Greetings!
It's been a while since I posted any informative, mind expanding crypto content - so here's something in that direction for you all!
I recently came across this excellent podcast by Whitney Webb that reframes the agenda behind USD stablecoins and even Bitcoin in the context of long held political strategies by some of the world's scumbag power brokers and megalomaniacs.
The discussion features, in addition to Whitney Webb, Mark Goodwin - Editor of Bitcoin magazine and Catherine Austin-Fitts - a US Gov economist and whistleblower. I personally had not heard of Mark Goodwin prior to this, but I am aware of the two female speakers.
For the record, I highly rate Whitney Webb's research skill and have never seen her work disproven or shown to be inaccurate - on the contrary, from what I have checked out, her work into the serious criminality of many well known politicians, groups and 'celebrities' - often including their involvement in child exploitation/abuse gangs and 'worse' is beyond reproach.
Catherine Austin-Fitts did good work to expose the corruption and agendas at play within governments and their misuse of funding/tax, though I understand she has since taken some liberties to promote incorrect ideas of her own on other topics. In this case she is more of a host and does not significantly impact the validity of the points being made.
Money Laundering & Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein was the billionaire criminal who died (was murdered) in prison while facing charges that could have resulted in numerous extremely wealthy and well known people being exposed in fraud and child abuse rings - plus much more. Whitney points out that he was an expert in tax evasion, as well as had his fingers in many 'research' projects and other dodgy dealings that directed resources of well known institutions into criminal hands. He was heavily connected to Wall St., intelligence services, military contractors and various organised crimes groups that tie them all together.
"The mob has morphed into something that now the public sees more as financiers and philanthropists."
Epstein was an advisor to the US Treasury Dept. on Digital Currencies.
The infrastructure for digital currencies is being built by Silicon Valley groups that all have ties to Epstein - including Peter Thiel And Elon Musk.
The Origins of Bitcoin & Integration into US Government
They speculate that Bitcoin originated from ideas that were developed by the US intelligence agencies, such as the NSA. 'A lot of the Cypherpunk guys had connections to US Intelligence'.
Coinbase is currently the custodian for both Wall St. organisations and also the US Department of Justice - who use Coinbase to hold the crypto that they 'acquire' through their operations.
The Bitcoin ETF was the most successful ETF in history.
Donald Trump recently stated at a Bitcoin conference that to tackle the 30+ Trillion USD of 'national debt' he would 'cut them a crypto/bitcoin cheque'.
Donald Trump contradicted his early comments about being anti crypto and vocally supported USD stablecoins. People are generally well aware that CBDCs are a threat to liberty and freedom, but are not considering that the stablecoins that are dependent on fiat USD and also on banking infrastructure to operate are essentially controlled by the same entities. Stablecoins are not subject to public scrutiny in the same way that a central bank operated system would be.
A great deal of the technology that threatens freedom began in the public realm through government funded research and then moved into the private sector. The shift from CBDCs to private stablecoins appears to repeat this. The FBI/CIA are heavily involved with projects like USD Tether. The Tether team has been explicit that they aim to be a partner of the US government in order to expand US government power globally.
The Corruption of USD Tether
Since the common stablecoins are 'Programmable, surveil-able and seizable currency' they represent - in some ways - a tool for governments to use when enforcing sanctions and generally controlling global populations. The original vision of decentralised technology has been replaced in many cases by a race to get rich among 'entrepreneurs' and others who don't ask deep enough questions about what exactly the basis is of the systems they are using the inherent risks that they are inviting.
The overlap between BTC and Tether has resulted in many pro-freedom people promoting Tether, yet Tether has morphed into something much more than a stablecoin company. They have expanded into brain-computer interfaces and are involved with Satellogic - the company that is driven by US military and Government characters and which aims to monetise South America's natural resources.
Tether and other stablecoins are buying up US treasuries at a rapid rate and the digital currency operators are an ideal customer for the US government as their involvement eliminates a lot of the work that the government would otherwise be forced to become involved in.
The owning of these treasuries by stablecoin companies can mean that the companies involved become an arm of the US government because they are now highly motivated to conform to the demands of the US government in order to safeguard their investments.
All of this equates to a massive centralisation of what started out as a decentralised vision being sold to the public. The infrastructure required to run these large 'crypto' systems is typically being bought up and operated by large internet corporations and are in no way decentralised. So there are numerous centralising pressures on these operators of 'decentralised' technology.
Digital IDs Pushed by Trump
Donald Trump has been vocal about promoting Biometric IDs for US borders - both for people coming into and out of the US. So far from being a friend to freedom, Trump is pushing exactly the kinds of technologies that so many activists have warned about for so long.
In addition, the plan is to turn the US / Mexican border wall into a Chinese style AI wall that spies 24/7 in order to increase US security. This is driven behind the scenes by massive funds from military contractors pushing and designing the policies with no respect for US individual sovereignty.
The Inflation of Bitcoin Mostly Benefits US Oligarchs & Entities
While we do not have completely accurate information on who owns the most Bitcoin, it is stated that evidence shows that it is US Big Money groups and even government/military/intelligence groups that stand to benefit the most if Bitcoin jumps up in value. So we have another huge motivator for politicians in the US to promote BTC over more decentralised options.
While many in the crypto world view government as a bad idea and want to end taxation and public projects that they fund, the alternative that is being created is essentially one where corporations that are run by the same corrupt entities that have harmed people through their control of governments simply carry on the same harm but in a private capacity, with even less oversight.
Conclusion and Comments
The very first time I wrote about cryptocurrencies, back in 2014, on my own social network (Ureka - which may relaunch in future) - I stated that Bitcoin is an improvement over Fiat currencies but 'it won't solve the world's problems'. The reality which was clear than and which is clearer now, is that whoever holds the power over the prevailing systems, can easily buy into and control any decentralised system that mimics the old system. So we can build decentralised systems of value storage, but the world's biggest criminals can easily buy in and dominate them - which is what is taking place.
What has always been clear to me is that we cannot expect to create deep shifts that serve humanity through simply changing the form of existing systems, while failing to address the deeper causes of the dysfunction.
In the case of the evil on this planet, which the fiat systems and global banking systems are clearly a part of (being used to extort the masses and to fund 'forever wars' that serve no populations and which continue to enrich the oligarchs who control the military, banking and related corporations) a digitised replacement is insufficient.
A decentralised replacement could be an improvement, but not if it is insufficiently decentralised, such that the power within the network can still be used in a centralised and centralising way.
Arguably, the ONLY design of a system that can actually stand a chance of improving the balance on Earth is one that is totally decentralised. A step closer to this would be a system which has no servers and where every single user is somehow equal in terms of their ability to run their own currency networks - not just being forced to comply to the design of existing chains.
This enables a situation where people can quickly change and adapt their finance networks to meet their own needs and not be beholden to the wishes of whoever has the most power on existing networks.
Hive users can relate to this in the sense of how Hive was born out of the ashes of Steem due to the actions of a hostile powermonger seeking to censor and dominate the community. Although it was not a rapid and fluid changeover, it was possible for the system to be relaunched without his influence. Any true system of personal empowerment in future MUST enable users to easily 'fork' and create their own communities and their own systems in order to escape threats to their own liberty.
This is the true promise of open source crypto projects and it is no surprise to me that the masses have long been hoodwinked by valueless NFT projects and other such ideas that serve virtually no-one and steal human energy that would otherwise be used to liberate the planet for ourselves and for future generations.
It's clear that HBDs are far less corrupted than projects like Tether when it comes to government control as, for one, HBD isn't backed by 'real' US Dollars. So the design of Hive is very promising in this regard and is part of why so many knowledgeable people continue to use and develop it. It remains my understanding that Hive should capitalise on this situation by being promoted and used as the tool of freedom that it is, instead of trying to compete with VP funded blockchains as a general blockchain solution.
Hive does NOT have the funding to attract large enough numbers of experts to develop it in a competitive way in those markets, but it DOES have a design that is founded in INTEGRITY and ETHICS - which most others do not. How about we walk the walk instead of just relegating freedom to being a sideline?
Solving the world's problems may seem daunting, but the correct decisions, stemming from correct and balanced thinking, can chip away at the situation and build over time. Providing people the tools they really need to liberate themselves is possible, but it isn't going to be led by the world's billionaires - no matter how much they claim to be 'anarchists' or anti government!
Oh, and BTW, Satoshi Nakamoto arguably translates to 'Central Intelligence':
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
Read My User Guide for Hive Here
Powerful insights into the Hive blockchain are available at my website, Hive Alive.
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Won't be the billionaires. It'll be the people, and their billions. Walking the walk by supporting the talk. Make all the arts punk rock. Leaving a lasting impression for the entire flock. Can't mess with history if it's locked in a block. Time to wake up society from that sleepwalk. Maybe we should use the DHF and buy an alarm clock.
It seems to me to be fake news planted by the media. Not your post.
But the information like this Tweet.
That is a factual translation!
Check it yourself. Words in Japanese often have several English translations and in this case it appears to me to be accurate. Originally ChatGPT said it was inaccurate, until I pointed out some details about the languages and it conceded that the translations is accurate if viewed through a creative lens.
Hive is not for everyone. The masses want to be slaves.
Hive has never been marketed effectively and most people have neither heard of it or understand its benefits.
I agree on that point, but I don't think it makes much difference. Most fight for left or right, few question the system. Even here on Hive you see them and they are only in it for the profits.
There are many millions of people who have enough of the puzzle pieces to make the most of hive as a freedom platform, but it is not being packaged correctly to draw them in. There are billions of web users, a vast number.. the challenge lies in communication!
Sounds like you may have some good ideas to package Hive correctly?
Yes, I ran a digital marketing company for a few years and have been in the IT business for 25 years (plus coding for 15 years before that).
I created a Hive channel called @strategizer to discuss and share on the topic of marketing Hive, but after putting in a month or so of time towards research and seeking funding to do the job properly, I didn't get much of a response from the key stakeholders in the community and moved on.
Ultimately, the logic being used to direct Hive is flawed and not backed up by coherent logic or data. Truly knowing how to present and market products requires solid research and data driven decisions in place of opinion. This is not available for Hive, so we are only left with opinion. Having created my own social network prior to Steem existing and also having been involved in other social network startups, my view for Hive is that it needs to prioritise it's unique selling points in order to compete. These are censorship resistance and public ownership - which are the two features that are least promoted and even laughed at by key stakeholders here - which is a major red flag for me.
Hmmm. Thanks for the reply. Any chance you would go ahead and implement your ideas without DAO funding?
Yes it is true, but where do they mostly interact?
Most of them are not tech savvy and are not aware of the real details of the information war that surrounds their daily life online. As a result, they just go where 'influencers' tell them to go, which seems to be a mixture of the 'truth' and 'freedom' platforms (which are really neither to a significant enough degree) - such as Mastadon, Nostr and a variety of other similar places.. plus also just end up using the censored platforms and being unhappy.
Are these “influencers” true freedom lovers or are they in it for the money? Would they promote Hive for its values if they know about it or do they have to be paid to do so?
What if we turn some hivers into influencers to do the work on Web2, instead of paying outsiders?
I'll stick with a centralized system. Had a problem a few months back and within one phone call to the entities I needed to call the problem was shut down and immediately remedied. Right before July 4th I had a problem with my wallet here, it's been over two months ago and amazingly no one knows how to deal with it. I just keep getting passed from one person to the next who says try this or that, or I can't help you if you can't send me a screen shot, I send the screen shot and they pass it to someone else to try and help. I am no big fish in the pond of Hive for sure but if you can't keep your customers secure or have solutions of remedy, nobody is going to be wishing for a future like that. So you say, well if you are dissatisfied within your decentralized system, true freedom will be your right to move or folk somewhere else. Yeah, like back to the old centralized system instead of jumping into another unknown wild, wild, west situation. That's why they'll never allow decentralization.
What's wrong with your wallet?
Someone else's keys are in there.
Well I guess I should say when I click on show active key, that active key doesn't match my active key. I never put my keys in the wallet. I always intended to but first I wanted to ask if putting the steemit keys we came over with was okay to put in the wallet. Someone said it should be okay but I never got back around to it.
Do you use Keychain?
Yes. It was never a big thing for me, I don't even remember why or what prompted me to want to use the keychain. Must have been something I read. I started the process like I stated but when prompted to put in my keys I wasn't really sure they meant the old steemit keys. I guess I just thought it was a password operated wallet. Or secured by a password, which evidently wasn't enough, I guess. I didn't even notice it until I had a problem posting an article. Someone said I needed to do this and this, when that didn't work someone said you had to change that in your wallet and that's when I noticed the problem of someone else's active key in my wallet.
The last person who tried to help me said to try and sign up for Peakd, when I go to put in my active key then I would know for sure that wasn't my key. I really hated to tell her I had been trying to sign up for Peakd forever and every time I tried and go to put in my active key it says there's already an account under my name and won't allow me to put in the active key. So now I know why, someone else already did it evidently, why I don't know. It's not the money, that's for sure. Maybe since when you go to sign up for Peak'd it give you three options, maybe I am trying to sign up for an option my account already falls under, so there's that too.
Sounds like you're trying to sign up rather than login.
Much of what you're telling me sounds more like confusion based user error. And people are trying to help you.
Keychain is quite straightforward to setup. If you haven't changed your keys, they'd still be your steem keys. It's needs to be setup before it works. Nobody can do that for you. Documents are available. Take your time with it. Only need to set it up once.
Logging into Peakd is just a matter of selecting the login option at the top right and entering your name in under the keychain field.
Start browser, sign in to keychain, login to Hive site of your choosing (always selecting the keychain option), enjoy Hive experience. That's the "modern" way, or at least one of them. Keychain will give you popups when you push buttons on sites that require keys, and those can be set to be removed with a push of a button. Quite seamless after that.
I do put my name in to sign in on Peakd, it keeps saying an account already exist with that name. If I could honestly get in by signing on, I'd already be posting there.
I tried to delete the key in the keychain but it won't let me.
Nobody seems to have any solid answers. I asked what if I just delete the keychain and start over, one person said I'd lose my account, another person says that won't happen. To be two months down the road without any real answers, that just sucks.
Well I guess I shouldn't say that, if I ever abandoned my account a couple hundred bucks could probably feed a hungry Nigerian for a few months. The only other thing that appears odd to me is I could have swore I staked some Leo once but it doesn't show up as having any staked. It wasn't a lot, not probably worth hijacking, I don't recall Leo ever going to the moon and back, and I can't even be 100% sure I ever did stake any. I've never paid much attention to stuff, there was really no real financial incentive to. Now if this venture had ever gone anywhere, I'd been on it.
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