It's clear to me now that Wall St. is behind the failure of the New York Agreement and that Roger Ver was used as a stalking horse for their needs to destroy Bitcoin's ability to function in the marketplace. But, it is this very kind of attack that betrays the weakness of their position.
But, the news of the day is payment processor Stripe just dropped Bitcoin as a means of payment saying the fateful words, "It fails as a currency."
From the post at RT:
“Over the past year or two, as block size limits have been reached, bitcoin has evolved to become better-suited to being an asset than being a means of exchange,” the company said in a statement.
That's the bad news. The good news is that Stripe still believes in cryptocurrencies, just not Bitcoin. The company's statement makes it clear it understands the issues and that other projects may be suitable for future needs, most notably Litecoin and Steller Lumens.
Stripe added that it remains bullish on cryptocurrencies, naming the most promising projects, including Lightning, OmiseGO, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The company will probably include Stellar cryptocurrency in the list of services it provides.
What becomes immediately obvious is that governments and the banking industry/cartel are fighting a war of attrition against cryptocurrencies. By consistently throwing up roadblocks, perceived or real, to their adoption, they seek to simply slow down their development as a challenge to the existing financial order.
Ultimately, this is a good thing.
First They Laugh At You
Then They Fight You
Then You Win.
Never Attack Down
The establishment never attacks down if it isn't fundamentally threatened by something or someone. It's the first rule of politics.
In 2008, Rudy Guiliani ended his political career by attacking Ron Paul at an early primary debate. In their hubris, they thought they could blind-side and intimidate Dr. Paul by allowing then front-runner Adolph Rudolph Guiliani to grandstand on 9/11 to boost himself to the Republican nomination.
Dr. Paul stood his ground and famously said "NO!" and then proceeded to bring up the concept of blowback. It awoke an entire generation that there was someone running for President who wasn't a complete tool.
Guiliani was soon hounded out of the race and Dr. Paul started the counter-revolution here in the U.S. that culminated in Donald Trump's election in 2016.
Guiliani's mistake was attacking down. In politics, the front-runner has everything to lose in engaging with someone below him in the polls. It's a sign of weakness and insecurity in your lead. By even acknowledging Paul's presence on the stage to score cheap points, Guiliani showed weakness and Paul became a rock star.
The Future is Bright
I know we're on the right track here because they are fighting cryptos in the trenches now. And they are trying to kill the momentum of crypto being on everyone's lips. While the DOW is at all-time highs all anyone can talk about is Bitcoin.
Think about that for a second.
And then think about what's coming next. Because you can see what's happening within the market. The applications platforms projects like Ethereum, EOS, STEEM, NEO, OMG, KMD and others are all not only holding onto most of their 2017 gains, they are also the first to rally on any bullish day, outperforming Bitcoin and most of the alternate currency coins like BTG, BCH, LTC and the privacy coins.
It's especially gratifying to see STEEM do this. The only one of these offerings with a widely-used working product and a thriving user-base is not only attracting financial capital but intellectual and human capital (the most important kinds) at the right moment in the story.
It'll be the growth of STEEM which helps spear-head the acceptance of these other blockchain-based projects. It's frankly silly to see all of the developers on sites like Medium but not here. This place is the best advertisement for the potential of their products. It's not the competition, it's their advertising platform.
So, keep this in mind when you see yet another post on here about Bitcoin dropping. The Empire is striking back because it has to.