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Department Of Defense To Study Bitcoin As A "Terrorist Threat"
Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Two very interesting Bitcoin related articles have emerged over the past week and demonstrate the total irrationality that surrounds the status quo’s understanding of this revolutionary and liberating technology. Let’s start with the Department of Defense story, the headlines of which most of you have probably seen by now.
A division of the U.S. military known as the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO), which studies threats to national security (i.e., the status quo’s grip on power) has listed Bitcoin amongst a number of potential terrorist threats. Of course, as I and many others have noted repeatedly, anything which threatens the prevailing criminal status quo will be merely labeled a “terrorist threat” in order to neutralize it. Just in case you aren’t yet convinced of how insane the folks at CTTSO are, “also on the CTTSO’s list of terrorism research topics were Android, Motorola, social media and virtual reality.” What has happened to this country…
From International Business Times:
After attracting attention from law enforcement, financial regulators and old-school Wall Street investors, bitcoin is now on the U.S. military’s radar as a possible terrorist threat.
Friday was the deadline for submissions to a counterterrorism program seeking vendors to help the military understand state-of-the-art technologies that may pose threats to national security, and “bitcoin” and “virtual currencies” are listed among them.
The program is being conducted by the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, a division of the Department of Defense that identifies and develops counterterrorism abilities and investigates irregular warfare and evolving threats.
An unclassified memo from January unearthed by Bitcoin Magazine detailed solicitations for CTTSO projects. The memo states that one of the mission requirements is for “innovative…solutions to develop and/or enhance new concepts and constructs for understanding the role of virtual currencies” in financing threats against the United States.
A Treasury Department investigation said in March that it found no evidence of “widespread” use of virtual currencies like bitcoin to finance terrorism. Still, it’s clear that nefarious individuals have recognized the potential to use bitcoin for harm.
Ok so they have no proof whatsoever that Bitcoin has anything to do with terrorism, but what the hell let’s just demonize it anyway! I’m just waiting for the witch burning ceremonies to commence on the National Mall.
Also on the CTTSO’s list of terrorism research topics were Android, Motorola, social media and virtual reality.
There you have it. Peer-to-peer technology=terrorism.
Moving along, Bloomberg published an article this morning talking about how Wall Street won’t use Bitcoin, but will try to rip off the technology. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, as the only advancement we have seen in the financial services industry in decades is an explosion in creative ways to commit fraud and not get in trouble for it. After all, when you are an industry with zero creative talent what are you supposed to do. You lie, steal, cheat and pay off politicians in Washington D.C..
From Bloomberg:
While Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett express doubts about bitcoin, executives running the financial industry’s back offices are looking at mimicking the virtual currency’s methods of moving money quickly and cheaply.
Zero. Talent.
FIS, a provider of systems used by banks to handle payments, is examining whether a public ledger like bitcoin’s could help securely move funds on existing networks, Fred Brothers, the firm’s chief innovation officer, said in an interview. Fiserv Inc., a provider of technology for payments and accounts, is examining bitcoin’s use of encryption to ensure transfers are secure, said Marc West, a senior vice president.
Such interest shows how Wall Street could seek to reap benefits touted by bitcoin’s backers without using the virtual currency itself. Bitcoin, proposed by an anonymous programmer or programmers in 2008, has drawn entrepreneurs and retailers looking to popularize it as a low-cost alternative to established payment systems, supplanting credit cards to international wire transfers. Instead, a variety of financial firms might copy its underlying design to hone their own systems or services sold to clients.
Let me guess, once the big banks start using the technology it will suddenly cease to be a “terrorist threat” and will morph into a breakthrough banking technology.
“It’s safe to say that every bank is looking at what’s going on with bitcoin and those types of technologies,” said Steve Kenneally, a vice president at the American Bankers Association. “Most of the larger banks are investigating it. The larger the banks, the further along they are.”
Buffett’s long-time business partner, Charles Munger, was less charitable this week, telling Fox Business Network that calling bitcoins “rat poison” would understate his disdain.
