Expanding on an observation from his last talk, Andreas asks why we talk so much about the cartels in drugs and oil, but rarely about one of the largest cartels in the world: banking. He analyses recent (unacknowledged) history with the 2008 financial crisis, the corrupt revolving door with regulators, how kleptocracy is destroying democracy, and why Bitcoin matters as an exit when voice is no longer an option.

This talk took place on November 10th 2018 as part of the ‘Internet of Money’ tour at the Edmonds Center for the Arts near Seattle, Washington: https://antonopoulos.com/event/the-internet-of-money-tour-seattle/

RELATED:
Worse Than Useless: Financial Surveillance – https://youtu.be/n4F-h4xuXMk
Money as a System-of-Control – https://youtu.be/FyK4P7ZdOK8
The Stories We Tell About Money – https://youtu.be/ONvg9SbauMg
Measuring Success: Price or Principle – https://youtu.be/mPMsbgWl9p4
Bitcoin’s Origins and the Genesis Blockade – https://youtu.be/cagoyF3WePo
Why Open Blockchains Matter – https://youtu.be/uZPIz3ArQww
Decentralised Globalisation – https://youtu.be/QoiR4aNbTOw
Investing in Education instead of Speculation – https://youtu.be/6uXAbJQoZlE
Security vs. Complexity – https://youtu.be/M82t5wZG3fc
Beyond Price: Bitcoin’s Impact on the Future – https://youtu.be/rvwVbRQ5Ysc
Why I’m against ETFs – https://youtu.be/KSv0J4bfBCc
Regulation and the bank boycott – https://youtu.be/8ypH69Cb1l0
Wallet design and mass adoption – https://youtu.be/WbZX6BDZJHc
Mass adoption and peer-to-peer commerce – https://youtu.be/n9qIAEFS-Qs
Scaling strategies and adoption – https://youtu.be/dML1a_Ek9Kw
Price volatility and store of value – https://youtu.be/wzzZT95ijTo
Why I earn bitcoin instead of buying – https://youtu.be/Ci7TyD8jETY
Job opportunities with cryptocurrencies – https://youtu.be/89_p4pDlQtI
Inspiring cryptocurrency projects – https://youtu.be/WW8norCKUbE
From barter to abstract money – https://youtu.be/KYsppZoHguQ
Crossing the chasm of theoretical vs. real need – https://youtu.be/yIR0OBEAaUE
Remittances and smuggling in Venezuela – https://youtu.be/RRXecXfWARw
How long until mainstream adoption? – https://youtu.be/y3cKBDBabtA
What is the biggest adoption hurdle? – https://youtu.be/jHgyHF3F2TI
Bitcoin as everyday currency – https://youtu.be/xYvvSV4mjH0
How to avoid re-creating systems of control – https://youtu.be/EfoGnDoaBL8
Hyperbitcoinization – https://youtu.be/AB5MU5fXKfo

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and respected figures in bitcoin.

Follow on Twitter: @aantonop https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/

He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

Subscribe to the channel to learn more about Bitcoin & open blockchains; click on the red bell to enable notifications about new videos!

MASTERING BITCOIN, 2nd Edition: https://amzn.to/2xcdsY9

Translations of MASTERING BITCOIN: https://bitcoinbook.info/translations-of-mastering-bitcoin/

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v1: https://amzn.to/2ykmXFs

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v2: https://amzn.to/2IIG5BJ

Translations of THE INTERNET OF MONEY:
Spanish, ‘Internet del Dinero’ (v1) – https://amzn.to/2yoaTTq
French, ‘L’internet de l’argent’ (v1) – https://www.amazon.fr/Linternet-largent-Andreas-M-Antonopoulos/dp/2856083390
Russian, ‘Интернет денег’ (v1) – https://www.olbuss.ru/catalog/ekonomika-i-biznes/korporativnye-finansy-bankovskoe-delo/internet-deneg
Vietnamese, ‘Internet Của Tiền Tệ’ (v1) – https://alphabooks.vn/khi-tien-len-mang

MASTERING ETHEREUM (Q4): https://amzn.to/2xdxmlK

Music: “Unbounded” by Orfan (https://www.facebook.com/Orfan/)
Outro Graphics: Phneep (http://www.phneep.com/)
Outro Art: Rock Barcellos (http://www.rockincomics.com.br/)

source

50 COMMENTS

  1. Almost all the world’s economic and political problems involve the Wall Street cartel of banking/industrial corporations considered “too big to fail” headquartered in the US because this is home to the world’s dominant military force. The US Constitution, therefore becomes the “kingpin” of a global financial empire. “Fictitious persons” with limited liability (i.e. corporations) now own the USA and its government, thus commanding the world’s mightiest military, which is used domestically to prevent the States from seceding, and generally to colonize weaker nations, starting with its host, the USA.

