Trump attacks cryptocurrency and Facebook's Libra, IRS plans to track cryptocoin holders, US lawmakers draft "Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act"

[Delicieuxz]

July 8th

 

The IRS plans to track document (its artwork looks a bit tackier than I expected)

 

The Twitter post about the IRS plans was made in the afternoon July 8, while Bitcoin's price dropped sharply in the morning of July 10. I don't know if there's any correlation.

 

 

July 11

 

Trump slammed cryptocoins on Twitter and called for regulation of Facebook's Libra coin.

 

‘US$ is the only real currency!’ Trump demands banking regulation of bitcoin, Facebook’s Libra

 

 

July 15

 

US draft bill seeks to ban big tech from taking over economy with private cryptocurrencies

 

 

 

I don't know how much each of these developments has affected crypto value, but prices have been going down for the previous week.

 

 

 

As you can hear said in this video, the US government gets a ton of its wealth and power from people using the US dollar in purchases and international trade, and the widespread international usage of the US dollar is what keeps the US dollar relatively stable.

 

So, the US government views anything that reduces usage of the US dollar as a threat to its own wealth and power.

 

And here's an article looking a bit more at the situation with the decline of the US dollar in international trade: The Media Won't Touch This Story About The End Of The US Dollar

 

Preventing countries from stopping their usage of the US dollar in foreign trade (like oil purchases, hence the term petro-dollar) is likely a major part of why the US invades so many countries. Iraq, Syria, Libya all have something in common, which is that they dropped the US dollar shortly before being targeted by the US for military action. Venezuela and Iran have dropped the US dollar, and they're also being targeted. And Pakistan dropped the US dollar in its trade with China in 2018, and just one month later the US government placed Pakistan on a watch list that moves Pakistan closer to having further action taken against it by the US. Basically, the US state doesn't take countries dropping the US dollar too well, and if a country is weak enough, they're likely to get attacked for doing it. And when you spend your wealth in currencies other than USD, you're preventing bombs from being dropped on foreign countries.

 

Of course, cryptocurrencies aren't countries. But, as they pose the same threat to US state hegemony, the US' next war could be on cryptocurrency.

[Flaggin]

Well I aint touching this with a mile long pole. 

 

Poor crypto currencies 

[Drak3]

Using some flimsy “opinion” pieces to discredit the current Administration, not really that shocking.

 

I don’t disagree with crypto being unstable and thus unusable as a form of currency. Nor do I think it should be legally recognized as anything other than a high risk gamble.

[Delicieuxz]

13 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Using some flimsy “opinion” pieces to discredit the current Administration, not really that shocking.

 

I don’t disagree with crypto being unstable and thus unusable as a form of currency. Nor do I think it should be legally recognized as anything other than a high risk gamble.

What opinion pieces? The IRS document is genuine, Trump's tweets are genuine, the anti-crypto bill being drafted by US lawmakers is genuine, and the video of congressperson Sherman (who is a Democrat Party rep) calling cryptocurrencies a threat to the US' ability to project power is genuine. None of those things are a 3rd-party's opinion.

 

Other than that the general understanding of cryptocurrencies by the US government and those who lobby it has gotten to the point that these things are starting to happen right now, I don't think this has a lot to do with the US' current administration, and that any US administration would be likely to take a similar position.

[The King of the Undead]

now will they do this to my uncle who lost his virtual bitcoin wallet?

[HarryNyquist]

4 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

I don’t disagree with crypto being unstable and thus unusable as a form of currency. Nor do I think it should be legally recognized as anything other than a high risk gamble.

Stability is the biggest issue with it. Imagine if the price of a gallon of milk went from $2 today, to $0.01 tomorrow, to $59.99 the next day. Would you, as a retailer, take that currency?

[Drak3]

15 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

What opinion pieces?

The last 3. They don't list sources for their claims and operate on the basis of "opinion."

[Delicieuxz]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

The last 3. They don't list sources for their claims and operate on the basis of "opinion."

I'm not seeing it. Can you post the opinion pieces?

[hobobobo]

Dunno, sounds great. Blockchain is a great tech, but bitcoin itself is kinda meh, its even more fiat then the current fiat currencies, dont want any of that

[Drak3]

23 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

I'm not seeing it. Can you post the opinion pieces?

 

1 hour ago, Delicieuxz said:

: The Media Won't Touch This Story About The End Of The US Dollar

 

 in 2018, 

 one month later

Also, when I say "opinion" pieces, I really mean that they're likely hit pieces. Pieces that exist solely to discredit.

