In the meantime, a fun multimedia homework assignment: spend three minutes and thirty-nine seconds watching this. Jargon aside, it will tell you what you need to know about cryptocurrencies - namely, that the whole game is just a digitized version of a scam that that’s been going on forever. Promise people off-the-charts returns to get them to give you their money…
FTX isn't even really a crypto story, just like Wolf of Wall Street isn't really a finance story and Smartest Men in the Room isn't a story about running an electric company.
The growing list of tentacles reaching into every dark corner is seemingly endless....and includes almost everything. I could never have imagined the extent of all this.
And how easy it is to fraudulently if not literally manipulate and ruin peoples lives. We have the leadership we deserve, at the end of the day, the public sucks, and you know what to do with hope…
This is not even a story about cryptocurrencies specifically. This is a story about people building some intermediary on top of crypto and then taking advantage of the fact that people have no clue that is what they are doing to scam people out of their cash. These failures are all in third party services like exchanges, lenders, bank-like-things and not failures of crypto at all. If you don't hold the private key you don't own crypto should be the lesson people are learning from this.
Ding ding ding! Not your keys, not your coins. There's a reason that we say this.
This is functionally no different than a TV preacher telling you that when you send him money, it will 'sprout' and multiply -- eventually enriching you, as well.
Exactly, but of course Alex didn't bother to spend any time learning about cryto itself and then the exchanges and other services related to it which can get over leveraged or be poorly managed.
And I know most here hate hearing this from me but, when you have 50 to 70 million people who vote for this relentless evil reflexively, it’s never going to end.
Good luck, living among these humans, if they really are humans…
I am an unvaxxed single old person as well, and I as well am wondering where to go. I live in Miami. Anyone may, naturally, course read my substack newsletter.
I think you are in a good place right now. Florida still has Desantis, you can grow food year round even on a balcony, Florida has PORTS so ships can unload (just kick the cruise ships out)...and if we fracture into regions, I think you would want to be somehwere in the Southeast?
No, I still feel more comfortable with "Blue," sorry. I think both sides are exactly the same thing. I think it is bias to prefer red or blue. My bias or comfort area is still with the liberals, even though I do see how false it is, but so is everyything else false. What's the diff?
You are not wrong. I just can’t understand why so many vote for this. I have had arguments with people where I repeat to them what the democrats actually say and have admitted to and they basically call me a liar. At church, people know the the democrats are supporters of abortion, but justify it by saying that they are aren’t one issue voters and that it may be true but the other side is less caring of humanity. I try not to get so worked up and upset about it, but it is awful.
Evil survives as long as there’s cowardice, apathy and indifference, and this country lately is built on that. And Covid was the manure to seed the weeds…
Why do people vote for this? Massive ignorance and overwhelming complacency. So very few people know anything about what has been and what is going on.
You are assuming those many people actually vote that way, as opposed to votes “created” via election crimes. As another Stacker wrote, “They” are at war with a free people, and in war there are no crimes.
Actually, you are right, there are another 50 to 70 million who vote reflexively for Republicans who have no damn clue what their true ideologies and narratives are at the end of the day. So, we have 100 to 150 million people who just basically vote for letters, because they are stupid, idiotic, clueless morons who don’t grasp and hold onto responsible, appropriate, defensible principles and beliefs.
WHEN this country burns to the ground, 100s of millions of people who perish will not be mourned by responsible attentive concerned people like me if we somehow survive. But, that’s why the theme of Thanos actually is embraced by the people who want to destroy us…
Because we are ruled by people who want mass genocide on the scale of billions… and they do.
Hell, it's the modus operandi of both the Federal Reserve cabal and the central banking system that reaches worldwide. Dollars backed by nothing. Deposits loaned out dozens upon dozens of times--with ZERO dollars on deposit required to back the loans! FTX was nothing but a run on a crooked, upside down exchange and exactly what would happen if there were a run on the banks. I'm with SimulationCommander on this one--it's simply the setting for the fraud.
A bank run occurs when many customers withdraw all their money simultaneously from their deposit accounts with a banking institution for fear that the institution is, or might become, insolvent. The situation takes place in fractional reserve banking systems where banks only maintain a small portion of their assets as cash. As more customers withdraw their money, there is a likelihood of default, and this will trigger more withdrawals to a point where the bank runs out of cash. An uncontrolled bank run can lead to bankruptcy, and when multiple banks are involved, it creates an industry-wide panic that can lead to an economic recession.
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Of course, this does not excuse any theft of customer funds by FTX. A better-run exchange would have separated deposits and always ensured they had enough actual crypto to cover ALL of them. Of course, fraudsters are going to lie no matter what -- just look at Full Tilt Poker for another example.
A couple of months later, during the meeting with the AGCC, it was uncovered that Full Tilt didn’t have money to pay back the players.
The investigation concluded that Full Tilt Poker owners have potentially defrauded players to the tune of $300,000,000.
Not surprisingly, players from all over the world were outraged while the DoJ amended its original complaint, adding three names to the lawsuit: Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, and Rafe Furst – three main stakeholders in the company.
Actually, even fiat currency has a value. There is an economy standing behind it that will accept the fiat as a medium of exchange for goods and services. Now that value is constantly being depressed as the Central Bank that controls its supply gives into political pressure and funds deficit spending by creating ever greater amounts of it. But it still has a value because it is accepted by merchants.
Crypto for the most part is barely accepted by almost no merchants globally. It does not represent any economy or the value therein. Now the original Crypto may have enjoyed a rarity value, like a collector's item, becuase it was designed for only a finite amount to be mined. But that all changed when multiple types of Crypto all employed the same finite principle to an infinite number of coins. So while there maybe a rarity value to any one Crypto-currency, the universe of crypto grows faster than the government deficits globally that inflate global fiat currency supply.
Unless crypto can convince merchants globally to accept it for commerce, crypto goes the way of the Dutch tulips and the South Sea spices. Those were the cryptos of two past centiuries. Eventually they regressed down to the value the public found in tulips and spices, which likely is greater than an alpha-numeric combination will be worth to those who hold it. Perhaps a limited number of cryptos will survive and become actual currency accepted wisely for commerce. But I would not bet on it, because all it will take is for governments around the world - who will not want competition for their own issued digital currency - to dictate that its against the law to transact commerce in any currency other than one issued by a government Central Bank.
Personally I hope that kind of dictate does not occur for a long while into the future. Because there's a tremendous amount of money to be made trading the most widely held exchange traded Crypto-currency. And the volatility is so great that if you catch the right wave a lot of money can be made in a relatively short time. Like the waves that took Bitcoin up to $66,000 and then back to the ~$16,000 it is now.
But long run, its all fool's gold...if you want real value outside of paper viat money, buy the real Gold.
I don't totally agree with this. Our current monetary system is really based on the same blind faith that dollars are worth something ever since we went off of the gold standard. I am not a fan of crypto, let alone Bitcoin, but I do appreciate the idea of a monetary system outside the corruption of Government. So at least Bitcoin gives us a nice start to finding a new monetary system though it has many limitations one of which being the need for electricity and internet.
No. Our current monetary system is based on dollars that can be used to pay your tax debt. No other form of currency can be used to pay the US Treasury and/or your state income tax/property tax authority. Therefore, the dollar is necessarily the only thing that you must go back to or else get arrested and thrown in jail for not paying your tax bill. There is the difference that people don't understand. Bitcoin is blind faith. USD is not.
I keep hearing the term "excess savings" that Americans are supposed to have (have had). I don't know about you, but I could have a billion in the bank and not one dime would be "excess". It really drives home the point that we really are slaves of the 1%. None of them are changing their life style the way the rest of us are supposed to, and if anyone saves enough to move up in class, they engineer a wealth confiscation.
'Excess savings' was just a coinvent excuse for inflation (which was actually caused by the printing of money for covid, the vast vast vast majority went to the politically connected -- like SBF's brother).
The idea that everybody is just so rich that we're bidding up prices is literally insane.
There is no other way for them to pass the buck to us
They deliberately printed too much money. They broke the Product
Supply Chain . Quantities are pretty dependent on getting them
to people.
So all they can control is the Velocity. Hence, they can stop or slow all spending and get rid of savings...your money will run out at the expiry date they give you.
Plus they can make you buy what THEY want, by denying you meat..maybe you can only have it 2 times a week. Hence the ESG push.
PS. And if you don't think this has been planned for years, and deliberately done (even a 5 year old knows you don't raise interest rates in the face of a depression)...there is no way they can keep their power (and the BIS is a sovereign entity, remember?)...and work their way of this deliberating printing of trillions and generations of people that have to work to pay it back, so they can retain power, and blame us.
We have been slaves since our Feckless and FAithless congresscritters outsource their Constitutional duty to control the currency...and then the Income Tax.
we are Slaves already,...just now with the ability to conduct some things in private.
Yep. Once the money is fake, everything in the economy is sure to follow. Now we're at the point where it's more 'profitable' to be friends with the people who run the literal money-making machine (fake economy) than it is to actually serve customers via voluntary transactions (real economy).
If you know anything about history, you know this is where the wheels fall off.
True. But our rulers, no matter how corrupt or inept, will always say that we need to use US currency to pay taxes. That doesn't mean it can't go down, plenty of currencies have been eaten up by inflation but it does mean that it has more of a floor than say bitcoin.
