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Old 05-15-2022, 11:10 AM
  #21  
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Originally Posted by gloopy View Post
Not sure were you're going with this. Legal cash under a mattress or laundered through an interconnected web of otherwise legitimate business fronts (or simply going to congress and getting "lucky" with extremely well timed "investments" can be just as fruitful. Using BTC for crime is one of the dumbest and least frequent ways for individual criminals and enterprises to do whatever it is they're going to do. Total red herring.
I’m not solely referencing “crime.” If you store your gains, ill gotten or not, in crypto and it can’t be seized by an outside entity, how is it different than an off shore account? In a world where governments are sanctioning bad actors accounts, how would you not think of storing your money in a secure system that can’t be breached without your authority? Again I’m not saying it has, and to establish legitimacy crypto currencies need to establish and maintain a public marketplace. But it only takes a few bad actors to make a legitimate system corrupt. Crypto markets do create some obvious hazards on that front.
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Old 05-15-2022, 11:13 AM
  #22  
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Originally Posted by Gooner View Post
Fair point, and I’m not saying it is being used that way. But if law enforcement, particularly internationally, has trouble with currencies they control, I can see why they are nervous about controlling an unregulated market. The volatility of the non name brand crypto monies is easily exploited alone.

It’s still very new technology and maybe it does make sense in the long run. At this point you’re playing against the casino, and they don’t lose often and win in the long run.

i look forward to learning more as it evolves, I will look into some books mentioned. I just haven’t seen enough to value it different than other commodities.
That's a fair take based on the SME PPOS you laid out.

I'd merely add that govs aren't concerned with it because its unregulated or that its a currency they don't control etc. If that were the case they'd be far more worried about all foreign currencies, as they don't control or even regulate those anyway, at least not directly. Their real concern comes from its decentralization, limited supply and its other monetary-like properties that one day very well could present a global off-ramp to their precious brute force backed petro-dollar and wealth transference tool from the middle class and working poor to themselves. Same for the Chinese government and their debt-trap-diplomacy.

Another thing that often gets overlooked is the "currency" part of the nomenclature "cryptocurrency". Its easy to assume its value is built on a foundation of small retail transactions. While it can be (and is being) used for that, that is incidental to its primary use case. Its far, far more like "digital gold" than it will ever be "digital cash". The number of people who "buy coffee" with it (popular euphemism in the space) will grow its network effect (Metcalf's Law etc) but that was never its main reason for existing. Peer to peer as a general use case? Sure. But for every retail transaction? Not necessary at all. Its really just a place to link some of one's "monetary energy" to a fixed supply of pristine digital cyberspace.

What's really funny is seeing anyone at the retail level knocking gold or BTC as stupid, outdated or conspiratorial when billionaires, banks, major financial institutions and even some sovereigns are involved in both to one degree or another. Zooming in shows significant volatility. That is very fair to point out. But zooming out shows we're pretty likely IMO on the beginning of the upturn of a logarithmic S-Curve adoption/network profile.

Would I go all in right now? LOL no way. But I'm not all in on anything right now. Including gold, cash, RE, equities or even blue chips.
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Old 05-15-2022, 06:05 PM
  #23  
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Can't remember, but were members of the Canadian Trucker Convoy, and the NGOs supporting them, able to access their bitcoin or crypto accounts after Trudeau invoked his "emergency" orders?

A5S
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Old 05-15-2022, 07:15 PM
  #24  
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Originally Posted by All 5 Stages View Post
Can't remember, but were members of the Canadian Trucker Convoy, and the NGOs supporting them, able to access their bitcoin or crypto accounts after Trudeau invoked his "emergency" orders?

A5S
I think most made it through …

https://bitcoinist.com/canadian-seiz...rs-convoy/amp/

I’ve read several articles regarding “Whirlpool”software’s capability to break ledger movement. Interesting stuff, unfortunately most of the to/fro donating was from open transactions originating to / from exchanges. Kinda scary, you can get the government hammer dropped on you just for donating to a cause you support…that might not be deemed “illegal” at the time… as your chain movements are easy for the gov to track.
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Old 05-15-2022, 08:12 PM
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Originally Posted by BCan View Post
I think most made it through …

https://bitcoinist.com/canadian-seiz...rs-convoy/amp/

I’ve read several articles regarding “Whirlpool”software’s capability to break ledger movement. Interesting stuff, unfortunately most of the to/fro donating was from open transactions originating to / from exchanges. Kinda scary, you can get the government hammer dropped on you just for donating to a cause you support…that might not be deemed “illegal” at the time… as your chain movements are easy for the gov to track.
Interesting article. Probably the most pertinent part of the article was how government seized Bitcoin:

“In a March 9 sworn affidavit filed in relation to the civil action, St. Louis said that on Feb. 28 police officers executed a search warrant on his home and seized roughly $250,400 worth of bitcoin.”

