June 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Cryptocurrency: Bankster Warren Launches WarOnCrypto To Kill Freedom, Wallets, Miners, Fight Back!!!
by grarpamp 09 Jan '24

09 Jan '24

> https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/the-digital-asset-anti-money-laundering-act-is-… > https://decrypt.co/117221/senator-warren-crypto-bill-kyc-self-custody-walle… > https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/elizabeth-warren-crypt… > https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/14/elizabeth-warren-crypto-reg… > https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-sen-elizabeth-warren-says-crypto-will-rui… > https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/elizabeth-warren-targets-crypto-money-… > https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2022/11/23/regulate_crypto_or_itll_take_d… > https://www.theblock.co/post/194941/warren-marshall-introduce-bill-to-tight… > > https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/DAAML%20Act%20of%202022.pdf > https://www.durbin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_fidelity_investments_… > https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/recommendations/March%202021… Elizabeth Warren’s crypto bill targets financial freedom, not fraud https://reason.com/2022/12/16/elizabeth-warrens-crypto-bill-targets-financi… Sen. Elizabeth Warren is coming after your financial privacy with her anti-crypto bill. https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-marshall-intro… https://www.warren.senate.gov/download/12/15/2022/daaml-act-of-2022 https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-im-less-than-infinitely-hostile https://reason.com/2021/12/01/turks-flee-to-gold-bitcoin-and-foreign-curren… https://reason.com/video/2022/03/11/the-canadian-government-couldnt-stop-bi… https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/20/americas/canada-trucker-protest-covid-sunday https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/marshall-warren-int… https://www.wired.com/story/20-years-after-911-surveillance-has-become-a-wa… https://www.wired.com/2011/09/911-surveillance/ https://time.com/6096903/september-11-legal-history/ https://reason.com/2016/04/27/snowden-speaks/ https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/the-privacy-lesson-of-9-11-mass… https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/rolling-back-post-9… https://www.cato.org/blog/warren-targets-financial-privacy-wake-ftx-fall J.D. Tuccille | 12.16.2022 Senator Warren wants to extend the financial surveillance state cooked up by drug warriors and anti-terrorism fearmongers to cryptocurrencies. Beyond politically connected scammers and frothy valuations, the attractiveness of cryptocurrencies lies in their potential for doing what cash does, but across distances. When governments inflate money, people turn to other stores of value, including crypto. When politicians and their financial-sector accomplices block transactions of which they disapprove, people look for alternative means of doing deals without permission, crypto among them. So, when officials talk of stripping privacy and autonomy from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, you know they would do the same to cash if they could. "Rogue nations, oligarchs, drug lords, and human traffickers are using digital assets to launder billions in stolen funds, evade sanctions, and finance terrorism," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) huffed this week. "The crypto industry should follow common-sense rules like banks, brokers, and Western Union, and this legislation would ensure the same standards apply across similar financial transactions. The bipartisan bill will help close crypto money laundering loopholes and strengthen enforcement to better safeguard U.S. national security." The bipartisan bill to which Warren refers sports the tendentious moniker, Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022. Stripped of grandiose claims, it attempts to extend the financial surveillance state cooked up by drug warriors and anti-terrorism fearmongers to cryptocurrencies. Warren and company picked an opportune moment to do just that, while the public is occupied with a headline-grabbing financial scandal that taints crypto's already sketchy reputation. In fact, Sam Bankman-Fried's shenanigans at FTX, perhaps concealed by generous political donations, look old-school, including mingling personal and corporate funds in ways that would have raised red flags long before digital tokens. But they cast further shade over a crypto sector that had yet to gain acceptance by the American mainstream. After years of breathy warnings that cryptocurrency is shady, and speculative values detached from reality, many people are prepared to believe the worst. "Crypto is an interesting technology that had one terrible piece of bad luck: its standard-bearer, bitcoin, went up in value 10,000x over a few years," wide-ranging commentator Scott Alexander wrote earlier this month. "When something goes up in value 10,000x, it's hard to think of it in any other context. Whatever it was before, now it's 'that thing which went up in value 10,000x'." Alexander points out that, despite the shellacking the crypto sector is taking in the press and from politicians, it remains popular in countries where it's used for its intended purpose as a store of value and a means of exchange in defiance of authoritarian controls. "Vietnam uses crypto because it's terrible at banks," he notes. "There's a history of the government forcing banks to make terrible loans, and then those banks collapsing." In socialist Venezuela, "cryptocurrency provides a hard-to-ban alternative which has caught on among Venezuelan hustlers and small businessmen." This played out in Turkey when the government got serious about turning the lira into toilet paper and people bought gold, foreign currency, and bitcoin. Bitcoin also became a means for Canadian protesters to work around government attempts to financially isolate their protest movement. "Of course a technology centered around avoiding governance and banking failures will be centered in the countries with the most governance and banking failures!" Alexander adds. But any technology that can be used by good people can also be used by bad people. That's as true of window curtains as it is of crypto (or cash). The same privacy sought by a family going through evening routines might serve a terrorist building bombs, just as businesses and activists evading a hostile state might use the same currency that purchases bomb parts. Politicians love playing up potential abuses. "Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, our government enacted meaningful reforms that helped the banks cut off bad actors' from America's financial system. Applying these similar policies to cryptocurrency exchanges will prevent digital assets from being abused to finance illegal activities without limiting law-abiding American citizens' access," insists Sen. Roger Marshall (R–Kan.), co-sponsor of the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022. When politicians hold up the post-9/11 panic that supercharged the surveillance state as their model, take them seriously. The legacy of that time is widely recognized as an over-powerful government that intrudes into Americans' lives, subjecting our activities and communications to monitoring and diminishing our liberty. With their bill, Warren, Marshall, and company want to extend that surveillance to financial technology that was explicitly developed to empower individual liberty and privacy. "The bill first seeks to classify self‐<U+200B>hosted wallets as money service businesses," cautions the Cato Institute's Nicholas Anthony. "For those unfamiliar, self‐<U+200B>hosted wallets are merely the digital equivalent of a wallet in your pocket or purse. ... Where much of the financial surveillance in the United States depends on what's known as the third‐<U+200B>party doctrine, self‐<U+200B>hosted wallets offer individuals protection from government surveillance and censorship. Yet Senator Warren's bill would put an end to that protection." The bill, says Anthony, would "classify cryptocurrency miners, validators, and network participants as money service businesses." It "also sets its sights on cryptocurrency mixers" who "offer individuals the opportunity to enhance their privacy when using cryptocurrencies on public blockchains." In fact, the bill's language specifies that "the Secretary of the Treasury shall promulgate a rule that prohibits financial institutions from ... handling, using, or transacting business with digital asset mixers, privacy coins, and other anonymity-enhancing technologies." Senators Warren and Marshall talk about "terrorism" and "drug lords," but their clear goal (whether or not its within their reach, which is another matter) is to strip crypto of its ability to be used privately and without permission in the same way we use cash. Their objections to digital money also apply to banknotes and coins. Ultimately, it's not crypto they fear, but our liberty to earn, purchase, save, and donate without being impoverished, scrutinized, or stopped by government officials. Bitcoin and other digital tokens have their flaws, but they're an attempt to fulfill a widespread desire for reliable stores of value and means of exchange independent of control. And while all such forms of money are vulnerable to fraud and theft, that's already illegal. The Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022 doesn't even attempt to address such crimes, instead, it's an attack on financial privacy and liberty. For all the reasons politicians are coming after crypto, you can bet that cash is next.