Oh well they will be digital USD. That will be fine. and they can and have change the rules anydamntimetheywant.
Like they did over the past15 years...you do know you have no constitutional rights, right? Like you do know the DOD took over the Covid scam in late March 2020?
HHS declares the emergency (bioweapons) and they can make you take a jab. No informed consent, no liability, no manufacturing standards...nada.
Your government wants you dead.
Question I have, is why don't the people who work for these entities realize they too are expendable?
I know none of the polis and other important people got the jab...and they will get fake "health passports" and trade carbon derivatives so they can still fly their private jets...for a time.
But in the end, they too will die or become impovershed.
I guess they don't give a damn about their kids...
This was not about bitcoin at all, they were printing their own coin.
The dollar suffers from the exact problem that got this guy in trouble though. He could have carried this on much longer if he did not have piles of people start asking for their money back. The conventional banking system has this exact same issue. This guy may have taken it to an extreme but he really is not doing anything different that the conventional system other than he can't force people to use his shit coin.
Oh really? What exactly is the hard asset that backs the creation of the money? They don't even pretend that there is anything other than "the full faith and credit" of the government. If you are implying that the government has assets I would agree with that but there is literally no connection between them and the ability to create money.
Any answer other than "guns" is incorrect. Still, the petrodollar seems to be on its last legs, and with it will go the dollar's 'reserve currency' status.
I am not yet convinced that the petrodollar is on its way out but at some point it is inevitable that the US loses the reserve currency status, question of when not if. When that happens we are in for some painful times for a while. Not the end of the world, at least not on a societal scale although for some it will feel like it, but it will not be fun for a bit for some. This has happened over and over again in the last 500 years (Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, France, Great Britain and now the US) and each lasted as the world reserve for something just shy of 100 years on average. They have been pretty consistent too. We have had this position for just over 100 years now so if history is any guide we are about due.
In 2015 I was discussing with my 95 year old mom how the government was printing money, and I remember her laughing about that and saying it was nothing new, the government had been doing that for a long time.
That’s not true at all... period. The US$ is a world currency whose debt by law (constitutional) must be paid prior to all other obligations. Further, please point to the military that backs BTC et al? Please also show the collection agency (IRS) that insures the income stream? You can’t -
Yes, the government has the power to force you at gunpoint to give them more money. That does not fundamentally change the nature of the scheme they are running and the fact that it is the same as FTX was doing. It just means they will likely be able to run it longer, maybe even until they lose world reserve currency status. It also makes what the government is doing inherently more immoral than what FTX was doing and that is saying a lot given what this clown at FTX was doing and how immoral that was.
As far as the fact that the currency is sound because constitutionally they must pay their debt, given the number of things that the government does every single day that fly in the face of the constitution I don't really see how that fact, it is a fact you are correct on that, has any real world bearing on what we are talking about. When push comes to shove and the government gets themselves in a bind they will do whatever they feel they need to constitution be damned. If that is not plainly obvious to you by now I am not sure we can even have a serious conversation.
Welp- you're probably correct. Because the nature of all governments is to send their citizens into the meat grinder to protect their power to tax, spend, lie, cheat, make war and live protected lives of privilege. That they do it at the threat of warfare after the last 3 years of covering lies of bioweapons and corruption on an international scale shouldn't surprise you in the least. Fortunately for the US; unlike its trading partners who have all borrowed infinite amounts of US$ in the form of EuroDollar loans; they must sell their currencies to convert to US$ to repay those debts at now ever higher interest rates. This forces their currencies lower. In case you haven't noticed, the US$ as been on a screaming run higher vs all other currencies. So the idea that the US will lose reserve currency status may be true.... someday... but not now. Not until the next war is over.... and even then it assumes that the US lost.
As you observe, the only difference is that governments have a monopoly on violence. Welcome to the Gulag.
I think we are in agreement on basically everything here. I am not claiming the US will lose reserve currency status tomorrow, as I mentioned in another post I don't see it currently on the horizon, but make no mistake it will come and we are likely a lot closer to it than most anyone really thinks based solely on historical precedent.
eventually, the US will not be able to repay its debts and then we will run into big trouble. I do believe FTX is far more corrupt than the US government, and that says a lot.
If you want to see the collection agency that insures the "income stream" don't pay your taxes and they will be at your door to kick you out of your home and take you to jail. If not paying taxes didn't have some sort of penalty, no one would pay. This includes all property tax, sales tax remittances, excise taxes, tariffs, etc. I assure you that a federal, state, or city agency will come to visit you when you don't pay them. And they will have guns. That's all the proof you need. I'm not saying that the US can't cause it's currency to devalue, I'm just saying that it is definitely backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, whatever that's worth.
So Congress and the President with the help of the Fed cannot increase the monetary supply whenever it benefits them politically? Was I dreaming the last 3 years during Covid when they blew the roof off of the national debt?
Funny how people can't get this part of it. This is exactly what this clown at FTX was doing too. He just created his own coin and started paying people with it. When he needed more he just made more. He was doing the same thing the government and the banking system do but as was mentioned he does not have the threat of throwing you in jail if you don't use his coin so he can't force it to continue.
That’s exactly what Alex said…’a digitised version of a scam that’s been going on forever’. Both are scams but one at least has some controls applied to it…
Alex, I love your work, however, calling all of crypto a scam is badly mistaken. Similar to , the dot com bust or all of Wall St, it has attracted numerous bad actors. Digital Assets are a real thing and Bitcoin and Ethereum are amongst the most important inventions every in technology. Think of much of crypto as digital Marriott Bonvoy points or Amex points. Please think of crypto as digital assets used to reward individuals in a particular context. Not a scam at all but a huge part of the next phase of the Internet.
Agree with you wholeheartedly, more regarding Bitcoin but Horsey is a Bitcoin maxi. Curious what Alex thinks about this FTX exchange collapse/exposure as global central banks are trying to expedite a move to digital currency.
Is digital currency a scam? Or is it a scam and also a means to further enslave populations? 😵
Digital currencies controlled by a central entity are a scam, yes. And the worst part about this whole FTX saga is that government will use it as an excuse to 'regulate' the market -- even though the regulators of FTX were getting drunk with SBF and fawning over his 'altruism' (that just happened to further every progressive agenda).
Aye, Commander. Janet Yellen is laughing all the way to the digital bank. They've started "testing" for 90 days as they gleefully will parade SBF-Madoff before the cameras. Like a circus monkey on command it appears.
Is it an excuse or was it all going according to plan up to the point the scam prematurely detonated?
As you well know, the "scam" that serves as the means to further enslave populations is a CENTRALIZED digital currency. It's the greed of those in the center who manipulate everything else in the system. In our fiat system, that would be the Fed, the IRS and crooked politicians who just vote to "spend" money that doesn't even exist. Then POOF! With a few keystrokes of the Fed, the central banks just see daily visits from the tooth fairy and their balances magically increased overnight!
I've always been of the mind that the 'hush-hush' parties out in the middle of the woods have been more fun, with FAR less chance of government intervention. ;)
I wish that your scenario were the worst case. Regrettably it is not. Central Bank Digital Currency, introduced with a simultaneous or subsequent sundowning of paper and coin currency, is a fate far worse, as it will give government the power to control your spending based on what government wants you to do. Speak or write something against a government narrative, watch your savings disappear. Buy too much meat or drive too many miles, sorry, you're grounded for a month. Want to travel on holiday beyond the mileage you've earned by being a good little government automaton, no chance. Wanna donate to political candidates promising to restore your freedoms, the check won't clear.
Remember these three words : Social CreditScore. They already use it in China. You don't agree to follow government dictate, your score goes down and you get fewer privileges. Yes, privileges because rights become a thing of the past once the government controls your money.
You don't think the government will do this to you? Well who thought three years ago that government would make you take an injection that they knew does not stop transmission or death from a disease or you would lose your job ?
If you value liberty and freedom, and are willing to die topreserve it for your family and kids, then this is the hill to die on. If they introduce Central Bank Digital Currency, shun it like the plague. If they force you to turn in your existing money in exchange for the digital brand,resist and revolt. No government will ask you to give up your paper and coin currency in exchange for a digitized form unless they are seeking to make you a slave of their totalitarianism. Never allow them to violate you in that way !
Yup. All leading to May 2023, when you will wake up with a QR code installed on your phone, and you will be able only to take out what is allowed that week, and God help you if you exceed your carbon limit.
Think back over the last, say, 20 years. Did you protest against the Iraq war? How about protesting at Occupy Wall Street? Were you a member of the Tea Party? A member of #TheResistance? Did you disagree with the government’s covid response? It’s nearly certain that everybody with a political pulse has crossed the government at one time or another. How comfortable are you with the idea that the person you’re protesting against can shut off your bank account?
Because now, it seems, those perfectly legal actions at least have the potential to come with harsh monetary consequences, as well as the ensuing chaos caused by financial ruin. And this is happening all without a single shred of oversight or due process. It’s just some asshole in an expensive suit giving a list of ‘subversives’ to another asshole in an expensive suit. The no-fly list but with the very real potential to ruin your life.
crypto is for people who believe men can get pregnant, modern monetary theory fixes inflation, electric cars solve climate change, socialism works if done the "right way", and the vaccines are "safe and effective".
