{"id":23465,"date":"2022-07-25T18:22:52","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T18:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=23465"},"modified":"2023-02-11T22:37:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T22:37:45","slug":"news-whats-the-tory-crypto-story-us-stablecoin-bill-facebooks-libra-even-deader-the-ignominious-death-of-singulardtv-and-breaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/07\/25\/news-whats-the-tory-crypto-story-us-stablecoin-bill-facebooks-libra-even-deader-the-ignominious-death-of-singulardtv-and-breaker\/","title":{"rendered":"News: what&#8217;s the Tory crypto story, US stablecoin bill, Facebook&#8217;s Libra even deader, the ignominious death of SingularDTV and Breaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>There\u2019s news other than the CeFi meltdown, and it\u2019s time to start working through the pile &#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t forget the Patreon \u2014 your $5 or $20 a month really does help. Don&#8217;t forget to message and ask for your \u201cBitcoin: It Can\u2019t Be That Stupid\u201d stickers! [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\"><i>Patreon<\/i><\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>Sign up to get these newsletters, and all other blog posts, by email the moment they go up. [<a href=\"#byemail\"><i>scroll down, or click here<\/i><\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22420\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/1649\/54\/boris-apes-nft.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/1649\/54\/boris-apes-nft.png 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/1649\/54\/boris-apes-nft-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/1649\/54\/boris-apes-nft-348x215.png 348w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><small><i>Original art by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ic.unicamp.br\/~stolfi\/temp\/royal-mint-nft.png\">Jorge Stolfi,<\/a> do not right-click.<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>This nation\u2019s saving grace<\/h3>\n<p>Crypto has crashed, it\u2019s dumb as hell, and Rishi Sunak still wants the UK Treasury to go full steam ahead for the sunlit uplands of Brexit Britain with the Royal Mint NFT! [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2022\/07\/17\/treasury-remains-committed-nft-despite-crypto-crash\/\"><i>Telegraph<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Sunak also pushed for stablecoins for payments in the UK, against the Bank of England\u2019s advice. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2022\/07\/05\/rishi-sunak-splits-bank-england-pave-way-crypto-payments\/\"><i>Telegraph<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Sunak quit as Chancellor earlier in July, when the Conservative Party finally accepted that Boris Johnson was a liability. Industry group CryptoUK thought this put their strategy for getting the UK government getting into crypto \u201cback to square one\u201d. But Sunak is currently in the running to be the next Prime Minister, so we should be so lucky. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-07-06\/uk-s-crypto-strategy-back-to-square-one-as-sunak-glen-quit#xj4y7vzkg\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the Tory crypto story?* The UK Conservatives suddenly went <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/04\/05\/news-royal-mint-nft-europe-requires-crypto-transaction-traceability-vcs-drop-the-eth\/\">all-in on crypto a couple of months ago<\/a> \u2014 and by <em>sheer coincidence,<\/em> there was a \u00a3500,000 donation to the party on 9 February from Christopher Harborne, keen Brexiter and a Bitfinex shareholder. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fnlondon.com\/articles\/crypto-lobbyist-donated-500k-to-conservatives-before-uks-crypto-hub-move-20220617\"><i>Financial News<\/i><\/a><i>, paywalled; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Buttcoin\/comments\/vgfkz4\/why_the_uk_conservatives_are_suddenly_all_in_on\/\"><i>Reddit<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/protos.com\/bitfinex-tether-digfinex-shareholder-harborne-brexit-bankroller\/\"><i>Protos<\/i><\/a><i>, 2021<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The 1997 book <i>The Sovereign Individual<\/i> (<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3PwcRrb\">UK<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3J49nKf\">US<\/a>) by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg \u2014 yes, the father of arch Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg MP \u2014 purports to be a handbook on how to profit from social collapse. The architects of Brexit read this book and took it in wholeheartedly. Pete Howson explains the Rees-Mogg connection to the Tories and crypto. [<a href=\"https:\/\/novaramedia.com\/2022\/06\/07\/why-do-tories-love-crypto\/\"><i>Novara Media<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Coiners haven\u2019t read <i>The Sovereign Individual<\/i>, but they have a remixed version in Balaji Srinivasan\u2019s book <i>The Network State: How To Start a New Country<\/i> (<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3opr1yD\">US<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3opzZvF\">UK<\/a>) \u2014 about how to profit from social collapse but with blockchains in.