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Notary Public License Law (New York DEPARTMENT OF STATE Division of Licensing Services)
by Gunnar Larson 08 Jan '24

08 Jan '24

Brody Larson collates 34 highlights to Notary Public License Law (New York DEPARTMENT OF STATE Division of Licensing Services): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L4rPu4covfuTBAEcQOlP2jS8A8XNDq9E/view?usp=…

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McAfee Founder’s Neighbor Dead in Belize After Dogs Poisoned
by Gunnar Larson 06 Jan '24

06 Jan '24

McAfee Founder’s Neighbor Dead in Belize After Dogs Poisoned https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-12/mcafee-founder-is-suspec… John McAfee, the founder of the popular anti-virus software maker, is considered “a person of interest” in the murder of U.S. citizen Gregory Faull and has yet to be located, Belize National Security Ministry spokesman Raphael Martinez said.

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DropGangs: Parcel Services Now CensorBanning Shipments, MICT, Hawala
by grarpamp 30 Dec '23

30 Dec '23

Global and local shippers have quietly rolled out mandatory Govt ID to send all packages... MICT and other imaging covers were secretly rolled out... to integrate with global censorship, permission, control, and datamining regimes. And now the predictions of "conspiracy theorists" and others are coming true... UPS and other carriers now appear to be conspiring with authoritarian political regimes to arbitrarily censor shipments without law or court order. https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/ceo-says-roughly-two-… https://offensively-patriotic.com/2022/07/02/ups-cancelling-firearm-dealer-… 3D printer manufacturers, crypto miners, journos, are all next to be censored from shipping. All who do not pass Political and or Social Scoring will be denied access to services. Freedom is and will experience much Downtime if not countered. Drop Gangs, crypto-enabled Hawala networks, all now needed and must be developed and deployed, to make letters, parcels, goods, services, and data appear out one side of the network when input into the other site.

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The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' – Bitcoin News
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '23