Someone needs to re-open the fake-successful remdesivir trial case with this new presumptive money trail in mind. By which "someone" I of course mean citizen-investigators^W^W *cough cough* conspiracy theorists
Marc Cohodes is a really good get. He's been blistering about SBF-Madoff and his ex-gf, the MSM deemed "alt right" Caroline as they passed off hundreds of millions and cool billions to each other with no accounting controls whatsoever. This is not virtue signaling progressive generosity on any examination. But oh, did SBF-Madoff know and love to play that game.
As SBF-Madoff had people shill about how he was interested in making money for altruism ends to give it away and drives a Toyota Corolla in the Bahamas, others like Cohodes noticed the guy was living in a $40 million monster-sized penthouse.
Maxine Waters blew SBF-Madoff a kiss after a Congressional hearing as he bribed, I mean contributed to her and most of her friends on this financial oversight committee. That changes come January but not after tens of millions paid off to Democrat pols and of course Joe Biden.
In addition, Jeff Childers highlighted how the left wing publication "The Intercept" was gifted the moolah via a SBF-Madoff news grant outfit. Because not setting up a third party gateway promoting lockdowns and passport mandates would be unseemly. Getting the picture?
I’m a simple living person while always striving not to be simple minded...let’s just say I simply can’t wrap my common sense brain around crypto currency and have grave concerns about its implications...
Think perhaps Alex should consider exposing the bigger picture of the FTX scandal-fallout, and especially the next day announcing of the "digital currency" trial being run in NY modeling in a very similar way the the digital yuan currency the CCP uses on it's people (China) in the ways of "social credit scoring" Forest for the trees...forest for the trees.
Disagree with you here Alex. In the first sentence I could tell these were "actors;" hard for me to watch, it's not great parody and the blockchain tech exists. One example, I use Brave. It's faster, private. On the blockchain video services and music apps exist and are potentially better. Yes there has been nonsensical tulip trading of "coin' that does nada. But this is similar to the beginning of the internet. Most of the initial co's don't exit. Google does and gmail, earthlink, yahoo...Blockchain is. And it will be everywhere.
Al Roker has had, as everyone knows, gastric bypass surgery, but also knee replacement surgery, and other surgery on his knee, his shoulder for rotator cuff, and emergency carpal tunnel surgery, and hip replacement surgery. He didn't need blood clots too.
FTX was a ponzi, Bitcoin and Ethereum are totally different. I'm not going to defend crypto here, but I do want to point out that FTX was an exchange that leveraged too too too far, which is how it ended up being like the video.
Unfortunately Bitcoin is now on the futures market. That means it can be manipulated to suit the desire of governments. Governments have infinite resources to move the Bitcoin market and be sure that it is never viewed as stable. Governments can also regulate it and the FTX scam makes this even more likely
Governments are NOT going to give up the power to create and control currency. They will use Bitcoin and crypto to introduce digital currencies (Trackable and traceable). If they can do this without destroying crypto that fine. But if they have to destroy crypto to protect the currency monopoly, they will.
People in positions of power, influence, and control, are corrupted until proven otherwise.
It’s the 80/20 rule, if 80% of people are doing something that’s either wonderful or evil, and the other 20% are the opposite, who are you going to cater to?
I don’t get people who tell me you have to worry about the 20% who are good and tolerate 80% of evil, it’s just pathetic, lame and ignorant, and it’s a willful intended. Ignorance!
Thank you for letting me comment Mr. Berenson, God, I wish I could could control this addiction to comment here but, I need to be preoccupied with something more beneficial and I don’t have that right now…
oh, how well said in the article (and my preemptive apology, for the length):
“Our young are going to live with less material, social, and emotional security than their parents and grandparents, while our liberals are tearing down all sources of solidarity outside of radical politics, and our conservatives mostly don't care. The United States is busy destroying its higher education system, which used to be the envy of the world, all for the sake of ideologizing it. We are also destroying the capacity for excellence in science and nearly every other field of endeavor, for the sake of DEI ideology. The rich are getting richer, and the numbers of the economically precarious grow daily. And for the past two decades, Washington has not seen a war it didn't want to fight, even as the woke war machine understandably struggles to convince young Americans that serving in the armed forces is worth doing. Respect for God is in collapse among American youth. Violent crime is up. American pop culture celebrates what is most violent, sexual, and degraded in the human experience, and export that baseness globally.”
Again, that large hill you think you’re standing on, it’s next to a mass grave pit…
It's easy to sh!t on the crypto space right now with everything happening with FTX and before that LUNA but don't forget that banks are the biggest Ponzi schemes in history! And don't get me started on how Wallstreet and hedge funds play the market against the retailer, obviously never in the favor of the retailer. And the biggest scam of all is the FEDS who can print money out of thin air with nothing backing it. Oh and also maybe we can discuss JP Morgan and their manipulation of the gold market along with everything else. Anyone who has read the BTC white paper, actually read the entire thing, understands how different BTC is from anything else in crypto and how it has the capacity to give all of those who are NOT in the 1% their financial sovereignty back. That is the goal. And please never put BTC in the same group as the FED Coin/digital dollar/CBDC it is the antithesis to that!
Is crypto a scam? It's an interesting philosophical question. In a sane society, yes it would be effectively a scam. But we don't live in such a society. Fiat currency is underwritten by the force of law (legal tender), crypto is underwritten by the force of market confidence (belief it can be converted into legal tender and the market will remain buoyant). But in reality market confidence is necessary in all aspects of a hyper volatile, globalized capitalist economy, while conversely, in practice, a minimum of legal toleration is needed for crypto to operate.
Blockchain can have real value but current cryptos backed by nothing are effectively canned air. 100% speculative asset. A crypto currency backed by hard assets could have real value but then you have a middleman that kills some of the appeal of crypto.
Peter Schiff has been warning people about this stuff for years and has been the most vocal crypto critic of consequence and hated man by the crypto community.
Anyone reader here who thinks crypto and all things crypto isn't a con at its root, feel free to ID here for me the outfit I cry to for my assets back when anything makes my assets no longer available to me. Asking for a friend.
I have watched 2 or 3 different people explain crypto and I still can't grasp it. They said it was like property you own, but it still didn't make sence. The one guy borrowed 1 million dollars and invested it and explained he would do it again as soon as he paid back the loan. Interest rates were much lower then but it just didn't add up. Anyone that invested with the tubby vegan really should have known better. How stupid they all must be. They need to look in their selves in the mirrow and say 100 times, I'm a basketball player, I'm not qualified to make these decisions or anything else that happens off the court. Just like Kyrie, the world really isn't flat.
Ah, time to go back and watch 'The Big Short' once more. Today it's crypto, in 2008 it was credit default swaps. I enjoy reprising this film periodically to be reminded how gullible and greedy humans are. This FTX kingpin Bankman-Fried is a bit of a loon and a genius at the same time, but in the end he's the evil nephew of Bernie Madoff. Even if young Sam is in a protected zone where there is no extradition agreement, we need to send a team of Seals to drag his butt back to the U.S. where he can have a fair trial and then is properly euthanized. The bad guys in 2008 never paid a price. Maybe this time justice will be done.
Alex, I am sure you know, but Cory is one of the biggest advocates for Bitcoin around. Do you at least acknowledge that Bitcoin is different than "crypto" due to its unique first principles? Bitcoiners have been fighting the "crypto" scam from day one, but you never differentiate between the two, and I would be curious to know your thoughts. I would also be curious as to how much research you have done into Bitcoin, specifically.
I don't know crypto, but I know government. Nothing will stand in the way of government imposing Central Bank Digital Currency on everyone. And if you ask Richard Werner (e.g. at 1:20 in the below video), it is a CIA creation with a clumsy calling card - "Nakamoto Satoshi" (Central Intelligence).
This is why Bitcoin is so important. It is censorship resistant, operates fully decentralized across the globe, and anyone can verify the supply and their coins with a laptop and an internet connection. Crypto is just our current fiat system done digitally with better marketing. I would encourage you to research Bitcoin further. Bitcoin is the antidote to the CBDC.
BTC is not a scam. Amazing how Alex draws broad conclusions about something he knows so little about. His knowledge of the vaccines does not make him an expert on crypto. But the vax news is old so he has to move onto other topics. Unfortunately, he doesn't do any research on the topic before posting.
Alex, I'm a big fan. I was in medical school during the pandemic and am so thankful for all you've done.
I've also got a history working for a crypto VC and am still very much involved in the crypto space.
But to call all cryptocurrencies a scam, you miss the mark completely.
The FTX scam is a story as old as the financial system. A CENTRALISED entity becoming greedy and overleveraged and going belly up (aside from all the illegal things going on there too).
Crypto is the antithesis to this.
The distinction between technology and scam becomes clear when we focus on FTX specifically:
FTX could have been an exchange for roughly ANY commodity.
Sure Crypto is also rife with cashgrabs and scams, no doubt about it. I for one would welcome regulation in this space. But there's real innovation happening here. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and be sure to be nuanced. That's what makes a great journalist. So don't call ALL crypto a scam.
