We’ve been discussing utopianism and how it manifests in both the Pop Cult and Christian entertainment scenes. But those aren’t the only subcultures known for wearing rose-colored glasses. Even before the Ron Paul moment, Libertarians were out there boldly proclaiming their belief that the right monetary theory would return us to paradise. Nerds who’re sure that consuming the right product will birth the singularity and Christian bands on a holy quest for perpetual inoffensiveness look like amateurs in comparison.
It used to be that your Atlas Shrugged-thumping uncle would preach the virtues of owning gold when he cornered you at family functions. The advent of Bitcoin came as a new revelation that converted the old gold bugs into crypto evangelists. Brimming with fresh zeal, the crypto bros led the exodus to voluntary societies based on ocean oil rigs administered by smart contracts.
But there’s trouble in paradise. Author David V. Stewart, who’s know stranger to monetary theory. Has pointed out the flaws in these utopian cryptocurrency theories.
Watch here:
Among David’s reasons for why crypto is unlikely to vanquish the state is his observation that if crypto poses a threat to governments, they’ll just ban it. After all, if the state is so corrupt that you need a parallel currency to circumvent them, it’s also corrupt enough to force a way around your workaround.
Sure enough, David’s prediction looks to be coming true.
Another must-pass bill, another rushed policy that severely damages the privacy and constitutional rights of cryptocurrency users.
We’ve just seen language in the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (see page 1482)—a bill ostensibly about economic competitiveness with China—that would strip all administrative procedures and safeguards from the imposition of so-called “special measures” prohibitions in the Bank Secrecy Act while simultaneously expanding authority for such prohibitions to cryptocurrency activities. In brief, it would hand the Treasury Secretary unchecked discretion to forbid financial institutions (including cryptocurrency exchanges) from offering their customers access to cryptocurrency networks. The Secretary may not use this discretion immediately, but it is not power the Department should have.
That last sentence sums up the contradiction at the heart of the crypto bugs’ worldview nicely. If your utopian vision dictates that: 1) A new currency is needed to thwart the corruption of the state, and 2) your new currency’s viability relies on that corrupt state playing by the rules, you’re in for a disappointment. Our rulers openly eliminate people who threaten them. They have no qualms against killing crypto.
For example, if the Secretary of the Treasury deems that either (a) the Netherlands, (b) a Dutch crypto exchange, (c) all cryptocurrency transactions validated by a miner outside of the US, or (d) all non-custodial wallets are “of primary money laundering concern,” then she can swiftly make it illegal for any US financial institution (regulated cryptocurrency exchanges included) from maintaining accounts for customers involving those “concerns.” The law already lacks robust due process (for effected customers, especially, there’s no clear way to challenge these designations in the Bank Secrecy Act), but at least in its current form it requires a public notice and an opportunity for public comment in advance of the measure taking effect (in the case of special measure five prohibitions), or within 120 days (in the case of the heightened surveillance measures under measures 1-4). And none of the special measures can become permanent, under the current law, without a public process. This means the public will, at the very least, be alerted to the imposition of these draconian controls and have some opportunity to comment about their merit or constitutional deficiencies.
The proposed language in the America COMPETES Act would, and we cannot stress this enough, remove all formal controls, time limits, and public notice requirements from the imposition of these draconian measures. It eliminates the notice and comment process (both in advance of prohibitions and after surveillance impositions) and it allows the Secretary to impose these measures “by order, regulation, or otherwise as permitted by law” permanently and secretly with no obligation to engage in a public process.
The money laundering angle is one aspect of the crypto crackdown I’ll claim credit for spotting. It’s an open secret that the January 6 Committee is issuing subpoenas to college-age live streamers on the pretext that their crypto holdings somehow equate to money laundering. If our rulers can persecute nationalist influencers for made-up crimes, they can level the same spurious charges at all crypto holders.
Together, these changes mean that the Secretary would be able to (a) impose measures against financial institutions through any process (even a phone call from a deputized prosecutor would likely suffice given these non-existent procedural safeguards), to (b) avoid any public notice and comment process to alert the public to measures and solicit feedback, and (c) make these measures apply into perpetuity even if they haven’t been made through regulation.