17 Dec '23

Whete is Kathryn Haun when you need her on NYCCoin? ..... https://news.bitcoin.com/the-silk-road-investigation-a-pattern-of-bad-behav… by Jamie Redman Oct 22, 2019 The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' Kathryn Haun, a general partner at U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has revealed in recent interviews how she helped take down the Silk Road when she was working for the Attorney General’s office. According to her accounts, the U.S. government agency also asked her to help “start shutting down technology before it’s built.” Haun’s story also highlights how the U.S. government’s evidence against the Silk Road transpired because of double agents. Also read: FBI Agent Admits to Stealing Silk Road Bitcoins Seized by U.S. Marshals Kathryn Haun Was Asked to Disrupt Bitcoin in 2012 During the last few years, governments worldwide have been cracking down on digital assets like on and off-ramps that are tied to fiat. Regulations are far stricter than they were in the early days, when governments first heard about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Andreessen Horowitz general partner Kathryn Haun has a lot of experience working with government agencies when it comes to the cryptocurrency economy. She witnessed the takedown of the Silk Road darknet marketplace and before she started she was even asked to help dismantle the Bitcoin network. During an interview with CNBC, Haun revealed how a colleague mentioned the up and coming technology to her in 2012. “‘We have this perfect assignment for you – there’s this thing called Bitcoin and we need to investigate it,'” Haun told the news outlet on October 6. “That was the first time I’d ever heard of bitcoin,” she added. The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' Former Silk Road investigator Kathryn Haun. Attempts to shut down Bitcoin by agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice were fruitless ventures, Haun detailed. “It would have been akin to saying ‘let’s go prosecute cash,'” the former prosecutor said. “What we heard with Libra were the same criticisms [about Bitcoin],” Haun remarked. While discussing the similarities between her early days with Bitcoin in contrast to Libra, she continued: They got more attention because of the high-profile nature of the project and the fact that Facebook was involved. I think it would be a really dangerous thing, and frankly a dangerous precedent to start shutting down technology before it’s built. Uncovering the Silk Road and Parallel Investigations During another recently published interview with Haun, the Andreesen Horowitz partner spoke with Hayman Capital founder Kyle Bass about her role during the prosecution of the Silk Road marketplace. “The Silk Road was making millions of dollars a month and they were generating a lot of revenue,” Haun stressed. She doesn’t remember exactly how the Silk Road case got opened in New York, but she recalls Senator Chuck Schumer read a Wired article that prompted him to wonder why the marketplace was allowed to exist. “So the Southern District of New York, which is another Attorney General’s office – I was in the U.S. Attorney General’s office in San Francisco – SDNY opened the case and was trying to figure out who was behind the Silk Road. At this same time, a D.C. office was also trying to figure out who was running the Silk Road — And there were parallel investigations going.” The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' Haun discusses the Silk Road investigation with Hayman Capital founder Kyle Bass. Haun explained that the government had task forces comprised of many alphabet soup agencies: “We’re talking the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Marshals,” she underlined. “One task force, the one out of Washington D.C., they had an undercover agent. That undercover agent was able to befriend the person running the Silk Road. All the government knew at the time was that the person running the Silk Road went by the nickname ‘DPR’ for ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ from the movie ‘The Princess Bride.’ So they didn’t know who DPR was, but the undercover agent actually set up an attempt to buy the Silk Road.” The Foundation of Evidence from the Silk Road Case Stemmed from Double Agents According to the former prosecutor, the undercover agent struck many online conversations with DPR and proceeded for the next two years to engage and message with the moniker. “A lot of things went wrong on both sides — From the Silk Road side, 2013 was a really bad year for the Silk Road because what you had was a person who had an online persona called ‘Death from Above,’” Haun said. “Death from Above starting extorting DPR and saying ‘if you don’t pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin I’m going to reveal your identity to law enforcement.’ Meanwhile, there was another online persona who went by the moniker ‘French Maid.’ French Maid was selling DPR information about the government’s investigation. French Maid told DPR the Feds are closing in and the end is near and you are about to be had.” Haun added: The government didn’t know any of this then and it all came out after the fact. In the midst of this, something else really bad happened in 2013 — About 21,000 bitcoins, which is today in excess of roughly $150 million dollars, went missing overnight from the Silk Road. From Silk Road vendor accounts and from what you might consider the petty cash account — Although there’s nothing petty about 21,000 bitcoins. The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' Haun’s story begs the question: How much evidence would the government have without the use of double agents and rogue officers manipulating the investigation? During the remainder of the interview, Haun discussed Curtis Green’s role with the Silk Road and said Green showed the Feds “how the Silk Road worked, how to log into it, how to reset vendor PINs and passwords, and of course [Green] had that access because he was the key administrator.” Haun also said Green even gave his laptop to the Feds to keep as evidence. The discussion with Kyle Bass shows how government agents claim to have dismantled the Silk Road from the words of a former Federal prosecutor. However, Haun wasn’t involved with the DPR takedown first hand, but she was very much involved with investigating rogue agents. At first, when she heard about the first rogue agent she took it with “a grain of salt” and actually said it was a shame the tipster was smearing a Federal agent’s good name. But the tipster was insistent and she decided to look into it. “We saw that this agent who we got the tip for was liquidating hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions a month, in cryptocurrency. So I thought it’s probably another undercover operation and there’s probably a legitimate explanation,” Haun explained. The Silk Road Investigation: A 'Pattern of Bad Behavior and Double Agents' >From left to right — Carl Mark Force, Shaun Bridges, and Curtis Green all played a ‘double agent’ role in the Silk Road investigation. Curtis Green was a Silk Road moderator who was told by the U.S. government to fake his own death. Haun concluded that the rogue agent was caught telling exchanges to destroy transaction histories. Because undercover agents who are running undercover operations shouldn’t be asking for evidence to be destroyed, it raised a red flag Haun said. Her team found a “pattern of really bad behavior to put it mildly” and in the end, it turned out the rogue agent was both online personas: French Maid and Death from Above. Essentially, the interview with Haun shows that Curtis Green, Shaun Bridges, and Carl Mark Force were acting as double agents during the entire investigation. The discussion with Haun further highlights how the Silk Road case was quite messy and many constitutional laws were broken by rogue agents in order to disrupt the site. Still, the U.S. government, with no thought toward constitutional law and a complete disregard for true justice, based all their Silk Road evidence on the shameful ethics of Curtis Green and two rogue cops — Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges. It goes to show that the many unanswered questions surrounding the case, like how government agents found the Silk Road’s IP address, which wasn’t due to a faulty ‘captcha’ screen as claimed, were likely due to perfidious agents gone rogue.

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Harvard inflates wood ...
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '23

17 Dec '23

" ... When recommendations by some consultants and the allocation of TIMBER by Harvard University’s endowment led to broad interest in the asset. Timber funds were launched with the understanding that they provided diversification and enhanced returns. Our analysis showed that timber did not add any value to our clients’ portfolios, and we recommended against investing in timber funds." -Goldman Sachs Investment Group (June 2021): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yEQupX1a7VS4K6N018Y0SF_0v4lpJWz8/view?usp=… -- *Gunnar Larson - xNY.io <http://www.xNY.io> | Bank.org <http://Bank.org>* MSc <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - Digital Currency MBA <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454-9107 New York, New York 10001

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[log][personal][ot] digital strangenesses
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 11 Dec '23

11 Dec '23

this ipad's gps began thinking it is in washington a couple nights ago, and hence now sets the time 3 hours in the past

