Gordon's got a lot on his plate.
Meanwhile, the world around us slows down for no one. Things are happening inside and outside the cryptosphere, and as you always hear me hammer on, everything is connected.
A few weeks back, Russia's central bankers declared their intentions for an all-out ban on all crypto for payments and for mining, but not for ownership, because you know... who likes competition. I wrote immediately after that it would be the next week that they came in lifting the ban, and sure enough Russia followed with proposals for proper regulatory framework to bring crypto into legislative bounds, while Putin specifically mentioned how Bitcoin could make Russia a stronger economic competitor.
The same Putin made some extremely strong remarks after being worn down by his 6 hour meeting with Macron, and there's no sugar coating it; he flat out ridiculed the French leader for boring him to tears. Putin sizes people up and plays some very strategic 3D chess. Trust me, Biden is not up for the task. But, whoever does run the job Biden plays front-man to, has an active crypto committee or two advancing things forward in the House treasury and Senate President's group on AI and crypto, specifically with a recent report on stablecoins. They are actually starting to sound like they understand the technology and agree that it is not going away, but people need to learn to listen in-between the lines, that this is all, much like the beloved vax-pass mandates strolling through the streets of freedom, a play for power and control, and the mass-collecting of data. Congress-people on both sides of the aisle are in unison that we need to step up security to stamp out fraud, human trafficking and money-laundering, as if none of these things ever happened before Satoshi wrote a white paper.
The bottom line for where we stand on U.S. regulations is, that regulatory framework is going to tighten, there are people who don't want it to ruin growth in the sector, but they all want to protect TradFi markets and the coming CBDC while somehow allowing a space for an under-defined stablecoin one way or the other. More importantly, both sides agree that KYC/AML isn't enough, and we need a strong digital ID for future CBDC and stablecoin 'security'.
I don't know about you, but I understand what we trade for a little security, and in this case a very good chance all stables on the free market could be issued directly from bank transmitters at a Federal level, as the digital dollar ends up only issued directly via a digital Central Bank connected directly at the Fed. That is a level of data we shouldn't want on any grounds.
Imagine the level of control being placed in the hands of a few very one-sided, vindictive politicians and what they could do, for instance in the case of GoFundMe and truckers, if the people needed to rise up? Pretty hard to do with half of an entire nation's accounts frozen and work places unable to send payments. Get it? Yeah, this is the technocracy every power-hungry Commie pig in history has lusted after.
So, while I appreciate there is growing excitement at talks of individual states talking about making Bitcoin legal tender, we need to pay attention to the backdoor they wish to use, to place a strangle hold on our abilities to store it in private wallets or trade it at will. These things often happen in micro-steps, but once you're done, you wonder where you left your freedoms much like the missing other-sock come laundry time.
So, now let's compare this to NFTs.
The idea of something like a non-fungible token being placed in its own category as its own rising market is interesting. As an artist, music producer, I love the idea of there being a way for people to embrace the concept of ownership and exclusivity across the crypto landscape, but I find it shocking in many ways how traditional Auction houses, celebrity branding and corporate interests have leaped in to make a quick buck without any of them giving a deeper pondering to how deeply and quickly the prices are going to fall off the cliff, and how entrenched in actual fraud and money laundering the space is.
I lean towards a deep understand and alliance with the Bitcoin maximalist, but I do also recognize that the space is defined my many different things. Something we should all be conscious of, is that wisdom is something that matures and develops over time. Sometimes people warn about the risks in a market not because they don't get it, and not because they don't value the same things, but because "they've been to a few rodeos in their time" and they recognize when something is experiencing its shorter term fad-stage before markets mature and bad things get shaken out.
My larger concern for NFTs is that they are the name and the public face for 'crypto' while other deeper, more important, globally transformative things are taking place in crypto that deal directly with all of the world's financial sector. NFTs, in the minds of worried parents and power-hungry politicians, is the same as pumping movie theater and GameStop stonks and owning a doggie coin. Far beyond a quick buck or a fast pump, money is shifting into the new future-tech zone and it will only continue to advance until the kingdoms of the world are defined by how much digital gold they are HODLing, and how much freedom we traded for a little security.
If you know anything that I know, I promise you to the same degree that no international money launderer or sex slave trader has ever been stumped by KYC/AML. The next phase of digital ID is going to be super bad news. Most countries are being synchronized to the same script, because real governance takes place at a higher level with the U.N., WEF, IMF, BiS and World Bank. True criminals will figure out how to operate regardless of the strict rules in place, and if you haven't seen Minority Report to know what iris scans can mean for retinal surgery, or watched a few telling episodes of Black Mirror, you aren't prepared for the rhetorical mental battle.
We need to be vigilant to look out for one another in this space, and sorry but if you want bigger government and feel comforted by their mandates, tighter rules and enforcement, you really and truly do not understand crypto and you are not a friend of freedom. It's simply the truth at present and in historical terms.
NFTs, like any market, should be left to run their course. If anything, every consumer should be given a little box to click "yes, I understand this is risky and I could lose everything and the market is riddled with pump groups churning the value of $100 pictures into $400,000 'collector items' and I agree to partake at my own risk" as they jump in the game. I am absolutely pro-art, pro-music, pro-digitization of value in some form or another. I will not allow the fact that there are scams happening in the NFT space to cause me to take the cool things happening at face value, because the literal fate of freedom is in the hands of the puppet-masters now. We CANNOT afford to lose this fight for freedom. Why do you think I chose Gordon as my persona?
Who knows how it develops, but I do not want all of the final choices for financial freedom to get thrown into the mix with the actual gambling and laundering that does exist. I don't know about you, but I've spent not a single second of my life focusing on which money launderer I just exchanged dollar bills with, because it isn't a factor in my daily life at all. I don't believe that every single freedom I rely upon should be measured by that concern, and neither should you.
And on that ponder-ful thought, a very Crypto Gordon Freeman, fighter for free men, at this juncture in time... for now... out.