In addition to gutting all administrative processes for the imposition of special measures, the America COMPETES Act would also add a new species of special measure: “Prohibitions or Conditions on Certain Transmittals of Funds.” The Secretary already has the ability to prohibit financial institutions from maintaining accounts (and logically cryptocurrency accounts) for customers under special measures five, but this sixth new type of “special measure” goes much further. It would effectively give the Secretary the unchecked authority to define anything as a “transmittal of funds.” There’s no limit in the text of the law for how Congress thinks this term should be defined, the Secretary has carte blanche. Once something is so defined as a “transmittal of funds,” the Secretary can prohibit a domestic financial institution from engaging in that “transmittal of funds” if she finds “a jurisdiction outside of the United States, or more financial institutions operating outside of the United States, 1 or more types of accounts within, or involving, a jurisdiction outside of the United States, or 1 or more classes of transactions within, or involving, a jurisdiction outside of the United States to be of primary money laundering concern.”
That language is unwieldy but plainly allows the Secretary to forbid domestic financial institutions from doing anything—so defined by the secretary as a “transmittal of funds”—if the Secretary finds that thing to be a primary money laundering concern that is ostensibly related to a transaction, account, person, or institution in a foreign jurisdiction.
Long story short, our ruling Death Cult crave the power to excommunicate heretics from the financial system. If you dissent from their fanatical faith, they want you cut off from the money supply with no recourse.
A time is coming, and for the Cult’s more vocal opponents is already here, when uttering the wrong words will get your funds seized without due process, notice, or appeal. If you think your cryptocurrency is safe, you underestimate the zeal of fanatics. Which is never smart.
Put not your faith in princes or lines of ones and zeroes. Instead, put on the full armor of Christ.
The most unique sci-fi story I have experienced in years
“Long story short, our ruling Death Cult crave the power to excommunicate heretics from the financial system. If you dissent from their fanatical faith, they want you cut off from the money supply with no recourse.”
Of course. It’s been their approach since ancient times and will remain such through the final hours of these last days:
“It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image could speak and [could] have anyone who did not worship it put to death. It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads,
so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast’s name or the number that stood for its name.” (Revelation 13:15-17)
Very true, Brian. If the Lord does not build the house, a man labours in vain, and thus any attempt to build society without God will fail. This isn’t any less true of the cryptoneers than with the Left. As an aside, though, since you mentioned gold, do you think it’s financially prudent to have some precious metals on hand? I ask because I’ve been looking into that field to try and make sure my savings don’t end up being totally worthless in future. Obviously, one must beware the temptation to turn gold into a false god (it’s one of the oldest and most tempting).
I’m the last guy anyone should ask for financial advice.
Crypto was already eating itself before the feds became involved.
1. Few legitimate businesses accepted it as payment, so it turned into a Ponzi scheme and a currency for street drugs. Many of the “Bitcoin accepted here” stickers were nothing but marketing.
2. At its best, transactions are slow, PC hardware prices inflate, and it has terrible security. At its worst—for “competitive” currencies like Bitcoin—you can only mine if you’re wealthy enough to establish a server farm that’s fast enough to make everybody else’s calculations worthless.
3. Some of the biggest evangelists for cryptocurrencies are the scumbags who caused the 2008 housing crisis. It’s like how the biggest proponents of Net Neutrality were leftist social media companies who already censored people.
And the moral of the story is that programmers are too autistic to solve society’s problems.
Every time I see a new MSM story fearmongering about crypto it only makes me more convinced it’s an actual threat to them and they can’t control it. All they can really do is try and exploit it. Not hard to imagine a federal War On Crypto would go as well as the War On Drugs and War On Terror.
Astute observation, Adam. We should all purchase all of the cryptocoins that we can before the next economic crash. I can even spare an AMD mining card if you want to start mining.
You’d be the guy grumbling “Too many gizmos!” at the range, Fudd.
Of course. That’s why I’m giving away the GPU to Adam; because I’m a boomer, and computers make my head spin.
The “crypto will save everything” crew remind me a lot of the “we’ll all have our voices heard if we just get on Parler” griftercons.