Alright. Today is a bit different than normal. (though I can promise that some of the more traditional content is currently in the pipeline) Rather than examining a real world situation… id like to examine a world famous television program called “The-XFiles” and discuss how (if one wanted to, at least), they could see (when looking at it) a fascinating web of clairvoyant predictions… such as the covid pandemic… National riots… or even September 11th. 

Before diving in… one VERY SMALL disclaimer… because people have given me feedback that the disclaimers got too long. I am not weighing in today (on a political level)… I am merely showing a series of similarities for entertainment purposes.

Step one… context. The X-files is an American science fiction drama program… that ran from 1993… to 2018. During that time… there were 11 seasons… as well as one “mini season” or “spinoff season”... called “The Lone Gunman” (well talk about that in minute)

The X-Files gained popularity for its heavy usage of paranormal themes… but layered into a number of key episodes… are fascinating similarities to modern day life… well in advance of anything the show writers could have possibly known. 

Once again… without weighing in on specific political issues… lets take a look at Season 10, episode one… called “My Struggle” QUOTE “ Your own government lies as a matter of course, as a matter of policy. The Tuskegee experiments on black men in the '30s. Henrietta Lacks. What are they trying to do? That's the missing piece.”

As a sidenote… these referenced events… are entirely real. First… the Tuskegee experiments… were a horrific crime perpetrated by the USPHS… (The United States Public Health Service)... where 600 American black men were non-consentingly studied for the effects of untreated syphilis.

Henrietta Lacks… however… is a much brighter story… where the singularly unique and multiplying cancer cells of a young pregnant woman became the basis for medical research decades into the future. HeLa cells (as they are called) have saved countless lives… and also played a crucial role in the development of both a polio… and COVID 19… vaccination. Keep that in mind.

Continuing on. QUOTE “But it's not hard to imagine. A government hiding, hoarding alien technology for 70 years, at the expense of human life and the future of the planet. Driven not only by corporate greed, but a darker objective. The takeover of America. And then the world itself, by any means necessary, however violent, or cruel or efficient.

By severe drought brought on by weather wars conducted secretly using aerial contaminants and high-altitude electromagnetic waves, in a state of perpetual war to create problem-reaction-solution Scenarios to distract, enrage and enslave American citizens at home with tools like the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act, which abridged the Constitution in the name of national security.”

A long quote… i know… but important… because looking past whatever portions we subjectively deem to me more or less absurd… there is truth here. “Perpetual war” accurately describes the state that America has existed in for decades. Many dispute that the war in Afghanistan was originally even legal… as America entered a 20 year conflict. The war in Iraq… was propped up by FALSE reports of WMDs… later determined to be inaccurate… but still… resulted in conflict from 2003… to 2011. 

Our sitting presidents (for the last 20 or more years) have ALL engaged in global warfare, through backchannel methods or technicalities… avoiding the official pathway set forth by congress… meaning that if we disregard smaller details, (details that are, in my opinion purely an artifact of the programs genre)... these quotes are not so much “science fiction”... but rather “dangerously close to the truth” 

Still. Continuing on… theres even more. QUOTE “The militarization of police forces in cities across the U.S. The building of prison camps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with no stated purpose. The corporate takeover of food and agriculture, Pharmaceuticals and health care, even the military, in clandestine agendas, to fatten, dull, sicken and control a populace already consumed by consumerism. And I encourage you all to go shopping more.”

This is where things get tricky. Its easy to write these words off as conspiracy… but lets examine the facts. “Militarization of police” … is largely considered to be the spark that led to a movement called BLM (Black Lives Matter) in 2020… and 2021. Officially outlined on their national organizations website… demilitarizing police is a primary objective… and yet years prior… (in season 10 of the X-files) the topic was front and center… as a root cause of instability in America. 

Whats more… A profit driven “corporate takeover” of the food, agriculture, pharmaceutical and health care industries might not be as crazy as it sounds. Clandestine agendas to dull, sicken and control a populace may seem hard to stomach here… breaching the barrier of reasonable skepticism… but what if I added a couple of points. 