 

Akin to any and all media pushing the Russian Collusion conspiracy theory as absolute fact.

[Trixanity]

26 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

I'm not seeing it. Can you post the opinion pieces?

He means the last part of your post which is supposedly your own opinion but is also mandatory to post according to the forum guidelines.

 

However it seems that he views you posting your opinion as required invalidates the rest for whatever reason.

 

Maybe I'm wrong. However it's pretty obvious why the US government would be against crypto currency. Likewise it's obvious why banks are against it.

[Drak3]

Just now, Trixanity said:

However it seems that he views you posting your opinion as required invalidates the rest for whatever reason.

False, the 3 articles he uses in the opinion section doesn't link sources and read like hit pieces/propaganda. Largely because they don't link sources, a common thing amongst hit pieces.

[Blze001]

Hopefully they don't try to "fix" the problem, knowing the government the response would be targeting GPUs or ASICs so the currency can't be mined profitably or something like that.

[Delicieuxz]

24 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Also, when I say "opinion" pieces, I really mean that they're likely hit pieces. Pieces that exist solely to discredit.

 

Akin to any and all media pushing the Russian Collusion conspiracy theory as absolute fact.

The analysis and opinion article The Media Won't Touch This Story About The End Of The US Dollar was published 2012, which was during Obama's administration. I posted that article to give some insight into what the significance of the US dollar being used in trade is.

 

The other two articles are these:

 

China, Pakistan Agree to Conduct Bilateral Trade in Yuan

Pakistan denounces blacklisting by U.S. for religious freedom violations

 

Those are straight news reports of things that actually happened, without any opinions added. The first article is by the US state news outlet Voice of America, the second by Reuters.

[Drak3]

Just now, Delicieuxz said:

Those are straight news reports

Again, they're missing traceable sources and are written on the basis of "opinion."

 

Also, I never claimed who these opinion pieces were meant to discredit, just that they're being used to discredit the current administration in the context of this thread.

[Delicieuxz]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Again, they're missing traceable sources and are written on the basis of "opinion."

There isn't any opinion in them, they're reports of government announcements and statements with the sources of the statements being cited. Here are some examples from the articles:

 

"The agreement is part of practical steps being taken [by China] to support our [foreign] currency [reserves],” said Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

 

He told reporters in Islamabad the “historic” deal was concluded along with more than a dozen others during Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s four-day official visit to Beijing, which ended Monday.

 

 

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said preserving the rights of minorities was a “cardinal principle” of the constitution, and it denounced the inclusion on the U.S. list.

 

“Pakistan rejects the U.S. State Department’s unilateral and politically motivated pronouncement,” the ministry said in a statement.

 

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said Pakistan’s inclusion on the U.S. list was “pure political blackmailing” and an attempt by the United States to pressure Pakistan to implement U.S. policy goals in Afghanistan.

 

Pompeo urged counties on the list to increase respect for religious freedom.

 

“In far too many places across the globe, individuals continue to face harassment, arrests, or even death for simply living their lives in accordance with their beliefs,” he said in a statement.

 

Just now, Drak3 said:

Also, I never claimed who these opinion pieces were meant to discredit, just that they're being used to discredit the current administration in the context of this thread.

They aren't opinion pieces. The response from the US government towards countries that drop the US dollar has been the same for decades, so I don't see this as a statement on specifically the current administration but of standardized US state conduct. My inclusion of those articles in this thread involved no thought of making a comment on the current US administration.

[thorhammerz]

Is this really coming as a surprise to anyone? Enabling financial transfers in an near-anonymous (or otherwise hard-to-trace) way in a currency (or commodity) detached from the rest of the global finance system ("global" being American, of course ) was going draw the ire and wrath of the American government - a matter when, not if.

 

3 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

Venezuela and Iran have dropped the US dollar, and they're also being targeted.

In the case of these 2 in particular, it's more like they've been cut out of the American dollar system as a result of being targeted by either secondary sanctions (Iran) or the freezing of money held American accounts (Venezuela - although in their case they're mostly "selling" their oil in lieu of debt repayments, so it's not like they have much in the way of hard currency to work with anyways).

[ravenshrike]

Ignoring the political stuff, anyone not expecting FB to manipulate the ever loving hell out of Libra to advance their own policies and interests is a complete moron.

[SansVarnic]

-= Locked =-

 

Yeah this is going down the perverbial rabbit hole. As it goes this was already on a fine line to start. Per the CS political discussion is not allowed. Before this really tanks I'll just lock this now.