The Strategic Crypto Swindle
Compare: The Strategic Beanie-Baby Reserve. What does it accomplish? Betraying American taxpayers in order to enrich the manufacturer and collectors.
P.S.: For that matter, why not the Strategic Russian Ruble Reserve?
Sure, it means asking US taxpayers to suffer in order to prop up a warmongering dictator whose local propaganda is that America might need to be nuked, but modern Republicans think it'd be awesome 'cuz reasons.
Science experiment to test the hypothesis: there is no limit to corruption in the USA.
Pro-reserve argument such as it is, is that the day will come when the trading partners of the US government won't accept dollars BUT accept bitcoins/cardano/solana/whatever? The former is definitely coming on accelerated schedule, but why would the latter ever come? The new industrial and trading hegemon (aka China) would demand trading in the currency under its sole control, and by proxy, that's what everyone will end up trading in.
The good thing is that when someone drains the strategic crypto reserve for tactical advantage (digging for coins in the couch, so to speak), the USA will won't be hurt
Related:
Trump's 'Crypto Reserve' Is Such Brazen Corruption
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43261899
The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was
would make more sense to call it the Anti-strategic reserve
They would borrow dollars to buy crypto, thus increasing government debt.
> As for American gold holdings, they’re essentially pointless
I appreciate opinions on (physical) gold vary, but this seems particular line seems unnecessarily dismissive.
Why does the author think the Strategic Petroleum Reserve make sense? It's not like the SPR is enough to rely on for very long should some massive unexpected/external shock shut down the ability of the USA to either produce or import oil/oil products.... (?)
> On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network was created when Nakamoto mined the starting block of the chain, known as the genesis block. Embedded in this block was the text "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks", which is the date and headline of an issue of The Times newspaper.
We’ve now come a full circle where the US government is bailing out crypto bros.
If we have Fort Knox we might as well hold Bitcoin too. Whether or not it's Digital Gold is up for debate, but it's a self-fulfilling prophecy; the more countries that hold Bitcoin in reserve the more it becomes Digital Gold.
That said, let's limit it to BTC. ETH at least isn't so insider-owned. The inclusion of ripple, solana, and especially cardano though is especially stupid. Those are majority owned by the "foundations" and a pump in price enriches a select few.
> What they hope for, in other words, is a handout for crypto holders—or, from the point of view of non-crypto-holding Americans, a misbegotten government backstop for purely speculative assets.
Replace this with those who borrowed money for expensive degrees of specious value and the bondholders who will be repaid at par.
History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
I'm not an expert on the economics, but as of now, Bitcoin hasn't been hacked, which suggests it lives up to its promises. Personally, I find it incredibly useful to be able to carry my wealth anywhere on Earth, just by remembering a few words.