<\/p>\n<p>My summary of Balaji\u2019s book, which I absolutely did not pay for: \u201cwhat if seasteading, but it\u2019s a DAO. And we\u2019re all dArK EnLiGhTeNmEnT oo-WEE-oo!!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/08\/08\/balaji-srinivasans-plan-to-save-journalism\/\">I asked that Balaji set out his great plan,<\/a> and I guess he has. \u201cA political party is closer. A very tight-knit NFT community or influencer\/CEO following is even closer.\u201d You\u2019ll find it wherever bad books are pirated.<\/p>\n<p><small>* <i>phrase nicked from Jemima Kelly&#8217;s 2018 series on the topic in FT Alphaville <\/i>[<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/37b8c103-b044-435e-98cd-58a87d37041e\">FT<\/a>, paywalled<\/em>]<\/small><\/p>\n<h3>Coach and horses<\/h3>\n<p>Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) of the House Financial Services Committee are working on a bill to regulate stablecoins, which would make the Federal Reserve the regulator. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-07-20\/stablecoins-face-scrutiny-as-lawmakers-aim-to-advance-plan\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/house-lawmakers-near-bipartisan-deal-to-address-stablecoin-risks-11658333781\"><i>WSJ<\/i><\/a><i>, paywalled<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The current draft requires issuers to maintain 100% reserves of a restricted range of assets \u2014 not necessarily dollars in a bank account \u2014 and bars issuers from lending stablecoins.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d have thought that if Waters and McHenry agreed on the bill, it\u2019d be at least okay \u2014 they went in hard on Facebook\u2019s Libra plan in 2019 (<a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/libra\/\"><i>Libra Shrugged<\/i><\/a>, chapters 10 and 13) and certainly showed a good grasp of the issues then.<\/p>\n<p>The plan was to put this bill to the House this week. But even though the text hasn&#8217;t been publicly released, I&#8217;m told that a pile of people that were consulted were super-annoyed at the bill \u2014 and it&#8217;s now being considered further, and might eventuate in September.<\/p>\n<h3>They\u2019re made out of Meta<\/h3>\n<p>Nobody cares, but Facebook Pay was renamed Meta Pay in June. If it had users, they\u2019d call it Meat Pay. Meat CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about a fabulous far-off future for Meat Pay that remains entirely unimplemented in the present. [<a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/06\/23\/facebook-pay-rebrands-meta-pay-digital-wallet-metaverse\/?tpcc=tcplustwitter\"><i>TechCrunch<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Nobody cares about this either, but Meat has finally shut down the Novi Wallet, originally the Calibra wallet for Facebook&#8217;s Libra cryptocurrency. Novi was in slight use for a pilot scheme to <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/02\/facebooks-novi-hooks-up-in-guatemala-with-paxos-not-diem-just-in-time-for-the-stablecoin-report\/\">send remittances from the US to Guatemala,<\/a> which they claimed used Pax Dollars (USDP) as the currency \u2014 though in practice, the USDP stayed in Novi\u2019s account at Coinbase, and users exchanged numbers in Novi\u2019s database. Those users could no longer add money to their accounts after 21 July; the service will be shut down on 1 September. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-07-01\/meta-to-shut-down-novi-service-in-september-in-crypto-winter\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Meat\u2019s comment on Novi\u2019s failure in the actually-existing present was an appeal to the fabulous hypothetical future:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We are already leveraging the years spent on building capabilities for Meta overall on blockchain and introducing new products, such as digital collectibles You can expect to see more from us in the web3 space because we are very optimistic about the value these technologies can bring to people and businesses in the metaverse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Silvergate Bank <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/01\/26\/facebooks-libra-is-still-dead-diem-to-be-sold-off-for-spare-parts\/\">bought the Diem Association\u2019s assets in January 2022.