What if Obesity in America resulted in roughly 173 billion dollars of annual healthcare cost. What if the American government simultaneously subsidized junk food… high fructose corn syrup… and vegetable shortening… which are deeply correlated to rapidly rising obesity rates. What if at the very same time… the American Government subsidized the healthcare industry… with over 920 billion dollars (as per 2021 figures from the congressional budget office)... and what if those projections were set to INCREASE over the next 7 years… to upwards of 1.4 trillion. 

That simple statement “Clandestine agendas to dull, sicken and control a populace”... contains SO MUCH more behind it… and yet… the show still manages to accurately describe the world we exist in. Less rooted in concrete fact… the “building of prison camps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with no stated purpose”... likely refers to a debunked conspiracy theory that utilized footage as far back as 1995… but by and large i would regard that as a detail that was thrown in for dramatic effect… and falls short with regards to actual legitimacy. 

Still… one more paragraph to get through. QUOTE “A government that taps your phone, collects your data and monitors your whereabouts with impunity. A government preparing to use that data against you when it strikes and the final takeover begins. The takeover of America. By a well-oiled and well-armed multinational group of elites that will cull, kill and subjugate. Happening as we sit here. It's happening all around us.The other shoe, waiting to drop.”

This is where most people get lost. “No way… not true”... but the part about tapping your phone? That IS true. Going back to the shows prior mention of the patriot act… we can see that American Citizens ARE being surveilled in a multitude of ways… driven by a growing priority on “safety” as opposed to “privacy”

Now for the tricky part… but bear with me. In August of 2022… a man named Alexey Pertsev was arrested. The reason? Alexey had developed (rather “coded”) a service called “Tornado Cash” which allows for anonymous crypto transactions. Independent from him… (unless proven that he colluded but I haven't seen a single shred of evidence to that effect so far)... Independent from him… a large number of criminals HAD in fact used the service for illegal activities… but rather than shutting down the CRIMINALS… or even the service itself if possible… the government decided to punish the architect of what should otherwise be a perfectly innocent piece of code. 

Just two days after the OFAC sanctioned tornado cash publicly… Alexey Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands… still awaiting release. His crime… (as we understand it today) Simply writing code, for a tool… that someone ELSE used improperly… akin to punishing someone who creates an anonymous email platform… for the private correspondence that was sent by that platforms USER BASE.

It is, of course, an imperfect example that might still change… but surveilling citizens… imprisoning them without rights… or otherwise circumventing the constitution at every possible turn… absolutely IS an american reality… that we sleep through each and every day. 

To me… its all fascinating… but theres more to understand before the picture is actually complete. That particular episode… is called “My Struggle”... but its actually just part one in a multi-episode chain. My Struggle PART TWO… is where we get another barrage of connections… but for these… ill focus more on the over arching message rather than individual examples. 

My Struggle 2… (season 10 episode 6 to be precise)... contains a LOT of references… but none more important than the extensive parallels to covid 19. Early in the episode… there are mentions of “lockdowns” (an obvious parallel given the fact that much of the United states, and international world for that matter, were locked down for extensive periods of time despite very small initial expectations.)

Later in the episode there are references to the “advent of a global contagion”... and remember… there was a SPECIFIC mention of Henrietta Lacks in a prior episode… whose unique cell structure was instrumental in the process of developing a covid 19 vaccine. 

There are references to hospitals being “overrun”... which may spur controversy to say… but was a contentious narrative… pushed HEAVILY throughout the covid pandemic as well. There are visuals of masked rioters smashing windows… and even more connections to make… but one of the core principles here… was that patient DNA (during this… “outbreak”)... was allegedly changing.

Once again… I make no statements of fact on this… nor do I wish to weigh in at all on one side or the other… but Vaccines changing patient DNA is now a very substantial theory being pushed in certain circles. Depopulation… global elite organizations… all of it… is currently a subject of national debate… with growing support that some form of truth is likely hidden deep down… and a large contingent of supporters, who fully believe that the government is willfully engaging with this type of agenda. 

