Should we be concerned about cryptocurrencies?

cryp·to
[ krip-toh]
NOUN [PLURAL CRYP·TOS.]
1. a person who secretly supports or adheres to a group, party, or belief.
ADJECTIVE
2. secret or hidden; not publicly admitted: a crypto Nazi.
Source: Dictionary.com

Derivative? of crypt?
crypt
[kript]
NOUN
1. a subterranean chamber or vault, especially one beneath the main floor of a church, used as a burial place, a location for secret meetings, etc.
2. Anatomy. a slender pit or recess; a small glandular cavity.
Source: Dictionary.com

BREAKING DOWN 'Cryptocurrency'¹
The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a host of nefarious activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp

Hmmm ...... Looks like we might be in the midst of another run-up to a BUBBLE bath. Perhaps we need a history refresher? In March of 2011, I wrote a blog post entitled “Vast Fund of Stupidity [& Recycling Cupidity]”?!^[2] It began thus:

In memory of the birth of the South Sea Company^[3] (in 1711 – 300 years ago), Deja Vu Times recycles a few comments/quotes from the “bubble-bath” of 1720. These words from the 1700s are also recycled in memory of the many bubble-baths^[4] since and in expectation of The Great Bath (TGB) to come (sooner than later), if we don’t renounce this Vast Fund (and all its fundamentalists).

[See also: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/04/growth-funds.html]

Are we in a grandiose run-up to The Great Bubble Bath? Investopedia assures us that cryptocurrencies “are difficult to counterfeit” and “theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.” Do the words “difficult” and “theoretically immune” offer sufficient comfort? Isn't the major overwhelming economic problem NOT that governments interfere and manipulate, but that private central banks continually puppeteer governments and economies on a global scale? And who really believes that the secret creators of cryptocurrencies have not engineered backdoors to monitor and control whatever they wish. Are we being bambozzled? Is what they promise the opposite of what is or will be? déjà vu the perpetual schemes of all those who pursue and protect power and gain?!

What do we understand about cryptocurrencies and their connections to AI? Could any of these videos help?

Quinn Michaels:



Crypto Conspiracy and the Road to the AI Singularity (Time 1:05:35) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEWm1OOHLkw See also:
▪ King of BlockChain Peter Thiel #bitcoin #Ripple #Etherium #Aragon #Augur (Time 6:11) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH6BisBx3A0
▪ Kings of Blockchain Peter Thiel and Marc Andreesen #bitcoin #zcoin #earn #coinbase #slack #qadium (Time 14:13) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9CvHLn2xPU&t=436s
▪ Sophia and The United Nations Peter Thiel and Friends - #Jess #Tyler #Louise (Time 19:30 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWqNATYxDo&t=3s
▪ SingularityNet and The Beast a Strange connection (Time 2:02) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyy-1CgBJEs

Other warning voices:
▪ Saudi, Bitcoin & The Sophia Singularity w/Anthony Patch (Time 1:43:51) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZiA9xAIt7A
▪ Blockchain Raising The I.Q. Of A.I. w/Anthony Patch (Time 1:43:50) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCyZ7A9t9g&t=2272s

Plus dozens of other warning voices. So, should we be concerned about cryptocurrencies? Should we have been concerned years ago? You decide.

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptocurrencies ; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp
2. http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vast-fund-of-stupidity-recycling.html
3. South Sea Company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company
4. Bubble-baths: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-1638078/Stock-markets-A-history-of-boom-and-bust.html

Gods ?

St. Paul's Chapel & World Trade Center
Public Domain ~ See footnote 6 for source

If we were accused of believing in the God that George Washington and the first U. S. Congress invoked to bless the United States, following Washington’s April 30, 1789 inauguration,¹ would there be enough evidence to convict us?

Perhaps the best (or worst) evidence (as the case may prove) can be found at the site of that 1789 invocation—at St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church in New York City.² Many have forgotten where that first inaugural-day prayer took place, but in 1789, St. Paul’s Chapel occupied a parcel of New York land that would eventually see the construction of neighboring twin towers—monuments to financial prowess—skyscrapers jutting into the heavens—shrines to power and gain that would tower for nearly three decades above St. Paul’s Chapel—until September 11, 2001.

As Rabbi Jonathan Cahn has observed, the “Ground Zero” of 9-11 is the same ground where the first congress and president prayed after the first inauguration. In Cahn’s déjà vu reflections, he calls this “Ground Zero” site the equivalent of Israel’s Temple Mount—a ground of consecration.³

So, beyond the King Solomon déjà vus observed by Cahn, do we see an additional one?

And [Jesus] found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. (New Testament | John 2:14-17)

What does the juxtaposition of this chapel and the (former) twin towers of the World Trade Center say about us?

