{"id":21212,"date":"2021-11-28T22:40:31","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T22:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=21212"},"modified":"2021-12-03T09:45:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T09:45:59","slug":"news-celsius-arrest-el-salvador-journalists-hacked-senate-vs-stablecoins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/28\/news-celsius-arrest-el-salvador-journalists-hacked-senate-vs-stablecoins\/","title":{"rendered":"News: Celsius CFO arrested, El Salvador journalists hacked, Senate vs. stablecoins"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>I have more news than this in the pile, but I figured I should get this out sooner rather than later. More to come!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\"><strong>Subscribe on Patreon!<\/strong><\/a> Your $5 or $20 or whatever each month helps a <em>lot<\/em> in keeping the hits coming. Tell your friends and colleagues!<\/li>\n<li>And don&#8217;t forget \u2014 <a href=\"#byemail\">click here and enter your email address<\/a> to get every new post emailed to you.<\/li>\n<li>Hey, it&#8217;s Christmas soon. You should consider getting books as the ideal gift for your loved ones. There&#8217;s a couple <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/libra\/\">here<\/a> that would go down a <em>delight.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>104 degrees with a head full of steam<\/h3>\n<p>Israeli crypto mogul Moshe Hogeg, who was behind a series of failed crypto startups such as Sirin Labs, was arrested last week on charges of cryptocurrency fraud and sexual assault. There had been years of fraud allegations against Hogeg. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/.premium-israel-arrests-soccer-club-owner-suspected-of-sex-offenses-and-cryptocurrency-fraud-1.10396691\"><i>Haaretz<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2019\/03\/14\/crypto-mogul-moshe-hogegs-icos-have-unusual-patterns-analysis-finds\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a><i>, 2019<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Seven others were arrested with Hogeg \u2014 one of whom was rumoured to be Yaron Shalem, CFO of crypto lender Celsius, and previously one of Hogeg\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n<p>In a Celsius \u201cask me anything\u201d Twitter Space, the company would neither confirm nor deny that Hogeg had been arrested. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClarityToast\/status\/1463329467196137474\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>] Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky also claimed to know nothing about his CFO being arrested \u2014 at a time when he must have known. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeBurgersburg\/status\/1463355477245501449\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Shalem\u2019s arrest was confirmed. CoinDesk has the arrest report. Celsius said only that \u201can employee\u201d was under police investigation, but Shalem has disappeared from the Celsius team web page. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2021\/11\/26\/celsius-cfo-arrested-on-charges-tied-to-former-job-at-moshe-hogegs-firm\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClarityToast\/status\/1464298796251242501\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Celsius scored $750 million of Series B venture capital funding \u2014 after they must have known of their CFO\u2019s arrest, but before they admitted it publicly. I wonder if they told the investors. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2021\/11\/25\/celsius-network-series-b-expands-to-750m-at-325b-valuation\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Mashinsky was previously an advisor to Sirin Labs and several of Hogeg\u2019s other failed ICOs. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeBurgersburg\/status\/1464230822941184001\"><i>Twitter thread<\/i><\/a>] Mashinsky was also an investor in a pile of Hogeg\u2019s companies where Shalem was the CFO \u2014 in fact, working with Hogeg is all of Shalem\u2019s previous experience. Mashinsky claimed no ongoing involvement with Hogeg: \u201cThe guy you\u2019re talking about has nothing to do with Celsius.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeBurgersburg\/status\/1463355477245501449\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>There have been multiple reports of problems getting cryptos back out of Celsius. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealWillyBot\/status\/1463973574952337413\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealWillyBot\/status\/1463974124892663819\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>] Fortunately, 1\u00a0billion tethers were printed and sent to Celsius on Friday 26 November \u2014 presumably out of thin air as an unbacked loan, as previous tether issuances to Celsius have been.<\/p>\n<p>Celsius is now offering interest rates of an eye-popping 17%. Where\u2019s the money coming from? Let none say the P-word. [<i>Celsius, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.md\/lteGr\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i> of 26 November<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Mashinsky also appears to be an active trader on Bitfinex from the US \u2014 unless he just likes looking at the front page of the site. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitfinexed\/status\/1464324893105958916\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>In broader writing on the field \u2014 though also lots on Celsius specifically \u2014 I\u2019m shocked to hear that the Ponzi-like interest rates offered by crypto lenders might not work out well! The reasoning is that financial assets are intangibles, and futures on financial assets going into contango (future value greater than present value) absolutely does not make sense without a massive unstated risk factor \u2014 <i>e.g.