U.S. foes are weaponizing cryptocurrency says new report

[bostonangler]

A new study from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) claims cryptocurrencies are being used by U.S. adversaries to circumvent the nation’s geopolitical supremacy. 

The report—published the same day that President Trump slammed Bitcoin on Twitter—focuses on Venezuela, China, Iran, and Russia, the four countries that are either subject to or most at risk of U.S. sanctions.

Venezuela has already launched a national crypto and China recently accelerated its plans to do the same. Russia, meanwhile, is piloting multiple blockchain projects, seeking to develop a strategic advantage, and—on Saturday—Iran unveiled plans for a gold-backed cryptocurrency.

The FDD study warns that a national digital currency issued by any these nations—particularly one tied to a major commodity, such as oil—may make sanctions much harder to enforce. Washington, it said, needs to “cultivate the expertise and influence to lead in what is becoming an international crypto race.”  

China, says the report—while locked in a trade war with America, is currently not subject to sanctions—poses the biggest threat. It’s the most technologically advanced of the U.S. adversaries, has the biggest economy and influence on world trade. It’s piloting blockchain technology, and a national cryptocurrency could compete with the dollar-based financial system. 

“China’s buy-in, if it involved moving its trade onto a blockchain platform outside the conventional system, would be a game-changer,” said the report.

But the study also cautions against other—more clandestine—approaches U.S. foes could adopt.

These include creating a digital currency wallet infrastructure that allows residents to hold and trade crypto and use it for local transactions, or building significant reserves in a widely adopted cryptocurrency, and using these to gain more influence in the global financial system. 

 

Telegram fever: the crypto messenger shaking up the world

While Russia’s plans for its own crypto are purely under consideration, or so it claims, there are already suggestions that Russia is sidestepping U.S. sanctions by investing in bitcoin.

Statements made by Vladimir Putin, while not referencing bitcoin directly, suggest that, as Russian dollar assets decrease as a result of U.S. sanctions,“the world will look for alternative savings and transaction methods.” And analysts have highlighted an increase in over-the-counter trading of Bitcoin in Russia—where large quantities are traded, bypassing official exchanges.

Meanwhile, the fresh details about Iran’s plans for a gold-backed cryptocurrency reveal that it will be mined by a small consortium of private Iranian tech companies. Shahab Javanmardi, CEO of FANAP, an Iranian IT firm, also revealed that the new crypto will utilize Iran’s supplies of cheap electricity to “ease optimal use of Iranian banks’ frozen resources.” 

The acting head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization has also claimed that “Iran is negotiating the use of cryptocurrency in its financial transactions with Austria, Bosnia, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, South Africa, and Switzerland to “circumvent U.S.-led sanctions.”

Venezuela is, to date, the only country to have issued a cryptocurrency, albeit one that has been derided by both the country’s citizens and international trading partners. However the report warned that the experiment is being used as “a valuable case study for other regimes to learn what not to do in deploying a blockchain sanctions resistance plan.”

The U.S., says the report, is at risk of being blindsided as the American financial sector has fewer short-term plans to build out the new types of money transfer systems that are being developed by its adversaries. 

“Technology has created a potential pathway to alternative financial value transfer systems outside of U.S. control,” said the report. “The target timeline may be two to three decades, but these actors are developing the building blocks now.”

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/u-foes-weaponizing-cryptocurrency-says-150457249.html

 

 

B/A

[bostonangler]

Bitcoin Tumbles as Trump Critique Tests Stellar Run for 2019

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin slumped briefly below $10,000 on Monday, following another weekend sell-off that saw some digital tokens plunge by more than 20%.

The largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 17% from Friday before paring its drop to 11% at $10,571 as of 11:50 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Other highly traded coins also retreated: Ethereum declined 17% and Litecoin fell 13%.

The tumble comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized digital coins on the heels of this year’s stellar rally. Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday that he is “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” adding that “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

Read about weekends as the “Wild West” for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin “continues to trade lower as comments from President Trump put downward pressure on the cryptocurrency,” said Alfonso Esparza, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. in Toronto. Drawing Trump’s ire means “it could fall further to $8,000, giving back all the gains made in June.”

Bitcoin initially climbed after Trump’s comments, but has since more than erased the gains.

Technical indicators were ominous, too. The GTI Vera Convergence Divergence indicator, which detects positive and negative trends, flashed a sell signal as Bitcoin hovered around $10,000.

Though it remains the key support line for the coin, a sustained break below that threshold could signal further losses ahead. The last time the indicator flashed a sell signal -- in early June -- Bitcoin dropped about 10% over the subsequent two trading sessions

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/bitcoin-tumbles-trumps-critique-tests-233323153.html

 

 

 

 

B/A

[umbertino]

 

Interesting, B/A...Thanks....Sorry...Out of pluses at the moment

[yota691]

US Treasury: Facebook currency needs guarantees against money laundering

15 Jul 2019 10:31 PM
Direct : US Treasury Secretary expressed concerns about the currency of Facebook, "Libra", pointing out that it may be abused to launder money.

