When I see things happen in the media, I am always wondering what is the benefit of believing their narratives and who does it serve? Of course, everyone is behind peace and no war, just like everyone is behind not killing grandma for the last 2 years. How we responded to not killing grandma was a cock up, and how we respond to this tragedy will be a cock up too.
The first red flag
For me this was the first warning sign that went off in my head when the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation sent official letters to eight cryptocurrency exchanges, asking them to stop servicing Russian citizens. Under the pretense of concerns that digital currencies are being used to evade sanctions.
The ministry is reaching out to Kraken, Coinbase, Binance, Huobi, KuCoin, Bybit, Gate.io and Whitebit, along with Ukrainian exchange Kuna, to curb Russian citizens.
Now I am no expert on politics but I can say that if my country was in a war, I'd want nothing to do with it and would want to get my money out of the country to protect my wealth.
We've seen the Russian ruble get obliterated over the last 2 weeks and has been hovering around $0.01 US, the lowest it's ever been against a currency that prints its tits off to remain relevant.
Response from exchanges
In response to the call Binance told CoinDesk that it had no plans to unilaterally ban Russians from access to their platform and bitcoin.
"However, we are taking the steps necessary to ensure we take action against those that have had sanctions levied against them while minimizing impact to innocent users. Should the international community widen those sanctions further, we will apply those aggressively as well,” a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk.
Following Binance, Kraken and Coinbase have issued the following statements.
Coinbase said its "mission is to increase economic freedom ... A unilateral and total ban would punish ordinary Russian citizens."
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell expressed similar sentiments last night when explaining why his exchange wouldn't be freezing the accounts of its Russian clientele unless legally required to do so.
Now it's all good to show up the government now because it's a foreign one calling for changes, but what if it's a local one? Do you think Kraken and Coinbase politely decline when the US government says they need to freeze accounts?
Absolutely not, they will bend over for daddy Biden so they can remain in business.
The threat of KYC
The fact that these exchanges know who Russian users are and could cut them off at any second is alarming. People might call for the use of these powers but what precedent does that set for the future? Today it's to curb sanctions that have public consensus, but the public is generally a bunch of useful idiots.
Tomorrow you could turn around and use those powers to curb people talking back about vaccines, climate change, and any other narratives governments don't want you to talk about in public.
We've seen how easy Canada could cut people off from the banking system and if those powers can extend to exchanges, then what is the point of having bitcoin, for most people.
Sure they can and probably will freeze and seize assets in the future and those bitcoiners will learn a tough lesson, but this only pushes for robust P2P markets and DEX's.
Bitcoin is apolitical money
Once you call for preferential access to bitcoin, you've officially been psy-op'd. Bitcoin is money for everyone, friends and enemies alike, what people do with that value is up to them. I might not like what people do with their money but I have no right to take their property, no one does.
In times of conflict, we see how people are willing to throw one another under the bus, we see how quickly people will abandon ideals for safety.
Freedom is a test, if you don't fight to earn it every day, you will lose it.
Anyone who calls for less freedom for others is advocating for less freedom for themselves.
Sources:
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