<\/i>, that crypto is a quilt of red flags, and many of these schemes are going to be scams. &#8220;The trick in the game is to make losers feel like they are winners, and one of the means of getting them into the trade is by paying them a yield to take on risks they don\u2019t understand.&#8221; Title contains salty language. [<i>EZFKA, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20211119233700\/https:\/\/www.ezfka.com\/2021\/11\/20\/crypto-lending-and-why-you-should-stay-the-fuck-away-from-it\/\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWow I\u2019m not allowed to launder money, absurd\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lS3FDRjiKX\">pic.twitter.com\/lS3FDRjiKX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Crypto Bros Taking Ls (@CoinersTakingLs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CoinersTakingLs\/status\/1460652207779368961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 16, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Wildcat banking, but on the blockchain<\/h3>\n<p>Senator Sherrod Brown and the Senate Banking Committee just have a few questions for Tether and the other stablecoin issuers. For Senator Brown\u2019s opinions on stablecoins, <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/libra\/\"><i>Libra Shrugged<\/i><\/a> chapters 10 and 14 may be useful reading. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.banking.senate.gov\/newsroom\/majority\/brown-presses-stablecoin-companies-on-risks\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.banking.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/letter_to_tether.pdf\"><i>letter<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The World Economic Forum has released \u201cWhat is the Value Proposition of Stablecoins for Financial Inclusion?\u201d Ashley Lannquist of WEF tweets: \u201dWe find no compelling added value from the use of stablecoins for financial inclusion.\u201d Stablecoins present the same barriers as existing options, and sometimes higher ones \u2014 <i>e.g.<\/i>, requiring a phone. DeFi does nothing useful. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www3.weforum.org\/docs\/WEF_Value_Proposition_of_Stablecoins_for_Financial_Inclusion_2021.pdf\"><i>WEF<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AshleyLannquist\/status\/1462157636095283202\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>WEF has also released \u201cBlockchain-Based Digital Currency and Tools for Cross-Border Aid Disbursement,\u201d which details blockchain\u2019s uselessness in this scenario also. The paper includes a dig at Facebook\u2019s Diem proposal for solving zero of the practical problems in the space, and at the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/11\/26\/the-world-food-programmes-much-publicised-blockchain-has-one-participant-i-e-its-a-database\/\">World Food Programme\u2019s single-user Ethereum initiative<\/a> for still having talked zero other organisations into joining their blockchain project after four years. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www3.weforum.org\/docs\/WEF_Digital_Currency_for_Cross_Border_Aid_Disbursement_2021.pdf\"><i>WEF<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Reflections on Stablecoins and Payments Innovations: speech by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller. He likes the idea of payment stablecoins \u2014 a category that doesn\u2019t exist as yet, but might if anyone else tries doing a <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/libra\/\">Libra<\/a> \u2014 and he\u2019s not convinced that stablecoin issuers should be required to be banks. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/newsevents\/speech\/waller20211117a.htm\"><i>Federal Reserve<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How To Propose To Her On The Blockchain And Get Her To Divorce You In The Same Block Confirmation<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ReductRs (@reduct_rs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/reduct_rs\/status\/1460840633191452672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Central banking, not on the blockchain<\/h3>\n<p>The Reserve Bank of Australia is not convinced by crypto hype. &#8220;I must say that I find these statistics somewhat implausible. I cannot help thinking that the online surveys they are based on might be unrepresentative of the population.&#8221; An Australian CBDC is unlikely soon \u2014 there\u2019s no use case \u2014 though the RBA continues to keep an eye on the area. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rba.gov.au\/speeches\/2021\/sp-so-2021-11-18.html\"><i>RBA<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Fabio Panetta from the ECB argues the case for a CBDC euro. Mostly: just in case. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/5e588cea-c218-4867-aeb7-e16e198ccd9a\"><i>Financial Times<\/i><\/a>] Panetta elaborates in a speech. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecb.europa.eu\/press\/key\/date\/2021\/html\/ecb.sp211118~b36013b7c5.en.html\"><i>ECB<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Bank of Jamaica\u2019s CBDC trial continues, and they\u2019re aiming for a national rollout in the first quarter of 2022. [<a href=\"https:\/\/jis.gov.jm\/boj-closer-to-rollout-of-digital-currency\/\"><i>JIS<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>An IMF writeup on Nigeria\u2019s new eNaira CBDC. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/en\/News\/Articles\/2021\/11\/15\/na111621-five-observations-on-nigerias-central-bank-digital-currency\"><i>IMF<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Tanzania is FOMOing over the eNaira (Bloomberg now just uses &#8220;FOMO&#8221; in headlines as understood financial jargon, apparently) \u2014 \u201cTo ensure that our country is not left behind the adoption of central bank digital currencies, the Bank of Tanzania has already begun preparations to have its own CBDC.