Stephen Menuchin told a White House press conference on Monday that the Treasury Department had warned Facebook that it should make appropriate safeguards against the illegal use of its currency, such as money laundering.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned of four concerns about Libra regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability.

"The Treasury has been very clear to Facebook and other digital financial service providers who have to apply the same anti-money laundering safeguards against terrorist financing like traditional financial institutions," he said.

Menuchin's comments came a day before the US Congress examined the Facebook currency and how it could affect consumers, investors and the financial system.

Monochen said Facebook would have to convince financial regulators that the electronic currency had high privacy standards.

The Treasury Secretary pointed out that Facebook is a long way from getting approval from US regulators or launching the electronic currency in the United States.

US President Donald Trump said the new Facebook currency needed a banking pact.

 

[bostonangler]

Thank you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump’s comments about bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies on Thursday were right on target.

He’s right: Their value is “based on thin air.” Your typical cryptocurrency is basically a “frequent flyers” program, only without any airline attached. You hope someone will accept your “miles” for something real. But there’s no guarantee.

He’s right: They are ”highly volatile.” In the past two years bitcoin BTCUSD, -3.39%   has gone from $19,000 to $3,200 and back up to $11,000 and change.

And he’s right: If Facebook FB, -0.03%   wants to launch its own currency, it should seek a banking charter.

 

The president made his comments after palling around with techies at a “social media” summit at the White House. (His glowing references to the U.S. dollar — “...stronger than ever... by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World...” — also suggest that Larry “King Dollar” Kudlow, his chief economic adviser, has been whispering recently in his ear.)

They come as another cryptocurrency bubble, or mania, threatens to reinflate.

Bitcoin has trebled so far this year, and is back above $10,000. Cryptocurrencies are like a virus that won’t die. They keep metastasizing. There are still more than 2,000 cryptocurrencies in existence, and their theoretical total value is about $318 billion — more than the value of Procter & Gamble PG, +0.43%   , and only slightly less than that of Exxon Mobil XOM, -0.12%  .

I know which I’d rather own.

Cryptocurrencies are a pure gamble with no discernible fundamentals whatsoever. The cryptocurrency “markets” are rife with fraud, scams and manipulation. I’d love them if I were a con artist.

Have fun. But you are better off wagering your money at the race track: At least there you can see the horses.

Cryptocurrency fans were cheering Trump’s comments on Thursday, because their market feeds on attention. Trump caused a brief — very brief — spike in the price of Bitcoin.

But they can’t contradict a single one of his arguments. He’s right. He’s so right, his comments are truisms.

It was Ohio State coach Woody Hayes who said allegedly that when a quarterback throws a pass, only three things can happen, “and two of them are bad.” But cryptocurrencies are even worse. When cryptocurrencies boom, only two things can happen, and both of them are bad.

The first is that they can boom, and then they can crash — at which point you find that lots of ordinary retail investors have been hosed, in dotcom style, by insiders.

Plenty of that happened in 2017. Some of the cases are now making their way through the courts.

That’s bad.

The second is that cryptocurrencies can boom, and then NOT crash.

If that happens, congratulations: You’ve just helped create a shadow currency system that can be used worldwide by terrorists, extortionists, drug dealers, child pornographers, hit men, and anyone else who doesn’t want to go through the regular banking system.

That’s even worse than the first outcome.

Some of the biggest fans of cryptocurrency: Hackers who use ransomware to extort money from hospitals, municipalities and others. The global WannaCry ransomware attack of 2017 helped put Bitcoin on the map.

Yes, by all means let’s make that even easier, shall we?

Cheerleaders for cryptocurrencies like to present themselves as noble, heroic champions of monetary “freedom.” Digital currencies will “democratize” money, break up power structures, “decentralize” the world, and so on.

It’s all nonsense.

Anarchy doesn’t help the weak, it helps the powerful. It doesn’t serve the interests of the honorable, but of the ruthless. Read up on the Dark Ages, folks. Read up on the Wild West.

The naive who rail against regulation and big government need to study more about what the world was like before these terrible, terrible things came along.

In some parts of the crypto cult, there’s more than a whiff of paranoia about banks and “international financial interests.” Cue: Illuminati, Elders of Zion, the Rothchilds, Federal Reserve, and so on.

(How ironic, incidentally, that Trump was happy to pander to those people during his election campaign)

But one aspect of bitcoin isn’t often talked about. It isn’t really forward-looking. It’s incredibly retro.

Bitcoin is tight money. There’s only a limited supply of bitcoins . The number in existence cannot be expanded by much, and only very slowly. And we’ve seen this movie before. Tight money helped cause the Great Depression of the 1930s and probably the previous great depression of the 1870s. Tight money helped make the European debt crisis much worse. Money is a medium of exchange. If there isn’t enough of it to go around, the economy simply slows down.

