.
The donations made using this currency were not insignificant – they totaled 20.7 Bitcoin, or $885,000.
But here’s some bad news both for the law enforcement and for Bitcoin: the Canadian police are disappointed that they only managed to seize some 30% of the Bitcoin donations; meanwhile, Bitcoin users might wonder – why is that figure not 0%?
The answer lies in the way wallets are set up and behave….
my § a month is well spent. Thank you James for your efforts.
James,
Let me know if I’m off base with my summary of this video and the Bitcoin psyop.
The Bitcoin psyop tells us that the pysop is for us to think that bitcoin, blockchain, CBDC and cryptocurrencies are all the same.
This video clarifies on that by showing how Bitcoin is ONE of the many, many cryptos out there.
Essentially, if the Corbett viewers all decided to pick a random crypto (one that wasn’t regulated by the overlords), we could use that as our currency and that ultimately makes it valuable.
Thoughts?
I echo this as well – from the US
WOW! One of your best how to/explanations ever. “Non custodial accounts” are so important. Repeat that often. When trying to explain block chain to my very tech savvy 23 year old grandchild I used fractals as my visual for explaining how the block chain works. I’m sending her your video. I loved your history review on ledgers. For me the key word is “control”. He who holds the ledger has ALL the power/control. Thanks again. You never disappoint!
Hi Xoxoxo,
I am just starting with crypto and because i am a techie i understand the importance of decentralized solutions. I want to teach others, mostly non-techies, the workings and importance of decentralized crypto.
Besides the links of Corbett Report, can you point me to other sources I can use to improve my education and help educate non-techies?
Kind regards,
Johan
Hi Xoxoxo,
Thanks for the info, i have indeed done some digging and it is a lot of info to process in the short time we now have. Along the way i am learning to separate the BS from the real stuff.
I am not a blockchain specialist, but I know some people that are.
What do you need for Librty Tools? I am more a system administrator/storage specialist/network specialist
Unfortunately I am not from or in South Africa, would love to be there.
I live in the Netherlands and together with other local awakend ones we want to create also community based monetary systems (create or use existing solutions)
ps. Is LocalMonero a real platform or a honeypot?
Kind regards,
Johan
Dear Xoxoxo,
Thank you for your advice, i will contact you later on lbrty tools
Kind regards,
Johan
Dear Xoxoxo,
I made an account on https://librty.org/
I also took on your advice and i am involved in all kinds of projects in the region for sustainable. I don’t have a large land, but the Dutch farmers here have so I buy directly from them, also some of the members here grow food too
I want to send you more info about the communities and projects i am involved in, but how can i do that safely?
I think some of these projects is interesting for you too
Kind regards,
Johan
This digital currency is more immune to centralized control/corruption than Bitcoin/blockchain:
https://youtu.be/cfaEx-TSb7Q
http://gotchoices.org/mychips/beginner.html
It is more fully distributed (as opposed to just de-centralized) and has no public ledger, so no double-spending problem and even more privacy.
[If only for the PHOTOS, this article is worth a look.]
Authored by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum.
Ethereum Founder Defends Bitcoin Maximalism In A World Of ‘Honest’ Vs ‘Grifter’ Cryptos
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/ethereum-founder-defends-bitcoin-maximalism-world-honest-vs-grifter-cryptos
https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/04/01/maximalist.html
EXCERPTS
We’ve been hearing for years that the future is blockchain, not Bitcoin. The future of the world won’t be one major cryptocurrency, or even a few, but many cryptocurrencies…Bitcoin is a boomer coin, and Ethereum is soon to follow; it will be newer and more energetic assets that attract the new waves of mass users who don’t care about weird libertarian ideology or “self-sovereign verification”, are turned off by toxicity and anti-government mentality, and just want blockchain defi and games that are fast and work.
But what if this narrative is all wrong, and the ideas, habits and practices of Bitcoin maximalism are in fact pretty close to correct? What if Bitcoin is far more than an outdated pet rock tied to a network effect? What if Bitcoin maximalists actually deeply understand that they are operating in a very hostile and uncertain world where there are things that need to be fought for, and their actions, personalities and opinions on protocol design deeply reflect that fact? What if we live in a world of honest cryptocurrencies (of which there are very few) and grifter cryptocurrencies (of which there are very many), and a healthy dose of intolerance is in fact necessary to prevent the former from sliding into the latter? That is the argument that this post will make.
We live in a dangerous world, and protecting freedom is serious business….
@Xoxoxo
What steps (if any) do you take to protect your cryptocurrency investments in the case of a large CME? Also, considering your knowledge of how the nodes, blockchain and data transmission work and how those systems are distributed globally, when a ‘Carrington Event’ scale CME (or larger) hits Earth, how long after that event do you think it would be before people would be able to use their crypto as a means of purchasing and payment for services rendered again?
Here is some info on CME-s and what they can (and inevitably will) do to our current technological infrastructure for reference: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/preparing-for-the-100-year-storms
@X
Thank you for the thoughtful and in-depth reply.
It is refreshing to engage with someone that recognizes the vulnerabilities of our tech and currency infrastructures (whether they are crypto or fiat) and is actively taking steps to become resilient enough to withstand the force of the hundred year storm(s).
When I have spoken to other proponents of cryptocurrency about the vulnerabilities of hardware to natural and manmade events in the past they usually scoff at me and make jokes about how unlikely “apocalyptic” conditions are to happen in our lifetime.
With events like Cyber Polygon making clear the apparent motivation for certain plutocrats to initiate some sort of “cyber-false flag op”, I think it is very possible that we may not have to wait for a CME to see what a crippled tech infrastructure would mean for daily life. I have no doubt that whether it is part of a long planned false flag op or just something they are willing deploy because they are cornered and vicious, highly powerful EMP devices are part of the arsenal that is on the table for those that some call “the cabal”.
We also have a faraday cage where I store a limited amount of gadgets (mostly related to energy generation, water purification, communication etc) and some drives (with cherished memories, evidence of cabal operations for posterity and art forms etc). Though I also take steps to be capable of living (comfortably) without those things.
I admire your prioritizing putting your energy into the land, community, tools, soil and seeds. These are things that have intrinsic value and are some of the things that make up the substance of what I call True Wealth.
I appreciate you reading my article, perhaps I will repost it on your Uncovr network.
Thank you for the important work you do.
@X
I edited my article to include your link about building a faraday cage. Hopefully it guides some people who are interested in learning more about the decentralized tools you provide to explore your website.
I attempted to sign up for your website as a content creator but it said I was using an invalid username and email (even though I attempted sign up under multiple different user names and email addresses). Perhaps your system does not accept gmail and outlook addresses since they are cabal controlled services?
But why would the user name be invalid ? Are there certain parameters for the characters that have to be included in a user name?
xoxoxo,
Thanks for the responding.
Can you be more specific as to the nature of the “breaking point” you perceive is on the horizon?
I wish you all the best in your off grid endeavors.