<\/a> Silvergate says they\u2019ll be releasing a small pilot of their US dollar retail stablecoin later in 2022, according to their earnings calls for Q1 and Q2 2022. [<a href=\"https:\/\/s23.q4cdn.com\/615058218\/files\/doc_financials\/2022\/q1\/SI-Conference-Call-Transcript-4-19-22-FINAL.pdf\"><i>Silvergate<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/s23.q4cdn.com\/615058218\/files\/doc_financials\/2022\/q2\/SI-Conference-Call-Transcript-7-19-22-FINAL.pdf\"><i>Silvergate<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The Diem code repository on GitHub still gets updates \u2014 there have been a total of six code commits since September 2021. Aptos Labs, a bunch of ex-Meat coders, just raised $150 million in an FTX-led funding round to build the Diem blockchain \u2014 they might even double that number! Aptos is a\u00a0<em>different<\/em> group of ex-Meat developers to the a16z-backed <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/02\/07\/news-world-wildlife-nft-diem-sale-details-eccb-dcash-offline\/\">Mysten,<\/a> which is doing the same thing, and is also doing an FTX-led funding round. [<a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/diem\/diem.git\"><i>GitHub<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2022\/02\/24\/ex-meta-coders-raising-200m-to-bring-diem-blockchain-to-life-sources\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2022\/07\/25\/aptos-labs-raises-150m-to-revive-diem-in-ftx-ventures-led-funding-round\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a><em>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2022\/07\/11\/web-3-startup-mysten-labs-aiming-for-2b-valuation-in-latest-funding-report\/\">CoinDesk<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n<h3>The one man with the one vote<\/h3>\n<p>President Vladimir Putin has banned crypto payments in Russia, as of 15 July. Cryptos cannot be used as \u201cmonetary surrogates\u201d to pay for goods and services. Non-ruble currencies are banned in the same way. This is the draft bill backed by Russia&#8217;s Ministry of Finance (MinFin) that was floating around as of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/02\/24\/news-opensea-phishing-attack-bitmex-execs-plead-guilty-2016-dao-hacker-maybe-found-cryptsy-indictment\/\">February this year.<\/a> [<a href=\"https:\/\/cryptobriefing.com\/putin-bans-crypto-payments\/\"><i>CryptoBriefing<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Bank of Russia, despises crypto. Nabiullina is highly regarded by her fellow European central bankers. She tried resigning when Putin invaded Ukraine, but he wouldn&#8217;t let her. MinFin likes the idea of regulated crypto speculation and taxing the heck out of it, but Nabiullina and the Bank of Russia think crypto is <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/01\/28\/news-twitter-hexagons-binance-plays-at-compliance-bitcoin-widow-tour-russia\/\">rat poison squared.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is separate from a ruble CBDC, which seems to be more of a MinFin project than a Bank of Russia project \u2014 though obviously, they&#8217;d both need to be fully on board.<\/p>\n<p>No, Russia won\u2019t replace Swift with the blockchain. Because don\u2019t be daft, honestly. The idea appears to be an <i>ambitious<\/i> plan from the Novosibirsk Institute of Software Systems, a part of state-owned military technology developer Rostec, who have put forward similarly <i>ambitious<\/i> blockchain plans that went nowhere previously. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/85361539-2421-42e1-8194-7846f71b163a\"><i>FT<\/i><\/a><i>, free with login<\/i>]<\/p>\n<h3>Your future, our clutter<\/h3>\n<p>From 2018 to 2019, there was a crypto news site called <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/05\/01\/breaker-mag-is-shutting-down\/\">Breaker.<\/a> It was pretty good for a crypto site!<\/p>\n<p>Breaker\u2019s most important article was when Corin Faife posed as a PR person, and asked other crypto news outlets if they\u2019d take money to cover a project. Nearly half refused! So that\u2019s nice. [<i>Breaker, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181025145836\/https:\/\/breakermag.com\/we-asked-crypto-news-outlets-if-theyd-take-money-to-cover-a-project-more-than-half-said-yes\/\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Breaker\u2019s <i>best<\/i> article was Laurie Penny\u2019s \u201cFour Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto\u2019s Nouveau Riche.\u201d This was the source of the immortal and snowclonable phrase \u201cJohn McAfee has never been convicted of rape and murder, but \u2014 crucially \u2014 not in the same way that you or I have never been convicted of rape or murder.