But still… not quite finished. Now for the cherry on top. The same writer responsible for the X files comic series (specifically season 10)... is Joe Harris… who ALSO wrote… a short and somewhat related series… called “The Lone Gunmen” 

That series… (among other things)... during its pilot episode on March 4th, 2001 (just 6 months before the events of September 11th)… depicted a plot where rogue agents of the US government… hijacked a plane… and flew it into the world trade center. To this day… (whether you believe them… or not) theories have persisted that 9/11 was actually an inside job (or a “false flag) perpetrated by the US government… which means that this writer has not only predicted core aspects of American division 6 months before they happened in 2001… but also the divisive aspects of Covid 19… the global pandemic… BLM and rising instability… militarization of police… and civil unrest as a result of pandemic policy. 

What does it mean? I have no idea. Is it a coincidence? Maybe… but for today I wanted to examine a topic I find to be extremely interesting… and hopefully do so in a way that does not CAUSE division… but merely seeks to discuss it.

Alright. Everyone saw the title… and they’re wondering “what could this trend possibly be… and why should I care.” … to answer that question as quickly as possible… the trend is SMS protect and phone verification by major video game titles (such as overwatch 2… as well as the upcoming Call of duty modern warfare)... and while many news creators have briefly touched on the subject and churned out constant videos for maximum viewership… i haven't seen anyone yet thoroughly discuss WHY this is a terrible thing… beyond shallow citation of a few social media outbursts… and backlash on reddit. 

It seems to me that instead of delving into WHY the move itself is an impending catastrophe for average players… video game creators are simply regurgitating the social atmosphere on their most trafficked media sites. Thats fine, and certainly some of the largest creators in the entire Youtube ecosystem that cover video games are raking in colossal viewership by doing this… but over the years I have started to take pride in looking for coverage angles that have largely been ignored… and right now… this feels like one those angles.

Its been covered on the surface, ad nauseum, by more channels than I count. “Phone verification bad”… “gamers are angry”… “privacy”... “unfair”... “restrictive”... etc etc… but not a single one of those videos (that I have seen) will tell you precisely WHY it is such a terrible trend… none of them delve into source material on how it will directly impact hundreds of millions of people… and not a single one of them adequately examines the topic beyond reading headlines.

Effectively… Activision blizzard is one of the largest publishers in the entire industry (Sony is fighting tooth and nail to prevent call of duty from becoming exclusive to xbox in any capacity during the takeover by Microsoft)... and a now multi-faceted decision to require SMS protect phone verification in major titles BY activision blizzard… is becoming the next frontier of harmful or disruptive policy in video games. 

Lets just do a quick overview on what the policy actually is… before delving into WHY you should be very concerned. On the surface… its a simple change. Overwatch 2 (which has now SLIGHTLY backtracked on this)... and Call of duty Modern Warfare 2… on release… required (or will require) that users implement a verifiable phone number in their battle.net account. This is described as an effort to “prevent cheaters or disruptive players” as a part of their self titled “defense matrix”... but theres more. 

According to an official Overwatch 2 announcement… QUOTE “A phone number can only be used once when making a new account, and certain types of numbers, including pre-paid and VOIP, cannot be used for SMS Protect.” Thats the key right there… because when you take this one… seemingly innocuous policy change… that has sparked a fair bit of social media backlash, sure… but how bad could it really be… and zoom out on a global scale, connecting a series of dots that so far no one appears to have connected… you will realize that this change is RIDICULOUS… and should never be allowed to proceed.

Lets really dig in here. First is definitions. Telecom companies largely offer two types of services. Pre-paid phone plans… and “post paid” phone plans. Pre-paid is pretty straightforward… you buy minutes or data and you use it till its gone, topping up when you feel like or waiting till theres more next month… and “POST paid” phone plans follow a subscription billing format where you have a set payment amount per month (usually over the span of multiple years under contract) with higher data limits and more features. 

