Bitcoin implodes and the banking crisis

The easiest way to invest in the growth of Bitcoin & the Crypto Currency Sector. — BitCoin Capital

Max Keiser lost all credibility when a few weeks ago he claimed rouble a strong currency. You could almost see Vladimir Putin pulling the strings.

Ностальжи / Nostalgia

This latest Keiser Report is another example of nonsense being peddled, this time on bitcoin.

Skirting over in this discussion that bitcoin has run into technical problems, mere hints of the intercine warfare between core bitcoin developers. And that is only the tip of the iceberg of the problems facing bitcoin.

Bitcoin has failed miserably as a currency.  It fails to meet the basic criteria of a currency:

• store of value
• unit of exchange

Bitcoin is highly volatile, it lacks utility. Where is the baker where I can use bitcoin to buy a loaf of bread?

Bitcoin has been hijacked by spivs and parasites, all out to make a fast buck. One of who was a guest on the programme.  And who was this guest? Why none other than Simon Dixon, a vulture capitalist, who co-manages a vulture  capital fund trying to make  a fast buck out of bitcoin, co-manages with none other than Max Keiser himself. If, and a very big if, the investment goes well, investors are paid, please do not laugh, in bitcoin.

We offer a unique model whereby we invest one third of all funds in mining (The process used to create new coins) that is used exclusively to pay daily dividends to investors (in Bitcoin) for as long as the mining process is profitable.

This is a great way to accumulate Bitcoins without having to get deep into the geeky part of the process.

We mine a portfolio of coins and always look for the most profitable opportunity through our algorithm. Eventually the mining process can become unprofitable, so we utilise the latest technology with mining rigs in Iceland that optimise every penny of profit and we pay the coins generated through mining out to investors until the process is no longer profitable where the costs of running the rigs exceeds the value of the coins produced.

Our goal is that if the market conditions are right, investors receive a chunk of their investment back through Bitcoin, unlike any other investment fund.

Located in Iceland as one of the few places energy costs are low enough to make bitcoin mining feasible.

Max Keiser remarkably coy about the fact he is a bitcoin millionaire, indeed a deafening silence.

And where is BitCoin Capital based? Er, the tax dodging Cayman Islands.

Invest in a Ponzi scheme, attract more investors to inflate the price, and then you get a return, only the return is in the very thing you are investing.

You could not make this up if you tried.

Someone exposing that bitcoin is heading towards a brick wall due to technical problems, is not going to go down too well with a vulture capital fund where two of the people on the programme, including one of the presenters, have  a direct vested interest.

Yes, we should be very concerned by the activity of all these players, especially the criminal banks trying to grab a piece of the action.

The New York Times article  ridiculed, was actually quite a good article on the current problems with bitcoin. That Mike Kearn working for R3, irrelevant other than it indirectly highlights one of the problems with everyone associated with bitcoin, all out to line their own pockets.

This is not the mindset to be expected of people working on an Open Source, Open Protocol project located in the collaborative commons.

This is not the mindset of Open Software, Open Protocols, where you freely contribute your time to the collaborative commons, in order that all can benefit and in turn draw from the collaborative commons.

The mindset of the bitcoin developers is the opposite to that in The GNU Manifesto.

Software illustrates the dichotomy of the free flow of information. In one corner of the ring Bill Gates, who argues:

most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?

In the opposing corner of the ring Richard Stallman, who argues:

If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs. … Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction.

Bill Gates was arguing for commercial software, Richard Stallman Open Source software.

What Richard Stallman saw, was if knowledge freely flows, we all benefit. We contributive freely to the collaborative commons, and in turn draw from the collaborative commons.

Opens Source software, for example Apache, runs the internet, powerful supercomputers run on Open Source software Linux.

Bitcoin was developed as Open Source, Open Protocol. It has failed as a currency, but it has also failed because the Bitcoin developers have failed to comprehend the basic premise that Richard Stallman outlined in The GNU Manifesto. They are funded by vulture capitalists, parasitic start ups, all who are looking for means to profit from Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was an interesting proof of concept, nothing more. Coherent noise.

The only use of bitcoin is as a quick and dirty means to transfer out of a currency, across a border.

There has been no re-branding of bitcoin as the blockchain. The blockchain is seen as useful in its own right as a means of recording transactions in digital assets, open, secure and transparent.

Mycelia to track music uses the blockchain.

What relevance the number of transactions of bitcoin, best performing currency? All this tells us is that it attracts the interests of a lot of spivs and speculators out to make a fast buck.

How many of these transactions were using bitcoin as a currency to buy goods and services?

Bitcoin may work as a vehicle for the nefarious activities of spivs and speculators, as a currency it has been a complete and utter failure.

 

As a currency, the Brixton Pound is more of a success story than bitcoin. But then the Brixton Pound has not attracted the activities of spivs and speculators out to make a fast buck. It is used as a local currency, to buy goods and services within the local Brixton economy.