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Meta Platforms, Inc. Board of Directors - USPTO, Digital Assets and Moscow Exchange
by Gunnar Larson 06 Dec '23

06 Dec '23

Dear Meta Board of Directors: Please find the attached memo <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f_fq1GaKNaAUGEyztdm-oMtIuEW2yXj4C5aoN0G…> addressed to your attention. - Today’s correspondence is to kindly submit xNY.io’s overall concern of Meta Platforms, Inc. and Moscow Exchange mark similarities, specifically, both marks seemingly resemble a geometric design consisting of two loops and/orovals touching or intersecting. xNY.io kindly asks Meta’s Board to respond by Friday, March 25, 2022 at 5:00pm EST. Respectfully yours, Gunnar Larson -- *Gunnar Larson - xNY.io <http://www.xNY.io> | Bank.org <http://Bank.org>* MSc <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - Digital Currency MBA <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454-9107 New York, New York 10001

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Cryptocurrency: Capturing The Carnage, BTFD!
by grarpamp 04 Dec '23

04 Dec '23

As all the derivatives, shitcoins, exchanges, and debt unwind, and as Global Fiat happily pours its fuel on the fire via raising yields and QT, solid distributed p2p crypto projects and developing tech on the caliber of Bitcoin, including BTC, will survive to see greener days ahead. As such, both the rational and the insane might do well to DYOR on BTFD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4v8rLEI4Pg BTFD McAfee GANG! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3QQJ18toPo PANIC SELLER!

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Cryptocurrency: CBDC Digital Fiat WARNING BELLS GOING OFF
by grarpamp 30 Nov '23