Activision Blizzard is now taking two of their most popular titles… (call of duty being one of the most popular entertainment franchises in all of history) and pushing for a POST PAID ONLY SMS verification framework. Now… for everyone who already HAS a postpaid cellphone plan… maybe its yours… a family plan you are under… or your parents pay for it… who knows… for anyone who already HAS this… the change isn’t all that concerning. Make the account, use the number… play the game… etc. However… for anyone who does NOT have a postpaid phone plan… this is a highly disruptive change that effectively takes the relative cost of a game you want to play… and multiples it by over a thousand percent. 

Let me explain. In various PR statements… the Overwatch 2 developers (Blizzard)... stated that “Moving to free-to-play for Overwatch 2, together with enabling cross-platform with cross-progression, means anyone can access the game and join their friends, for free, which we are incredibly excited about.”... Thats a nice sentiment… but it is entirely untrue. Overwatch 2 is now “free to play”... but if it requires SMS phone verification from a NON pre-paid plan… no it isnt. 

Even the cheapest non prepaid plans from major carriers will run you 30… 50… even 70 dollars a month. A few simple searches of popular phone plan vendors will show you that pre-paid plans are cheapest… post-paid plans are more expensive… and if you are locked into a two year post-paid phone agreement… at 30 dollars a month (for example)… thats over 1200 dollars in total. 

Overwatch 2… now being “free to play so that friends can join each other”... now has a hidden cost of … what… maybe a thousand dollars? Or at the very least hundreds depending on your plan…  and is melded together with a telecom contract that not everyone has. 

Lets expand on this. According to statista… 40% of global respondents in a survey on personal phone plan… selected “prepaid”... with 6% stating they did not know. What does that mean? Well… if prepaid phones just “don't work” with overwatch 2 and call of duty modern warfare… its 40% of the population that cannot play the games unless they pay hundreds of dollars to do so (opening a third party contract in the process)… or resort to illicit methods of duping the system. 

Not a good change… but were just getting started because the reality behind this trend is actually unbelievable if you consider global finance trends… and connect a series of dots as far back as 2008. 

According to “pandemic research” from an organization called DING… (Referring to GPI… or “Global Prepaid Index”)... 7000 participants were surveyed (globally)... resulting in 79% of responses indicating that they engaged with “at least one touchpoint in the prepaid market”... 

Thats a high number… but if the prepaid market included a number of different industries and options… how does it relate. Simply put… it relates because 61% OF that 79%... indicated that their touchpoint with the prepaid market… was phones… thereby indicating that roughly 48% of these participants… have prepaid phone plans. 

Now, this number is marginally different when compared to 40% from statista… but we can explain this by delving into research behind pandemic spending and consumer decision making. According to lowenstein…  QUOTE “As of the third quarter of 2020, there are about 74 million prepaid subscribers in the United States, according to New Street Research.”... 

Thats actually LOWER than the global average… sitting at roughly 25% but if we read on… QUOTE “The other major development this year is COVID-19 and its impact on the economy. At COVID’s onset in March, several Wall Street analysts predicted a “shift to value,” which would mean a rise in prepaid’s share of the market, which occurred in a major way in the 2008-2009 recession. That hasn’t really happened yet. This is due, in part, to the fact that the delta between postpaid and prepaid prices is much narrower than it was 10 years ago. Another factor could be that the Cable MVNOs have taken some share that might have drifted to prepaid. However, if the recession deepens and the economic disruption is protracted, we could well see some significant shifts in subscriber behavior toward prepaid.”

Lets cross reference this to be sure. According to the new york times (in 2009) titled More Customers Give Up the Cellphone Contract... QUOTE “Sprint and T-Mobile, the No. 3 and No. 4 carriers in the country, are particularly aggressive about courting prepaid customers. In the fourth quarter, 355,000 of the 621,000 customers that T-Mobile added were prepaid users.”... 