Does the miraculous, unscathed survival of St. Paul’s during 9-11 carry a message when one considers how that neighboring, two-headed “temple” devoted to power and gain fell so precipitously?

Does the term “Ground Zero” carry an additional message, if we would but hear?

What does the new “Freedom Tower” say about us and our concept of “freedom”?

Could the official name “One World Trade Center”⁴ be a foreshadowing of intentions by the powers that be(lieve in themselves and their own sufficiency)?

How many witnesses do we need to convince us that Babylon has no permanence?

Is the “One World Trade Center” just one more example of self-con as we pretend to worship The One God while our thoughts and energies are devoted to pursuing the gods of power and gain—those fickle idols of recycling boom-and-bust?⁵

How many witnesses before we return to our foundations—to principled-living and -working?

How many more traumas?

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1. Inauguration of George Washington at Federal Hall, Wall Street, New York City ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Hall ; see also http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr30.html
2. St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church: http://www.911memorial.org/sites/all/files/IV_Pews%20at%20St%20Pauls%20Chapel_Presentation.pdf ; see also http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0209/st_pauls/online_extra.html ; https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/about/stpaulschapel
3. Quotes from Cahn, Jonathan. The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future (Kindle Edition (2011-09-03); Charisma House.

“[St. Paul’s Chapel] stands now much as it did on April 30, 1789, when America’s first government entered through its doors. It was here that the nation’s first president, Senate, and House of Representatives bowed together in prayer to consecrate the new nation’s future into the hands of God. This is the place where the new nation was committed to the Almighty; this is America’s ground of consecration.” (Kindle Locations 3156-3159).

“Had we been there on that day of inauguration, everything over there, everything beyond that point, would have been water. But between here and the water was a field…now known as Ground Zero…a field owned by a church. Ground Zero was originally church land.” (Kindle Locations 3184-3185).

“Thus, it’s not only that America’s ground of consecration is at Ground Zero; America’s ground of consecration is Ground Zero.” (Kindle Locations 3188-3189).

4. (From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center): One World Trade Center (also known as 1 World Trade Center, One WTC and 1 WTC; the current building was dubbed the "Freedom Tower" during initial basework) refers to the main building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere, and the fourth-tallest in the world. The 104-story supertall structure shares a numeric name with the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. The building is bordered by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north,Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.
Construction of below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the new building began on April 27, 2006. On March 30, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the building would be officially known by its legal name of "One World Trade Center", rather than its colloquial name of "Freedom Tower". The building is 104 standard floors high, but the tower has only 94 actual stories.
One World Trade Center became the tallest structure in New York City on April 30, 2012, when it surpassed the height of the Empire State Building. The tower's steel structure was topped out on August 30, 2012. On May 10, 2013, the final component of the skyscraper's spire was installed, making the building, including its spire, reach a total height of 1,776 feet (541 m). Its height in feet is a deliberate reference to the year when theUnited States Declaration of Independence was signed. The building opened on November 3, 2014. The new World Trade Center complex will initially include three other high-rise office buildings, which will be built along Greenwich Street, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located just south of One World Trade Center, where the original Twin Towers stood. The construction of the new building is part of an effort to memorialize and rebuild following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex. [Footnote references not included.]
5. Boom & Bust: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/04/growth-funds.html ; http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vast-fund-of-stupidity-recycling.html ; http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/07/high-frequency-deja-vu.html .
6. St Paul's Chapel and former twin towers, New York City; in public domain at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_St._Paul%27s_Chapel_with_the_Towers_of_the_World_Trade_Center_in_the_Background_-_NARA_-_549918.jpg

Growth Funds

(All indented quotes are found in Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor, © 1999, A Plume Book. You should read this book if you are an investor and/or speculator, or if you are financially related to one.)

Not only was the “vast fund of stupidity”* a growth industry in the 1800’s, its companion fund, cupidity, was not a whit behind. The prior manias¹ were dimly remembered, BUT this new century was unfolding as a unique and exceptional age BECAUSE the Railroad was unlike anything before. This time—THIS TIME—with the Railroad, “it was different.”²

Except of course, when it wasn’t.

