from 21st Century Wire:
Every time a geopolitical flashpoint emerges, or some emotive ‘terrorism’ event plays out, the western Establishment will not let such a crisis go to waste. Specifically, they will use any opportunity or incident to blame Bitcoin, claiming that the cryptocurrency is somehow responsible for financing acts of terrorism.
That said, due to Bitcoin’s decentralized nature, as well as the relative anonymity built into cryptocurrencies, such transactions cannot really be regulated. In reality, if Bitcoin wasn’t used, some other method or foreign currency would be employed to procure what Washington deems to be ‘illicit’ goods and services.
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But that’s not stopping the hawks…
Armageddon Prose reports…
Did your kid overdose on Chinese fentanyl — again? Bitcoin basically fed it straight into his veins via an intravenous digital needle.
Did it rain today? Bitcoin seeded those clouds.
Alternatively, is there a draught? The governing authorities would also like you to know that Bitcoin drives something called “climate change.”
Feeling depressed? I think you know what to blame – Bitcoin and the goddamned Nazis that use it!
Via Bloomberg:
“As lawyers and prosecutors rake over the ashes of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, another reckoning for digital currencies is underway: Governments around the world are intensifying their crackdown on sources of funding for terrorist groups — including crypto — after Hamas’s bloody attack in Israel that claimed more than 1,400 lives and led to retaliatory attacks that have killed thousands.
Crypto is a small but deadly slice of overall terrorism funding: Research by analytics firm Elliptic in 2021 estimated that wallets linked to Hamas’ military wing had received more than $7.3 million in crypto, including around $40,000 in Dogecoin, the dog-themed memecoin favored by Elon Musk. These sums aren’t much compared with the $100 million that Iran sends annually to Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups or with Qatar’s $360 million in aid for Gaza, or the approximately $300 million Hamas gets via business taxation and extortion estimated by the Washington Institute’s Matthew Levitt. But small amounts can make a difference in an era of low-cost, low-tech attacks. An estimate of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by the New York Times found they cost Al-Qaeda half a million dollars but cost the US $3.3 trillion.
Governments are right to take crypto seriously — it allows for large sums to be moved around the world with a high degree of anonymity (albeit leaving a transaction trail) and is part of the wider tapestry of terrorist finance, often used in conjunction with social media, remittances and pre-paid cards. Funding tends to pick up during times of conflict, and Hamas’ halt on Bitcoin donations, announced in April, might not be forever — Australia’s national financial crime agency this week flagged appeals on Telegram for crypto donations for Hamas, according to an AFR report.”
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