The digital cashless empire took a huge credibility blow Friday as Visa card holders all over Europe were unable to make transactions.
Caused by an apparent ‘hardware failure,’ the widespread network outage affected large portions of the continent---a region that’s already made dangerous moves toward a cashless society.
In the UK, for example, 77% of all retail purchases in October were made with plastic, and Visa manages 95% of all debit cards in the country.
Needless to say, within a few hours, local economies quickly felt the pressure and panic. Ramzi Kozhani, manager of Cafe Brood in London, says he lost £3,000 and was forced to throw out excess stores of unused food.
The centralized nature of these financial behemoths quickly caused several large banks to issue public apologies, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Ireland---another reminder why crypto’s decentralized architecture is far more robust and reliable.
Visa released a statement denying claims that the network outage was caused by rogue hackers, but what if it was an inside job?
This whole debacle could have been a planned test to see how the public reacts when traditional payment systems crash---which you can expect to happen for longer than one day during the next financial collapse.
We do know globalists love cashless societies. Governments have every interest in going 100% digital to eliminate privacy and to put into place a global extortion (tax) dragnet to complete their total subjugation of all humans on Earth.
This will be great for banks of course. Think of all the fees they can charge.
If you pay everything digitally, not only are you dependant on a third party for access to your funds, but your entire life is mapped out, purchase by purchase.
It’s a great boon to the mafia (government) and extortionists (tax collectors), too, ensuring misleaders (politicians) and bureau-rats get a slice of everyone’s cake, all the time.
And there’s another reason. Keynesian style economies always end in complete collapse.
Central banks eventually get into trouble because they constantly have to counterfeit (stimulate) - that is, print large amounts of money – to make up for the planned failure of Keynesian policies.
If there’s a silver lining to the recent Visa crash, it’s the fact that for one day cardholders didn’t have to pay those exorbitantly high transaction fees---something we crypto enthusiasts have enjoyed living without.
To some, the fees may seem worth it for a shiny credit card, and since people are addicted to credit, there are crypto-credit options coming out very soon that will be much more affordable.
There are plenty of reasons to resist a 100% cashless society---and it’s true that if the internet gets shut down, we’re all screwed, be it cardholders or bitcoin HODLers.
For that reason, it’s always smart to keep some gold and silver coins around, and even some fiat cash.
Blockchain developers are working on various ways to decentralize the internet, which will hopefully make it impervious to being shut down by the Powers That Shouldn’t Be.
Once we achieve this, the state’s only option to slow down progress will be to turn off the power. That’s why CONgress often talks about internet kill switches, and the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization and the Department of Offense have been planning for EMP attacks and the power going out.
Because, if it comes down to it, to retain control and stop humanity’s evolution, they’ll probably try that too.
You might want to get some solar panels and generators to go with your crypto and precious metals.
In the meantime, be sure to stay up to date on the latest tools and strategies you need to survive the inevitable collapse of the dollar by subscribing HERE.
You always say the greatest threat to crypto is the government shutting off the internet...however that is nearly impossible. If the government shuts down the electric grid, our whole global economy will collapse and we will be in a depression for several years.
People will resort to using fiat cash, gold and silver coins, and other bartering techniques.
Yes, visa is a third-party and it has been shown that it is more likely to stop working than bitcoin as evidenced by this event. Crypto transaction fees are lowering, merchants won't be charged as much eventually if they switch over to crypto.
All roads lead to crypto currency backed credit cards to be the leading payment system in the world...God bless Crypto
Well said and presented ideas here. Thanks a lot for the heads-up, as always.
It is good to read about these news right away to help give exposure to such realities coming our way, sooner or later. Your wisdom shines in the end too while suggesting to keep some gold, silver and fiat representatives in a safe place for the moments where the internet might get shut down for a while.
Namaste :)
This is a test....to see how quickly the sheeple will panic in the event their plastic stops working.
This was only a test....THIS TIME!
BLOCKCHAIN IS THE KING OF THE FUTURE !!!
There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns. ~ Ayn Rand
Those who use guns cannot be reasoned with but those who use reason can outsmart those with guns.
I recently wasted a 2 hour round trip because the store I traveled to had a power cut (unrelated to the Visa meltdown). The goods I wanted (& which nobody else was selling) were sitting just a few feet away from me. I wanted to buy them, the people in the store would have been happy to sell them, but the store was part of a large chain and no-one on site had the ability to say “let’s accept cash” or maybe even “let’s write down some credit card numbers”. Western society is screwed.
It's totally insane. Just a few years ago, if the lights went out, they could write a manual receipt and run your card through a manual imprinter and get a phone authorization, so things still moved along, only slower. Now, most stores are stuck when the power runs out. I am in Costa Rica and sometimes one network or other goes down. I remember the day when the largest network of ATM's went down. Luckily, I was near the bank so could take out cash the old fashioned way, but if not, I would have just been stuck. The world is becoming every more insane.
Good one Jeff, thanks for all of the updates. I’ve heard that about ‘what if the internet shuts down?’ Ya, Crypto won’t work but if the internet shuts down, we’re gonna have a lot more problems than value transactions.
And nice wOrd placement with “Behemoth,” too.
Im pretty sure its impossible to shut down the internet
" ... ---and it’s true that if the internet gets shut down, we’re all screwed, be it cardholders or bitcoin HODLers."
Don't forget about GoTenna, mesh networks, etc! It's turning out that the same Libertarian, survivalist folks who aren't willing to depend solely on governments for economic soundness, aren't willing to depend upon them solely for communications, or transactions either.
https://www.coindesk.com/gotenna-bitcoin-wallet-mesh-network/
Haha not great timing for VISA ... can't say i'm sad about this news. :)
It's time to re-visit the idea of stuffing a safe deposit box with cash. See, banks will be good for something!
Bitcoin, not had any network outage in 9 years
Visa is here to stay. I can’t say the same for steem.
I’m speculating that Friday’s Visa’s outage due to ‘hardware failure not from unauthorized access’, was likely caused by G1 geomagnetic storm/Kp 5 from a coronal hole high speed stream.
Thanks for the great post Jeff.
If the internet is shut down, we can still do Bitcoin transactions because of the Bitcoin satellites which download a full node for free. They went online Aug 15, 2017. It's about a $100 satellite setup you can get from Radio Shack.
If electricity goes down, we'll need off the grid electric to run our laptops. Many people have solar and generators and they'll be happy to sell their electricity for some real money.
We'll be transacting bitcoin with those who have always been unbanked around the world. Entire villages who use solar and a Nokia 1000.
Bitcoin literally can not be stopped. Even if the electric grid and the entire internet are completely destroyed, bitcoin will still be available.
Interesting that you point out this could have been a test for a much larger payment blackout. That reminds me of the 1988 The Economist cover ones more and the astrology with Uranus moving into Taurus. It all fits together.