Then the author concludes with saying Bitcoin is "nearly unseizable," which clearly it isn't?
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Old 05-16-2022, 03:31 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by All 5 Stages View Post
Interesting article. Probably the most pertinent part of the article was how government seized Bitcoin:

“In a March 9 sworn affidavit filed in relation to the civil action, St. Louis said that on Feb. 28 police officers executed a search warrant on his home and seized roughly $250,400 worth of bitcoin.”

Then the author concludes with saying Bitcoin is "nearly unseizable," which clearly it isn't?
Sounds like they found his physical wallet and his security phrase.
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Old 05-16-2022, 04:07 AM
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My .02. Bitcoin, while a genius concept, became a money laundering conduit to bypass SWIFT- hence its insane residual valuation. Other common options are gold (which the Chinese and Russians have been amassing for 15 years), silver and other physical assets that can be moved around (private jets and mega yachts). Real estate as well, but local laws and politics can affect ownership; the Canadians have basically locked out foreigners for the time being. Bitcoin became just another tool of the drug cartels, Russian Mafia and other global elites looking to bypass SWIFT. Notice how the coin topped in November of 21, just before the invasion and sanctions? Now where is it?

The world's central banks are not going to allow the destruction of their banks, power and order to a currency dominated by a handful of oligarchs, dictators and drug dealers. I expect inflation is only half the reason world central banks are raising rates, they are just as much targeting all these digital currencies as well to preserve their own credibility. Why does the United States have 13 aircraft carriers to "project" power? Clearly, we won't use them against the enemies they were "designed" to fight against or enter wars we could possibly lose. When you have central banks that can fund proxy wars, eaves drop on the world and under the guise of the Patriot Act, utilize numerous federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take down threats, you have power. In contrast, how can Bitcoin defend itself?

That is ultimately what every currency, whether fiat or not, comes down to.

Would love to hear counter arguments.


https://www.scmp.com/business/articl...ontrol-soaring

https://www.reuters.com/article/mexi...-idUSKBN28I1KD

https://bitcoinist.com/mexican-drug-...er-25-billion/
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Old 05-16-2022, 05:58 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by All 5 Stages View Post
Interesting article. Probably the most pertinent part of the article was how government seized Bitcoin:

“In a March 9 sworn affidavit filed in relation to the civil action, St. Louis said that on Feb. 28 police officers executed a search warrant on his home and seized roughly $250,400 worth of bitcoin.”

Then the author concludes with saying Bitcoin is "nearly unseizable," which clearly it isn't?
Check-out this article...particularly the portion how BTC is tracked.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technica...rlpool-bitcoin

From numerous articles I've read, law enforcement is dang near embracing BTC because it's so much easier to track down criminals. If you want a very good, although lengthy read, check out how these kiddy porn POSs got busted:
https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-...nonymity-myth/

What's important to understand...the BTC blockchain is PUBLIC. For 99% of people, you're going to open an account via an exchange...and they will have all your info just like any financial institution. From there, that public BTC ledger is going to give away your BTC movement. Can you "launder" your BTC...yes...but you gotta be quite savvy on BTC. But, then you gotta cash it out. Same problem...and exchange is going to have all your info.

You buy BTC anonymously via a peer-to-peer website. Then you need to be a level 11 BTC ninja to send it to another person...cause all the apps are unusable as they require your info. Then you need to sell it via a peer-to-peer if you want fiat currency. The peer-to-peer stuff sells above open market prices.
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Old 05-16-2022, 06:09 AM
  #29  
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Default Credit Card fees on the chopping block?

I'm sure some of you have seen the Jack Mallers presentation at BTC 2022. The dude comes across as a punk...but I gotta give him props - he's smart.

With his cash-BTC-cash transaction point of sale software, I believe credit card companies...and certainly the western unions, are on the verge of being disrupted.

If Mallers can write software that utilizes the BTC blockchain just to record a transaction, and the merchant doesn't even know BTC was involved (with no BTC tax/volatility issues), then how much longer can credit card companies continue to reap 3% transaction costs going forward? What stops Apple, Google, CashApp, etc from writing software that records transactions on the blockchain?
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Old 05-16-2022, 06:34 AM
  #30  
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How to buy and store Bitcoin anonymously:

https://reason.com/2018/05/31/3-step...d-store-bitco/
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