Bitcoin was created to solve the counterparty risk problem in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Also Decentralised Finance (DeFi) which are protocols built on top of Ethereum worked exactly as designed when all this excess leverage was wiped out during the FTX blow up (or earlier this year when a $50bn protocol went up in smoke). The point of crypto is to create antifragile systems where you don't have to trust anyone, it's trustless, decentralised and permissionless. You don't have to trust that a CEO or bank doesn't blow up or misuses your funds.
Lastly, here's some other brilliant research that may help you in your endeavor:
If you're going to make a forray into commenting on crypto, I hope you do so with the understanding that Bitcoin is not "crypto" as most people refer to it. "Crypto" is the generalized term people use to refer to the THOUSANDS of shitcoins (which are basically centralized, unregistered securities that pass the Howey Test and were issued to raise money for a project).
Bitcoin is not any of that. Bitcoin is the most pristine form of money mankind has ever devised. There is no central organization around it. It was not created to raise money for a project. It is the most secure and constant monetary system on the planet.
Bitcoin is gold, but better. Because when gold goes up in price people can just find more gold to mine. But nobody can find more Bitcoin to mine -- making it the hardest money history has ever known. And monetary history has a clear constant -- THE HARDEST MONEY ALWAYS WINS IN THE END.
Furthermore, I cannot send gold anywhere in the world 24/7 unless I store the gold with a trusted third party and use a derivative to then transfer the value of that gold over time and space. This is the problem that has plagued gold for centuries (third parties with gold on deposit issuing more derivative "IOU" notes than they have gold in the vault / treasury).
This is not the case with Bitcoin -- which requires no third parties to store or transfer or trade. Thus it removes the biggest problem with gold -- TRUST and EASE OF USE.
Finally -- Bitcoin is literally impossible to confiscate. You can travel anywhere in the world, across any international border with all of your wealth intact, and nobody can confiscate it from you.
For example, imagine trying to flee Russia or the Ukraine after Putin initiated this war with all your wealth in gold -- you couldn't do it.
But you would easily have been able to do it with all of your wealth in Bitcoin -- because you can literally carry it in your brain.
Bitcoin is the greatest achievement in monetary history and will replace gold as the global reserve currency, ending its 5,000+ year reign. There is no other conceivable outcome. No other path makes sense.
Everything that Bitcoiners have been saying FOR YEARS such as "Not your keys, not your coins" and "there is no second best" and so on have just come home to roost.
All those involved in Bitcoin knew that these ponzi schemes would fall. But Bitcoin remains -- and always will.
Now people realize that there is nothing better than Bitcoin. And, there is no better way to buy or store Bitcoin other than through self custody and peer-to-peer.
All roads lead to Bitcoin. All outcomes lead to hyperbitcoinization. No other alternatives exist.
Apparently they're still pushing Covid vaccines in the Philippines, but also wasting a lot of them. The US government is pushing them also in the Philippines, probably on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies as their uptake has plummeted in the US, especially for children, where they are far more harmful than helpful.
You should also contact Terry Duffy, CEO of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group. He called out SBF as a fraud back in March and was very scathing about it.
And yet ignored or dismissed, and thus the consequences played out, and wait for it, Duffy will be scapegoated? Because he didn’t make people think responsibly and appropriately fast enough…
By the way, took a walk earlier and came to realize after hearing that Tony Fuck-i was at the White House again shrieking about masks, wouldn’t the irony be great if this guy got an infectious disease that no one can treat, and he wound up dying in the ICU, alone and unattended, being allegedly treated by careless uncaring cruel healthcare workers that Covid created?
Here’s a thought that you might want to consider tossing out at the Thanksgiving table, if it resonates?:
Covid has shown Americans , basically there are three types of people in this country, (and yes, simplistic analogies/metaphors usually fail because it’s not that simple but here they are anyway):
There are people who tell you where to sit, there are people who sit where they’re told, and there are people who sit where they want to sit.
Unfortunately, America has shown us there are too many disgusting people telling you where to sit and too many pathetic people who sit where they are told.
Those like me who sit where they want to sit, you’re greatly outnumbered, hence why this country is dead, so Happy Thanksgiving!?
Regarding the new post about the pilot, who died on the American Airlines flight, how much more has to happen, IF in fact this death can be somewhat contributed to Covid interventions, before people have their reality moment? Doubt still not enough has to be revealed as true consequences: Covid has exposed the soulless, heartless and cowardice prevalent in America.
Big supporter of your work Alex because you don't go for the "easy" explanation. Saying that crypto is all a scam is just false. Are there scam artists in the space - YES! Is the tech new and still working on effective Use cases and so risky - Also YES!
But given that $$$ is going to go digital, and governments are creating their own digital currency that can then be turned on and off depending on whether you are deemed a "good/compliant citizen" (which you of all people know about), then what crypto represents - and Bitcoin in particular - is our only hope for monetary freedom in the future. I so hope you can learn more about this space and give it the fair shot it deserves and needs.
If you actively seek to train millions of persons to believe that fraud is okay and legitimate, a certain proportion will go along. Even if that percentage is only one, it would still add up to tens of thousands of persons. So, I think pretty much depends on how we train the members of our society. And there is a constant on-going, always accelerating program to teach Americans that fraud is a reasonable or legitimate way to earn. And those persons who are training us are accelerating in their mania and desperation. Just look at R. Kiyosaki author 'rich dad/poor dad.' Well, I visited the B&N bookstore - where I spotted his latest book-thing, 'Capitalist Manifesto" - OMG He makes all this money. Why is he still unhappy? That is my question. In it he also make a peculiar claim. Says that as a returning marine from Vietnam, getting picking up in the car by "poor dad" (who, it turns out was not that poor after all) he was met by apparently throngs of protestors and spit on. Now I have read, elsewhere, that that such things did NOT happen and it is all "urban myth."
FTX isn't even really a crypto story, just like Wolf of Wall Street isn't really a finance story and Smartest Men in the Room isn't a story about running an electric company.
Those things are just the setting for the fraud.
Did you see DarkHorse podcast #150?
Seems dots are connecting FTX with questionable "study" of ivermectin, with purported results that ivermectin doesn't work against COVID.
Knowing that FTX is in cahoots with Dems, makes me wonder about this "coincidence."
This is literally the article I'm working on right now. 😊
Sorry to bust your "scoop."
It's getting more difficult to not feel like a conspiracy theorist.
Please let’s dive down this rabbit hole. So many people, myself at the top of the list, are struggling to comprehend what all is involved here.
Thus far we have:
Major donations to democrats
Shenanigans in Ukraine
Ivermectin??!
A handful of Uber rich and Uber powerful LEFTIES up to their armpits
This story keeps growing. Please continue telling it.
What about Jeffrey Epstein?
And perhaps Jimmy Hoffa's body will turn up.
The growing list of tentacles reaching into every dark corner is seemingly endless....and includes almost everything. I could never have imagined the extent of all this.
It really should make you wonder why people continue to tolerate this evil but, people have no hill to die on, no, it’s called a pit…
And how easy it is to fraudulently if not literally manipulate and ruin peoples lives. We have the leadership we deserve, at the end of the day, the public sucks, and you know what to do with hope…
Happy turkey day to you, SimmComm.
You as well! Hope you and whatever part of the family is still talking to you is doing well :)
Family, another perversion by the Left..
I think I get it.
Kind of like "Aid for the Ukraine" wasn't just a way to send crypto money set up by FTX, but it also lets us support Joe Biden.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220330210055/https://donate.thedigital.gov.ua/
That was an extremely perceptive remark, SimulationCommander.
You really do see the essence of things.
To be fair, this is a line I'm using in my upcoming article about the saga, so I've had a fair bit of time to think about it. 🙂
This is not even a story about cryptocurrencies specifically. This is a story about people building some intermediary on top of crypto and then taking advantage of the fact that people have no clue that is what they are doing to scam people out of their cash. These failures are all in third party services like exchanges, lenders, bank-like-things and not failures of crypto at all. If you don't hold the private key you don't own crypto should be the lesson people are learning from this.
Ding ding ding! Not your keys, not your coins. There's a reason that we say this.
This is functionally no different than a TV preacher telling you that when you send him money, it will 'sprout' and multiply -- eventually enriching you, as well.
Exactly, but of course Alex didn't bother to spend any time learning about cryto itself and then the exchanges and other services related to it which can get over leveraged or be poorly managed.
FTX was set up from the getgo to power the Democratic machine and set the stage for the Central Bank digital currencies.
More here:
https://decodetheworld.substack.com/p/the-ftx-crypto-central-bank-operation
And I know most here hate hearing this from me but, when you have 50 to 70 million people who vote for this relentless evil reflexively, it’s never going to end.
Good luck, living among these humans, if they really are humans…
What choice do we have? I am looking at Puerto Rico, but not speaking spanish and as an unvaxxed single old person...where can I go?
I am an unvaxxed single old person as well, and I as well am wondering where to go. I live in Miami. Anyone may, naturally, course read my substack newsletter.
Florida is turning “Red” now, so maybe the leftist slime will flee north and leave you be? Yeah, doubtful…
I think you are in a good place right now. Florida still has Desantis, you can grow food year round even on a balcony, Florida has PORTS so ships can unload (just kick the cruise ships out)...and if we fracture into regions, I think you would want to be somehwere in the Southeast?