That figure is over 50% of new users being under a prepaid format, as telecom companies specifically target that particular demographic and service… during the third quarter of 2008… (aka… the great recession)... and according to lowenstein… “if recession deepens… and the economic disruption is protracted… we could see significant subscriber shifts… towards prepaid.”

Hopefully the picture is now forming… but lets keep adding pieces to the puzzle. The United states… right now… is undergoing “Quantitative tightening”... this is a complex thing… but loosely refers to the fed raising interest rates periodically to combat inflation. The target is 2%... right now we are WAAYYYYY above that.

According to economist Steve Hanke (and also according to the data itself)... as of October 2022… the dollar is gaining relative strength against MOST other currencies around the world. In context… UN agencies… and the IMF… are directly warning of a global recession if the FED does not ease tightening. 

However… the federal reserve is a domestic agency… and at the root of their policy making agenda… is domestic inflation. As of right now, there seems to be no impact of these warnings, and no plan whatsoever to reverse course… leaving us on a pathway to global recession (according to numerous experts)... in the aftermath of a pandemic driven financial whirlwind… and none of us REALLY know how bad it will get. 

Pulling all of these puzzle pieces together… we see a very clear picture. Something like 40 to 50 percent of the global population… uses pre-paid phones. Protracted economic downturn radically increases not only the percentage of people USING those phones… but the advertising and consumer priority placed on acquiring customers who do so… and all of these factors are coming together at once… as a financial storm gains speed on a global scale. 

Video games like Call of Duty and Overwatch 2… are implementing SMS protection… that REQUIRES a certain type of telecom contract… at a time when the ratio of users who are actually willing to HAVE that contract (due to excessive cost) is about to dramatically fall. During 2008 and 2009… users were switching plans in DROVES because a pre-paid option would save hundreds, if not over a thousand dollars per year depending on household size… and yet if the same thing happens now… you would be barred from accessing what are purported to be “free” video games. 

The question is actually quite simple. If this trend were to continue, and take hold (think about microtransactions… or loot boxes… or games as a service… and how one example became many… became widespread industry norms) Are we ok with denying access to roughly half the global population of users who ordinarily WOULD be able to play… because a third party and HIGHLY expensive telecom contract is now required… in a period of time where pre-paid cheaper options are infinitely more desirable.

To once again reiterate… this problem does not affect users who currently enjoy the benefits of a postpaid plan… but if we broaden our perspective just a bit… this new trend would be extremely damaging to the accessibility of popular games. 

To that end… im left wondering “why”... Sure it may combat the disruption of a small minority who routinely create new accounts when suspended… but it also means more information stored by third parties (like your phone number) that is vulnerable to data breaches. It means less people (hundreds of millions of them) who actually COULD play the game without this new policy… will be denied access without spending obscene amounts of money in another contract… 

From top to bottom… its a change that harms a very large portion of the accessible market by turning something that otherwise should be available… into a highly expensive non-option. I have no idea why they would actually DO this… because gaming publishers do NOT care that much about player-experience when compared to raw profit and accessible market… that much is certain… so why on earth would this policy change make sense. 

Speculation? Maybe they have a massive telecom deal. Maybe they are literally getting paid to do this because there WILL be some portion of the player base that open postpaid plans just to access call of duty… or make a battle.net account. Is it the ever tightening initiative of total surveillance and interconnectedness? Is it a back room contract with major technology firms? I have no idea… but the fact remains that this is one of the least discussed yet most concerning trends that I have ever seen arise in the video game industry period.

It’s got plenty of backlash on a surface level… but going deeper it is legitimately harmful. Blizzard has pretended that their goal with a free to play version of overwatch 2 is to increase access… and make it so “everyone can play together”... AND they have since walked back this phone requirement to only BRAND NEW battle.net accounts… but this new Defense matrix policy change has the precise opposite impact of “increasing access”... by actually DENYING access… to nearly half of all people with cell phones… at a time when that number is going to DRAMATICALLY increase. 

