Falling empires, Corporate Fiat and the fate of Bitcoin
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Falling empires, Corporate Fiat and the fate of Bitcoin
By Mariana Trip
Posted April 7, 2020
In his 1978 book “The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival”, the decorated British historian and Luitent general, Sir John Bagot Glubb, found the same attributes ran as thread through the fate of substantial number of past empires. Some of the most noticeable attributes are:
1. They’ve been around for about 10 generations or 250 years
2. They went through the same six stages:
a) The age of outburst (or pioneers).
b) The age of conquests.
c) The age of commerce.
d) The age of affluence.
e) The age of intellect.
f) The age of decadence.
3. The later stages of all empires saw an increase in immigrants knocking on their borders and welfare dependents seeking for better life, both groups are the consequences of the Empire’s conduct throughout its reign
Celebrities, Sex and consumption, lessons taught by history
The final stage before any empire’s collapse, the age of decadence and gluttony, is very interestingly characterized with sexual promiscuity, celebrity centered culture, turning chefs and athletes into wealthy dignitaries (for example, Diocles, a Roman carriage driver whose financial value at the last days of the Roman empire, was equivalent to $ 15 billion today) and an excessive consumption culture among others.
The age of decadence symbols the end of common faith and purpose that moved pioneers to conquer the unknown, while building their communities and social connections, making way to the “me era”, which results in individuals, groups and adversaries ripping through the Empire’s flesh, claiming their part of the crumbling empire.
And congratulations to the American empire on turning 244 years old this July.
Money, money money
Decline of an Empire is commonly accompanied with the decline/devaluation of its currency. Going out of business sales.
We learn from history that this occurred on numerous occasions, most notorious were the roman empire’s corrupt senators and emperors, who at the decline of the Empire minted low quality metal coins mixed with gold or at times, even painted them with gold, spiraling their economics and money supply to hyper-inflation and currency devaluation.
The same procedure has started with the Bretton woods agreement, that basically paved the way to the dominance of the American empire and Dollar as the global currency, through free trade agreements and globalization, overwhelming post WWII financial supremacy and bottomless appetite for consumption.
The 1971 “Nixon’s shock” which detached the $ from the gold standard, turning it to Fiat currency and amplifying the inflation of money creation, was the pinnacle of the said procedure. (or maybe the money printer goes brrrr will be its pinnacle)
The Nixon shock primarily forced on the American government in order to finance the Vietnam war (wars — the mother of all debts and currency devaluations), opened the gates to a flood of debt accumulation by governments and individuals alike
debt economy has major implications on the freedom of nations and individuals and their free will, since debt was historically means to control and enslave both, stripping them of assets and dignity.
The introduction of fractional reserve banking that gave the power of “printing” money to commercial banks whenever they lend the public’s deposits and life earnings, just took this super sonic boom of money creation to the moon (but not to the right moon)
An oversimplistic explanation of how this money production frenzy is affecting all of us: Imagine that the whole financial market is 100$ and you have 1$ than you have 1% of all the money supply.
Than imagine that a multiple interest, malicious and orange octopus of a president, a fragile, obedient federal reserve that join hands with commercial banks, to print without warning additional 900$ to cover their enormous debts and hidden interests.
You now have 0.1% of all money supply….your money is worth less, you can buy much less and no one asks you if you’re down with that shit
The documentary that made me think
I was introduced to Glubb’s work, fractional reserve banking and other enchanting terms like Economical assassins and trickle down economy, corruption of the IMF and central banks, in a documentary I really recommend, “the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse”, an amazingly enlightening movie that tries to provide a different perspective and understanding, on how the world really works, featuring interesting speakers, quite a few of them are Nobel prize winners. Beware of entering the rabbit hole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU&t=47s
The movie ends with thought provoking statement, that the next empire is already upon us and to me personally, it is more frightening than Attila and Genghis Khan rampaging crazy on Cocaine
The Corporate Empire
International corporations are already governing and manipulating significant parts of our stands, thoughts and wants in a scalable manner, generally ignored by the public.
They have created and cultivated their own kind of capitalism to facilitate their goals….surveillance Capitalism[1] empowered by behavioral economics and game theory practices, not just to monitor your behavior, but also to alter it to their needs.
Corporates, unlike people, have no souls (most people anyway), or inherit moral standards. It’s a feature, not a bug
Their bottom-line centered interests and goals, which dictate their conduct, are influencing the fabric of society and its culture from every possible aspect, utilizing the earth’s resources, while changing the climate of our world and its destiny, to promote excessive, mindless and irresponsible consumption culture necessary to feed the beast of constant growth Capitalism
Those corporate interests are promoted by the ruling power through a standardize mechanisms of creative corruption (who said tax havens), lacking transparency and stake holders concern, safe guarded by armies of Lobbyists, lawyers and anyone else who can make a profit.
Add to the mix Trade agreements that are constructed and written right now, under a screen of confidentiality as a part of an ongoing process aimed to give big corporations the power to frolic around unaccountable to the rules of states and interests of the public and you got yourself an award-winning horror movie.
Corporate fiat — the final stage towards world domination
First you control the media, than money and finally the army.
Fiat is a Latin word that basically means, it is so because I fucking said it is so. Fiat money is a government expression, a promise to back its financial obligations and means to collect taxes and encore life enslaving debts, painted on paper notes and upheld by force and guns.
Facebook, Google and their likes, don’t need guns (for the time being), they have their own stealthier and sinister weapons to make first their workers, suppliers, clients and then the rest of us, Fiat our asses off. They already mastered the practice of Propaganda, thought manipulation and the design of wants in their commercial endeavors. Their almost monopolistic power is just the icing on the cake.
Facebook’s Libra is scheduled to launch in 2020, Baidu will be launching its coin and I believe, Amazon, Apple, Alibaba, Google and many more (not necessarily from the tech sector) will follow short after.
