March cuts

😒 when you're watching a heist or gangster movie and thinking how dumb it is because they could just use Bitcoin and/or encryption

CBDCs will enable the USA (and others) to default on their sovereign debt without collapsing the USD. I think that's the real reason it's being pushed so hard. As long as people have CBDC accounts then the impact of bank runs are minimised, hyperinflation has a backstop, and the economy can be stimulated with newfound granularity. It just requires complete control over the masses who might otherwise circumvent the CBDC-based policy interventions. And along the way abuses of that control for the sake of whatever other ideology or political need has power. In reality it's probably not going to work so well to protect against the sovereign debt default, but the power abuses and arbitrary control will remain.

I wonder how much transcribed conversation data companies like Amazon and Google have from their household listening devices (Echo etc.). The scale and context of that type of data would be a scary levelling up for LLMs.

we're so early

this is both a fascinating and critical read about Binance, but also annoying how much moral certitude the author has about US financial policy

Bits about Money

The Bond villain compliance strategy

Jurisdictional gamesmanship is a common strategy for crypto businesses. Here is how it worked out for Binance and its CEO. Spoiler: poorly.

no greater frustration than people agreeing with you, but for the wrong reasons 😅

The surveillance state strikes again. Am being forced to install a "smart" meter by my energy company. It will send my energy use to them every 30 minutes. There doesn't seem to be any way to refuse as they're claiming my perfectly good current meter is no longer "certified", and only smart meters are available to replace it. The UK government is fining these companies if they don't get enough customers to switch. Will allow them to penalise me for wanting to make a cup of tea when it isn't windy enough. Yet another problem created to solve a problem created by government.

The company I work at just unveiled it's master strategy for 2024: we want to grow revenue and retain customers 🤯 Man I have to try so hard to not let my cynicism come through too obviously 😅

Wow, incontrovertible evidence that the Federal Reserve would buy defaulted US treasuries at their non-default price in order to preserve liquidity. Cc @Lyn Alden

Notes on the Crises

I Got the Fed to Release its 2011 “Treasury Default” Playbook. Here’s What it Says and Why it Matters.

Subscribe Readers may recall that I wrote a Politico Op Ed at a critical moment in the debt ceiling showdown. That piece, was entitled “Biden Ca...

Was at the London transport museum and there was an exhibit on all the private "turnpike" (toll) roads in London 200 years ago - basically all the best roads. So ... I guess we already know who will build the roads.

So if the USD isn't redeemable for anything by other countries, but the main leverage the US has is military protection ... ... then it must be in the US interest for there to be more wars and a need for the US military. No one's going to abandon the Dollar at the same time as needing Uncle Sam to protect them from Iran/China/Russia/NK.

Just realized Phoenix Wallet doesn't rotate the swap-in address. Was about to send some coinjoined utxos - luckily I noticed :/ ACINQ's explanation about this not adding much privacy since a rotated address would still be linked to the channel makes a lot of sense though. Seems like this will be improved once they move to taproot addresses.

Just got asked to share my location on a Mac, and have now learned that it uses relative wifi signal strength to know where I am. Man it's hard to get rid of all this surveillance tech!

I know it's a workaround, but Bitrefill is actually amazing. Great way to spend sats almost anywhere you want. At some point (some of) the vendors will realize how much gift card volume is coming from Bitcoiners, and try provide it as a payment option directly. Using Bitrefill is still a strong message, and better than selling at an exchange to pay in fiat via a bank card.

So does everyone on the "right" agree that we actually need censorship now because some morons shouted "jihad"?

Something tells me that the BBC is trying to discredit Milei. Very subtle 😂

Great example of where free speech advocates need to speak up. Detestable to be glorifying violence against innocent people. But to then threaten to "hunt" these protestors is the root of why we have these conflicts to begin with: governments abusing their power to punish those they don't like.

Hunt for the pro-Hamas protesters: Suella Braverman warns 'the police are coming' as she vows crackdown on anyone 'mocking murder of Jews' - as cops hunt women wearing images of paragliding terrorists and activist taunts Israel supporters about Holocaust | Daily Mail Online

Police yesterday released a clearer picture of one of two women they are tracing over Hamas supporting pictures of paragliders taped to the back of...

Apparently we're trying to cancel Orwell now. "Wow, this is some dystopian Orwellian shit" "Orwell was a misogynist though, I can't believe you take that stuff seriously" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/15/george-orwell-anna-funder-biography-of-eileen-o-shaugnessy/