Oh boy, more on this later…
Wedbush is examining the potential use of systems akin to bitcoin for interbank money transfers, said Luria, who oversees the effort. Such technologies include Ripple, a bitcoin-like system that completes transactions faster.
I wrote a detailed post describing Ripple, the pros and the cons earlier this year. In case you missed it: What is Payment Protocol “Ripple” and How Does it Allow for Physically Backed Digital Gold Currency Exchange.
“What banks are looking at is updating the technology they already have — using the rails that they have in a more efficient, faster manner through modifying existing payment systems,” Whaley said.
How can the financial services industry be seen as anything more than extremely well paid parasites.
Now let’s get back to those Charlie Munger comments. For those of you unaware, Munger is Warren Buffett’s right hand man, and he made headlines in 2012 when he stated only Jews in Nazi Germany before being thrown on a train to a concentration camp have any reason to buy gold. I’m starting to think that Munger is actually Uncle Warren’s evil alter-ego. That Munger spews what Buffett actually thinks but can’t say himself since he needs to keep his cutesy grandfather routine going.
In any event, Munger called Bitcoin “rat poison” (watch the interview here) and I found his choice of words quite telling. After all, rat poison is used to eliminate dangerous and unsanitary pests, namely rodents. So if Bitcoin is “rat poison,” who are the rats? I’d say the financial system itself. So if Bitcoin is the poison to eliminate the hopelessly corrupt and parasitic financial system I have to agree with Munger. Bitcoin is indeed rat poison.
I also find it interesting how Munger seems so obsessed with the word “rat.” Recall, he recently described slammed HFT as “rats in a granary.” Lots of rat imagery happening in this creepy old man’s mind. You have to wonder why…
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http://www.globalresearch.ca/will-digital-currency-replace-the-us-dollar...
What about the design flaw that could force BTC to end up being a client/server structure, which users would be happy to accept if they are forced to choose between BTC dying(with their wealth stored in it) or accepting a client server enviroment(central banking system) : http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/12/bitcoin-what-youre-not-bein...
You should select your sources of information carefully.
TPTB are worried that BTC will be a medium for those on its persecution list to move funds from their reach.
The next reserve currency will be based gold and/or silver. BTC may find use as a medium of exchange on the BRICS's new internet, but that's only if the lights are still on after the war for the dollar.
"Bitcoin is the greatest threat to TPTB bar none."
Have you ever contemplated, that perhaps, the TPTB invented it?
Have you ever wondered that, beginning from dropping coins in your hands for your labor, they went to company script, then checks drawn on banks, then automatic bank deposits from your employer (for "efficiency"), to now, simple electronic digits. The labor is real, yet the currency is not.
Will these digits, on an electronic device, be the sum total of your sons/daughters labor in their future? And if charged (guilty or not) by government (for whatever reason), will that past-saved labor by natural law be available to them or will a hold be placed on it by some future banker-class government? For the good of all...of course ;-)
If you can't hold it physically and exert your force of will on it, you own nothing fonestar.
Get your facts right simpleton. I understand that you are scared though. So new, much complicated, very strange, but instead of being stupid please educate yourself.
Have you ever contemplated, that perhaps, the TPTB invented it?
It's open source - open for scrutiny. it doesn't matter who invented it.
If you can't hold it physically and exert your force of will on it, you own nothing fonestar.
Old farts like you make me laugh every single time I come across one.
Bitcoin is the only independent currency which cannot be counterfeited and easiest to verify.
With bitcoin who owns the private key can "exert" force only.
But what could I tell to an idiot who does not ackonowledge the power of the internet even though it's evident?
The labor is real, yet the currency is not.
Currencies are used to express the value of labor or things. You can do it with sea shells, dollars or bitcoin.
Look "junior"...first of all, there is nothing complicated about BitBux. Second, its as simple as knowing how the internet works, you're sitting around thinking "they can't shut down the internet!!!"...I'm telling you they can block whatever they want to block and let pass whatever they want to pass.
"Currencies are used to express the value of labor or things. You can do it with sea shells, dollars or bitcoin."