    The People have not yet been informed that we lost our sovereignty to the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913. Since then, instead, the top six media corporations have colluded to perpetuate the mythical American self-image of a constitutional democracy. Throw in the institutionalized lobbying of K street and a Supreme Court that owe their jobs to Wall Street and you have a global corpocracy that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

    The Founders had to fight a bloody Revolutionary War to win our right to incorporate as a nation – the USA. But then, for whatever reason, our Founders granted the greediest businessmen among them unrestricted corporate charters with enough money potential to compete with the constituent states, smaller sovereign nations, and eventually (1913) to buy out the US government itself. The only way the People can regain their sovereignty as a republic now is to reform the process by which we charter corporations.

    We can’t continue granting corporate charters to just any swindler that comes along without demanding a specific social value in return. The divine right of kings can no longer apply to fictitious entities just because they are “too big to fail”. We can't afford to privatize our Treasury to transnational banks anymore. Government must be held responsible only to the People, not “fictitious persons”. And banks, especially, must be held responsible to the government if we are ever to restore economic sanity to the world.

    It was a serious mistake in our Constitution to delegate the granting of corporate charters to the individual states. Who could have guessed such innocent little legal "entities" would grow up to become "fictitious persons" with all the constitutional rights and privileges of a real person (only not as liable nor as mortal). The swamp of corporate financial corruption that followed inevitably flooded the “western” world’s economic system. It is a swamp that can't be drained at this point because the Constitution doesn’t provide a legal "pump". The following 28th amendment is intended to install that "pump" so Congress can drain the corporate swamp of corruption and remediate past damage by revoking the charters of predatory corporations immediately.

    As a matter of political practicality we must now rely on the Article 5 option to do this, for which the electorate will need understanding and overwhelming solidarity to oppose an overwhelming barrage of globalcorpic media propaganda. An Article 5 Constitutional Convention is rapidly becoming our only option.

    Yanis Varoufakis is starting a movement in Europe to reign in their central banks, but with the US dollar’s hegemony over other world currencies, they won’t get enough support from the scattered “colonies” to succeed on their own, and it’s going to take a united global effort with US in the lead, because global corporate media will respond with bitter propaganda campaigns. It’s going to require someone like Yanis Varoufakis, a charismatic speaker, to educate Americans on how monetary systems work. That would be a start, and we must start somewhere.

    28th Amendment:

    Corporations are not persons in any sense of the word and shall be granted only those rights and privileges that Congress deems necessary for the well-being of the People. Congress shall provide legislation defining the terms and conditions of corporate charters according to their purpose; which shall include, but are not limited to:

    1, prohibitions against any corporation;

    a, owning another corporation,

    b, becoming economically indispensable or monopolistic, or

    c, otherwise distorting the general economy;

    2, prohibitions against any form of interference in the affairs of;

    a, government,

    b, education,

    c, news media, or

    d, healthcare, and

    3, provisions for;

    a, the auditing of standardized, current, and transparent account books, and

    b, the establishment of a state and municipal banking system

    c, civil and criminal penalties to be suffered by corporate executives for violation of the terms of a corporate charter.

  2. What's going to happen when our respective countries governments create their own 'decentralized' monetary system and refuse Internet connection to or simply the exchange of certain, other cryptocurrencies?

  3. I think that Donald Trump is going to bring about a forced stock market crash that will permit him to subordinate the Fed to the Treasury Dept. I trust that Donald Trump will force bad guys to make this change Trump wants. Bankers do not trust Trump to force their former thugs to know how they can be taken down. Yes it must fall to liberate humanity. It will. Gold will kill fractional reserve banking. Kennedy was killed when he wanted to do what Trump IS doing. Trump will lead humanity to a gold backed currency. RENEGE on the 22 Trillion dollar debt. JUBILEE Return to GOLD

