In a rare turn of events, Bitcoin made a hard drop from $63K+ to $60K, and the news that aligns with the timing of events may actually be the reason it happened! So, what is the bigger story: that there is an actual correlation to a massive Bitcoin selloff? Or, the fact that Turkey (the country, not the culinary centerpiece) opted to send their economy back to the stone ages? Gordon weighs in.
When the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, claiming that they engaged in the sale of unregistered securities, the timing was hard to ignore, as XRP was starting to gain traction and see exhilarating price action for the first time in quite a while.In the name of protecting people from shady high risk investments, the SEC launched across the bough in a manner that seems eerily intentional, thus causing exactly the kind of financial woes they claimed to act in protection against.Frankly, it’s disgusting, blatant, and is the reason that everyone in crypto…is in crypto.Especially when a person considers that Ripple is, in many ways, disliked in the crypto world because it ‘isn’t a real crypto company’ and works to offer real world solutions to banks and payment processing entities, one has to see every move from an oversight agency as strategic.In this case, I’d prefer to forego protective regulatory measures if it means that they don’t cause intentional harm to the very asset they are supposedly protecting against.
In this case, we have the central bank of Turkey (intentional use of lower case as a sign of disrespect and protest!) announcing 4/16/2021 that they are banning the use of all cryptocurrency as an instrument of payment of any kind.The timing of this coming once again at a time of upward price movement at an extremely targeted time…
middle of night, almost guaranteeing an unforeseen sell-off.But, the real story, the true irony, is in the reasoning.
As quoted in this article , the lousy central bank stated:
“Payment service providers will not be able to develop business models in a way that crypto assets are used directly or indirectly in the provision of payment services and electronic money issuance, and will not be able to provide any services related to such business models,” the bank said.
One could actually take an innovative approach to developing ways that…you know, assets could be used directly or indirectly for payments.From what I understand, this tiny little start-up out of the U.S.called PayPal, I think it is named, made a deal with tens of thousands of vendors in their marketplace network, to resolve instant payment in fiat, translated into one’s crypto holdings, making instant buys via PayPal, using one’s crypto holdings a possibility.
Michael Saylor has given unbelievably strategic advice on how corporations can utilize the leverage of crypto as a rising asset to boost sales, protect against inflation, maintain profits, borrow against assets and a myriad of strategies.But, Turkey, a global leader in central banking under-achievement chose to go the other way.
They just want to let the world know that they have no intention of trying to compete on the global stage, and just want to put the message out their to the rest of the world: “get ready to bail us out in the very near future…and by the way can we borrow some Doge?”
Okay, I may be coming at them a bit harsh…
I feel bad for the Turkish citizens who dumped a few billion dollars worth of sats on the market in a desperate move away from the hopes and dreams of recent trends towards cryptocurrency startups in the region.It’s an important cautionary tale in what Gordon is always spouting off about.People think that crypto is resilient in ways that it simply is not.The technology is resilient.But, we have examples all around us of who truly owns the portals to access.Metamask and a decentralized exchange can provide a person with a VPN access to their own economic future, be it trading, staking or HODLing.But, all it takes is a ban on a Google Chrome app, or a government forbidding a cash out to fiat, and in this case, a marketplace for the use of crypto, and the asset can either be devalued, or impossible to move where it needs to go.
Your keys, your coins is a good motto if you can, in fact, do something with your coins.But, until we find clever ways of building our own autonomous presence on a truly decentralized web, that is designed for the user to freely use, express, and transact as they wish, along with all the risky shady dangerous crap that comes along with it, this market will be highly susceptible to the worst elements of finance; the governmental kind.
So, Gordon actually offers this as a warning to the crypto community, and a welcome for this community to rise up to do better, be better, and be more forward-thinking about such issues.
Crypto cannot be a hedge against the risks of government tyranny, without a platform in place that truly decentralizes the use of technology beyond their reach.
I especially warn the shortsightedness in the IoT sector.Smart ‘everything’ especially smart money, runs the risk of being the utmost of irony, if left in the hands of regulatory entities.The true nature of freedom is found in the belief that a person is born with freedom as a right.Nothing else, truly nothing else can be granted.
If a government CAN grant you freedoms, they will likely remove them at some future moment.The world has shown, last year especially, that under extremely easy conditions, low tolerance conditions in fact, that entire countries are glad to throw their freedoms out the window at the slightest threat.Still more risky, the younger generation understand so little about the flow and value of money, that they think the government should control the inflow and outflow of value, from what businesses should be allowed via compliance, to what people should be paid.I’m not suggesting that these things are unimportant.
These kinds of decisions do need to be made.But, the more that we allow our rulers to rule us, instead of having the gumption to rule ourselves, the more we are going to find that every world-changing technology will swiftly shift from being a valuable asset, to a means of control and marginalization.
The self-fulfilling prophecy of Turkey’s bad decision, is that in order to protect citizens from transacting in an asset that they cannot prevent from drastically changing in value, or losing all value, they have removed that value from a marketplace from which they already enjoyed utilizing the benefits.This is eerily similar to India’s corrupt government recognizing a growing autonomy and a real lower-middle class growing from direct barter between citizens.Concerned that it wasn’t getting tax revenue from a freedom-loving people who were embracing, for the first time in a very long time, what it was like to thrive from their own efforts, the Indian government used the cover of worries over criminal activity (KYC/AML sound familiar?) to bait-switch their fiat to a new form, giving citizens a deadline to turn in their money to banks for a 1:1 return, or lose it all.
In this scenario, if a citizen was found to have traded in assets above what they claimed, the funds were either seized or they were fined or jailed.If they simply avoided turning in their funds, they lost it all.
Governments should not have this kind of power over us, but we have not gotten wise enough yet, to find the best ways to utilize this amazing technology that exists, to truly stick it to the banks.
The true battle for freedom is coming, in the form of nationalized coins, or CBDC’s, and they are going to shake the foundation of the top crypto assets.
The good sign, and yet the very irony of which I speak, is that PayPal, Visa, JPMorgan and all of the entities that have inspired a crypto revolution, are now becoming so heavily invested into the future of these top crypto assets, that it almost guarantees Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin will continue to co-exist with fiat.But, Turkey and other knee-jerk announcements like the SEC and their disgusting motives, in my opinion will continue to occur as a means to force downward price movement.But, it is more wickedly timed in my opinion.It isn’t just about seizing assets and making it possible to acquire more crypto for themselves.It is also about the intentional transfer of wealth back into their hands.
This always seems to occur at the exact crossing of hope and prosperity, rugged individualism and perhaps even the whimsy of positivity in the marketplace.
Turkey…embrace the HODL.The world appreciates you…the citizens of Crypto Turkey!
As for the central bank of Turkey (again, lower case as an intentional insult), I hope for the day that you are left behind, and pray that the citizens find a way to exist outside the structure of your ineptitude.
And on that note, a bold and bitey Crypto Gordon Freeman, believer in the freedom of Turkish citizens and crypto citizens everywhere…out.
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