\u201d [<i>Breaker, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181205144647\/https:\/\/breakermag.com\/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche\/\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Breaker shut down in 2019, because its corporate sponsor SingularDTV \u2014 which had also rebranded itself as \u201cBreaker\u201d \u2014 didn\u2019t want to pay for it any more. SingularDTV were going to keep the archive up, but it moved sites occasionally.<\/p>\n<p>SingularDTV was absolutely the dumbest crypto idea, in a highly competitive field of dumb as hell ideas. A bunch of film and TV guys wanted to start a private currency to fund a TV show, about Austrian economics, Ethereum as a national currency, artificial intelligence and the Singularity! Ordinary people would pay for this on pay-per-view, in ETH. Here\u2019s the white paper. [<i>SingularDTV, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160821210302\/https:\/\/singulardtv.com\/resources\/default\/pdf\/SingularDTV%20CODE_Summary%20Overview.pdf\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I first wrote up SingularDTV in 2016 over on Rocknerd \u2014 one of my early attempts to explain this blockchain malarkey to musicians. Their fabulous journey then became the very last section of chapter 12 of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\"><i>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain<\/i><\/a> in 2017. [<a href=\"https:\/\/rocknerd.co.uk\/2016\/08\/19\/singulardtv-a-blockchain-entertainment-studio-using-ethereum-for-drm-on-their-totally-boss-sci-fi-tv-show-about-the-singularity\/\"><i>Rocknerd<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>My last encounter with SingularDTV\/Breaker was a 21 February 2020 panel I did at the Science Museum \u2014 my last gig before the pandemic lockdown. SingularDTV\/Breaker showed their not so great 2018 film &#8220;Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain&#8221;, which promoted several of their failed ICOs. The film was directed by Alex Winter, but I&#8217;m very glad he&#8217;s since come out hard against this blockchain rubbish. [<i>Science Museum, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200102201939\/https:\/\/www.sciencemuseum.org.uk\/see-and-do\/trust-machine-story-blockchain-uk-premiere-qa\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>At some point, the magazine archive stopped working at all. I noticed recently that breakermag.breaker.io was showing a WordPress \u201cError establishing a database connection\u201d message. All the other subsites of breaker.io were showing SSL connection errors \u2014 their website SSL certificates had all expired in November 2021. Their \u201cblockchain solutions\u201d site no longer loads. Their &#8220;productions&#8221; page has a &#8220;coming soon in July 2021.&#8221; Their ICO token SNGLS was delisted by Binance in August 2021. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.binance.com\/en\/support\/announcement\/3b0938634d1a454d926f0b84b0a20578\"><i>Binance<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that everyone was fired from SingularDTV, including the founders. Then the founders allegedly kept $50 million in company ETH, originally from SingularDTV\u2019s 2016 ICO offering. The case settled with them giving the ETH back. [<a href=\"https:\/\/unicourt.com\/case\/pc-db5-singulardtv-gmbh-v-lebeau-et-al-1086542\"><i>Unicourt<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Goodbye and LOL to SingularDTV, and at least Breaker\u2019s in the Internet Archive.<\/p>\n<h3>Our government&#8217;s built on expense accounts<\/h3>\n<p>Nigeria&#8217;s eNaira CBDC isn&#8217;t getting so much adoption. The Punch reports that major retailers don\u2019t accept the eNaira, and cashiers haven\u2019t heard of it and don\u2019t know how to accept it. The large payment providers Jumia and Konga don\u2019t accept the eNaira either. In a poll, 4% of respondents had used the eNaira \u2014 and 64% had never heard of it. [<a href=\"https:\/\/punchng.com\/how-digital-divide-threatens-enairas-mass-adoption\/\"><i>The Punch<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) have opened an eNaira Hackathon. Translation: nobody is using the eNaira. \u201cThe newly introduced CBDC (eNaira) would be necessary for the future to ensure a competitive digital economy,\u201d for some reason. \u201cInnovators will develop use cases for eNaira in the following target areas: International Remittance, Trans-border payment, Blockchain, Financial Inclusion, Trade (AFCTFA).\u201d So the eNaira is very much a CBDC in the blockchain sense \u2014 a fabulous future, and no present use case. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cenbank\/status\/1541841781230387201\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/affcbnhack.com\/about-us\/\"><i>AFF X CBN Hackathon<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>CBN has added USSN codes to the eNaira, so users can do eNaira transactions via SMS messages on non-smartphones. [<a href=\"https:\/\/nairametrics.com\/2022\/06\/11\/cbn-to-introduce-ussd-code-to-boost-enaira\/\"><i>Nairametrics<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>A future Bank of England CBDC will just be an account with the central bank. \u201cI think it\u2019s very unlikely that any of us would issue a retail CBDC as a bearer instrument,\u201d said Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe. The CBDC pounds might be issued by the commercial banks and backed by Bank of England pounds! The Bank\u2019s aim is to come up with something that helps consumers \u2014 though they didn\u2019t detail precisely what consumer needs aren\u2019t being met by the cards that are presently issued by the commercial banks. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-07-06\/bank-of-england-says-digital-pounds-unlikely-to-work-like-cash\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>A writeup of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/08\/libra-shrugged-chapter-15-central-bank-digital-currencies\/\">Uruguay\u2019s 2017 CBDC trial:<\/a> \u201cSeven lessons from the e-Peso pilot plan: The possibility of a Central Bank Digital Currency\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2666143822000175\"><i>Elsevier<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would anyone use a central bank digital currency?\u201d asks the Centre for European Reform, setting out the obvious issue \u2014 CBDCs don\u2019t seem to make much difference to consumers in a world with good commercial bank digital money. The writer suggests setting merchant fees lower \u2014 though there\u2019s plenty of headroom for the existing payment providers not to gouge as badly as they presently do. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cer.eu\/insights\/why-would-anyone-use-central-bank-digital-currency\"><i>Centre for European Reform<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>New facts emerge<\/h3>\n<p>Sweden chooses to use its cheap electricity for steel rather than crypto mining: \u201cWe need energy for more useful things than Bitcoin, to be honest.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-07-17\/sweden-prefers-steel-over-bitcoin-miners-as-power-gets-scarce\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The stupid world of crypto memoirs \u2014 a fellow sufferer of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/12\/23\/jennifer-robertson-bitcoin-widow-quadriga-i-know-nothing-nothing\/\"><i>Bitcoin Widow<\/i>.<\/a> \u201cThis is a book that, despite its quite brave rendering of harrowing psychic pain, still caused me to generate marginalia like \u2018so is she most gullible person ever or is book truly revolutionary act of playing dumb?\u2019\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/thenewinquiry.com\/champagne-wishes-and-crypto-dreams\/\"><i>The New Inquiry<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>SEC rejects One River\u2019s bitcoin ETF application, for the same reasons it&#8217;s rejected the past several bitcoin ETF applications. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/rules\/sro\/nysearca\/2022\/34-94999.pdf\"><i>SEC<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>You can tell it&#8217;s crypto winter because the revenue from crypto ads has utterly dried up. Oh no! Anyway, [<a href=\"https:\/\/digiday.com\/marketing\/advertising-has-taken-a-hit-the-crypto-crisis-has-created-an-advertising-vacuum\/\"><i>Digiday<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t get a bitcoin ETF. But you can get an ETF for <i>shorting<\/i> bitcoin. ProShares\u2019 BITI is a dollar bet on the inverse of CME Bitcoin Futures. ProShares also offers BITO, the straight ETF of CME Bitcoin Futures. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20220620005101\/en\/\"><i>Press release<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Charles Arthur: \u201cSo I dug into the claim that bitcoin uses less energy than (US? World?) Christmas lights. You won\u2019t be surprised that it\u2019s untrue, but might be surprised how far back I had to go to find the source of the claim.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/charlesarthur.medium.com\/does-bitcoin-use-less-energy-than-christmas-lights-fact-checking-a-dubious-claim-471e08cd555f\"><i>blog post<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Living on video<\/h3>\n<p>Washington Post on the crypto-skeptics letter that I signed, with quotes from me. \u201cThe crypto-skeptics\u2019 voices are getting louder: A growing number of tech and financial experts are issuing warnings about cryptocurrency investments. What will their cries mean?