At the Cut, we’ve made it our mission to expose how Big Tech firms are helping build a Surveillance Society that tracks our every move.
And faithful readers will remember that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is one of the chief villains in this plot.
As we’ve shown you, the Zuck isn’t happy with “only” running the world’s largest and most powerful social network.
He also wants to run the world’s largest currency.
But just this week, powerful figures in Washington made it clear they wouldn’t brook any challenges to their monopoly over the money system.
In today’s dispatch, we break it all down… and show you what it means for bitcoin.
But first, let me bring you up to speed if you haven’t been following along…
In June, Facebook announced it was launching a corporate version of bitcoin called Libra.
Facebook calls Libra a “new global currency.” And it claims it will make sending and receiving money anywhere in the world as easy as sending and receiving a text message.
The only problem is that the feds see the money system as their turf. They’re not going to simply hand that power over. And they’ve set out to bury Libra.
And as you’ll see, they’re not going after only Facebook. They’re also targeting Libra’s corporate backers.
They make up something called the Libra Association.
It’s the governing body that oversees Libra. And it includes music streaming company Spotify… ride-hail firms Uber and Lyft… and telecommunications giant Vodafone Group.
But on Friday… just two days before the inaugural meeting of the association in Geneva, Switzerland… six major backers pulled the plug.
Payments firms Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Mercado Pago… along with eBay and the company behind online reservations site Booking.com… cut their ties.
This follows PayPal’s decision to pull out earlier last week.
On October 8, two U.S. senators – Sherrod Brown from Ohio and Brian Schatz from Hawaii – sent a letter to Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe.
They warned these companies that they were concerned about Libra. And they said that membership in the Libra Association would lead to increased regulatory scrutiny.
As our tech expert, Jeff Brown, told readers of our free Bleeding Edge tech investing e-letter, “If that isn’t a veiled threat, I don’t know what is.”
As world-famous crypto expert Teeka Tiwari has been telling his readers, the feds see Libra as a threat to the U.S. dollar… and Washington’s stranglehold on the global monetary system.
Here’s what he wrote recently…
Facebook has 2.7 billion users. If it launched today, mass adoption of Libra would be immediate. It would become the world’s most widely used currency almost overnight.
Imagine if Facebook negotiates with its advertisers to give Libra users 5% to 10% discounts on all their products and services. How would governments or central banks compete? They couldn’t… which is why they want to stop Facebook.
And make no mistake, Libra is drawing fire from both sides of the aisle. Teeka again…
In a rare instance of bipartisan unity, liberal U.S. congresswoman Maxine Waters and President Trump have both condemned Libra.
Waters demanded that Zuckerberg appear before Congress. She also claimed that Libra would allow Facebook to “wield immense power that could disrupt” governments and central banks.
And President Trump has condemned Libra on Twitter. He said Libra would “have little standing or dependability.”
U.S. lawmakers are taking the threat from Libra so seriously they’ve proposed a bill to ban Big Tech firms from issuing their own digital currencies.
And don’t forget the leader in the race to be the Democratic nominee for president, Elizabeth Warren. She promises to break Libra up using antitrust laws if she’s elected.
And if Legacy Research cofounder Bill Bonner is right, Warren is a lock to be the next president of the United States.
As we’ve been warning you, Facebook is a core component of the Deep State’s surveillance apparatus. That became clear after National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013.
On the surface, Facebook is a social media company. But it’s really a for-profit mass surveillance company. It’s the last entity on Earth you should let snoop around your finances.
So, even if Libra becomes an alternative to the dollar, the euro, or the yen, we wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
Here’s digital currency pioneer Marco Wutzer, who heads up our Disruptive Profits advisory…
You have to grasp one thing: Facebook and its corporate partners have zero interest in giving you more freedom. They don’t care about creating a better financial system or a better financial life for you.
Libra will only suck up even more of your private personal data and further rob you of your financial privacy. Facebook is a giant corporation. All it cares about is profit. And that profit is based on how much of your data it can vacuum up. That’s the bottom line.
Libra may be convenient to use. But as Marco says, it’s a net negative when it comes to financial freedom.
We’ll leave the last word on that with Teeka…
Facebook and bitcoin aren’t necessarily aligned. But it’s in Facebook’s best interest to lobby for a more accommodating crypto regulatory environment. In other words, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I expect Facebook to use its massive resources to influence global regulatory regimes. If it succeeds, it’ll be good for crypto. And even if regulators do kill Libra, it won’t really change anything.
Governments still don’t like crypto. Big whoop. We’ve been dealing with that for almost four years now – while adoption of digital assets continues to grow at a record pace.
It’s why Teeka believes bitcoin will zoom past $20,000 and break out to new all-time highs in the next eight months. You can read more about that here.
Regards,
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Chris Lowe
October 17, 2019
Dublin, Ireland