RED ALERT – IBM Moves to Create a Centralized, Central Bank Controlled Blockchain for Currency Control

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International Business Machines Corp is considering adopting the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as the “blockchain,” to create a digital cash and payment system for major currencies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Unlike bitcoin, where the network is decentralized and there is no overseer, the proposed digital currency system would be controlled by central banks.

– From the Reuters article: IBM Looking at Adopting Bitcoin Technology for Major Currencies

Many activists and thinkers in the anti-status quo world were understandably very suspicious of Bitcoin when it first entered mainstream consciousness during its run-up from $10 to $260 in spring 2013. I myself had heard of Bitcoin years before I publicly expressed my interest and support of the technology. With no tech background, I was immediately overwhelmed with the concept, and so I initially dismissed it and forgot about it. It was only in 2012, that I started asking questions of tech experts who I had become friends with it about it in order to calm my concerns. Considering these people have similar political leanings and are even more paranoid than I am about the corporate-gulag state, I felt somewhat reassured. Then, when I recognized the powerful political implications of the technology, I wrote my first public thoughts on it. The post was titled, Bitcoin: A Way to Fight Back Against the Financial Terrorists?

Here’s a key excerpt from the post, and what really got me interested in Bitcoin:

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The Dissident Dad – Explaining Money to Your Children

Screen Shot 2014-12-18 at 10.44.15 AMMoney is a very important part of all our lives. The understanding of money, how it works, and how we treat it can dramatically improve or diminish our quality of life.

Based on my writings and videos on YouTube, you might think my definition of money is gold and silver, but it’s not. Money is simply a medium of exchange. It can be represented by everything from gold to horse manure. Okay, maybe not horse manure, but it’s not a far stretch with the most popular form of money today being central bank notes loaned out into existence.

The state would love to have you believe that money can only originate from itself, yet people have organically started to use bitcoins and other crypto-currencies as a medium of exchange. Nevertheless, our culture continues to worship fiat currency as if it is the only type of money. I can’t change the fact that at this moment in time the U.S. dollar is the measuring stick for goods and services when it comes to prices. Trying to disprove and dispute this fact was something I struggled with early on when I used to teach my children that only gold and silver were money.

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Introducing Open Bazaar – The Decentralization Revolution Takes on Ecommerce

Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 2.40.15 PMDescribed as the “next generation of uncensored trade” and a “safe untouchable marketplace,” OpenBazaar is fundamentally different from all the online black markets that have come before it, because it is completely decentralized. If authorities acted against OpenBazaar users, they could arrest individuals, but the network would survive.

– From the Daily Dot’s article: OpenBazaar is a decentralized Dark Net market that’s ‘untouchable’ by police

It’s truly incredible. Every time I become discouraged by state of the world and the decrepit and corrupt status quo, something comes along to restore my faith in the future and remind me that the time in power for these insane oligarchs is rapidly coming to an end. As I’ve said before, the advent and success of Bitcoin was the single most important development over the past few years to instill a real sense of optimism in me.

I’ve repeatedly characterized the monumental battle we face as a species as the struggle between the forces of centralization and decentralization, and I hold the view that decentralization will ultimately reign spectacularly triumphant. Not just because it is ultimately the type of system that most people want, but because it will work exponentially better that the archaic top-down systems in place today. For some prior posts on this topic see:

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Video of the Day – Hologram Julian Assange Talks George Orwell, Bitcoin and Preserving Human History

What got me really interested in Bitcoin back in the summer of 2012 when it was worth a mere $10, was the realization that Wikileaks was able to avoid a banking system and PayPal blockade by accepting donations in BTC. Upon this realization, I published my first public thoughts on Bitcoin in the post: Bitcoin: A Way to Fight Back Against the Financial Terrorists?

For those of you who still think Bitcoin is merely a currency, or merely a payment system, take 8 minutes and listen to hologram Assange:

For more posts focused on Assange’s thoughts see:

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PayPal Gets Serious About Bitcoin – Is the Price About to Move?

Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 12.57.06 PMI haven’t written much about Bitcoin as of late. While the positive fundamental news has continued to pour in with regard to adoption and venture capital investment, watching the price action has felt like watching paint peel off a wall.

When friends have asked me about the price action as of late, I only note the bizarre discrepancy between the fundamentals and price. One reason for this seems to be muted buying interest, coupled with miners who have already invested heavily in mining equipment, selling their reward blocks immediately in order to recoup some of their capital investment and offset energy costs. In addition, while banks have stated they are holding off with regard to Bitcoin until there is more regulatory certainty, it appears clear to me that the big banks are doing everything they can to stall Bitcoin adoption. This was confirmed last week when banks cracked down on the exponentially growing Bitcoin ecosystem in the Isle of Man.