Bitcoin fails the basic requirements of a  currency:

• store of value
• unit of exchange

Yes, there is a problem with the banks, lax regulation, they should have been broken up, casino banking split from retail banking, but that is an entirely separate issue, a side show and a distraction from the problems facing bitcoin.

In PostCapitalism, Paul Mason exposes the criminal activities of the bankers. He also shows that all the conditions are in place for yet another banking crisis, only this time there is no money to bail out the banks, and if there was there would be riots in the streets.

It is a moot point, that with the exception of Iceland, no bankers have gone to prison.

Clearly the banks have woken up to the fact that a functioning Bitcoin 2.0 would pose a real threat.  The nearest we have to Bitcoin 2.0 is faircoin.

• Sacred Economics
• An alternative Greek currency
• Why has Bitcoin failed?
• Is Bitcoin dead?
• Bitcoin: The Emperor’s New Clothes
• Bitcoin Dead? Not the Part that Matters

Floating rouble and progressive nationalism

The first half of the programme garbage (crude pro-Russian propaganda), the second half little better.

The reason the Russian Central bank has hiked interest rate to 17%, is to try and help the rouble that is in free fall. A sign of failure, not success.

Try talking to Russians in Cyprus, ask them about the buying power of the rouble.

Biblio Globus, a Russian tour company, a trail of unpaid debts.

Oil prices have collapsed, because of a glut of oil, collapsing world economy, and post-COP21, a move away from fossil fuels.

Money is cheap for the rich, not the poor. The rich are pouring money into silly projects like Uber.

Uber offers no technological innovation, it is a cowboy outfit offering unfair competition to a legitimate taxi sector.

EU is a malignant, undemocratic entity that should be smashed. The euro an unmitigated disaster.

The year closes, having seen the rouble go into free fall, oil at record low, Russian economy collapsing.

When Max Keiser peddles this level of crap, he loses all credibility. You can almost see Valdimir Putin pulling his strings.

Yanis Varoufakis in conversation with Max Keiser

GDP growing up to 2007 at a rate of 5% per annum. Everything looks great, except for one thing, credit was rising at 10% per annum.

The rich have access to as much credit as they want, free money, they pay no interest.

The poor, one could also add small businesses, find it nigh impossible to obtain access to credit, and when they do they pay very high interest rates, in the case of the poor with Pay Day Loans paying interest rates of several thousand per cent per annum.

Silly money is chasing silly projects, forcing up the price of property and the value of high-tech death stars.

Syriza signed a surrender document with the EU. It was a betrayal of the Greek people, the country is now under occupation by the Fourth Reich.

EU was not interested in negotiating an agreement that would deal with the economic crisis in Greece. They were only interested in destroying Greece, making an example of Greece for daring to challenge the EU.

In 2010, Greece was in serious debt, the debt unpayable. Greece was bailed out by the EU, but this money did not see the light of day in Greece, it was used to bail out the German banks that had made risky loans.

Greece, with the help of banks, fiddled its debt to gain entry to the EU. This was done with the connivance of the EU and was common practice at the time.

By 2007, it was known the Greek debt was unsustainable, and at some point the bubble would burst.

• Sacred Economics
• Europe is Kaput
• From hope to despair
• Yanis Varoufakis in conversation with Paul Mason

Remove money from politics!

Since my book came out … I’ve subjected to incredible media attack, which makes me think perhaps the establishment is not as stable as it would have us believe. — Russell Brand

The revolution is in the block chain. — Max Keiser

An interesting discussion between Max Keiser, Stacy Herbert and Russell Brand.

There are many things we can do to improve our present democratic system, which most would agree, apart from those who have their snouts in the trough, that it is broke beyond repair:

• involve the people
• keep dirty money out

We have to move to real democracy, participatory democracy, where it is the people who decide, not corrupt politicians.

We have to get money out of politics.

Only a few days ago, we had Big Business summon David Cameron to Brussels to demand why he was not doing enough to push TTIP, the mass transfer of power to Big Business.

Seizing of money in Cyprus banks about 18 months ago, was seen as a dry run, could they get away with it.

At G20, the media attention was on Vladimir Putin scuttling away with his tail between his legs. Which enabled them to slip through, our money in the banks is now their money, to be used when they are too big to fail.

Vladimir Putin has bailed out a big Russian bank, others expect to be bailed out. Has Putin learned no lessons? You do not bail out banks, you let them go to the wall. Follow the example of Iceland.

Do not talk about inequality, because if enough people do, maybe they will be galvanised into action.

The boss of Lloyds bank in 1980 was on £80,000 per annum. If average wages had kept pace, the average worker would be earning today £435,00 per annum, not £25,000 per annum.

If the elite in Saudi Arabia want more money, they simply turn the taps and let more oil flow. In England they print more money, and hand it to the banks, it bypasses the real economy.

The value of the workers share of the economy is going down. It has gone down from over 50% of GDP to around 40% today.

Compared with Christmas 2012, the numbers using food banks has tripled.

That is the price the poor has paid for evil ConDem government policies. And useless Ed Miliband is promising more of the same under ToryLite.

"Osborne’s economic crisis (known bizarrely as a ‘recovery’)" Street lamps are going out all over Britain? Rejoice http://t.co/YBDb70EqZV

— Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) December 28, 2014

Austerity has failed, it was an excuse for Shock Doctrine, slash and burn of public services, cuts for the poor, the elderly and the infirm.

Greece has seen its economy shrink by 25% under austerity.

And as we are seeing, even affluent Farnham is suffering.

We are screwed by privatised rail and energy companies.

How do we fight back?

We organise. We follow the excellent example of the New Era Estate tenants who fought US venture capitalists Westbrook and won. We link with other groups fighting the same battles. We share expertise,

In This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein has a chapter on Blockadia, it is not a place, it is a frontier, the frontier where local communities are doing battle with Big Business, not only doing battle, but winning.

Smear and distraction.

The Sun smeared Russell Brand when he highlighted the plight of New Era tenants, Channel 4 were more interested where Russell Brand lived, pathetic Jo the Banker was concerned his hot launch was getting cold when overzealous security locked down RBS when Russell Brand to ask a few questions.

Mayor of New York has banned Westbrook, why no mention in mainstream media, why not banned in London? Westbrook kicked out of New York for predatory practices. In US a pariah.

We do not play their game. Once you play the game, you are in the game, and they set the rules.

Boycott the banks. You do not have to use the banks. Deal in cash. Credit card and debit card is a tracking device. Use crowd funding to finance projects. Use crypto-currencies. BitCoin, FairCoin, StartCoin.

Crowd funding in politics. Mark Reckless and Caroline Lucas are both using crowd funding.

To help me deal with the post by-election sour grapes legal challenge from the Conservative party: https://t.co/MBopdVoraQ

— Mark Reckless (@MarkReckless) December 18, 2014

Mark Reckless defected from the Tories to UKIP, stood for re-election, and won. In what can only be described as petty childishness and PR disaster of the year, Tories sued Mark Reckless for the cost of a now useless leaflet. He is using crowd funding to finance his legal defence.

Twitter people, pls can you help? Need funds for re-election! @crowdfunderuk Pls donate what you can 🙂 http://t.co/CZ3Jksffly #Brighton

— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) December 15, 2014

Caroline Lucas is using crowd funding to finance a re-election campaign.

Crowd funding Trews. Replace canopy outside a newsagent promoting The Sun with one promoting the Trews.

Crowd funded film, Sell-Off – The Abolition of Your NHS, exposes scandal of NHS privatisation that is happening right now.

Creative direct action, use social media.

UK Uncut could have had a demo to expose tax dodging. Instead, they used social media to coordinate occupation of Starbucks and Vodafone.

The Terror Of How Banks Use Our Money

Jo the Disgruntled Banker, was more than a little peeved when he was locked out of RBS and his hot paella got a little cold.

The money laundering for Mexican Drug Cartels, financing of Tar Sands in Canada, Libor and many other scams and scandals seems of little concern to Jo the Banker, all that mattered was his cold lunch.

And why was he locked out? Because Russell Brand was trying to illicit a little information direct from the horse’s mouth, only to be met by over zealous security who put the building in lock down.

Max Keiser in conversation with Russell Brand breaks down how the banking system works and what happens to your money – you’ll be shocked.

When is a bonus not a bonus? When it is a crooked banker calling it an allowance to get around the cap on bonuses.

We own RBS aka Rotten Bank of Scotland. We should have let it go bust. Then instead of bonuses, the bankers would have been on the Dole.

We should have followed the example of Iceland, they refused to bail out the banks, put the bankers in prison, and sacked their parliament.

We own RBS, is it not time they were accountable to us?

When two RBS banker were found guilty of a £3 million fraud, the judge let them walk free, saying he felt sorry for them. The judge said they had already “suffered” as they were “embarrassed” by the incident. Presumably they were not embarrassed until they were caught.

The banks are not too big to fail. They should be broken up into smaller banks. They should be broken up, casino banking from retail banking.

The crooked banks take our money, gamble with it, finance dirty energy, then when it goes wrong, blame a few rogue bankers and go cap in hand to the government.

When banks threaten to bring the financial system down, is that no different to a terrorist with hostages, threatening to execute them and blow up the building?

We should all minimise our dealing with the banks. Use cash. Use crowd funding to raise money for projects. Use peer to peer. Use crypto-currency.

• RBS banker spared jail for £3m property fraud was behind controversial KC stadium deal
• Judge Takes Pity on ‘Embarrassed’ RBS Bankers who Committed £3m Fraud
• Climate Camp vs RBS – We’ve arrived
• Bonus to RBS boss obscene
• Toxic RBS and Power2Contact
• Behaviour of toxic RBS beggars belief
• Toxic RBS serves formal notice
• RBS: Stop defrauding us, manipulating us, lying to us and trashing our climate
• Paul Mason: The banks, how am I here again?