This month, asset managers Galaxy Digital, Invesco, ProShares, Valkyrie Digital, and VanEck have filed applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The applications were filed after SEC chair Gary Gensler signaled that the agency would look favorably on funds that traded futures for Bitcoin only, not cryptocurrencies...
Tag: aug 24 2021
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THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE
A SHORT PATH FROM COVID VAX TECH TO GENETIC WEAPONS File under another handy use of genetic info and experimental COVID vax tech: wipe out adversaries. Widespread genetic collection from human populations has been going on for years. People literally pay to give themselves away. Though they have benign reasons—wanting to know more about their...
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HOW BIG TECH MAINTAINS ITS MONOPOLY: A FOLLOW-UP
Last week the Trends Journal detailed some of the ways Big Tech corporations have propagated their monopolies, in areas including social media, cloud storage and website services, e-commerce, advertising communication, and app development sales and distribution. (See “HOW BIG TECH MAINTAINS ITS MONOPOLY,” 17 August 2021) A new guest column by Ken Blackwell at the...
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BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
KYB: KNOW YOUR BLOCKCHAIN. Who writes to the blockchain, controls it. One of the major differences in different blockchain networks is whether the blockchain is “permissionless” or “permissioned.” Other terms, like “public” and “private,” “transparent,” “anonymous,” “pseudonymous” and “KYC” (know your customer), also come into play. What does it all mean, and why does it...
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EL SALVADOR CRYPTO WALLETS READY IN SEPTEMBER
No thanks to the World Bank, El Salvador’s government backed bitcoin wallet will be available for download by citizens in early September. The Central American country made history by being the first in the world to formally specify Bitcoin cryptocurrency as legal tender. Though central banks that lend to countries and are used to profiting...
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THE BITCOIN FIX
A recent interview with noted crypto backer Michael Saylor might well have been taken as over-the-top crypto babble a few years, or even a few months ago, when Bitcoin and the blockchain sphere was diving (again). But with cryptos up again, and an undeniable rising tide of both consumer and institutional interest, Saylor’s thoughts don’t...
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VISA MOVES INTO NFTs WITH CRYPTOPUNK PURCHASE
Money talks…and so does money-making. The surge of consumer money into cryptos, DeFi and NFTs is happening fast, and the pace of traditional Big Finance and Big Tech looking to buy into the action is happening just as fast. Credit card giant Visa on Monday announced that it had purchased one of the original collectives...
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“THE CRYPTO-ING”: FINANCIALS PICKING UP PACE TO CRYPTOS
Two of the largest U.S. banks, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan, registered Bitcoin funds with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this past week. The move represents the latest in a growing trend of traditional financial institutions looking for exposure in crypto markets, which, while volatile over their history, have undergone explosive growth. Another major bank,...
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MEGA-TREND OF THE FUTURE: RICE UNIVERSITY TURNS TO ONLINE LEARNING
Universities across the U.S. are trying to come up with ways to safely get students back into the classroom, but persistent COVID-19 infections and questionable vaccine efficiencies have forced some schools to continue using online learning as an alternative. Rice University in Texas last week announced new COVID-19 protocols. The state does not allow mandatory...
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DOCTOR CLAIMS COVID VAX IS A “POISON DEATH SHOT”
There’s a video currently posted that bears watching; it could change your thinking about the wisdom of getting a COVID vaccination. It features Ukrainian-American physician Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a board-certified family practitioner who served, for some 20 years, an Orthodox Jewish community in upstate New York, until falling out of favor over his prediction that...