Good Morning Everyone,
Back at it after a short break. I was away travelling for a couple of weeks skydiving in outback Queensland, and then managed to get myself the flu (yes covid), so I’ve been resting up for a week while my energy levels normalise. Pleased to be back to 100% now, so lets waste no more time.
A lot has happened over the last 2-3 weeks. Risk markets have continued their risk-off posture and asset prices have acted accordingly with powerful moves to the downside being sustained. Unfortunately bitcoin price is not immune to this market dynamic with price looking weak - currently trading at $34,200USD. However for anyone that understands the nature of this truly inelastic asset and the fact that it is literally the most pristine monetary good to have ever existed, these times should serve as an opportunity to accumulate and stack more sats.
Back in March i highlighted the situation in Argentina, whereby the IMF offered another predatory loan to the country with a number of conditions including a clause to crack down on “cryptocurrencies”.
The French African colonial bank is next to get in line, sending a letter to Central African Republics President after introducing a bill to make bitcoin legal tender in the nation. The letter warns adopting bitcoin as legal tender will have “significant negative impact” on the colonial franc system.
I wasn’t aware of how deeply imbedded the French were in Africa and actually how much they have preyed on many of the small nations until I listened to this discussion from the bitcoin conference with Alex Gladstein & Farida Nabourema (timestamp 15min) where Farida does an incredible job of articulating the lay of the land historically. I highly recommended you give it a listen in order to gain some proper perspective on the situation.
The short version is that these countries are not in control of their money, and are essentially operating as part of a non-neutral network and one that enables censorship. They are less powerful nodes in the monetary network enabling actors with more power (the french) to devalue the money and strip value from the less powerful nodes in the network - the people.
So it should come as absolutely no surprise that now with the advent of bitcoin, countries like the CAR wish to adopt a neutral monetary protocol. A protocol that does not give any node in the network power over another.
Just like the IMF in Argentina, the French African Colonial Bank should be expected to continue to take action to deter the use of bitcoin as it threatens their business model, which is predicated on their ability to prey on every node that connects to the network.
Given how poor the nation is, it looks like more of a trojan horse than anything to me and one that likely spurs others in the region to challenge the status quo.
It’s hard to believe sometimes that we live in a world where entities exist that want to oppose your right to choose your money. That is for the free market of free humans to decide. Sadly they do exist.
Thankfully, we have bitcoin, and bitcoin most certainly fixes this.
Have a great start to your week everyone. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
AK