The vast commercial, regulatory and financial incentives that come with the ability to create, monitor “money” and especially governance, will be hard to pass by those corporate giants, who get their assets value decreased like the rest of us while the money “printing” machines go brrrrrrr….Rumors are already roaring
If you are skeptical about the chances of corporate fiat to be a real thing, since the FCC and the American senate is flexing its muscles to Libra, just consider that one of the major expenditures of all big tech companies is lobbying. Be it via campaign contributions or downright brute force lobbying, law and regulation are an American commodity sold by crocked merchants in disguise of civil servants.
Amazon alone is employing more than 90 fulltime lobbyist roaming the corridors of D.C, fortifying the power of corporations over states and individuals
The revenge will be served cold
When you put all this headache together with the fact that too many regimes like the Chinese and Russians, Iranian and Venezuelans with their already existing Petro are fed up with the chokehold of the all mighty $, Petro-dollar dominance, sanctions and tariffs, it becomes clear why an alternative settlement and monetary standard is American Empires worst nightmare.
All of them and many other countries are examining blockchain technology and the way it can help their global ambitions. Corporations are doing the same, much more efficiently and with a greater capability to exploit the new era we are facing.
The average life span of a Fiat currency is 27 years and the $ has surpassed this life span by almost double the time.
can it be that we are on the verge of a brave new and refreshing (like dragon’s breath) Fiat era? Corporate Fiat
The countries (Iraq, USSR, Pakistan, most of south America, south Africa and many more) ruined and bashed by the American empire, stripped from their dignity and assets sold to corporate America by Milton Friedman’s Chicago boys, encouraged by the American Empire and enforced by brutal and evil shock therapy, will be glad to kick the corpse of the American Empire in the face, now that it’s on its knees, nearing its demise.
One Bitcoin to rule them all
Deutsche bank has got it!
In their Imagine 2030 report, they have indicated that cryptocurrency is a reasonable and possible solution to the money inflation scheme that is about to explode, viewing it as a viable future by the year 2030
Moreover, Bitcoin fundamentals are perfect as global monetary standard for the digital age and for the support of future innovations
with its final cap of 21M coins (last mined in 2140), deflationary economy supported by the “halving” (which decreases the money supply by half every 4 years), censorship resistance, consensus and pseudo anonymous, transparent ledger are perfect as a trusted and unbiased monetary system, governed by algorithm rather than the weaknesses of human beings as standard for all future cryptocurrencies and beyond.
nations and corporates will enjoy the same attributes along with certainty based financial system and settlement platform that will allow design of independent governance eco-system not apologetic and subordinate to the American Empire
Covid-19, the pin, the bubble, the perfect excuse
The Covid-19 virus which halts the world economy at the moment, seems to be the cause for the upcoming depression and collapse of the American Empire.
It is not!
It is only the prick in the greatest debt bubble in history. The catalysator for the inevitable crash of an evil, corrupt and deliberate system and ideology that widened the gaps between the many and the few to unpresented levels, dried up public sector and promoted a society that celebrates profit over human life and well-being.
Extreme capitalism, Neo-liberalism, consumerism or just plain greed culture, call it what you will, the system based on the few trickling down shit on the many has failed the many and the virus will be used sinisterly just as an excuse for the few to inflict shock[2]Â therapy, eliminate human rights and spread surveillance capitalism and martial law to protect their positions and to bury the truth by despairing the masses, making them pay for the mistakes and malicious conduct of the few.
A glance to the future (existing only in my head)
Bitcoin will be the global monetary standard. Inevitable.
Corporate Fiat is also coming
If sheer lobbying (bribing) and donations contributions (bribing) won’t crumble the FCC’s resistance to corporate Fiat, the fact that most tech and retail giants create their own coin as part of a financial arming race, will do the trick.
Baidu’s and wechat efforts on one hand and Japanese giants like Rakuten into the crypto space will serve as the catalyst for the American congress and FCC to allow American corporations to join the party and present an overwhelming competition to Fiat currencies. A trojan horse of a kind
When one will buy decorated N95 masks on Amazon, that costs 25 Amazonium with Libra the conversion will be in Satoshis and not the manipulated, outdated and the monopolized $
Aftermath
Since humans discovered fire, they used any technology invented, to eventually, kill, enslave and rule over their fellow human beings.
Blockchain platforms have great potential for salvaging the world, making it more just and suitable for all of us, the greedy billionaire as well as the stoner hobo whose only wish is to smoke weed and watch Netflix. It can give legitimacy to any way of life with no financial justification. Especially with the ever-changing future workforce and our robotic competitors
When men stop drooling about the shiny new toy that can make money out of thin air, it will be understood that blockchain platform that has only the ability to transfer money is useless (so many better competitors). The strength and viability of the platform will be measured by the apps built on top of it and consequently the number of entities residing in its eco-system.
Crypto currencies are programmable eco-systems. You can program the financial regime and governance to be communist, social capitalist, or even social libertarian (just kidding, I’m eccentric not crazy), or any other kind of delusional set of rules you want to introduce. Eventually people will use the platform most suitable to their needs and in fact will be probably apart of numerous blockchain platforms.
There are projects today that are working on digital global identity solutions that will allow individuals to cut their connections to their homeland and live their lives as global citizen with a digital identity. The future is coming
Blockchain technology is a path with two potential roads. one can lead us to totalitarian, surveillance society where every move you make, every decision you make and every interaction in your life are monitored, recorded and calculated to determine the sheer “quality” of your citizenship, the other can take to digital freedom as global citizens living in a brave new world
Red pill or blue pill, which one will you choose?
[1]Â Zuboff, Shoshana (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: PublicAffairs.
[2]Â The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein