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Leftist take on bitcoin and stablecoinsyoutu.be/hqNxmWYMAr4?si=60k4tnCOQYZHLCfU
666 sats \ 15 comments \ @siggy47 8h bitcoin
Yanis Varoufakis is a socialist/communist former politician from Greece. I remember watching him on TV when the Greek economy was collapsing about a dozen years ago. Now he's a fixture of leftie podcasts. I love hearing these takes on bitcoin, and I even agree once in a while (not often).
At 18:09 he starts his "crypto" segment. He claims that bitcoin and eth have been coopted by stablecoins. These stablecoins "undermine the libertarian dream." He sees Trump and big tech using stable coins as a Trojan Horse (I'm starting to hate the use of this fucking story) to destroy bitcoin.
I have heard this argument elsewhere too. Wolfgang seems to know a little more about the subject than Yanis. I get the feeling this guy might even be a hodler.
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36 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 1h
They are both right in that Bitcoin is not being used in any significant way as a MoE.
The government - banker fiat power structure has sought and achieved the obstruction of Bitcoin MoE via outright bans in most autocracies and via more subtle sly designation of Bitcoin as a speculative commodity liable for capital gain tax assessment and payment effectively making consumer level use completely impractical-impossible except where consumers decide to ignore the law which will only ever be a small minority.
It is as MoE that monetary power is achieved. That is how SWIFT has been used as a tool to enforce the hegemony of the USA and the USD. That is why China has built CIPS and mBridge and other alternative trade payments routes and why many other nations have joined BRICS and Bridge and are building their digital payments portals to enable trade outside of the USD/SWIFT hegemony.
As long as Bitcoin continues to be increasingly used as a speculative commodity held in custody of bankers and their associates, and not used for MoE, Bitcoin continues to become increasingly captive to a narrative and behavior that is controlled by the bankers and governments.
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36 sats \ 1 reply \ @0xbitcoiner 4h
I’ve heard some of Varoufakis’s takes on Bitcoin and crypto in general, he’s totally against it. He says only governments should be able to print money. As for stablecoins, yeah, they’re obviously different from what Bitcoin aims to be, but I also think stablecoins kinda ‘steal’ users from Bitcoin. I think it was Ark Invest that lowered their Bitcoin price prediction exactly because of that.
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35 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 4h
Here he is enduring hardship like his fellow Greeks during the financial crisis:
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36 sats \ 11 replies \ @justin_shocknet 5h
I'm starting to hate the use of this fucking story
Lots of globalist cope and astroturf, it's how you know the opposite is true
US stables drink the milkshake of all non-dollar fiats, and Bitcoin is the collateral to margin call off-shore stables without access to UST
Multi-prong attack on the international banking cartel that uses SWIFT and national Central banks in to maintain power
All their commie NGOs getting rug pulled before their eyes
Love to see it
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1036 sats \ 10 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 4h
Surely US stablecoins seek to prop up the USD as the dominant global currency by both buying USTs so supporting the solvency of the debt burdened USD/USA and providing a digital payment quasi CBDC option aligned to the USD. The USD/petrodollar is all that enables the USA to continue spending well beyond its means and this is why Trump has threatened BRICS nations with sanctions if they adopt any alternative trade payment protocol. Yet China has won the trade war- all nations now must trade with China or suffer significant economic disadvantage. USA has also lost its legacy military dominance- USA cannot now fight a war of any magnitude without the rare earths supply chains that China controls. Trump is managing the decline of US hegemony as China emerges as the dominant economy and power globally. China already enables Russian and Iranian trade payments via its alternative Yuan denominated protocols CIPS and mBridge. USA cannot sanction China for ignoring US/SWIFT sanctions because China is now integral to the SWIFT, IMF and World Bank systems continued functioning even while building its own alternative institutional framework and protocols, on its own terms. Saudis and many others have joined mBridge and are building their digital payments inter-operative capability. Bitcoin may have a role in the emerging multipolar world as USA declines into a regional hegemony over the Americas. Stablecoins, crypto and Bitcoin serve to create virtual tax havens analogous to the network built by the City of London as the British Empire declined. https://vimeo.com/290438534 The CCP 'commies' have beaten western imperialists at their own game- capitalism, by reverse engineering it and most westerners don't even realise it.
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0 sats \ 9 replies \ @CliffBadger 2h
Yet China has won the trade war- all nations now must trade with China or suffer significant economic disadvantage.
By that logic MSTR is winning.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 1h
Cherrypicking gaslighting nonsense.
Read the next line to see the breadth and depth of Chinas victory in the trade war.
'USA has also lost its legacy military dominance- USA cannot now fight a war of any magnitude without the rare earths supply chains that China controls.'
There is no valid analogy with MSTR.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @CliffBadger 49m
If you think rare earth minerals are more valuable than Bitcoin, I don't know how to help you.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 32m
That is a false equivalence and inherently flawed argument. But lets explore it nevertheless as it does raise interesting questions-
Monetary power and integrity is hugely important but it is also subject to context. The Chinese have used fiat monetary issuance mostly in a constructive way to direct capital into productive and strategic assets and infrastructure- that is how fiat money can be used to grow and develop an economy - whereas the neoliberalised west where bankers and capital direct governments huge misdirection of capital has occurred with huge volumes of fiat debt issuance toward non productive speculative assets- primarily real estate burdening the economy and only creating a temporary illusion of wealth.
Rare earths are a good example of where China deliberately directed fiat debt capital toward investment in its refining capacity and ownership of supply so that now it holds the US military industrial Jewish Bankers cartel to ransom. cannot fight a war of any size without the refined rare earths China now controls...and the best estimates are that it would take at least a decade and MASSIVE investment for the US to regain independent and secure supply of refined rare earths.
This whole subject you raise shows how in some cases free markets fail- as private profit seeking investors sometimes demonstrably lack incentive to invest in crucial long term strategic supply chains. Sometimes you need a government that has vision and will direct capital and investment to build and ensure its strategic advantage and security- as China did and the neoliberalised west failed to do regarding rare earths, and not just rare earths!
Trump has woken up to this tragic failure but China for now has a significant strategic advantage at a crucial stage in the contest for global hegemony between the two.
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @justin_shocknet 2h
Ignore the bot, its training hasn't been updated since 2012
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 2h
Neither you nor your sock puppet can credibly refute the overall thesis of my comment. You might score an illusory gaslighting hit by taking one line out of context...but no more. And then you revert to cheap trollery, trying to discredit my comment, that you cannot credibly refute, by calling me a bot. Cheap. Tragic. Failure. Failure to engage in and participate in the fundamental and foundational free market of them all - the contest of ideas. Your dogma exposed again for the shallow bigoted irrational nonsense that it is.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @justin_shocknet 1h
Rekt, repeatedly
#1277191
#1273672
#648891
I'm sure there's more
Literally the one area @DarthCoin and I don't align is I'm fascinated by geopol and nationalism and he couldn't care less
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 1h
Engage here in this dialogue and show you can make a credible reasoned rebuttal here.
Don't think a litany of referrals to other dialogues demonstrates a credible sequential retort- it does not...its just more cowardly mendacious evasion of a engagement in a true contest of ideas.
Do it here now,in context, responding to the facts and issues raised here, in good faith, or concede defeat, by default.
BTW have just looked at a few of the references you gave- yes in some cases you make valid and worthwhile counter points though rarely refuting the points I was making but rather more generally broadening the scope of the dialogue than directly refuting my arguments.
Engage in context and as always I will try to respond. Fail to engage in context and I will call you for conceding by default.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @justin_shocknet 1h
Get a new shtick, your slop only needs debonked so many times
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