Of those three, which cannot be held in the hand and relies on something else to even use?
The remarkable thing about youth is, at the time you think you know everything there is to know. As you age, you gain wisdom and discover things you thought you knew to be correct are, in fact wrong and things you never knew of (because you're young & dumb and don't know of them) are right.
Grow up and treat your elders (who are only trying to help you) with some respect ;-)
I'm telling you they can block whatever they want to block and let pass whatever they want to pass.
Every obstacle has a way around it.
Of those three, which cannot be held in the hand and relies on something else to even use?
Letters vs email? Your point is moot.
Have you considered that popular currencies are transacted in digital form mostly? The difference is that banks manage the ledgers without public scrutiny.
I do appreciate precious metals too but you cannot use them efficiently as money. Neither can you depend on central entities to manage money be it an asset backed currency or ponzi fiat.
you're sitting around thinking "they can't shut down the internet!!!"
No, I wasn't saying that. I said that our daily lives depend on the internet (directly or indirectly) and shutting it down would cause a lot of damage to the TPTB too. It would be counter productive.
You can shut down the internet in the US for any period of time, when it goes up the nodes would sync with the rest of the world. As long as you have your private keys your bitcoins cannot be lost. Shutting down the internet does not mean that bitcoin will be dead. To kill it you would need to delete all the existing copies of the blockchain, and keep the internet shut down indefinitely.
When the power/internet goes down you have survival as first priority anyways.
"I'm telling you they can block whatever they want to block and let pass whatever they want to pass.
Every obstacle has a way around it."
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Certainly, its called real money...lol. I would hope that you're smart enough to know all internet traffic goes back to the POP, whether its cable, wireless or telecom, son ;-)
//////////
"Of those three, which cannot be held in the hand and relies on something else to even use?
Letters vs email? Your point is moot."
///////////
I asked a simple question, you knew the answer but diverted. But lets run with your diversion for a minute, to prove my mootness, heh, can anyone discern the subject or content of my letter by simply looking at the envelope or do we begin to send our emails with false subject lines to put off the snoop software?
//////////
"you're sitting around thinking "they can't shut down the internet!!!"
No, I wasn't saying that. I said that our daily lives depend on the internet (directly or indirectly) and shutting it down would cause a lot of damage to the TPTB too. It would be counter productive."
//////////
I said, they can let whatever they want through, from traffic information to banking to medical and filter (more correctly stated, censor) whatever they want, when they want. They (government) and companies control it, not you.
But you have stumbled onto exactly what I'm saying at the core, directly or indirectly they have made people dependent on the internet and for some reason (unknown to me) they've convinced youngsters that "money/currency" is safely digitized there.
?Tell ya what, the next time the stawk market crashes and we have another financial crisis or if you become imperiled by the state and your and your confidants assets are frozen in cyber space...I want you to look me up.
?Most everyone deserves a second chance and I kinda like your moxie young man ;-)
Well if the DoD hates Bitcoin and considers it a terrorist threat, then I may have to consider it more legit.
All establishment press hates Bitcoin.
Looks like their new PR strategy is working great already. Just let the banks and government state BTC as something they are afraid off and the people will love it (and start buying this Trojan horse)
The definition of a psyop. How do you quell accusations that the NSA has backdoors and Bitcoin is a product of the government to get us onto a digital currency? Have the DoD implicate it as a terrorist threat.
Why is not Wall Street not viewed as ground zero for Terrorist Threats!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????
Camera's are everywhere.
Except on :
the front running transactions
the insider trading
the bailouts
the corruption
The friggin cameras are focused on the waste cans......
They do have a double standard, and the eye in the sky sees those, I was just pointing out the risk of getting caught in that environment with a terroist intent. No one as of yet has made a car bomb and drove it to a city and detonated it. It's more likely that a US fighter pilot will dive bomb his plane into a foriegn object than the former.