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/fomo-drives-tanzanian-central-bank-to-plan-own-digital-currency-1.1687479\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">wreck late shorts<br \/>wreck late longs<br \/>destroy early shorts <br \/>obliterate early longs<br \/>oh a clean breakout<br \/>nuke the entire market<br \/>pump the market<br \/>oh you made money?<br \/>you lost it now<br \/>no you actually made it<br \/>ok now pay taxes<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Cryptofungus (@crypt0fungus) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/crypt0fungus\/status\/1464398176350351365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 27, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Monkey laundering<\/h3>\n<p>NFTs are <i>full<\/i> of fabulous possibilities \u2014 where \u201cpossibilities\u201d is a word meaning &#8220;things they don&#8217;t do.&#8221; The actual real-world NFT market we have is reprehensible nonsense all the way down, and putting forward hypotheticals and research projects doesn\u2019t make that go away.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate NFTs are the purest manifestation of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/04\/11\/desperate-investors-neoliberalism-and-keynes-how-to-increase-returns\/\">capitalism&#8217;s present crisis.<\/a> Financial-engineer some insane assets, pray for magical returns. Disappear having been \u201chacked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you have the skills to make money in an utterly unregulated market full of wash-trading sharks funded by venture capitalists, then you are equipped to get into NFTs.<\/p>\n<p>The secondary market doesn&#8217;t really exist, and the apparent secondary market is wash trading to pump the prices or do a tax fiddle.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Olson (Foldable Human) has done an interview on NFTs that repeats the obvious and sensible opinions on the area, once more for the ordinary people who haven\u2019t heard it yet. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/markets\/cryptocurrency\/21\/11\/24062124\/exclusive-dan-olson-on-the-downside-of-the-nft-hype-machine\"><i>Benzinga<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Has anyone, apart from everyone, said Non-Fungible Tolkien yet? [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/22799580\/jrr-token-tolkien-estate-cryptocurrency-coin-nft-trademark\"><i>Verge<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>This is a must-read 147-part Twitter thread on NFTs. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/delta____wither\/status\/1463576449118523392\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">at some point, if you get enough visibility in whatever way, you will be given the opportunity to hurt people you cannot see in exchange for money, status, or power. the NFT fad makes this very stark but it has always been true. you MUST decline this opportunity<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Natalie Weizenbaum (@nex3) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nex3\/status\/1464005189220794371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Don&#8217;t take me down to Bitcoin City<\/h3>\n<p>El Faro is a newspaper in El Salvador that\u2019s a massive pain in Bukele\u2019s backside. Apple has warned fourteen El Faro staff that \u201cstate-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone because of who you are and what you do.\u201d Apple recently sued state-sponsored malware company NSO, whose software has been used by governments to tap dissidents\u2019 and journalists\u2019 phones. I wonder who would tap El Faro journalists&#8217; phones. [<a href=\"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202111\/el_salvador\/25862\/Apple-Warns-Journalists-of-State-Surveillance-in-El-Salvador.htm\"><i>El Faro<\/i><\/a><i>, in English; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/es\/202111\/el_salvador\/25861\/Apple-env%C3%ADa-alerta-de-espionaje-patrocinado-por-el-Estado-a-12-miembros-de-El-Faro.htm\"><i>El Faro<\/i><\/a><i>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The IMF predictably tells El Salvador that bitcoin is dumb and bad as a currency \u2014 for all the obvious reasons, but mostly its volatility. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/en\/News\/Articles\/2021\/11\/22\/mcs-el-salvador-staff-concluding-statement-of-the-2021-article-iv-mission\"><i>IMF<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/21\/el-salvador-a-1-billion-bitcoin-bond-to-set-up-bitcoin-city\/\">Bitcoin Bonds<\/a> idea crashed El Salvador\u2019s usual bonds to 63.4 cents on the dollar. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-11-22\/bitcoin-bond-on-horizon-sends-el-salvador-s-dollar-debt-diving\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>According to the central bank, $33.2 million in remittances have been sent to El Salvador from the US via Chivo. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.laprensagrafica.com\/economia\/32.2-millones-se-reciben-con-la-Chivo-Wallet-20211119-0101.html\"><i>La Prensa Grafica<\/i><\/a><i>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Market bubble explained: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mdNVExyrud\">pic.twitter.com\/mdNVExyrud<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mr. Whale \ud83c\udf84 (@CryptoWhale) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CryptoWhale\/status\/1462159328048295936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 20, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Things happen<\/h3>\n<p>Himalaya Coin (H-Coin) is a Chinese ICO promoted by former dollar-store Rasputin Steve Bannon and exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/09\/21\/news-bitcoin-miners-cant-sell-their-bitcoins-sushiswap-theft-coinbase-lend-crypto-seasteading\/\">fined a billion dollars by the SEC and the New York Attorney General in September.