Times (24 Oct. 1845): “A mighty bubble of wealth is blown before our eyes as empty, as transient, as contradictory to the laws of solid material, as confuted by every circumstance of actual condition, as any other bubble which man or child ever blew before.” (p. 140)

Journalist (1849): “All rule and order are upset by the general epidemic [of speculation], as in the Plague of London, when all ties of blood, honour, or friendship, were cast away.” (p. 139)

Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman, literary figure, & eventual UK-PM; as quoted in 1849): “[There was] commercial distress of unprecedented severity—private credit was paralysed, trade was more than dull, it was almost dead—and there was scarcely a private individual in this kingdom, ... , who was not smarting under the circumstances of commercial distress …” (p. 143)

Nation (1873): Anyone who stood on Wall Street or in the gallery of the stock Exchange last Thursday, or Friday, and Saturday, and saw the mad terror, we might almost say, brute terror … with which great crowds of men rushed to and fro trying to get rid of their property, almost begging people to take it from them at any price, could hardly avoid feeling that a new plague had been sent among men, that there was an impalpable, invisible force in the air, robbing them of their wits, of which philosophy had not yet dreamt.” (p. 185)

Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (author, 1869) “ … probably no representative body were ever more thoroughly venal, more shamelessly corrupt, or more hopelessly beyond the reach of public opinion, than are certain of those bodies which legislate for republican America in this latter half of the nineteenth century. (p. 177n)

Alexander Dana Noyes (1938 re 1880s): “[There were massive frauds accompanied by] individual wrongdoing, of a kind and on a scale for which even the lax financial morality of those days provided no precedent.” (p. 187)

Letter to the Times (12 Jul 1845): “There is not a single dabbler in scrip who does not steadfastly believe—first, that a crash sooner or later, is inevitable; and secondly, that he himself will escape it. When the luck turns, and the crack play is sauve qui peut, or devil take the hindmost, no one fancies that the last mail train from Panic station will leave him behind. In this, as in other respects, ‘Men deem all men mortal but themselves.’” (p. 136)

Times change, but human nature does not. And so the FUNDS grow.³ And the sinking sense of déjà vu prevails. THUS, woe is the world as bubbles float on with technology-assisted rapidity and with increasingly manic attempts to catch them before they burst!

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* A quote from Cato's Letters, January 1721. See http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2011/03/vast-fund-of-stupidity-recycling.html

1. Reference: The Tulip Mania (1637), John Law’s Mississippi Bubble (1720), the South Sea Bubble (1720), the mining and canal crazes (1790s and beyond), and scores of lesser manias.
2. The four most expensive words in the English language are “this time it’s different.” (Attributed to Sir John Templeton and quoted in Chancellor’s book at page 191.)
3. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble for some of the many latter-day bubbles.

“Vast Fund of Stupidity [& Recycling Cupidity]”?!

(All indented quotes are found in Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor, © 1999, A Plume Book, pp. 59, 67, 67, 69, 76, 77, 92.)

In memory of the birth of the South Sea Company (in 1711 – 300 years ago), Deja Vu Times recycles a few comments/quotes from the “bubble-bath” of 1720. These words from the 1700s are also recycled in memory of the many bubble-baths since and in expectation of The Great Bath (TGB) to come (sooner than later), if we don’t renounce this Vast Fund (and all its fundamentalists).

Cato’s Letters, January 1721: “There must certainly be a vast Fund of Stupidity in Human Nature, else Men would not be caught as they are, a thousand times over, by the same Snare; and while they yet remember their past Misfortunes, go on to court and encourage the Causes to which they are owing, and which will again produce them.”

Anonymous Insider (circa 1720): “’Twas his [John Blunt, leading schemer’s] avow’d Maxim, a thousand time repeated, That the advancing by all means of the price of stock, was the only way to promote the good of the company. [And his second maxim:] the more confusion the better: People must not know what they do, which will make them the more eager to come into our measures: the execution of the Scheme is our business; the Eyes of all Europe are upon us.”

Sir Isaac Newton (who lost £20,000 in South Sea investment): “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people.”

Alexander Pope: “I am really piqued at the stocks, which put a stop at present, to all trade and all friendship, and I fear all honour too.” // “… [give no heed to] this miserable mercenary Period; and turn yourself, in a just Contempt of these Sons of Mammon, to the Contemplation of Books, Gardens, and Marriage.”

Edward Harley (whose brother Robert was a former British Tory minister & co-founder of the South Sea Company in 1711): “… the demon stock jobbing is the genius of this place. This fills all hearts, tongues, and thoughts, and nothing is so like bedlam as the present humour which has seized all parties … and all sects. No one is satisfied with even exorbitant gains, but everyone thirsts for more, and all this is founded upon a machine of paper credit supported only by imagination …”

Jonathan Swift: “I have enquired of some that have come from London, what is the religion there? They tell me it is South Sea stock; what is the policy of England? the answer is the same; what is the trade? South Sea still; and what is the business? nothing but South Sea.”

Adam Anderson (former cashier of the South Sea Company): “… may [1720] serve for a perpetual memento to the legislators and ministers of our own nation, never to leave it in the power of any, hereafter, to hoodwink mankind into so shameful and baneful an imposition on the credulity of the people, thereby diverted from their lawful industry.”

How many more “South Sea” tsunamis and false profits can our irrationality and folly endure?

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See also:
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/panglossary.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-long-till-we-get-it.html
http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2010/02/free-fall.html