No, I still feel more comfortable with "Blue," sorry. I think both sides are exactly the same thing. I think it is bias to prefer red or blue. My bias or comfort area is still with the liberals, even though I do see how false it is, but so is everyything else false. What's the diff?
Good luck with your framing and choices.
You are not wrong. I just can’t understand why so many vote for this. I have had arguments with people where I repeat to them what the democrats actually say and have admitted to and they basically call me a liar. At church, people know the the democrats are supporters of abortion, but justify it by saying that they are aren’t one issue voters and that it may be true but the other side is less caring of humanity. I try not to get so worked up and upset about it, but it is awful.
Evil survives as long as there’s cowardice, apathy and indifference, and this country lately is built on that. And Covid was the manure to seed the weeds…
bright side is we're all making new friends and i get to work remotely now
we should practice some fun songs to sing while we're breaking rocks in the gulag together
Couldn’t agree more
Why do people vote for this? Massive ignorance and overwhelming complacency. So very few people know anything about what has been and what is going on.
You are assuming those many people actually vote that way, as opposed to votes “created” via election crimes. As another Stacker wrote, “They” are at war with a free people, and in war there are no crimes.
Actually, you are right, there are another 50 to 70 million who vote reflexively for Republicans who have no damn clue what their true ideologies and narratives are at the end of the day. So, we have 100 to 150 million people who just basically vote for letters, because they are stupid, idiotic, clueless morons who don’t grasp and hold onto responsible, appropriate, defensible principles and beliefs.
WHEN this country burns to the ground, 100s of millions of people who perish will not be mourned by responsible attentive concerned people like me if we somehow survive. But, that’s why the theme of Thanos actually is embraced by the people who want to destroy us…
Because we are ruled by people who want mass genocide on the scale of billions… and they do.
Hell, it's the modus operandi of both the Federal Reserve cabal and the central banking system that reaches worldwide. Dollars backed by nothing. Deposits loaned out dozens upon dozens of times--with ZERO dollars on deposit required to back the loans! FTX was nothing but a run on a crooked, upside down exchange and exactly what would happen if there were a run on the banks. I'm with SimulationCommander on this one--it's simply the setting for the fraud.
"The love of money" is at the root...
There's a reason that starting a bank run is illegal........
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/economics/bank-run/
A bank run occurs when many customers withdraw all their money simultaneously from their deposit accounts with a banking institution for fear that the institution is, or might become, insolvent. The situation takes place in fractional reserve banking systems where banks only maintain a small portion of their assets as cash. As more customers withdraw their money, there is a likelihood of default, and this will trigger more withdrawals to a point where the bank runs out of cash. An uncontrolled bank run can lead to bankruptcy, and when multiple banks are involved, it creates an industry-wide panic that can lead to an economic recession.
------
Of course, this does not excuse any theft of customer funds by FTX. A better-run exchange would have separated deposits and always ensured they had enough actual crypto to cover ALL of them. Of course, fraudsters are going to lie no matter what -- just look at Full Tilt Poker for another example.
https://www.mypokercoaching.com/full-tilt-poker-scandal/
A couple of months later, during the meeting with the AGCC, it was uncovered that Full Tilt didn’t have money to pay back the players.
The investigation concluded that Full Tilt Poker owners have potentially defrauded players to the tune of $300,000,000.
Not surprisingly, players from all over the world were outraged while the DoJ amended its original complaint, adding three names to the lawsuit: Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, and Rafe Furst – three main stakeholders in the company.
Absolute Truth.
Fiat currency is the same damn thing.
When we unhooked from gold, we should have replaced it with commodities..
I am looking at the Bric currencies...they are backed by oil, natural gas, other resources and
gold...
Actually, even fiat currency has a value. There is an economy standing behind it that will accept the fiat as a medium of exchange for goods and services. Now that value is constantly being depressed as the Central Bank that controls its supply gives into political pressure and funds deficit spending by creating ever greater amounts of it. But it still has a value because it is accepted by merchants.
Crypto for the most part is barely accepted by almost no merchants globally. It does not represent any economy or the value therein. Now the original Crypto may have enjoyed a rarity value, like a collector's item, becuase it was designed for only a finite amount to be mined. But that all changed when multiple types of Crypto all employed the same finite principle to an infinite number of coins. So while there maybe a rarity value to any one Crypto-currency, the universe of crypto grows faster than the government deficits globally that inflate global fiat currency supply.
Unless crypto can convince merchants globally to accept it for commerce, crypto goes the way of the Dutch tulips and the South Sea spices. Those were the cryptos of two past centiuries. Eventually they regressed down to the value the public found in tulips and spices, which likely is greater than an alpha-numeric combination will be worth to those who hold it. Perhaps a limited number of cryptos will survive and become actual currency accepted wisely for commerce. But I would not bet on it, because all it will take is for governments around the world - who will not want competition for their own issued digital currency - to dictate that its against the law to transact commerce in any currency other than one issued by a government Central Bank.
Personally I hope that kind of dictate does not occur for a long while into the future. Because there's a tremendous amount of money to be made trading the most widely held exchange traded Crypto-currency. And the volatility is so great that if you catch the right wave a lot of money can be made in a relatively short time. Like the waves that took Bitcoin up to $66,000 and then back to the ~$16,000 it is now.
But long run, its all fool's gold...if you want real value outside of paper viat money, buy the real Gold.
I don't totally agree with this. Our current monetary system is really based on the same blind faith that dollars are worth something ever since we went off of the gold standard. I am not a fan of crypto, let alone Bitcoin, but I do appreciate the idea of a monetary system outside the corruption of Government. So at least Bitcoin gives us a nice start to finding a new monetary system though it has many limitations one of which being the need for electricity and internet.
No. Our current monetary system is based on dollars that can be used to pay your tax debt. No other form of currency can be used to pay the US Treasury and/or your state income tax/property tax authority. Therefore, the dollar is necessarily the only thing that you must go back to or else get arrested and thrown in jail for not paying your tax bill. There is the difference that people don't understand. Bitcoin is blind faith. USD is not.
That's literally what we mean by fiat. It only has value because the ruler says that we must use it to pay taxes.
Meanwhile, they'll print trillions next year and trillions in 2025 and more trillions in 2030.........
I keep hearing the term "excess savings" that Americans are supposed to have (have had). I don't know about you, but I could have a billion in the bank and not one dime would be "excess". It really drives home the point that we really are slaves of the 1%. None of them are changing their life style the way the rest of us are supposed to, and if anyone saves enough to move up in class, they engineer a wealth confiscation.
'Excess savings' was just a coinvent excuse for inflation (which was actually caused by the printing of money for covid, the vast vast vast majority went to the politically connected -- like SBF's brother).
The idea that everybody is just so rich that we're bidding up prices is literally insane.
MV = PQ. Money Velocity Product Quantity.
There is no other way for them to pass the buck to us
They deliberately printed too much money. They broke the Product
Supply Chain . Quantities are pretty dependent on getting them
to people.
So all they can control is the Velocity. Hence, they can stop or slow all spending and get rid of savings...your money will run out at the expiry date they give you.
Plus they can make you buy what THEY want, by denying you meat..maybe you can only have it 2 times a week. Hence the ESG push.
They have outmaneouvred us and out thought us.
I see no solution.
PS. And if you don't think this has been planned for years, and deliberately done (even a 5 year old knows you don't raise interest rates in the face of a depression)...there is no way they can keep their power (and the BIS is a sovereign entity, remember?)...and work their way of this deliberating printing of trillions and generations of people that have to work to pay it back, so they can retain power, and blame us.
We have been slaves since our Feckless and FAithless congresscritters outsource their Constitutional duty to control the currency...and then the Income Tax.
we are Slaves already,...just now with the ability to conduct some things in private.
With cash.
Yep. Once the money is fake, everything in the economy is sure to follow. Now we're at the point where it's more 'profitable' to be friends with the people who run the literal money-making machine (fake economy) than it is to actually serve customers via voluntary transactions (real economy).
If you know anything about history, you know this is where the wheels fall off.
True. But our rulers, no matter how corrupt or inept, will always say that we need to use US currency to pay taxes. That doesn't mean it can't go down, plenty of currencies have been eaten up by inflation but it does mean that it has more of a floor than say bitcoin.
_______ has no price ceiling because the dollar has no floor.
Nearly everything fits into that blank line, and it's unlikely that bitcoin will be any different.
Oh well they will be digital USD. That will be fine. and they can and have change the rules anydamntimetheywant.
Like they did over the past15 years...you do know you have no constitutional rights, right? Like you do know the DOD took over the Covid scam in late March 2020?
HHS declares the emergency (bioweapons) and they can make you take a jab. No informed consent, no liability, no manufacturing standards...nada.
Your government wants you dead.
Question I have, is why don't the people who work for these entities realize they too are expendable?
I know none of the polis and other important people got the jab...and they will get fake "health passports" and trade carbon derivatives so they can still fly their private jets...for a time.
But in the end, they too will die or become impovershed.
I guess they don't give a damn about their kids...
How long do they think they are not expendable?
This was not about bitcoin at all, they were printing their own coin.
The dollar suffers from the exact problem that got this guy in trouble though. He could have carried this on much longer if he did not have piles of people start asking for their money back. The conventional banking system has this exact same issue. This guy may have taken it to an extreme but he really is not doing anything different that the conventional system other than he can't force people to use his shit coin.