The U.S. Department of Defence should understand the dangers posed by right wing neocons in Washington.They've been conned and dragged through quite a few wars that resulted in economic failed states for countries attacked but it also has had a devestating effect on United States economy as well. $17.5 Trillion and growing doesn't lie.All for a number of corrupt politicians and banksters in New York.But the bigger picture is one they still don't see and James Rickards has described this in both his books.Nobody can stand up to the U.S. military but their are a number of flaws and vulnerabilities that the U.S. has.They'd better heed the fact that the new war is economic and right now the U.S. Federal Reserve is insolvent.And just in case anybody from The Defence Department happens to read this and they don't believe what I'm saying,then they can very easily talk to The Pentagon in order to get filled in on economic war games and Jjust who James Rickards actually is and why they used him in their top secret facilities.
BITCOIN FTW! :)
rats are people too.
@.."“also on the CTTSO’s list of terrorism research topics were Android, Motorola, social media and virtual reality.” What has happened to this country…" ..
m.k.
the needed fed note money and associated attention and analysis of
any topic requires a label of terrorism to gain the status
of national security, then corporate and government "largess"
can combine to design the structure and infrastructure to
manifest the control mechanism free of any market forces
or objection by the "people". i think they call it doing
god's work? (creation/destruction etc..) in their cosmology
the "people" always pay the bill when it comes time, just like
in the bible. god moves on ...
.
their cosmology, not mine.
.
OpEdNews Op Eds 5/7/2014 at 13:19:05
Washington's Behavior is no Mystery!
By Deena Stryker
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Washington-s-Behavior-is-n-by-Deena-Str...
.
.."Any foreign affairs junky, whether they prefer RT, MSNBC or France 24,should realize by now that even the more progressive Western messages center around the fundamental misperception that the people running the Western world are good people, but they make the wrong decisions because they don't have the facts.
It's time to abandon that illusion.
When Washington continues to support Gulf monarchies who routinely arrest protesters, deny women basic rights, and funnel arms to Al Qaeda inspired fighters in Syria, or Neo-Nazis in Ukraine, it's not because it is naive, but because it is pursuing an agenda that observers cannot believe." ...d.s.
BTFDoD!
The BTC adaption rate must be disappointing, despite all the MSM pumping..
So it seems the sales pitch that BTC is the ultimate FED kryptonite has to be pushed more aggressively?
The only real threat is some barbarous relic, cause it is 100% owned by whoever holds it, and it can't be printed nor tracked in the way paper / bits can..
Yep, when push comes to shove, your 'wealth' consists of what you currently have in your hand, and can defend.
Oh please! Bitcoin is a joke. This has nothing to do with Bitcoin, and everything to do with establishing control over the internet.
They know that Bitcoin is no threat, since they can cut internet access off for vast swaths of people with the push of a button. But getting their foot in the door by regulating this non-threat allows them to stick around and deal with anything else that comes up. All this little bullshit just gives them the cover they need. They get in a little farther, then allow time for everyone to get used to it, then press a little bit farther...
It's how a boa constrictor kills. Not by actively squeezing, but by waiting till you exhale and tightening up, again and again.
And for Bitcoin, please tell me how it can be used without internet access?
Bitcoin has been around for over 5 years and you're just now realizing that it is digital and that it is exchanged over the internet? Holy smokes! Here are some shower safety tips.
And for iPads, Netflix, Nasdaq aso. please tell me how it can be used without internet access?
Sure, the governmet can shut down the internet, destroy the power grid, shred every computer and bomb us into the stone age. But will they really do that?
Never underestimate how desparately some people will cling to power. And never underestimate how much damage they are willing to cause in order to do so.
can cut internet access off for vast swaths of people with the push of a button.
It seem that you are not aware of the fact that an awful lot of infrastructure uses the internet? (because it provides the most efficient way of exchanging information)
There is no magic "shut down the internets" button. Even if the internet goes down on half of the planet bitcoin would still function in the rest of world.
Admittedly, tech is not my strong point. But you say there is no magic internet shut-off. And yet my local provider can shut me down in an instant if my payment is late. I can be restored just as quickly when payment is made. On, off. Just like that.
