Tag: Cryptocurrency

ECONOMICS: Cryptocurrency — no regulation needed — Caveat Emptor

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https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/secs-reckless-crusade-crush-cryptocurrency-market

The SEC’s Reckless Crusade To Crush The Cryptocurrency Market
by Tyler Durden
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2022 – 08:20 PM

Authored by Gerard Scimeca via RealClearMarkets.com

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The outcome of the SEC case against Ripple is critical in not just establishing a fair and just baseline for the protection of crypto investors, but as a test case in setting boundaries to stop overreach by federal agencies seeking to advance their power at the expense of efficiency. Crypto is popular and growing precisely because of its efficiency, flexibility, and vast utility in financial markets, benefits that can easily be quashed through intrusive and heavy-handed regulation. The ultimate arbiter of these issues is Congress, who must act, and soon, to help establish a clear framework to regulate crypto, and to limit the SEC’s power to occupy spaces where it simply does not belong.

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Sorry, but all the Gooferment ever does is impede progress.

Is an “unregulated” market “dangerous”?

No, let the buyer beware and let the “invisible hand” of the free market quickly and efficiently discipline bad actors.

No bureaucrats required.

—30—

CRYPTO: BITCOIN provides a “financial parachute”

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https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/surviving-off-crypto-when-cash-fails/?ftag=CAD-04-10aai6g&bhid=28093491592028715072518150828614&mid=13749287&cid=2046605583

Surviving Off Crypto When Cash Fails
Many Ukrainians and Russians lost access to their bank accounts in the days following Russia’s invasion.
Daniel Van Boom  
March 15, 2022 5:27 p.m. PT

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Fedosov is one of approximately 5.5 million Ukrainians who own cryptocurrency. His ability to live off bitcoin and ether is music to the ears of cryptocurrency proponents. They point out that situations like Fedosov’s, when the financial system stutters or fails, are the precise reason bitcoin was created. Using a cryptocurrency wallet — as opposed to going through an intermediary exchange like Binance — holders can access their cryptocurrency with nothing more than an internet connection and a 12-word seed phrase.

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I find this story is a warning to everyone.

It costs a little in opportunity costs, but it could be a life saver.

How about a “flat tire in a strange place” without a credit card machine?

—30—

MONEY: “Inside Money” standard and the “Outside Money” reality

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https://tomluongo.me/2022/03/13/ins-outs-whose-money-is-it-anyway/

MONEY, POLITICS
The Ins and Outs of Whose Money is it Anyway?
Date: March 13, 2022Author: Tom Luongo

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Today’s “Inside Money” standard, known colloquially as the Dollar Reserve standard, is actually what I like to call “Milton Friedman’s Nightmare.” It is nothing more than a system of competitively devalued and inflated debt-based scrips running around drinking each other’s milkshakes until everyone’s glass is empty.

FYI, there are a lot of empty glasses around the world right now and more are being created everyday as the financial system turned predatory after the Lehman Bros. collapse in 2008.

It was then that the Central Banks and governments turned fully against the people sucking up more and more outside money by inflating inside money egregiously to control more and more of the real wealth of the world.

There is only one problem with that, however. Eventually, you run out of property to squeeze out of people’s hands. The more you take, the less people are restrained by little things like laws.

Eventually two things happen. The first is what we’ve been seeing from Russia and China for the past twelve years — steady accumulation of gold and other hard assets, outside money, including the building of real manufacturing infrastructure as well as the financial infrastructure to house it.

The second is just over the horizon — the moment where all the legal claims to controlling outside money mean nothing when enforcement of those legal claims gets exposed as a bluff because there aren’t enough enforcers capable of keeping the looters from taking it.

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I’m am waiting for the “Great Reset” to drop on “We, The Sheeple” of which I am part of in someways.  I know this is going to hurt the poor, the seniors, those on fixed incomes, as well as the non-super rich.

Wonder what the price of gold will go to … … (the fellow’s guess)  about 45k$.  By other guesstimates, that’ll translate to 80$/gallon for gas.  Now I’m not predicting this but even if gas goes from 4 to 8$/gallon, the economy is totally screwed.

The U$D would be near worthless.

Argh!

The future is murky and there could be a cliff in the fog.

—30—

 

ECONOMICS: There should NOT be any taxes on “Virtual Currencies”

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https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/virtual-currencies

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Virtual Currencies
 
Virtual currency transactions are taxable by law just like transactions in any other property. Taxpayers transacting in virtual currency may have to report those transactions on their tax returns.

What is Virtual Currency?

Virtual currency is a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value. In some environments, it operates like “real” currency (i.e., the coin and paper money of the United States or of any other country that is designated as legal tender, circulates, and is customarily used and accepted as a medium of exchange in the country of issuance), but it does not have legal tender status in  the U.S. Cryptocurrency is a type of virtual currency that utilizes cryptography to validate and secure transactions that are digitally recorded on a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain.

Virtual currency that has an equivalent value in real currency, or that acts as a substitute for real currency, is referred to as “convertible” virtual currency. Bitcoin is one example of a convertible virtual currency. Bitcoin can be digitally traded between users and can be purchased for, or exchanged into, U.S. dollars, Euros, and other real or virtual currencies.

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Sounds like they are defining “money”!

We don’t tax when “dollars” (i.e., Federal Reserve Note fiat greenbacks) are converted to Euros or visa versa.  So why are we taxed on “Virtual Currencies”?  For that matter, why are we taxed when buying gold or silver?  Doesn’t the Constitution define a “dollar” as an amount of gold or silver?

Argh!

Guess the IRS is going have a hard time finding all the non-custodial crypto wallets!!!

#endthefed 

If they can keep drugs out their prisons, how will the keep crypto out of a free society?

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MONEY: Bitcoin “Not Backed”; so what “backs” FRNs?

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https://fee.org/articles/fed-official-decries-bitcoin-as-not-backed/

Friday, December 01, 2017

Fed Official Decries Bitcoin as “Not Backed”
Bitcoin is backed by the use value of the distributed ledger in the underlying technology of the Blockchain.
by  Jeffrey A. Tucker

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Randal K. Quarles, a Trump administration appointee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Vice Chair for bank supervision, has given a lengthy speech (“Thoughts on Prudent Innovation in the Payment System”) that directly targets Bitcoin as a danger to the monetary and financial system.

To reiterate, an official speaking for the nation’s central bank that manages the global reserve currency – the institution that has long bragged about its power to bail out the entire world with the magic powers of the alchemist – has put down Bitcoin for being untrustworthy, unbacked, and unsound.

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Will someone please tell me what is backing up the current Federal Reserve Notes that pass for “money” today?

I can’t believe the hubris of some people.

The Federal Reserve Note, since 1970, has lost 99.99% of its value. There maybe even some 9’s at the end of that percentage.

I’m just shaking me head at this “attack” on bitcoin.

I’m speechless.

You should be too.

Save your nickels! It’s only thing worth anything — it still has some silver content. For now!

Argh!

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