• CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca
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    29 days ago

    Well there it is. For anyone who believed that they were simply going to create a reserve to store already existing cryptocurrencies - that were confiscated by the federal agencies - and not spend federal dollars to bolster or hype up cryptocurrencies that are connected to the people in the administration, y’all are idiots.

  • PetteriPano@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    Trump has already made it clear that he’s a Russian asset. The only question that remains is if he doing their bidding knowingly.

    How would he go about transferring wealth to Putin & pals? He can’t do business with them, because sanctions.

    Russia already owns 12% of the world’s crypto.

    Trump can inflate their value by pulling shit like this.

    Russia: profit.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      There is speculation that a secondary goal here would be to weaken the US dollar as a defacto exchange currency standard worldwide if Bitcoin were to gain prominence.

      That would be highly beneficial to certain “very good friends” of Trump like Putin whom would much prefer an unregulated currency that the US cannot impose controls over when presidents change.

      • 10001110101@lemm.ee
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        28 days ago

        It’s not really speculation that they want to weaken the dollar and dethrone it as the world’s reserve currency; it’s in Project 2025. Stated goal is to transition the US back to a manufacturing-heavy economy, instead of service, tech, finance, etc. Probably won’t work well, but that’s what they’re trying to do.

  • sfu@lemm.ee
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    28 days ago

    The US has a bitcoin reserve? First I’ve heard of it. Whatever, but using gold to buy it makes no sense.

    • Redditsux@lemmy.worldOP
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      28 days ago

      They don’t. It’s being floated. Trump said he’s going to create a reserve. Not an official act yet.

      • sfu@lemm.ee
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        28 days ago

        This line in the article made it sound like it already exists:

        “This move, according to Hines, could be a budget-neutral way to increase the country’s Bitcoin reserves.”

  • Fair Fairy@thelemmy.club
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    28 days ago

    The correct thing to do is ban all the digital coins.

    All they used for is tax avoidance. While raising electric bills

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      28 days ago

      Decent digital currency wouldnt use much electricity and would stop hyperinflation occuring in countries experiencing extreme issues. Being that taxes are standardly on income and sales, where is it you are saying they are dodging taxes? (Bitcoin isn’t a good digital currency, but neither should a decent one be run by the country)

        • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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          28 days ago

          Ethereum is probably the most well-known of the ‘proof-of-stake’ cryptocurrencies, which don’t require massive resources in order to generate/validate transactions. It made the switch back in 2022 I think?

  • Wilco@lemm.ee
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    29 days ago

    This reality is so fucking stupid. Let’s sell something of value to buy something that is only valuable if someone really wants it bad enough.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      29 days ago

      To be fair, gold is the same. It’s just more well established since it’s been around much longer.

      Not defending this shit, just pointing out that gold is also only worth what people are willing to pay for it. That’s kind of how all markets work.

      • vxx@lemmy.world
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        28 days ago

        Gold works without energy. It doesnt oxidise or decay as other materials

          • SilverCode@lemm.ee
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            28 days ago

            With a bar of gold you can crush someone’s skull in and steal their food. Try do that with Bitcoin.

          • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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            28 days ago

            If all society broke down and all currencies became worthless gold would still have value as it has intrinsic value due to its chemical properties. Bitcoin would be worth nothing

            • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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              28 days ago

              There are easier and cheaper means of exchange. Indigenous people all over the world had access to gold but used it for decoration and not trade.

              • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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                25 days ago

                Gold is pretty damn “cheap” to use as a currency it’s a softer metal with a lower melting point which allows it to be easily minted and then since its properties are somewhat unique it makes it harder to counterfeit without more complex technology. It is also rare enough that small bits of it can be used for currency so you don’t have to use something like the giant stone discs of yap. Some places used food for currency like rice or cocoa beans but those had too little value per unit of currency which made them annoying.

                • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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                  24 days ago

                  I really suggest you read Graeber’s “Debt” to get a more complete picture of how economies can work. It’s not all giant stone discs.

                  Plus there’s tons of ways gold can be adulterated. Devaluing gold currency is incredibly easy, as is shaving or sweating the coins to get your own gold.

        • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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          28 days ago

          Seriously when people say gold is worthless, what a joke. There is very little of it, as you mentioned it doesn’t oxidize, it’s the metal used in microchips. It ain’t sea shells or tulip bulbs or Bitcoin, that’s for sure.

          • vxx@lemmy.world
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            28 days ago

            I would agree for the case that we’re truly in end times where nobody has anything and people fight over scraps of food, that gold might be worthless.

            It’s still your best bet for all other scenarios that don’t involve you hiding in a cave and eating bugs.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    I don’t know why so many commenters think this is just a joke or funny. They’re talking about stealing the wealth of America to give to their rich friends directly through Bitcoin scams. That’s what this will be. Giant government-funded pump and dump for their rich fascist friends.

  • MoreFPSmorebetter@lemmy.zip
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    29 days ago

    What a great fucking idea. Let’s take a physical limited resource mineral and trade it for an untraceable and unregulated made up currency.

    Holy shit I’m gonna have a stroke.

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      If you want to reward your high profile friends so they can cash out with tangible assets before the whole currency or economy crashes, this is how you would do things.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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      29 days ago

      So couple things:

      1. Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) are certainly not untraceable. Public ledger means that all the transactions are publicly visible - if you can associate a wallet to a person or organization then you know where the money went, and there are businesses that specifically do that kind of research. Every single transaction ever is part of the blockchain record. Cryptocurrency is a terrible way to make a clandestine purchase.
      2. All currencies are made up (I know, real imfourteenandthisisdeep energy, but still technicallythetruth).

      *Edit - A silly caveat to this is that if the US government starts regularly transacting in Bitcoin, it would be very easy to audit… using blockchain means there’s a built-in transaction record… anybody with a little bit of experience in reading the ledger could just track everything.

      Other than that you’re absolutely right.

      1. Cryptocurrencies are still largely unregulated, and the crypto market has attracted exactly the kind of people you would expect to be most interested in unregulated financial transactions - scammers, thieves, con men, ransomware gangs, money launderers, and anyone who wants buy or sell CSAM, narcotics, weapons, DDOS-as-a-Service, and North Korea’s government funding crew. The crypto market is absolutely chock-full of criminal activity, so it’s entirely reasonable to assume that anyone who wants to participate in that market wants to participate in the crime.
      2. As you said, trading physical gold for digital currency is a stupid idea. It’s also uneccessary, because the FBI is already sitting on a collection of cryptocurrencies that have been confiscated through criminal investigations, including large amounts of Bitcoin. It is technically illegal right now for the US government to do anything with that, but that could be changed with a law. There’s nowhere else for that cryptocurrency to go anyway.

      It seems likely to me that a play to distribute gold from the reserve is about having an excuse to open it and take gold out, and disappear some of it in the process. It’s a cover for a plan to rob the US.

    • datendefekt@feddit.org
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      29 days ago

      Bitcoin absolutely is traceable. Addresses might not be clear names, but all transactions are public. Which makes me wonder why the government wants to use Bitcoin.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        29 days ago

        That’s correct. Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous. If you can find the identity of a party to any bitcoin transaction, you then can know about every transaction they ever made with that ID.

        Which makes me wonder why the government wants to use Bitcoin.

        Because Trump is a fucking imbecile, but thinks there’s an opportunity for a scam.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    So personally, I think the government should have some, but I don’t specifically think selling gold for it is the right idea.

    Everyone seems to be on about how this is just about cashing out his buddies, but what I’m worried about is these dumbfucks won’t know how to properly secure it or won’t properly secure it and itll get easily stolen, or they’ll outright steal it themselves.

    Like they just used signal to talk about bombing Yemen and included a journalist on it…

    So while I think it’s not a bad idea to have some, it’s fucking terrifying that Trump is doing this and can influence it.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      I don’t think the government should have ANY, regardless of how the government purchased the fake assets. It’s a fucking terrible idea for exactly the reason you described. The government should not be involved in such a high risk, unsecured, volatile, ridiculously easily stolen venture.