There are many types of wars that have been fought throughout the ages, but now a new type of war is emerging, it is a war being fought on digital ledger battlefields. I’m calling it World War Crypto, and this is a description of what World War Crypto is, why it is being fought, who are the players, how will it unfold and who, in the end, will win.
It all began with an experiment 9 years ago, an experiment called Bitcoin. But now, the target of that creation, the nation-state, has finally figured out that its very existence is under assault. The success of the cryptocurrency market has brought upon this awareness, and now, the battle lines are being drawn.
It all began with individual nation-states making efforts to check, to manage, to control cryptocurrencies. Then there followed the whispers for world governance by nation states to reign in the dangerous cryptocurrency markets. Those whispers have now become loud pleas for action.
What began as an isolated nation-state occurrence is now coalescing into a worldwide movement led by the owners and managers of the various nation states (hereafter referred to as coercive associations).
Here is a recent article about Germany and France joining in the call for world governance of cryptocurrencies:
Germany and France To Push For Global Cryptocurrency Regulation at G20 Summit
Germany and France will jointly push for global Bitcoin regulation during the next summit of the G20 in Argentina amid mounting alarm that the world’s most popular cryptocurrency is being used by illegal groups, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.Germany’s finance minister Peter Altmaier said at the joint news conference in Paris that he supports a proposal by Le Maire to ask their counterparts in the G20 group of major economies to consider joint regulation of bitcoin.
He said: “We have a responsibility towards our citizens to explain and reduce the risks.”
Le Maire told reporters that authorities “will have a joint Franco-German analysis of the risks linked to bitcoin, regulation proposals and these will be submitted as a joint proposal to our G20 counterparts at the G20 summit in Argentina in March.”
The concerns over cryptocurrency mining, trading and usage to transfer money are already shared by several governments across the globe, so it makes sense to discuss the speculative risks of such digital assets and their impact on the financial system at international level.
Read More at Finance Magnets
As a side note, Finance Magnets appears to offer various cryptocurrency services. Judging from that last sentence of the excerpt I chose to use, I would advice you stay away from Finance Magnets, as they appear to be fully entangled in coercive associations.
Now, throw in some world governing bodies already prowling the corridors of coercive associations with the addition of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and you have the real possibility of such a world governance occurring. Here is news of the IMF joining the call for world governance on cryptocurrencies, citing the usual fear tactics of anonymity of criminals and terrorists, and, of course, tax evasion:
IMF Calls for Global Talks on Cryptocurrencies
The International Monetary Fund is calling for global coordination on cryptocurrencies as it warned of the risks from surging prices.
“Greater international discussion and cooperation among regulators, yes, would be helpful,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters Thursday in Washington.
While Rice didn’t elaborate on what type of coordination is needed, the push for action comes as digital currencies such as Bitcoin become an investment phenomenon and household name. Bitcoin’s value soared last year and attracted mainstream investors, who are seeing unpredictable gains and losses.
“When asset prices go up quickly, risks can accumulate, particularly if market participants are borrowing money to buy,” Rice said. “It’s important for people to be aware of the risks and take the necessary risk-management measures.
......While the currencies have potential benefits such as payment efficiency, their dangers goes beyond losses for individual investors, Rice said. “Cryptocurrencies can pose considerable risks as potential vehicles for money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and fraud,” he said.
The issue with coercive associations is this, as new technologies emerge, the coercive associations must consider how those technologies might benefit the owners and managers of the coercive associations. They also must consider how those technologies might be used by other coercive associations to gain an advantage in potential aggressive action against them.
Here’s what they’re dealing with; When new technologies emerge, they cannot simply make an effort to ban the technologies altogether, because if they do so unilaterally, then other coercive associations might then use the technologies to take economic and/or military advantage over one another.
What these coercive associations need is an agreement among coercive associations (which is what world governance really is) to not use the technology in question against one another, thus assuring that a dangerous technology remains in check.
What makes cryptocurrency such a dangerous technology that coercive associations would now wish to consider creating world governance to contain it? If you read iState.TV regularly, you already know the answer to that question, but let me repeat it for those who may have just found us through this article.
Cryptocurrencies create two of the most dangerous potentials for individuals and free associations. They create the potential for anonymity and they significantly increase the ability of individuals and free associations to become self-reliant.
Having your own non-state-controlled currency to exchange value is a significant tool for disentangling yourself from a coercive association, the nation-state, the government, which uses its state-controlled currencies to control your economic decisions.
Having a currency that allows you to exchange value between yourself and other individuals outside of the purview of the tax-hungry eye of the coercive association means the coercive association is losing out on the booty it usually pilfers from almost any exchange of value within its borders or where one of its “citizens” is involved in the exchange.
They cannot simply walk away from cryptocurrencies, because the technology that underlies it, the blockchain (for now), is useful in many ways to help make their own systems more effective. Blockchain has applications that go far beyond cryptocurrency, from managing health systems to aiding militaries in resource distribution.
They must incorporate cryptocurrencies into their own systems, be it through laws or through embedding their state-controlled, state-entangled financial institutions into the managing of the blockchains that make these cryptocurrencies possible (see Bitcoin Core as a fine example of a successful state invasion through state-controlled and state-entangled financial institution management).
Because of these factors, the nation-states find themselves in the position of having to come together to declare a détente, of sorts, on the cryptocurrency front. I promise not to use cryptocurrencies as a weapon against you (be it economic or threat or application of force) if you do the same. This is why the call for world ‘governance’ has emerged.
Just how successful the coercive association will be in coming together to create these anti-cryptocurrency world laws remains to be seen. Just how successful these coercive associations will be in enforcing these laws also remains to be seen.
I believe there will be some formation of world laws that will be agreed upon, that a world body will emerge to 'manage' (that is, control) cryptocurrency, but that the effectiveness of that world body in enforcing the 'laws' will be limited to taking out a few big players to attempt to serve as fear examples that will, from their perspective, keep the small-time players from engaging in "illegal" activity.
As the world crypto body moves along, the attempts by the major powers to manipulate the world crypto body to advance their own personal interests will quickly follow, thus assuring that the world crypto body will be mired in the same level of petty political divisions that will render it as hopelessly feckless as the UN, selectively enforcing "laws" where a preponderance of the major powers find advantage to do so.
You will also see an increasing number of entanglements between these state-entangled financial institutions and cryptocurrencies. The narrative among the cryptocurrencies will go along the line that they wish to seek ‘legitimacy’ and stability that can only be afforded by marrying themselves with these state-entangled financial institutions.
But you will also see the emergence of grey and black market cryptocurrencies, and more and more people who wish to take economic advantage of exchanging value with others outside the tax-hungry eye of the nation-state will find themselves using these black market cryptos.
They will be driven by economic advantage, not anti-state ideology. But their journey may very well help them see how outmoded the old coercive association governance models really have become.
Blockchain is a virus, and it’s a liberty-empowering one. It cannot be contained by the slow-moving, bureaucratic-laden leviathan of the coercive association (the nation-state). It’s spread can be slowed, and the coercive association can claim (and will claim) political victims along the way. This means more victims like Ross Ulbricht, victims that will be swept up in one of their fear-producing show prosecutions.
It is a war that is emerging between technological reality and the will of the owners and managers of nation-states to hold on to systems that unequally advantage them over all others. It is a war between the rising cost and diminishing return of coercive associations and the lowering cost and increasing return of free associations.
It is a war, in the end, the coercive associations cannot win. But, along the way, sadly, there will be many more casualties of the assault on humanity, the war against liberty, the resistance against progress that the coercive association must necessarily engage in to preserve its outmoded ways.
It is World War Crypto, and the enemy has already lost.