The us government has hard assets backing the dollar...so far. The debt is the killer
Oh really? What exactly is the hard asset that backs the creation of the money? They don't even pretend that there is anything other than "the full faith and credit" of the government. If you are implying that the government has assets I would agree with that but there is literally no connection between them and the ability to create money.
Any answer other than "guns" is incorrect. Still, the petrodollar seems to be on its last legs, and with it will go the dollar's 'reserve currency' status.
Then the real shit hits the fan.
I am not yet convinced that the petrodollar is on its way out but at some point it is inevitable that the US loses the reserve currency status, question of when not if. When that happens we are in for some painful times for a while. Not the end of the world, at least not on a societal scale although for some it will feel like it, but it will not be fun for a bit for some. This has happened over and over again in the last 500 years (Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, France, Great Britain and now the US) and each lasted as the world reserve for something just shy of 100 years on average. They have been pretty consistent too. We have had this position for just over 100 years now so if history is any guide we are about due.
Are you dreaming? We haven't had hard assets backing the dollar since Nixon took us off the gold standard.
OMG
In 2015 I was discussing with my 95 year old mom how the government was printing money, and I remember her laughing about that and saying it was nothing new, the government had been doing that for a long time.
Oil ….it’s why the dollar is worth anything…it’s called king dollar because of oil and The other natural resources we have..🤓
That’s not true at all... period. The US$ is a world currency whose debt by law (constitutional) must be paid prior to all other obligations. Further, please point to the military that backs BTC et al? Please also show the collection agency (IRS) that insures the income stream? You can’t -
Yes, the government has the power to force you at gunpoint to give them more money. That does not fundamentally change the nature of the scheme they are running and the fact that it is the same as FTX was doing. It just means they will likely be able to run it longer, maybe even until they lose world reserve currency status. It also makes what the government is doing inherently more immoral than what FTX was doing and that is saying a lot given what this clown at FTX was doing and how immoral that was.
As far as the fact that the currency is sound because constitutionally they must pay their debt, given the number of things that the government does every single day that fly in the face of the constitution I don't really see how that fact, it is a fact you are correct on that, has any real world bearing on what we are talking about. When push comes to shove and the government gets themselves in a bind they will do whatever they feel they need to constitution be damned. If that is not plainly obvious to you by now I am not sure we can even have a serious conversation.
Welp- you're probably correct. Because the nature of all governments is to send their citizens into the meat grinder to protect their power to tax, spend, lie, cheat, make war and live protected lives of privilege. That they do it at the threat of warfare after the last 3 years of covering lies of bioweapons and corruption on an international scale shouldn't surprise you in the least. Fortunately for the US; unlike its trading partners who have all borrowed infinite amounts of US$ in the form of EuroDollar loans; they must sell their currencies to convert to US$ to repay those debts at now ever higher interest rates. This forces their currencies lower. In case you haven't noticed, the US$ as been on a screaming run higher vs all other currencies. So the idea that the US will lose reserve currency status may be true.... someday... but not now. Not until the next war is over.... and even then it assumes that the US lost.
As you observe, the only difference is that governments have a monopoly on violence. Welcome to the Gulag.
I think we are in agreement on basically everything here. I am not claiming the US will lose reserve currency status tomorrow, as I mentioned in another post I don't see it currently on the horizon, but make no mistake it will come and we are likely a lot closer to it than most anyone really thinks based solely on historical precedent.
eventually, the US will not be able to repay its debts and then we will run into big trouble. I do believe FTX is far more corrupt than the US government, and that says a lot.
If you want to see the collection agency that insures the "income stream" don't pay your taxes and they will be at your door to kick you out of your home and take you to jail. If not paying taxes didn't have some sort of penalty, no one would pay. This includes all property tax, sales tax remittances, excise taxes, tariffs, etc. I assure you that a federal, state, or city agency will come to visit you when you don't pay them. And they will have guns. That's all the proof you need. I'm not saying that the US can't cause it's currency to devalue, I'm just saying that it is definitely backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, whatever that's worth.
So Congress and the President with the help of the Fed cannot increase the monetary supply whenever it benefits them politically? Was I dreaming the last 3 years during Covid when they blew the roof off of the national debt?
Funny how people can't get this part of it. This is exactly what this clown at FTX was doing too. He just created his own coin and started paying people with it. When he needed more he just made more. He was doing the same thing the government and the banking system do but as was mentioned he does not have the threat of throwing you in jail if you don't use his coin so he can't force it to continue.
me too. Bitcoin to me seems to be the best...cold wallet, limiit to how many there are.
At least it gives you a chance to evade for a bit the prgammable. CBDC
That’s exactly what Alex said…’a digitised version of a scam that’s been going on forever’. Both are scams but one at least has some controls applied to it…
Alex, I love your work, however, calling all of crypto a scam is badly mistaken. Similar to , the dot com bust or all of Wall St, it has attracted numerous bad actors. Digital Assets are a real thing and Bitcoin and Ethereum are amongst the most important inventions every in technology. Think of much of crypto as digital Marriott Bonvoy points or Amex points. Please think of crypto as digital assets used to reward individuals in a particular context. Not a scam at all but a huge part of the next phase of the Internet.
Agree with you wholeheartedly, more regarding Bitcoin but Horsey is a Bitcoin maxi. Curious what Alex thinks about this FTX exchange collapse/exposure as global central banks are trying to expedite a move to digital currency.
Is digital currency a scam? Or is it a scam and also a means to further enslave populations? 😵
Digital currencies controlled by a central entity are a scam, yes. And the worst part about this whole FTX saga is that government will use it as an excuse to 'regulate' the market -- even though the regulators of FTX were getting drunk with SBF and fawning over his 'altruism' (that just happened to further every progressive agenda).
Aye, Commander. Janet Yellen is laughing all the way to the digital bank. They've started "testing" for 90 days as they gleefully will parade SBF-Madoff before the cameras. Like a circus monkey on command it appears.
Is it an excuse or was it all going according to plan up to the point the scam prematurely detonated?
I think this is a great opportunity for them to shut down and make bitcoin illegal.
As you well know, the "scam" that serves as the means to further enslave populations is a CENTRALIZED digital currency. It's the greed of those in the center who manipulate everything else in the system. In our fiat system, that would be the Fed, the IRS and crooked politicians who just vote to "spend" money that doesn't even exist. Then POOF! With a few keystrokes of the Fed, the central banks just see daily visits from the tooth fairy and their balances magically increased overnight!
Are you me?
Commander, there are replicants appearing here interfering with the CBDC plan.
Please alert our host this will lead to being disinvited from all the cool kid parties leaving nothing but holiday mixers with Kyrie Irving.
Now THAT is hilarious!
I've always been of the mind that the 'hush-hush' parties out in the middle of the woods have been more fun, with FAR less chance of government intervention. ;)
OK, I'll go ... but I am NOT gonna be Pivot Man again !
I wish that your scenario were the worst case. Regrettably it is not. Central Bank Digital Currency, introduced with a simultaneous or subsequent sundowning of paper and coin currency, is a fate far worse, as it will give government the power to control your spending based on what government wants you to do. Speak or write something against a government narrative, watch your savings disappear. Buy too much meat or drive too many miles, sorry, you're grounded for a month. Want to travel on holiday beyond the mileage you've earned by being a good little government automaton, no chance. Wanna donate to political candidates promising to restore your freedoms, the check won't clear.
Remember these three words : Social CreditScore. They already use it in China. You don't agree to follow government dictate, your score goes down and you get fewer privileges. Yes, privileges because rights become a thing of the past once the government controls your money.
You don't think the government will do this to you? Well who thought three years ago that government would make you take an injection that they knew does not stop transmission or death from a disease or you would lose your job ?
If you value liberty and freedom, and are willing to die topreserve it for your family and kids, then this is the hill to die on. If they introduce Central Bank Digital Currency, shun it like the plague. If they force you to turn in your existing money in exchange for the digital brand,resist and revolt. No government will ask you to give up your paper and coin currency in exchange for a digitized form unless they are seeking to make you a slave of their totalitarianism. Never allow them to violate you in that way !
Yup. All leading to May 2023, when you will wake up with a QR code installed on your phone, and you will be able only to take out what is allowed that week, and God help you if you exceed your carbon limit.
It’s clearly an effort to make it very easy to take everything you own for any reason.
Exactly.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/for-a-glimpse-of-the-future-look
Think back over the last, say, 20 years. Did you protest against the Iraq war? How about protesting at Occupy Wall Street? Were you a member of the Tea Party? A member of #TheResistance? Did you disagree with the government’s covid response? It’s nearly certain that everybody with a political pulse has crossed the government at one time or another. How comfortable are you with the idea that the person you’re protesting against can shut off your bank account?
Because now, it seems, those perfectly legal actions at least have the potential to come with harsh monetary consequences, as well as the ensuing chaos caused by financial ruin. And this is happening all without a single shred of oversight or due process. It’s just some asshole in an expensive suit giving a list of ‘subversives’ to another asshole in an expensive suit. The no-fly list but with the very real potential to ruin your life.