  4. There is no such thing as "crony capitalism." What you're referring to is simply called cronyism. In order for there to be capitalism there must be a free market (i.e. there must be no government interference). Throughout recorded history there has only been one form of governance, oligarchy. It is impossible for one person/family to rule. Yes, there is a perceived leader (emperor/king/queen/president/minister etc.). However, that figurehead cannot wield all of the power. When they try to they're eventually dealt with by being eliminated or exiled. As far as I know, the banking cartel has been in nearly full control of the established world since {they} established the first central bank, the bank of England. Now, you did not describe a cartel clearly/accurately. A cartel can only exist if there is a third party to ensure that the rules agreed to by the members are followed. In this case that is the government. And the government willingly enforces these rules because it gets kickbacks in that it can pretty much print money whenever it needs it within reason. In return, the central bank cartel makes a ridiculous amount of money through inflation (the most egregious tax of all). {They} pretty much own everything. Government is the ultimate evil; for if we didn't have a goobermint this cartel could not exist.

  5. Andreas is super smart, but he doesn't understand the financial crisis. Few people do. The lending evidence doesn't support his assumptions. If anyone wants to learn more about what actually happened, start with "Shut Out," by Kevin Erdmann. It's not what you think.

  6. Andreas, you sound great and I love your work. I still don't get exactly what your solutions are problems are. You say architecture is the problem, and not people telling Amazon to be better. But being better involves better architecture. Not just Amazon, the government needs to be use a better system, better regulation/deregulation. You can't just disconnect crypto from all the bad forces in the world. They have guns, you pay tax at gun point. I have not actually heard you directly challenge tax. I like Rands idea:

    In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for insurance.

    With regards to bitcoin, I don't see how you can totally subvert government cartels and avoid their straws. I can't black market everything, and I like the idea of dispute resolution, legal rights, police defending my rights.

    In sum, governments can still tax you no matter what currency you use, because they do it at gun point. You can't hide everything, ie your house. They and their cartel friends actually also like to use bitcoin quite a lot. Without better people, you are still stuck with parasites. The tech cannot change the system enough I think.

  7. The middle class will be killed before decentralization happens. No one is giving up his power so the middle class can enjoy freedom and prosperity. Get real. That bullshit just keeps them working their jobs to maintain each's position in the rat race. But, the jobs will be going more and more. When the jobs are gone, the middle class and their "democracy" will be obsolete and they'll be killed off in masses while survivors live amongst the poor. Think about all the foreign civilians the US has killed in the past 2 decades. Do you really think those at the top see you any differently? How are you going to protect your family from an army of programmed drones? Good luck negotiating that!

    Notice how he separates Uber from the cartel, as if all these companies don't share the same top shareholders. Uber is the bank. So is Google. So is every major publicly traded company out there. #theyrule

    Don't get me wrong… decentralization is great. But, you'd be very naive to think you can take power from the aristocrats. You'll be killed, first. They have always been in power and always will be. There has never been a point in recorded human history of the poor overpowering the rich, just like there has never been a case of a farmer being taken over by his livestock. It doesn't work that way.

  8. Agree wholeheartedly on the banks, but if you think the Clintons aren’t fully involved as well as the majority of Democrats and RINOs then your entire speech is hypocritical. Clinton Foundation is nothing but money laundering and bribes to screw America over while enriching the Clintons.

  9. I am not so sure if big banks just watch the whole crypto money, without coming up with their own "legit" crypto created by central banks, that is just the same as before, with the only difference that they don't have to share with visa/master/amex and PayPal.

  10. Imagine how much you've paid banks – 2% of total spend over a lifetime. Not to mention below-inflation saving rates, debt charges and the biggest taxpayer bailout in history

  11. The problem with this is that if crypto currencies start seriously competing against the dollar within the U.S. borders it creates a constitutional issue. If the government sees crypto as a threat it'll be banned and the Secret Service will start racking up arrests like crazy.

  12. It's a trap. Bit coin is intrinsically just as worthless as federal reserve notes. Furthermore I guarantee you there are government agencies with Quantum computing devices at their disposal that have completely cracked it's encryption. It will lead to a Biblical mark of the beast type system where you wear your bank account in your own body. The ultimate biometric security. So while I do inherently like the idea of distributed banking and tearing down monopolies, I am very suspicious of the current technical ability to achieve this.

  13. I think we should all put our big boy pants on and use cash and actually go to stores. Every use of a debit or credit card feeds the bank machine. Bitcoin and saving a few dollars by buying on line is not the answer.

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