The ECB has shared a pamphlet against bitcoin. We were waiting for this umpteenth projection with greed…
“Bitcoin’s Last Stand”
FTX claims, the ECB started crying out loud with a blog post titled “Bitcoin’s Last Stand”. [« Le dernier souffle du bitcoin »….]
The first title of the article is hardly believable: “Bitcoin is rarely used for legal transactions.”
However, the firm Chainalysis asserts in its latest report “Crypto Crime Report” that only 0.15% of bitcoin transactions are involved in illegal activities. Transactions which, by the way, amounted to 15 trillion dollars this year (volumes on chain).
The authors then claim that bitcoin “It was created to undo the current monetary and financial system”. The goal of course is to generate fear so effectively as to paralyze the masses.
The fiat system is a wolf to the fiat system. It is essentially a threat itself. It’s always a ponzi that requires more growth and energy to stand up.
Satoshi Nakamoto simply offered an uncensorable store of value that was perfectly neutral. Its currency among others to protect against the pangs of inflation.
After this, we also had the good cliché that bitcoin’s low transaction rate prevents it from being a payment network.
That’s what BCH (Bitcoin Cash) advocates thought too. However, this week, BCH has just been removed from Coinbase. There’s no point in running…
Did you say Ponzi?
The ECB thinks so “Bitcoin is also not suitable as an investment”. This is because it does not generate a return, “such as real estate or stocks”.
In fact, bitcoin is not based on a fiat ponzi early in the physical limits of growth. The energy shortage is causing more inflation than ever before.
This is how. Regardless of the (monetary) policies in place, prices will never stop rising. Why?
For a simple reason: everything else being equal, the price of everything depends on the price of the resources needed to produce it.
Metal, wood, sand, grain, etc. So many raw materials that require energy to extract, transport and transform from nature.
But all these resources are becoming scarce. Global production of conventional oil has only been declining since 2007 (the famous “peak oil”).
The oil EROI (Energy Return on Investment) has fallen from 50 in 1950 to 9 in 2022. In other words, for one barrel invested in oil extraction, we produce only 9, compared to 50 in the 1950s.
The same goes for metal. Copper content in mines has fallen from 4% in 1930 to 1% today. Consequence: it is necessary to extract four times more ore to obtain the same amount of copper. And so spend four times more energy, which inevitably raises prices…
This automatically leads to increasing indebtedness, under the penalty of economic depression. Unfortunately, this inflationary rush authorized by the ECB benefits those rich enough to own luxury real estate, pictures, stocks, etc. to buy.
This privilege ends now that everyone can save in the greatest store of value in human history: Bitcoin. From 20 euros, and not from 200,000 euros.
The ECB makes threats?
The two accomplices Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf are crying about that “big investors fund lobbyists to influence European deputies and regulators”. “In the United States alone, the number of crypto lobbyists almost tripled, from 115 in 2018 to 320 in 2021.”
The disclaimer expands a little further:
“The stamp of approval given by the regulations encourages the financial sector to facilitate access to bitcoin for its customers. »
American pension fund Fidelity intends to invest heavily in bitcoin. So much so that Ulrich and Jürgen felt they had to warn European players:
“Since bitcoin does not seem to be suitable as a payment system or as a form of investment […] Banks and investment funds should be wary of reputational damage…”
These thin threats are not worthy of such an institution. The ECB should instead focus its efforts on inflation. She could also consider the implications of a holistic CBDC. There will always be a demand for currency to protect against an authoritarian regime.
Cry harder!
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Journalist reporting on the Bitcoin revolution. My papers deal with bitcoin through geopolitical, economic and libertarian prisms.