<\/a> Himalaya Coin zoomed to an alleged $27 billion market cap in two weeks \u2014 trading only on a single exchange, Himalaya Exchange \u2014 and is also planning a stablecoin, the Himalaya Dollar. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-11-12\/a-27-billion-token-loved-by-exiled-billionaire-and-steve-bannon\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/himalaya.exchange\/images\/hweb\/hdo_whitepaper_eng.pdfhttps:\/\/himalaya.exchange\/images\/hweb\/hdo_whitepaper_eng.pdf\"><i>Himalaya Exchange<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Bannon was arrested on Monday 15 November on charges of contempt of Congress, relating to the 6 January attempted coup. Bannon\u2019s been released on his own recognisance, but had to surrender his passport; how this affects his Himalaya Coin promotion is not yet clear. [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/steve-bannon-donald-trump-mark-meadows-congress-subpoenas-5bd5638acb5d93bd8478f57f2b177ded\"><i>AP<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Norway\u2019s energy minister Bj\u00f8rn Arild Gram calls crypto mining difficult to justify \u2014 even with renewables \u2014 and is looking at the Swedish proposal to ban crypto mining. He supports an EU-wide ban on crypto mining. (Norway isn\u2019t in the EU, but has to harmonise with it to a considerable extent \u2014 I don\u2019t think he\u2019s trying to grab all the crypto mining for Norway.) [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/next\/2021\/11\/17\/norway-could-back-european-bitcoin-mining-ban-as-minister-calls-energy-use-difficult-to-ju\"><i>Euronews<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>A preprint on crypto wash trading, from Lin William Cong, Xi Li, Ke Tang and Yang Yang \u2014 &#8220;fake transactions on 29 cryptocurrency exchanges: abnormal first-significant-digit distributions, size rounding, and transaction tail distributions&#8221;; wash trading is &#8220;70% of the reported volume.&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2108.10984\"><i>arXiv<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The US Department of Justice has recovered $56 million in crypto from 2017 Ponzi scheme BitConnect. They\u2019re selling it to compensate BitConnect\u2019s victims. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/56-million-seized-cryptocurrency-being-sold-first-step-compensate-victims-bitconnect-fraud\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Mt Gox bankruptcy plan is confirmed: creditors will be paid out in bitcoins. A whole buttload of BTC is about to get dumped onto the market as soon as people get their bitcoins [<a href=\"https:\/\/mtgox.com\/img\/pdf\/20211116_announcement_en.pdf\"><i>Mt. Gox<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LV5N9yAtUU?amp=1\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Patrick McKenzie has written a great blog post about the rise of bank-to-bank transfers as a payment channel. It\u2019s not about cryptos, but it\u2019s highly relevant to our interests. This post is from Patrick\u2019s newsletter, Bits About Money, that you can and should subscribe to. [<a href=\"https:\/\/bam.kalzumeus.com\/archive\/bank-transfers-as-a-payment-method\/\"><i>Kalzumeus<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a two-part interview with me in Davar by Erez Raviv, translated into Hebrew. [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davar1.co.il\/345487\/\">Davar<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davar1.co.il\/345489\/\">Davar<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just got my pair of signed copies of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a> &#39;s Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and Libra Shrugged. Loved the sample passages, can&#39;t wait to read them front to back. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PalmMv2NYQ\">pic.twitter.com\/PalmMv2NYQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; drox, Mission Impossible 74: Tungsten Protocol (@droxpopuli) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/droxpopuli\/status\/1460298336800542723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">True, but not for the reasons they think. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QgN7lLClpU\">pic.twitter.com\/QgN7lLClpU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; @pndc (@pndc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pndc\/status\/1462133117515448324?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 20, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><small><i>pump and dump<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The trick in the game is to make losers feel like they are winners, and one of the means of getting them into the trade is by paying them a yield to take on risks they don\u2019t understand.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2493,2566,138,2575,2574,916,2366,2567,2570,1457,2389,2305,2532,2568,1515,2459,2572,902,2398,2571,6,2563,88,2020,2531,2007,407,1715,2498,1449,2573,2569,745,2565,2564],"class_list":["post-21212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-alex-mashinsky","tag-ashley-lannquist","tag-australia","tag-bitcoinnect","tag-bjorn-arild-gram","tag-celsius","tag-chivo","tag-christopher-j-waller","tag-dan-olson","tag-ecb","tag-el-faro","tag-el-salvador","tag-enaira","tag-fabio-panetta","tag-federal-reserve","tag-guo-wengui","tag-himalaya","tag-imf","tag-jamaica","tag-jrr-token","tag-links","tag-moshe-hogeg","tag-mt-gox","tag-nft","tag-nigeria","tag-norway","tag-patrick-mckenzie","tag-rba","tag-sherrod-brown","tag-stablecoin","tag-steve-bannon","tag-tanzania","tag-united-states","tag-wef","tag-yaron-shalem"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/unvaxxed-sperm.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21212"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21259,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21212\/revisions\/21259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}