Bottom line… sometimes things happen in the video game world that deserve severe backlash. This is one of them. It should be commonly accepted in the space that this is a damaging move… an unacceptable overreach… and the exact opposite of pro-consumer behavior. Maybe they will still do it… but at the very least we should all be aware. 

Lets talk about the future of finance. Now… I say those words “The future of finance”... with an immeasurable amount of sarcasm and disdain. Crypto is not the future of anything… if it were to be an evolution at all… it would be an exacerbated playground of everything that is currently WRONG with modern finance… masquerading under a set of illogical and often contradictory ideals… making it little more than a joke… with obscenely damaging consequences. 

I know… plenty of people are gonna flood the comment section raving about fiat currency, fractional reserves, or the central banking cartel… and they’re not wrong… those things are bad… flawed, or prone to certain forms of abuse… but having watched the crypto bubble since it was born… traded within it for the better part of 10 years… (as far back as 2012)... I wanted to take some time… right now… and highlight just how ridiculous… absurd… and even comical the industry has become. 

Now… before the screeching sets in too hard… let me present some examples. Crypto has gone through a variety of “Phases.” In 2013… there was a dramatic rise that put bitcoin on the map… followed by brutal collapse because a Magic the gathering trading card website (which had been repurposed into the largest bitcoin trading platform on the planet) got hacked… and lost 850 thousand coins. At todays price? That would be 16 billion dollars… taken from a website initially designed to trade fantasy hobby cards. Heck of start. 

Thats phase one… early adoption… wild volatility… dramatic price rise… and people like ME… were shilling the hell out of it as the future of currency, finance, and technology all rolled into one. I remember when overstock.com came on board and accepted bitcoin payments… we went nuts over that. I remember ranting about it to glassy eyed sophomores in a winter break dormitory… and I remember riding the wave of “financial revolution” from 200 dollars… to twelve hundred dollars… and all the way back down to 200 again. 

Those were the good old days. Phase one was when the technology felt… unencumbered. Nobody really knew what the fuck it was… we were using sketchy websites that obviously weren’t prepared to handle this shit… and I myself managed to get out of mt.gox before the ultimate collapse… but it served as an extremely effective “wake up call”... signalling that the world of Crypto was in for a bit of a rough ride. 

Phase two is where things got wild. Bitcoin went from a few hundred dollars… to twenty THOUSAND dollars per coin… and with it came widespread, mainstream attention. People began selling their cars, houses, and children to buy as much of the token as possible. (yes, thats hyperbole… but just barely…) This was when a wider market of “crypto” became more mainstream as well… and we started to see that the industry is just a twisted amalgamation of everything bad about modern finance… x10… all at once. 

“Altcoins”... became all the rage… and STABLECOINS began to appear. It turned out (according to research from University of Texas professor John Griffin… notorious for his ability to spot financial fraud)... that more than half of bitcoins dramatic price rise… had been manipulation through a stablecoin called “Tether.” You see… crypto is touted as the future of finance… a revolution on existing norms and a technology immune to central banking corruption… but in reality? Crypto HAD a central bank… and its name… was tether. 

I could go on for HOURS about the toxic impacts of Tether… and the eventual collapse it will cause… but this is more of an overview… not a specific investigation. If you want something like that though… im going to link a video down below by the youtuber “coffeezilla” that is extremely well made, and explains the entire thing. 

Phase two is where the wheels came off. Crypto got a massively corrupt central bank… (of sorts)... people were copy pasting “white papers” and “project profiles” and then absconding with all the cash… more “use cases” for blockchain were being conceptualized… or advertised than could EVER possibly be made… and the entire thing became a breeding ground of scams… illicit activity… money laundering… corruption and mismanagement at every level, for every reason… in practically every single “token” or “project.”

That was fun… but it was NOTHING compared to Phase 3. In Late 2020… and early 2021… Bitcoin went parabolic. Pretty much every single token (shitcoin or not) went parabolic… and with that new all time high… came widespread, institutional influence. 

Crypto became a part of the existing financial world… only worse. It was prone to every single harmful activity that regular finance was plagued by… except faster and more severe. Crypto became a criminal vice… a fraud vice… a rug pull machine… and a self propelled multi trillion dollar industry that has more severe (and frequent) lapses than any other sector… or even sovereign GOVERNMENT… on planet earth. 

Lets put this in perspective. The top 10 largest bank heists in global history… are as follows. The dunbar armored robbery… 1997. 18.9 million dollars. The United California bank heist. 1972… 30 million. British bank of the middle east… 1976… 20 to 50 million. The Northern Ireland bank robbery…  2004… 41 million. The Brinks Mat robbery… 1983… also 41 million. Banco Central… 2005… 71 million. Securitas depot… 2006… 83 million…. Knightsbridge security… 1987… 50 million… and then TWO robberies in Baghdad iraq… one in 2007, and one in 2003… one of them for 282 million… and the other 920 million. 

The 920 million robbery was quite literally the DICTATOR leader of an entire COUNTRY… robbing their central bank… and this top ten list takes place over the span of almost 50 years. 

Now lets take a look at crypto. Just in 2022… (well… the first four MONTHS of 2022)... there was the Ronin network heist for over 625 million… Rari capital and Fei protocol… 80 million… Wormhole (325 million) Qubit protocol (another 80 million) IRA financial through “gemini” (36 million) Beanstalk stablecoin (182 million) Cash IO stablecoin (52 million) Deus finance… (hacked TWICE in two months… for 3 and then 13 million) … 134 Bored ape NFTs (At their peak floor price worth over 150 thousand dollars each… so 23 million) … and Crypto.com… 35 million. 

In just FOUR MONTHS… there were 11 hacks… with combined losses of nearly 1.5 BILLION dollars… and thats just FOUR MONTHS of ONE year… where MULTIPLE of those hacks would be in the top 10 bank robberies… of all time. 

If you expand the parameters… the picture becomes absolutely absurd. Removing mt-gox from the equation here (with todays value being in excess of 16 billion dollars)... from 2018 to 2022… a four year timeframe… even just the top FOUR crypto hacks… combined… were approaching 2 billion dollars stolen. Whats more… hackers, exploits and security breaches are just one aspect of loss. If we once again expand our analysis outward… we can see a whole new world of absurdity. 

Lets get some context again. Lehman brothers (partially responsible for sparking the 2008 american financial crisis)... lost 3.9 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2008 shortly before it went bankrupt. This had major ramifications on a national, even global scale… but lets compare that to crypto. 

Three arrows capital (crypto hedge fund) from 10 billion to zero. Terra Luna… 40 billion dollar wipeout… as one of the largest stablecoins in all of crypto. (when tether goes that’s gonna look like childs play)... Celsius network… chapter 11 bankruptcy with a 1.2 billion dollar hole in its balance sheet… and all of this was in a THREE MONTH PERIOD from may to july of 2022. 

The future of finance… has seen monetary disaster on a scale that even sovereign dictators cannot rival. Financial crisis on a national scale in America… was sparked by fiscal fuckups TEN TIMES SMALLER than what we see in the crypto industry… and yet… this is the technology we are hailing as the future of our monetary system?

Lets take a different approach. I’ve talked about this before… but there is a ludicrous idea that Bitcoin (and crypto) will help end global poverty. NOPE! Turns out that bitcoin has a gini-coefficient (a mechanism to measure income and wealth inequality) higher than the command economy of NORTH KOREA. Crypto has larger income and wealth disparity than any nation on earth… by far… it has more wealth concentration and extraction of capital from poor to rich than any other financial market in history… but again… it’s the future of finance… so why should we care. 

How about this one… “bitcoin is a hedge against inflation”... and “bitcoin is not correlated to traditional market conditions.”... NOPE AGAIN!.... Bitcoin and other major tokens absolutely ARE now correlated to traditional market conditions… (like job reports in America)... and its a great hedge against inflation… when your investment is depreciating by massive percentages… while the money you invested in the first place is losing value. 

