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Executive Order 6102 is a United States presidential executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States". The effect of the order, in conjunction with the statute under which it was issued, was to criminalize the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation.
---- Wikipedia
We'll come back to EO 6102 in a moment, but keep it in mind as you read ahead.
Yesterday, I posted Are All ICOs Now Officially "Securities" According to the SEC? after the SEC released an important report on blockchain initial coin offerings. I just finished reading investor.gov's commentary on it as well: INVESTOR BULLETIN: INITIAL COIN OFFERINGS.
It's more of the same.
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Reading through this bulletin, the part that frustrates me the most is this section starting with "law enforcement officials may face particular challenges..." It's like a bullet point list of why we need cryptocurrency in the first place.
Have we forgotten history completely? Do we not know why governments want "central authority", the ability to "freeze" your funds, "trace" your money, and keep you confined to their jurisdiction where they maintain a monopoly on the use of force? They list the "international scope" of the blockchain as a negative. Seriously, read it. They are complaining about their inability to spy on you and know everything about you under some circumstances if you aren't within their borders.
Some may think I'm over-reacting. Some are spinning this as a "net positive" like this article from Venture Beat: SEC to blockchain community: You are now regulated.
They talk about the industry being "legitimized" but to me that just means "controlled by government like everything else."
No.
This is exactly what the Bitcoin protocol was meant to disrupt. Governments and central banks have the power to control every aspect of human society including the very tokens of value we use to store the fruits of our labor and investment.
The Bitcoin genesis block had a hash of this message:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banksAccording to the bitcoin wiki:
This was probably intended as proof that the block was created on or after January 3, 2009, as well as a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.
Enough is enough.
Do we really need another Executive Order 6102 directed at cryptocurrencies before we realize what's happening? Most Americans don't even know how "their" government once made it illegal to own gold. They don't know how "their" government forced everyone to give up their gold or pay massive fines and go to prison. Their system of central money control through the Federal Reserve both caused and prolonged the great depression (according to many economists) and this was their fix: threats of violence. They were "helping" once again, only when they sold it back, they doubled the price. Could it happen to crypto?
The FED is neither a federal government entity nor does it have reserves. It's beyond the law. Don't even get me started on the International Bank of Settlements (IBS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or the future role of Strategic Drawing Rights (SDRs). For more on that stuff read Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis and The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System by James Rickards.
I'm not one to go on about an inevitable currency collapse just around the corner, but I do think we all need to be educated enough to know how money in the world actually works and how it is being manipulated at the highest levels. The time we spend away from our families working at our jobs and businesses to earn money is time others get to control through the manipulation of our very stores of value.
In 2013, I did a presentation on why I believe bitcoin to be more disruptive than the Internet. That video has over 8,000 views. I posted it on Steemit 6 months ago if you want to watch it. I've been keeping track of this stuff for a while and have been working to passionately educate others on how important bitcoin and decentralized blockchain cryptocurrencies are. The blockchain is our chance at freedom! That's why I'm also working on understandingblockchainfreedom.com which you can follow via @ubf.
This is why these rulings by the SEC and Investor.gov get me so fired up. The report references Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
1934!!!
Seriously. We're being governed and controlled by laws which were formed while the U.S. government was stealing gold from its citizens.
This rant by @larkenrose I re-shared on Facebook today sums it up perfectly:
All of the resources, all of the hired thugs, all of the weapons, all of the surveillance technology, all of the checkpoints and searches, all of the "legal" powers the state has to spy on you, track you, disarm you, monitor you, register you, question you, tax you, regulate you, and all of the additional "legal" powers they keep "asking" for, and keep giving themselves--ALL OF IT exists for one purpose, and one purpose only: to PROTECT THE STATE from potential dissenters and resisters, including you.
None of it was ever about protecting YOU from anything.
Marco Santori had a series of tweets today you may also find interesting. Exchanges and exchange users who buy and sell tokens may also be on the hook here. That means me. That means you.
The blockchain can bring freedom. That includes freedom to be scammed out of our money. When these reports come out, I wonder, how much of it is the same old tired government line of "criminals use bitcoin" and how much of it is because of people who complained to mommy and daddy government when they got scammed because they were stupid?
Maybe this is their answer.
If you can avoid it, don't ask government for anything.
All you will get is more government.
Edit: There's been a bit of confusion in the comments because I wasn't clear in my post. I'm not saying anything about gold here. I'm saying that what they did with gold in 1933's EO 6102 might be done again with cryptocurrencies today.