Tight money — once based on gold — was a disastrous financial superstition.

Actually, the current debate in finance is about how loose you can make money. Modern Monetary Theory argues, in effect, that you can pretty much loosen it all you want. That may be the other extreme. But at least it makes money the servant of the economy, not the other way around.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/donald-trump-is-right-about-bitcoin-2019-07-12?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

 

 

B/A

[bostonangler]

1 hour ago, bostonangler said:

Thank you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump’s comments about bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies on Thursday were right on target.

He’s right: Their value is “based on thin air.” Your typical cryptocurrency is basically a “frequent flyers” program, only without any airline attached. You hope someone will accept your “miles” for something real. But there’s no guarantee.

He’s right: They are ”highly volatile.” In the past two years bitcoin BTCUSD, -3.39%   has gone from $19,000 to $3,200 and back up to $11,000 and change.

And he’s right: If Facebook FB, -0.03%   wants to launch its own currency, it should seek a banking charter.

 

The president made his comments after palling around with techies at a “social media” summit at the White House. (His glowing references to the U.S. dollar — “...stronger than ever... by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World...” — also suggest that Larry “King Dollar” Kudlow, his chief economic adviser, has been whispering recently in his ear.)

They come as another cryptocurrency bubble, or mania, threatens to reinflate.

Bitcoin has trebled so far this year, and is back above $10,000. Cryptocurrencies are like a virus that won’t die. They keep metastasizing. There are still more than 2,000 cryptocurrencies in existence, and their theoretical total value is about $318 billion — more than the value of Procter & Gamble PG, +0.43%   , and only slightly less than that of Exxon Mobil XOM, -0.12%  .

I know which I’d rather own.

Cryptocurrencies are a pure gamble with no discernible fundamentals whatsoever. The cryptocurrency “markets” are rife with fraud, scams and manipulation. I’d love them if I were a con artist.

Have fun. But you are better off wagering your money at the race track: At least there you can see the horses.

Cryptocurrency fans were cheering Trump’s comments on Thursday, because their market feeds on attention. Trump caused a brief — very brief — spike in the price of Bitcoin.

But they can’t contradict a single one of his arguments. He’s right. He’s so right, his comments are truisms.

It was Ohio State coach Woody Hayes who said allegedly that when a quarterback throws a pass, only three things can happen, “and two of them are bad.” But cryptocurrencies are even worse. When cryptocurrencies boom, only two things can happen, and both of them are bad.

The first is that they can boom, and then they can crash — at which point you find that lots of ordinary retail investors have been hosed, in dotcom style, by insiders.

Plenty of that happened in 2017. Some of the cases are now making their way through the courts.

That’s bad.

The second is that cryptocurrencies can boom, and then NOT crash.

If that happens, congratulations: You’ve just helped create a shadow currency system that can be used worldwide by terrorists, extortionists, drug dealers, child pornographers, hit men, and anyone else who doesn’t want to go through the regular banking system.

That’s even worse than the first outcome.

Some of the biggest fans of cryptocurrency: Hackers who use ransomware to extort money from hospitals, municipalities and others. The global WannaCry ransomware attack of 2017 helped put Bitcoin on the map.

Yes, by all means let’s make that even easier, shall we?

Cheerleaders for cryptocurrencies like to present themselves as noble, heroic champions of monetary “freedom.” Digital currencies will “democratize” money, break up power structures, “decentralize” the world, and so on.

It’s all nonsense.

Anarchy doesn’t help the weak, it helps the powerful. It doesn’t serve the interests of the honorable, but of the ruthless. Read up on the Dark Ages, folks. Read up on the Wild West.

The naive who rail against regulation and big government need to study more about what the world was like before these terrible, terrible things came along.

In some parts of the crypto cult, there’s more than a whiff of paranoia about banks and “international financial interests.” Cue: Illuminati, Elders of Zion, the Rothchilds, Federal Reserve, and so on.

(How ironic, incidentally, that Trump was happy to pander to those people during his election campaign)

But one aspect of bitcoin isn’t often talked about. It isn’t really forward-looking. It’s incredibly retro.

Bitcoin is tight money. There’s only a limited supply of bitcoins . The number in existence cannot be expanded by much, and only very slowly. And we’ve seen this movie before. Tight money helped cause the Great Depression of the 1930s and probably the previous great depression of the 1870s. Tight money helped make the European debt crisis much worse. Money is a medium of exchange. If there isn’t enough of it to go around, the economy simply slows down.

Tight money — once based on gold — was a disastrous financial superstition.

Actually, the current debate in finance is about how loose you can make money. Modern Monetary Theory argues, in effect, that you can pretty much loosen it all you want. That may be the other extreme. But at least it makes money the servant of the economy, not the other way around.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/donald-trump-is-right-about-bitcoin-2019-07-12?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

 

 

B/A

 

Sorry mods, I doubled posted this one...

 

B/A