\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2022\/06\/03\/crypto-skeptics-growing\/\"><i>Washington Post<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Decentralized Pictures is a film crowdfunding platform with a completely gratuitous added blockchain and private currency. The Washington Post ran an excessively positive article on this vanity publishing scam with extra steps, with a quote from me. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/07\/14\/film-crypto-decentralized-coppola\/\"><i>Washington Post<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>From June: Ethereum suffers brutal drop in value after investors dump $282 million \u2014 with quotes from my <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/06\/19\/saturday-night-dive-me-on-60-minutes-australia-cbc-griftonomics-scam-economy-coindesk-tv-truthdao\/\">60 Minutes Australia interview.<\/a> This was the dump in May and early June \u2014 when whales were frantically selling off ETH to prop up BTC after <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/05\/10\/terras-stablecoin-does-a-2008-crisis-ust-crashes-and-takes-bitcoin-with-it\/\">UST and luna imploded.<\/a> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/finance\/money\/investing\/ethereum-suffers-brutal-drop-in-value-after-investors-dump-282-million\/news-story\/cad2288c38fdbeb5e4b321085c8ead02\"><i>News.com.au<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Tech Monitor: When will Ethereum \u2018merge\u2019? Ethereum&#8217;s developers say the switch to &#8216;proof of stake&#8217; will happen this year. Nobody knows what happens next. With quotes from me, and also from an Ethereum developer who thinks <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/03\/04\/news-fca-versus-uk-crypto-infura-sanctions-on-ethereum-bitmex-reed-headed-for-trial-india\/\">Infura being the 100% centralised chokepoint for Ethereum transactions<\/a> isn&#8217;t a problem for Ethereum\u2019s claims to be decentralised because, uh, the Ethereum code developers don\u2019t use it? OK. [<a href=\"https:\/\/techmonitor.ai\/technology\/emerging-technology\/when-will-ethereum-merge\"><i>Tech Monitor<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Masculinity and Blockchain with David Gerard \u2014 I did an audio AMA with r\/menslib, a sub that talks about the problem of toxic masculinity in the world. Crypto has a buttload of that, so we had a lot to discuss. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/talk\/10bc38d8-6309-42e6-b369-0f30819b71e6\"><i>Reddit<\/i><\/a><i>, audio<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BYhcDhj5r5\">pic.twitter.com\/BYhcDhj5r5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Spreek (@spreekaway) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/spreekaway\/status\/1532089231874707461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2022<\/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\">At last, a way to make trees cause global warming.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Whelan (@ijwhelan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ijwhelan\/status\/1532522639461191680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2022<\/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\">Game recognizes game. <\/p>\n<p>Look, I&#39;m in talks with this brilliant entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, she has this medical innovation, just needs some money. Massive potential.<\/p>\n<p>If you google her, you get bunch of FUD and hate, but I&#39;ve looked into this, she&#39;s legit.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Henrik (@ha1331) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ha1331\/status\/1532857906051391488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2022<\/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=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\">WOW <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sUTeg1oxmb\">pic.twitter.com\/sUTeg1oxmb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Joey Politano \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@JosephPolitano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JosephPolitano\/status\/1532872307198242816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2022<\/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\">one interesting vibe shift is the rise of &quot;environmentalists&quot;. folks who speak out against fossil fuels even when their day job isn&#39;t at an oil company. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/twmWLyZI1X\">https:\/\/t.co\/twmWLyZI1X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Molly White (@molly0xFFF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/molly0xFFF\/status\/1534193301238206465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2022<\/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=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZF3jA8oxfG\">pic.twitter.com\/ZF3jA8oxfG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/1535013736481558528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 9, 2022<\/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\">Oh look, AI says blockchain is vaporware. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NvoF5Fx4wL\">pic.twitter.com\/NvoF5Fx4wL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Concoda \ud83e\udd77 (@concodanomics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/concodanomics\/status\/1535207630821523456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 10, 2022<\/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\">okay so people are now speculating that my uncle only *appeared* to pull a dime out from behind my ear and didnt actually discover an unlimited supply back there. its possible. but the fact that he was able to do it so convincingly just shows how close we are to finding one <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FWISsEX2hO\">https:\/\/t.co\/FWISsEX2hO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; frank furtschool (@osamabishounen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/osamabishounen\/status\/1536133442290606080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2022<\/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\">Satoshis real genius was finding a way to monetize the Dunning-Kruger effect.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#bitcoin<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/crypto?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#crypto<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/floki?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#floki<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Morten Tor Nielsen (@mortentor) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mortentor\/status\/1481524452085178369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 13, 2022<\/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\">it\u2019s really funny to me that there is a guy out there that thinks now is the perfect time to get into cryptocurrency<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; pudding person (@JUNlPER) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JUNlPER\/status\/1538586557673836547?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2022<\/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\">The billboards in Austin for crypto are going down and being replaced with personal injury lawyers once more.<\/p>\n<p>Nature is healing.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Logan (@A_DavidLogan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/A_DavidLogan\/status\/1538924555871330305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/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>They\u2019re made out of Meta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22420,"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":[3106,3105,3104,1919,1009,2610,152,884,1474,3107,2260,3096,3108,2085,3109,2532,1047,82,444,1529,3097,6,3102,2712,2020,2531,1805,2203,3103,1510,2411,566,2878,137,33,1545,429,1449,1015,3101,3099,457,745,2013,3098],"class_list":["post-23465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-africa-fintech-foundry","tag-alex-winter","tag-aptos","tag-balaji-srinivasan","tag-bank-of-england","tag-bitcoin-widow","tag-book","tag-breaker","tag-cbdc","tag-charles-arthur","tag-christopher-harborne","tag-cryptouk","tag-decentralized-pictures","tag-diem","tag-elvira-nabiullina","tag-enaira","tag-etf","tag-ethereum","tag-facebook","tag-facebook-pay","tag-james-dale-davidson","tag-links","tag-maxine-waters","tag-mysten","tag-nft","tag-nigeria","tag-novi","tag-one-river","tag-patrick-mchenry","tag-podcast","tag-proshares","tag-reddit","tag-rishi-sunak","tag-russia","tag-sec","tag-silvergate-bank","tag-singulardtv","tag-stablecoin","tag-sweden","tag-the-network-state","tag-the-sovereign-individual","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-uruguay","tag-william-rees-mogg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/1649\/54\/boris-apes-nft.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23465","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=23465"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23507,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23465\/revisions\/23507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}