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New York Launches BitLicense Proposal – How Bad is it?

Screen Shot 2014-07-18 at 3.05.31 PMRight off the bat, I want to make it completely clear that I first became attracted to Bitcoin from an entirely ideological perspective. Having worked on Wall Street for ten years, I saw first hand the immorality, destructiveness and criminality inherent in our current monetary and financial system. In fact, I became so disillusioned and disgusted with the industry I resigned from a lucrative job in January 2010. Thus began a long journey in which I looked for answers anywhere I could, in most cases finding very few. It wasn’t until I came across Bitcoin and recognized its revolutionary force for good that I became far more optimistic about our future as a species.

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Blythe Masters’ Ex-Husband Launches Bitcoin Hedge Fund from the Island of Jersey

Screen Shot 2014-07-11 at 2.11.01 PMBlythe Masters is perhaps the most maligned human being on earth by silver investors due to suspicions of JP Morgan’s manipulation in the silver market. Well she’s back in the news, but it has nothing to do with silver. Rather, the news relates to the fact that her ex-husband and commodities traders, Daniel Masters, has just launched a Bitcoin hedge fund from the island of Jersey, a British Crown dependency.

We learn from Newsweek that:

Daniel Masters, a 50-year-old veteran commodities trader, started working for some of the largest companies in the world right out of university, trading in London, New York and Zug, Switzerland, for JPMorgan Chase and Phibro before moving on to the New York Mercantile Exchange, a short walk from Wall Street. By all appearances, it was your standard Wall Street career.

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Attempt to Tie Bitcoin to ISIS is Proof the Establishment is Scared to Death

Screen Shot 2014-07-07 at 1.35.11 PMI first threw my public support behind Bitcoin in August 2012 after finding out that it had been used to donate funds to whistleblower group Wikileaks in the wake of a payment blockade by large financial institutions. I explained my rationale in the post: Bitcoin: A Way to Fight Back Against the Financial Terrorists?

It was this event that really sparked my interest in Bitcoin and resulted in me spending much of my time in the subsequent months learning as much as possible about the revolutionary payment system. The more I learned, the more excited I became. In fact, learning about Bitcoin and its freedom unleashing potential is what made me more encouraged about the future of humanity than anything else over the past couple of years. It became evident to me early on that the large financial institutions and the statists they are in bed with would ultimately panic if Bitcoin ever took off. In early 2013 I wrote the following in the post, Bitcoin Goes Parabolic: My Updated Thoughts

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The Coming Digital Anarchy

Daniel Larimer, who is working on a tool called Bitshares to apply blockchain technology to banking, insurance and company shareholding, believes that this new breed of technologies will ultimately render government entirely obsolete.

“If you think about it, what is the reason for government? It’s a way of reaching global consensus over the theory of right and wrong, global consensus over who’s guilty and who’s innocent, over who owns what.

“They’re going to be losing legitimacy as more open, transparent systems are able to provide that function without having to rely on force. That’s my mission in life.”

– From the excellent article published in The Telegraph yesterday, The Coming Digital Anarchy

Many of you may have already read this article considering it generated quite a bit of buzz yesterday when it was published. For those who haven’t, I highly recommend it.

While those of us who have been interested in Bitcoin for years may not learn anything “new,” it’s a great piece to send to friends and family members who have yet to make the plunge.

For those who haven’t been a fan of Bitcoin due to natural skepticism, confusion or any other ailment, this article presents in an easy to understand manner the inherently revolutionary characteristics embedded within Blockchain technology.

We have a chance to truly decentralize power for the first time in human history. We must not let this amazing opportunity slip away.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts. From the Telegraph:

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This is Huge – Bitcoin Apps May Finally be Coming to Apple

Screen Shot 2013-11-25 at 5.56.51 PMApple’s brand suffered earlier this year when the company decided to ban the  Blockchain Bitcoin app. In fact, it unleashed such a firestorm that diehard technologists and Bitcoin fans took to YouTube to post videos of themselves destroying their iPhones in a number of creative ways, including with a sniper rifle and a machete. In the event you haven’t seen these before, you can watch some of them here.

Moving along to the topic at hand, many people are closely scrutinizing Apple’s policies today due to the kickoff of the company’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference. For folks within the Bitcoin community, focus has been on a small recent entry within the section on “Purchasing and Currencies” within the document: App Store Review Guidelines. See below:

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