And they will never be happy no matter how much they take from us
They NEVER.HAVE.ENOUGH.
crypto is for people who believe men can get pregnant, modern monetary theory fixes inflation, electric cars solve climate change, socialism works if done the "right way", and the vaccines are "safe and effective".
DarkHorse podcast #150.
FTX funded a $15M "clinical trial" with dubious methodology of ivermectin...with results claiming that it does not work against COVID.
Now--regardless of whatever anyone thinks about ivermectin--knowing that FTX was in cahoots with the Dems...doesn't THIS sound interesting?
Someone needs to re-open the fake-successful remdesivir trial case with this new presumptive money trail in mind. By which "someone" I of course mean citizen-investigators^W^W *cough cough* conspiracy theorists
So glad I invested my money instead in tangible assets, like baseball cards and Beanie Babies.
Hey Alex, speaking of the FTX scam, have you seen the "research" they were funding???
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/ftx-funded-18-million-towards-research-claimed-ivermectin-hydroxychloroquine-didnt-work-covid/
This is what I'm working on now.
Marc Cohodes is a really good get. He's been blistering about SBF-Madoff and his ex-gf, the MSM deemed "alt right" Caroline as they passed off hundreds of millions and cool billions to each other with no accounting controls whatsoever. This is not virtue signaling progressive generosity on any examination. But oh, did SBF-Madoff know and love to play that game.
As SBF-Madoff had people shill about how he was interested in making money for altruism ends to give it away and drives a Toyota Corolla in the Bahamas, others like Cohodes noticed the guy was living in a $40 million monster-sized penthouse.
Maxine Waters blew SBF-Madoff a kiss after a Congressional hearing as he bribed, I mean contributed to her and most of her friends on this financial oversight committee. That changes come January but not after tens of millions paid off to Democrat pols and of course Joe Biden.
In addition, Jeff Childers highlighted how the left wing publication "The Intercept" was gifted the moolah via a SBF-Madoff news grant outfit. Because not setting up a third party gateway promoting lockdowns and passport mandates would be unseemly. Getting the picture?
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/c-and-c-news-monday-november-21-2022?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=463409&post_id=85931871&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
Please ask Elon to free Horsey: #FreeIronHorsey @Elon.
I’m a simple living person while always striving not to be simple minded...let’s just say I simply can’t wrap my common sense brain around crypto currency and have grave concerns about its implications...
Amen, to me, it’s like stocks, it’s worthless paper, that you assume the company that gives it value is going to make responsible, ethical decisions.
You continue to put your trust in people who more and more are untrustworthy…
Never got the jab, never bought bitcoin. I don’t do scams.
Think perhaps Alex should consider exposing the bigger picture of the FTX scandal-fallout, and especially the next day announcing of the "digital currency" trial being run in NY modeling in a very similar way the the digital yuan currency the CCP uses on it's people (China) in the ways of "social credit scoring" Forest for the trees...forest for the trees.
FTX being a democrat money laundering scam, even with a "TrumpLose" fund, won't open your eyes will it?
https://chrischambers.substack.com/p/alex-berenson-is-the-new-poster-boy
and get vaxx'd
Disagree with you here Alex. In the first sentence I could tell these were "actors;" hard for me to watch, it's not great parody and the blockchain tech exists. One example, I use Brave. It's faster, private. On the blockchain video services and music apps exist and are potentially better. Yes there has been nonsensical tulip trading of "coin' that does nada. But this is similar to the beginning of the internet. Most of the initial co's don't exit. Google does and gmail, earthlink, yahoo...Blockchain is. And it will be everywhere.
Not on subject for this column, but...
Al Roker with Blood Clots After Receiving Covid 19 Booster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KraLqLvLCPg
Al will now be on blood thinners for the rest of his life. I predict he retires soon "to spend more time with his family." So sad and predictable.
Al Roker has had, as everyone knows, gastric bypass surgery, but also knee replacement surgery, and other surgery on his knee, his shoulder for rotator cuff, and emergency carpal tunnel surgery, and hip replacement surgery. He didn't need blood clots too.
Yes more apparent than ever and it’s be apparent for a long time....I mean the demonrats🐀 have so many ways to cheat.
FTX was a ponzi, Bitcoin and Ethereum are totally different. I'm not going to defend crypto here, but I do want to point out that FTX was an exchange that leveraged too too too far, which is how it ended up being like the video.
Unfortunately Bitcoin is now on the futures market. That means it can be manipulated to suit the desire of governments. Governments have infinite resources to move the Bitcoin market and be sure that it is never viewed as stable. Governments can also regulate it and the FTX scam makes this even more likely
Governments are NOT going to give up the power to create and control currency. They will use Bitcoin and crypto to introduce digital currencies (Trackable and traceable). If they can do this without destroying crypto that fine. But if they have to destroy crypto to protect the currency monopoly, they will.
For much more on the FTX subject, see this substack:
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/
People in positions of power, influence, and control, are corrupted until proven otherwise.
It’s the 80/20 rule, if 80% of people are doing something that’s either wonderful or evil, and the other 20% are the opposite, who are you going to cater to?
I don’t get people who tell me you have to worry about the 20% who are good and tolerate 80% of evil, it’s just pathetic, lame and ignorant, and it’s a willful intended. Ignorance!
Thank you for letting me comment Mr. Berenson, God, I wish I could could control this addiction to comment here but, I need to be preoccupied with something more beneficial and I don’t have that right now…
😊🦃☀️
One could argue that the federal reserve is the biggest scam that was orchestrated against the people of the US.
Again, sorry but I’m going to keep putting these links at Mr. Berenson’s sites that talk about disgusting behavior, so here’s my newest:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/through-gritted-teeth-a-good-word-for-qatar-world-cup-censors/
oh, how well said in the article (and my preemptive apology, for the length):
“Our young are going to live with less material, social, and emotional security than their parents and grandparents, while our liberals are tearing down all sources of solidarity outside of radical politics, and our conservatives mostly don't care. The United States is busy destroying its higher education system, which used to be the envy of the world, all for the sake of ideologizing it. We are also destroying the capacity for excellence in science and nearly every other field of endeavor, for the sake of DEI ideology. The rich are getting richer, and the numbers of the economically precarious grow daily. And for the past two decades, Washington has not seen a war it didn't want to fight, even as the woke war machine understandably struggles to convince young Americans that serving in the armed forces is worth doing. Respect for God is in collapse among American youth. Violent crime is up. American pop culture celebrates what is most violent, sexual, and degraded in the human experience, and export that baseness globally.”
Again, that large hill you think you’re standing on, it’s next to a mass grave pit…
It's easy to sh!t on the crypto space right now with everything happening with FTX and before that LUNA but don't forget that banks are the biggest Ponzi schemes in history! And don't get me started on how Wallstreet and hedge funds play the market against the retailer, obviously never in the favor of the retailer. And the biggest scam of all is the FEDS who can print money out of thin air with nothing backing it. Oh and also maybe we can discuss JP Morgan and their manipulation of the gold market along with everything else. Anyone who has read the BTC white paper, actually read the entire thing, understands how different BTC is from anything else in crypto and how it has the capacity to give all of those who are NOT in the 1% their financial sovereignty back. That is the goal. And please never put BTC in the same group as the FED Coin/digital dollar/CBDC it is the antithesis to that!
Is crypto a scam? It's an interesting philosophical question. In a sane society, yes it would be effectively a scam. But we don't live in such a society. Fiat currency is underwritten by the force of law (legal tender), crypto is underwritten by the force of market confidence (belief it can be converted into legal tender and the market will remain buoyant). But in reality market confidence is necessary in all aspects of a hyper volatile, globalized capitalist economy, while conversely, in practice, a minimum of legal toleration is needed for crypto to operate.
The name is Sam Bankster-Fraud.
Blockchain can have real value but current cryptos backed by nothing are effectively canned air. 100% speculative asset. A crypto currency backed by hard assets could have real value but then you have a middleman that kills some of the appeal of crypto.
Peter Schiff has been warning people about this stuff for years and has been the most vocal crypto critic of consequence and hated man by the crypto community.
Doesn't work; no three minutes and thirty-nine seconds. Is there a direct link?
Worked for me. 🤷🏼♀️
Gotta click the banner at the top.
FTX May Just Be the Tip of the Iceberg,' Posobiec and Darren Beattie on the 'Collapse of Crypto' | Human Events
https://humanevents.com/2022/11/21/jack-posobiec-and-darren-beattie-talk-collapsing-crypto-company-ftx?utm_source=PMI_Ecquire&utm_medium=deployer&utm_campaign=Human+Events+Daily&utm_term=6131
Anyone reader here who thinks crypto and all things crypto isn't a con at its root, feel free to ID here for me the outfit I cry to for my assets back when anything makes my assets no longer available to me. Asking for a friend.
As I've said to everyone I know since the beginning, there's no there there.
Here’s a lot of dot connecting. Take it slow: https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/a-grand-unified-theory-of-the-ftx
Thanks, Alex. Can't wait to read this. I understand so little about crypto.
I have watched 2 or 3 different people explain crypto and I still can't grasp it. They said it was like property you own, but it still didn't make sence. The one guy borrowed 1 million dollars and invested it and explained he would do it again as soon as he paid back the loan. Interest rates were much lower then but it just didn't add up. Anyone that invested with the tubby vegan really should have known better. How stupid they all must be. They need to look in their selves in the mirrow and say 100 times, I'm a basketball player, I'm not qualified to make these decisions or anything else that happens off the court. Just like Kyrie, the world really isn't flat.