30 Nov '23

Lol. For those that still foolishly worship Politicians GovBank and generally still have their head in the sand... 1984 warnings are everywhere, just say NO to Digital Fiats and CBDCs. Say NO, right now. Countdown To Governments Default https://economicprism.com/countdown-to-u-s-government-default/ https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/03/the-world-quietly-took-another-step… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOEvurCVuk https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/03/09/ex… https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/money-and-payments-202201… Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are coming. And they’re coming much faster than most people care to think about. Are you ready? At the moment, roughly 90 central banks – including the European Central Banks and the Federal Reserve – are either experimenting with, or are in varying stages of CBDC implementation. Moreover, these CBDC friendly central banks include all G20 economies. And together, represent more than 90 percent of global GDP. What’s important to understand is the adoption of a CBDC in your country of residence would accompany the abolition of cash. This would be for your own good, of course. To eliminate nefarious transactions and black markets. If you value financial privacy and the liberty to spend your money as you please, then the rapidly approaching rollout of CBDCs is a major red flag. Compulsory use of a CBDC, like a digital dollar for example, would give central planners complete oversight and control over your finances. You see, under a CBDC regime – free of cash – all of your transactions would be subject to government surveillance. All remnants of financial freedom, privacy, and anonymity would be destroyed. But that’s not all… CBDCs would allow control freak, power mad central planners to do much more than spy and surveil your financial transactions. CBDCs would allow them to control how and when you spend your money. This may sound crazy to a sane person, who operates with a modicum of modesty and integrity. But, in truth, this is one of the main intents of CBDCs. In fact, several years ago Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustin Carstens outlined the extraordinary powers CBDCs would afford central planners. Here are the particulars from Carstens himself: “There is a huge difference [between CBDC and cash]. For example, with cash we don’t know who’s using a 100 dollar bill today. We don’t know who’s using a 1,000 peso bill today. A key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control under rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and we will have the technology to enforce that.” Do you get it? The central planners want absolute control over how you spend your money. This includes the U.S. government too… Traceable And Programmable On March 9, the Biden administration released an executive order (EO) requiring several federal agencies to study digital currencies and to identify ways to regulate them. A big part of the EO is focused on blockchain based cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum. However, within the EO, Biden also directs the federal government and Federal Reserve to lay the foundation for a potential new U.S. currency, a CBDC – perhaps, a digital dollar. Specifically, the EO directs the U.S. Treasury, and other federal agencies, to study the development of the new CBDC and report back within 180 days of the potential risks and benefits of a digital dollar. The EO also directs the Treasury Department, Office of the Attorney General and Federal Reserve to produce a ‘legislative proposal’ to create a digital currency within 210 days, about seven months. The digital dollar is coming, and it’s coming quick. To be clear, the adoption of a digital dollar by the U.S. government, as Biden intends, would be one of the greatest expansions of federal power ever made. The digital dollar would be much different than a digital version of the existing U.S. dollar. It would also be much different than cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum, which are decentralized. Digital dollars would be traceable and programmable. The Federal Reserve, or some other government agency, would have the ability to create digital dollars at whim. Moreover, the digital dollars could be programmed to have various rules and restrictions governing how and when they are spent. Earlier this year, in Federal Reserve published report about the development of a CBDC, the Fed provided examples of possible ‘design choices’ for a digital dollar, including that “a central bank might limit the amount of CBDC an end user could hold.” Biden’s EO plan for a digital dollar also includes design choices that will give the federal government total control over financial freedom and the economy. The EO even states the CBDC and other policies governing digital assets must mitigate “climate change and pollution” and promote “financial inclusion and equity.” This is a major focus. >From this, we can speculate that financial inclusion and equity means wealth redistribution. And climate change mitigation means restrictions to fossil-fuel use. These, and other government dictates, like the direct subtraction of taxes and fees from your account, would be programmed into the digital dollar. Why now… Blowback U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia, including cutting Russian financial institutions off from SWIFT and preventing the Russian Central Banks from using its foreign currency reserves, may prove to be a strategic blunder. The blowback potential is real, and is already happening. Europe, which depends on Russia for 40 percent of its natural gas, is now reaping the whirlwind. According to Bloomberg, Putin has signed a decree demanding payment in rubles for Russian gas supplies starting April 1 (today). Will Europe submit? There are rumors European nations are already covertly buying rubles. The ruble’s increase on the foreign exchange market to pre-invasion levels certainly hints something is in the works. Regardless, the U.S. is losing control over the international financial and payment system. By freezing Russia out SWIFT, Putin is being forced to look for other alternatives. Specifically, China has been developing its own Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) as an alternative to SWIFT. Sanctions against Russia may further accelerate the use and adoption of CIPS by nations that are opposed to western influence. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology also offer banks and individuals ways to move payments without using dollars or SWIFT. The very success of the weaponization of the legacy financial system by the U.S. and Europe is driving Russia and others into such alternatives. Hence, fewer international transactions in dollars could undermine the dollar’s reserve currency status. This would have serious implications for the U.S. economy, as the dollar would likely suffer a significant devaluation. In the U.S. consumer price inflation (official) is already at a 40 year high. Unofficially, it’s higher than it has been in over 100 years. Between the financial war being waged, raging consumer price inflation, a $30 trillion national debt, trillion dollar deficits, and unfunded liabilities running into the hundreds of trillions, something’s got to give… …namely, the U.S. dollar. Countdown to U.S. Government Default The popular American myth is that the U.S. government has never defaulted on its debt. Quite frankly, that’s unadulterated hogwash. The U.S. government has (unofficially) defaulted on its debt twice within the last hundred years. Executive Order 6102 of 1933, which forced all American citizens to turn in gold coins and bars, was, in fact, a default. Gold ownership in the United States, with some small limitations, was illegal for the next 40 years. Under EO 6102, Americans were compensated $20.67 per troy ounce of gold. They were paid with paper dollars. Immediately following the government’s gold confiscation, the price of gold was raised by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 to $35 per ounce. Just like that, American citizens were robbed of over 40 percent of their wealth. The second default occurred in 1971, when President Nixon “temporarily” suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Prior to 1971, as determined by the Bretton Woods international monetary system, which was agreed to in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944, a foreign bank could exchange $35 with the U.S. Treasury for one troy ounce of gold. After the U.S. reneged on this established exchange rate, when foreign banks handed the U.S. Treasury $35, they received $35 in exchange. In both instances, the U.S. government didn’t overtly default on the debt. Instead, it changed the fundamentals – the terms and conditions – of the dollar. By all honest accounts, these are defaults. Similarly, the issuance of a digital dollar (a Fed issued CBDC), which is traceable and programmable, changes the terms and conditions of the cash dollar. Make no mistake. This is a default…and you won’t like it. Moreover, per Biden’s EO, this default could happen as soon as T-minus 210 days from March 9 – or as soon as October 4th. If that doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy, we don’t know what will.

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