How about a more recent example though. Technology moves fast… its a budding industry… I have to cut them some slack!... ok… i will. Early October, 2022, the BNB Chain (binance chain) was hacked for 566 million dollars. Ok… just another hack. So what. Well… they had to SHUT DOWN the entire chain in order to try and minimize damage… because someone found an exploit. When was the last time you heard about an “exploit”… that caused all of… i dont know, “Bank of America” to just go offline. Huh.

There is this myth… that crypto is “decentralized.” … wrong for a third time. Centralized companies… shutting down the entire chain… or making augmentations is completely normal. Celsius network was telling users to “unbank themselves”... and then goes belly up with over a billion dollars gone as a central entity where users were dumping all their funds. (kind of like a fucking bank… huh) There are HIGHLY concentrated epicenters of power and wealth in crypto that serve an identical purpose, exercising identical power… when compared to traditional financial institutions… and yet somehow this word “decentralized” gets regurgitated over, and over, and over again. Its exhausting.

The final myth I want to delve into… is “anonymity” and “security”... hopefully we have fully torn down the idea that anything in crypto is actually secure… because there have been more breaches and stolen funds than any other industry by far in a comparable timeframe… also 14 billion dollars have been stolen by crypto scammers in 2021… which stacks up against 5.8 billion dollars reported to the FTC in that same year… meaning that Crypto has surpassed FTC reporting for a fiscal year by well over double… so thats fun. But anyways… the second pillar of “anonymity” … is ALSO a lie. 

Bitcoin transactions can be traced. US authorities have actually CAUGHT bad actors responsible for hacks and heists on multiple occasions… and the process of tracking user activity becomes exponentially easier… as soon as you use one of the centralized tokens or protocols… which is basically ALL OF THEM. Tracked by a centralized company… which is governed by sovereign laws, and subject to imprisonment, sanction or fines just like any other business entity… crypto users spout these buzzwords… like “anonymity” and “security”... that simply could not be any further from the truth. 

The “future of finance” seems to be something that is less secure, more prone to frequent, large scale breaches, hacks, and heists… chronic and EXTREMELY high profile bankruptcies (to the tune of billions, or tens of billions lost)... with all the traditional drawbacks of centralized control. They even have a brand NEW type of vulnerability… demonstrated by the nearly 200 million dollar NOMAD hack. (yeah, forgot about that one… there are too many to count).

Nomad (a cross chain messaging protocol… or “bridge”)... got hacked in what is probably one of the only REAL examples of decentralized activity in the entire crypto space. A vulnerability was found… and then multiple people began just… taking out the money. It was like one of those videos where 20 people are just looting a store… but it was tens of millions of dollars… of other peoples money. 

Imagine if you stuck your money in a Chase bank… and then one day 50 people figured out how to steal all of it… in under an hour… from all over the world… and you cant get it back… because you dont have ANY of the necessary protections that are given to actual, legitimate financial institutions. Does that sound like a real future? Does that sound like the solution to our broken monetary system? Or does it sound like a bad joke, driven by greed, and fomo… that has now given way to complete control from established financial entities… who abuse it worse than any other market on earth. 

Crypto… is not the future of finance. It is the future of hardship and losses… it is the future of colossal failure… and its the future (for all too many people) of bankruptcy. You should treat this entire industry with more skepticism and aversion than almost any other market in the world… and even then… it probably wouldn’t be enough. 

Bottom line… (and I know that this video will have numerous rage comments and “you just dont understand the future!” posts… but i dont care)... bottom line… the hilarity of thinking that cryptocurrency is the future of finance is a joke to be laughed at… and a belief to be ridiculed… lets do some of that. The closest it will get… is a blockchain based… highly controlled “token” from existing banks, or a nations government. They will use it the way they already use current financial infrastructure… and it will be rolled into the existing foundation as nothing more than a minor blip. In essence… it will be nothing other than a slight augmentation on how the current financial system operates.