Ah, time to go back and watch 'The Big Short' once more. Today it's crypto, in 2008 it was credit default swaps. I enjoy reprising this film periodically to be reminded how gullible and greedy humans are. This FTX kingpin Bankman-Fried is a bit of a loon and a genius at the same time, but in the end he's the evil nephew of Bernie Madoff. Even if young Sam is in a protected zone where there is no extradition agreement, we need to send a team of Seals to drag his butt back to the U.S. where he can have a fair trial and then is properly euthanized. The bad guys in 2008 never paid a price. Maybe this time justice will be done.
Crypto is just economic alchemy. The people who are losing their shirts deserve to.
Alex, I am sure you know, but Cory is one of the biggest advocates for Bitcoin around. Do you at least acknowledge that Bitcoin is different than "crypto" due to its unique first principles? Bitcoiners have been fighting the "crypto" scam from day one, but you never differentiate between the two, and I would be curious to know your thoughts. I would also be curious as to how much research you have done into Bitcoin, specifically.
I don't know crypto, but I know government. Nothing will stand in the way of government imposing Central Bank Digital Currency on everyone. And if you ask Richard Werner (e.g. at 1:20 in the below video), it is a CIA creation with a clumsy calling card - "Nakamoto Satoshi" (Central Intelligence).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QECujWeIjpg
This is why Bitcoin is so important. It is censorship resistant, operates fully decentralized across the globe, and anyone can verify the supply and their coins with a laptop and an internet connection. Crypto is just our current fiat system done digitally with better marketing. I would encourage you to research Bitcoin further. Bitcoin is the antidote to the CBDC.
Not ever going to watch anything from berensen who is voting for Joe & Ho
BTC is not a scam. Amazing how Alex draws broad conclusions about something he knows so little about. His knowledge of the vaccines does not make him an expert on crypto. But the vax news is old so he has to move onto other topics. Unfortunately, he doesn't do any research on the topic before posting.
F#@k, that's my broker!
Alex, I'm a big fan. I was in medical school during the pandemic and am so thankful for all you've done.
I've also got a history working for a crypto VC and am still very much involved in the crypto space.
But to call all cryptocurrencies a scam, you miss the mark completely.
The FTX scam is a story as old as the financial system. A CENTRALISED entity becoming greedy and overleveraged and going belly up (aside from all the illegal things going on there too).
Crypto is the antithesis to this.
The distinction between technology and scam becomes clear when we focus on FTX specifically:
FTX could have been an exchange for roughly ANY commodity.
Sure Crypto is also rife with cashgrabs and scams, no doubt about it. I for one would welcome regulation in this space. But there's real innovation happening here. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and be sure to be nuanced. That's what makes a great journalist. So don't call ALL crypto a scam.
Bitcoin was created to solve the counterparty risk problem in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Also Decentralised Finance (DeFi) which are protocols built on top of Ethereum worked exactly as designed when all this excess leverage was wiped out during the FTX blow up (or earlier this year when a $50bn protocol went up in smoke). The point of crypto is to create antifragile systems where you don't have to trust anyone, it's trustless, decentralised and permissionless. You don't have to trust that a CEO or bank doesn't blow up or misuses your funds.
Lastly, here's some other brilliant research that may help you in your endeavor:
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/a-grand-unified-theory-of-the-ftx
If you're going to make a forray into commenting on crypto, I hope you do so with the understanding that Bitcoin is not "crypto" as most people refer to it. "Crypto" is the generalized term people use to refer to the THOUSANDS of shitcoins (which are basically centralized, unregistered securities that pass the Howey Test and were issued to raise money for a project).
Bitcoin is not any of that. Bitcoin is the most pristine form of money mankind has ever devised. There is no central organization around it. It was not created to raise money for a project. It is the most secure and constant monetary system on the planet.
Bitcoin is gold, but better. Because when gold goes up in price people can just find more gold to mine. But nobody can find more Bitcoin to mine -- making it the hardest money history has ever known. And monetary history has a clear constant -- THE HARDEST MONEY ALWAYS WINS IN THE END.
Furthermore, I cannot send gold anywhere in the world 24/7 unless I store the gold with a trusted third party and use a derivative to then transfer the value of that gold over time and space. This is the problem that has plagued gold for centuries (third parties with gold on deposit issuing more derivative "IOU" notes than they have gold in the vault / treasury).
This is not the case with Bitcoin -- which requires no third parties to store or transfer or trade. Thus it removes the biggest problem with gold -- TRUST and EASE OF USE.
Finally -- Bitcoin is literally impossible to confiscate. You can travel anywhere in the world, across any international border with all of your wealth intact, and nobody can confiscate it from you.
For example, imagine trying to flee Russia or the Ukraine after Putin initiated this war with all your wealth in gold -- you couldn't do it.
But you would easily have been able to do it with all of your wealth in Bitcoin -- because you can literally carry it in your brain.
Bitcoin is the greatest achievement in monetary history and will replace gold as the global reserve currency, ending its 5,000+ year reign. There is no other conceivable outcome. No other path makes sense.
Everything that Bitcoiners have been saying FOR YEARS such as "Not your keys, not your coins" and "there is no second best" and so on have just come home to roost.
All those involved in Bitcoin knew that these ponzi schemes would fall. But Bitcoin remains -- and always will.
Now people realize that there is nothing better than Bitcoin. And, there is no better way to buy or store Bitcoin other than through self custody and peer-to-peer.
All roads lead to Bitcoin. All outcomes lead to hyperbitcoinization. No other alternatives exist.
Apparently they're still pushing Covid vaccines in the Philippines, but also wasting a lot of them. The US government is pushing them also in the Philippines, probably on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies as their uptake has plummeted in the US, especially for children, where they are far more harmful than helpful.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/21/22/p156-billion-worth-of-covid-shots-wasted-doh
https://news-aws.abs-cbn.com/news/11/21/22/us-gives-additional-5-m-covid-funds-for-vaccine-rollout-in-ph
You should also contact Terry Duffy, CEO of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group. He called out SBF as a fraud back in March and was very scathing about it.
And yet ignored or dismissed, and thus the consequences played out, and wait for it, Duffy will be scapegoated? Because he didn’t make people think responsibly and appropriately fast enough…
By the way, took a walk earlier and came to realize after hearing that Tony Fuck-i was at the White House again shrieking about masks, wouldn’t the irony be great if this guy got an infectious disease that no one can treat, and he wound up dying in the ICU, alone and unattended, being allegedly treated by careless uncaring cruel healthcare workers that Covid created?
We can dream and hope……
Here’s a thought that you might want to consider tossing out at the Thanksgiving table, if it resonates?:
Covid has shown Americans , basically there are three types of people in this country, (and yes, simplistic analogies/metaphors usually fail because it’s not that simple but here they are anyway):
There are people who tell you where to sit, there are people who sit where they’re told, and there are people who sit where they want to sit.
Unfortunately, America has shown us there are too many disgusting people telling you where to sit and too many pathetic people who sit where they are told.
Those like me who sit where they want to sit, you’re greatly outnumbered, hence why this country is dead, so Happy Thanksgiving!?
Regarding the new post about the pilot, who died on the American Airlines flight, how much more has to happen, IF in fact this death can be somewhat contributed to Covid interventions, before people have their reality moment? Doubt still not enough has to be revealed as true consequences: Covid has exposed the soulless, heartless and cowardice prevalent in America.
Big supporter of your work Alex because you don't go for the "easy" explanation. Saying that crypto is all a scam is just false. Are there scam artists in the space - YES! Is the tech new and still working on effective Use cases and so risky - Also YES!
But given that $$$ is going to go digital, and governments are creating their own digital currency that can then be turned on and off depending on whether you are deemed a "good/compliant citizen" (which you of all people know about), then what crypto represents - and Bitcoin in particular - is our only hope for monetary freedom in the future. I so hope you can learn more about this space and give it the fair shot it deserves and needs.
By the way, per the new post just now 11-22 at Noon, wait till they bring back leprosy and maybe even the Black Plague…
And there is always Anthrax for laughs…
If you actively seek to train millions of persons to believe that fraud is okay and legitimate, a certain proportion will go along. Even if that percentage is only one, it would still add up to tens of thousands of persons. So, I think pretty much depends on how we train the members of our society. And there is a constant on-going, always accelerating program to teach Americans that fraud is a reasonable or legitimate way to earn. And those persons who are training us are accelerating in their mania and desperation. Just look at R. Kiyosaki author 'rich dad/poor dad.' Well, I visited the B&N bookstore - where I spotted his latest book-thing, 'Capitalist Manifesto" - OMG He makes all this money. Why is he still unhappy? That is my question. In it he also make a peculiar claim. Says that as a returning marine from Vietnam, getting picking up in the car by "poor dad" (who, it turns out was not that poor after all) he was met by apparently throngs of protestors and spit on. Now I have read, elsewhere, that that such things did NOT happen and it is all "urban myth."
fraud is just what we do
New slogan for America:
Let fraud-dom reign…