I'm thinking that our larger government agencies can do this on a larger scale if they wish. As to all the other stuff that is internet-dependent? If things get so bad that they are actually considering internet disruption, then they probably have reached a point where they don't care, and just want to shut everybody down to regain control.
Terrorists congregate in men's' bath houses in north Chicago, look out for one especially who says 'let me be clear'!
'Make no mistake'
How about studying it as silly?
Fonestar: "Bitcoin is the greatest threat to TPTB bar none."
Nope.. Open books are.
...and why is that old dude winking at me?
In Bitcoin all transactions ever made are in an open ledger book that everyone can look at.
Looking at the 2 yr bitcoin chart it is cycling it's way back to where it started at...1 BTC = $1 USD. It gets little spikes up and then slides back down ever lower. On it's 4th slide down since it's peak. Y'all have fun playing with the new innovative forerunner to the future that will take down the rich and powerful. ROFL!
translation: these people have adult-kids in their basement who borrowed money to get rich quick on bitcoins and then failed, therefore it's now a terrorist threat.
The CTTSO needs to look even further. What about Santa Claus for example? Imagine 1,000 Santas converging on the White House Xmas Eve, each with huge belts wrapped under their cloaks.
Even worse, imagine the Easter Bunny or even the Tooth Fairy getting easy access into sensitive locations. Scenarios like this should keep the CTTSO teams awake at night.
not to change the subject, but interesting.
http://www.arkive.org/monito-del-monte/dromiciops-gliroides/video-08.html
Monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides)
Next week, gold will be seen as a "terrorist threat" and confiscated "for the good of the nation" and, "the security of the people".
PBS Nova S36E12 Rat Attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b13ThYKv1cY
.
analogically speaking.
I see DC as a terrorist threat
The Fed is the only terrorist threat and people should take all their money out of the bank, out of the system and stop using credit cards
Anything that scares the shit out of the status quo is labelled as terrorism.
Think about it from their point of view - a populace that wakes up is going to use lamp posts and large sharp blades in a way that would cause terror in anyone who knows they will be on the receiving end.
Sone if us come to zerohedge just for fonestarrs comnents....is a sarc tag required?
You're in goof hands with fonestar, Stan.
Oh, there you are fonestar, I was wondering where you were when I saw bitcoins in the title, although after spending time trashing your Bitcoin mania because I never believed the powers that be would allow an independent method of money transfer outside their control, I now have to admit that Bitcoin is not only surviving but expanding, still early days though, I may yet be proved correct.
Am I in goof hands or good hands, Freudian slip?
The DoD psyop to stop all those nasty but true rumors about Bitcoin being designed by the NSA is being swallowed whole.
The NSA wrote the cryptographic hash function SHA256. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha256
It uses RIPEMD160 which is hackable.
It uses secpk1 which is not a fully rigid curve, meaning there is some room for an attack.
Taken as a whole, the layers of security may be enough to stop every hacker out there, but not the NSA with their backdoor to private keys and mining.
Someday somebody is going to hand the teasonous DoD it's own ass on a platter.
It's all just charades until the rubber meets the road.
https://i.imgur.com/S7mGtP3.png TeRRRoRRRRistZzzzzz!
Bitcoin terrorists?
What happened to white males with a pickup, a shotgun rack and bible on the dash?
That depends upon what they are needed for by politicians, one day your the salt of the earth a god loving patriot the next a terrorist to be permananetly detained without trial or charges.
The more people study it, the more people will get personally involved with bitcoin. Once you understand the principles, you can't deny its huge potential anymore. To GET own coins is just a logical consequence. The only thing what Bitcoin could destroy is ignorance, but that is way too late now.
Pretty soon, anyone holding Canadian dollar and Mexican peso will be considered as traitors.
So they should, there is no reason to hold anything other than US dollars, the FED says so.
Anything that challenges the status quo is a terrorist.
DoD seems to have lost its institutional marbles, or at least, memory. Crypto used to be regulated as a munition for export purposes under ITAR.