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Russia Secretly Helped Venezuela Launch a Cryptocurrency To Evade US Sanctions (time.com)
According to an exclusive report by Time, Russia helped Venezuelan officials create the world's first state-backed cryptocurrency to skirt U.S. sanctions. The cryptocurrency was launched in late February and was banned by the Trump administration earlier this week. From the report: The new cryptocurrency, a form of digital cash that is supposedly linked to the value of Venezuela's oil reserves, was launched on Feb. 20 during a ceremony in the presidential palace in Caracas. Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader of Venezuela, declared that it would serve as a kind of "kryptonite" against the power of the U.S government, which he sarcastically referred to as "Superman." Sitting in the front row at that ceremony were two of Maduro's Russian advisers, Denis Druzhkov and Fyodor Bogorodsky, whom the President thanked for aiding his fight against American "imperialism." Both men have ties to major Russian banks and billionaires close to the Kremlin. But they were not the most senior Russians involved. According to an executive at a Russian state bank who deals with cryptocurrencies, senior advisers to the Kremlin have overseen the effort in Venezuela, and President Vladimir Putin signed off on it last year. "People close to Putin, they told him this is how to avoid the sanctions," says the executive, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity. "This is how the whole thing started."
Biggest drug lord ever?
Before CNN claims that Putin did it with the advice and consent of Trump?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
When Russian sanctions started, US intelligence agencies gave Putin a year or two before they ran into real economic shocks. Oil has stayed down, but no shocks. Putin is living off his bitcoin gains?
Or is this article just a test of how quickly Russian troll farms respond to Slashdot? Would that beef up readership for more ad dollars?
Geez, you can't even jump a shark when you can only play one note.
Water is wet, the sun rises in the east, bears shit in the woods, and BeauHD posts articles about Russia.
BeauHD must be a Russian bot!
Just the other day we have the exact same usual suspects who are on here accusing Trump of colluding with Russia to setup this currency... wait for it.. accusing Trump of being Hitler by banning the exact same currency in the U.S.: https://politics.slashdot.org/...
Typical brain-dead reaction around here.
or make a lot of bankers really pissed off, if all the nations that dont want to use the US petro-dollar for trade it could put a HUGE dent in the value of the dollar, which is not worth much nowadays anyway, i bet all those central banks around the world tied to the Rothschild bank and the Federal Reserve would be ready to start WW3 over it
"Capitalism is religion. Banks are churches. Wealth is heaven. Poverty is hell. Rich people are saints. Poor people are sinners. Commodities are blessings. Money is God." - Miguel D Lewis
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I do not think it means what you think it means.
I can't believe some anonymus Russian prankster was able to put Russia, Venezuela, Trump, Putin, , CryptoCurrencies, oil, and imperialism in one story. They win this month's "hype bingo" contest.
Yeah, some AC (who's veracity has been verified by other news outlets who got the same information from their anonymous sources) says Russia is involved, because why not?
But... but... but... Hillary Clinton lost the election and the only people who care about Putin's involvement in Venezuela's cryptocurrency are butt-hurt snowflakes who can't accept that their candidate lost.
They seem to be doing a great job of getting them to hook up with Russia. They're also keeping food and medicine out of the country. I'd like to say that at least we're not supporting a dictatorship, but that ship kinda sailed when Trump congratulated Putin on his victory. Helping the Saudis bomb Yemen isn't helping either. We don't have a lot of moral ground to stand on in that theater.
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You know its not the government that will suffer, I hope it helped some people there. Why cant people just fucking get along...
[($)]
If the goal was just to evade US sanctions based on dollar, why not just trade oil in ruble or yuan?
Where would journalism be without them?
USA is much worse, has done terrible things to Russia. I am american and I think USA should not talk bad about the rest of the world when its own house is out of order.
Seriously?
SHUT UP ABOUT RUSSIA.
You're not convincing anyone, you can screech it all you like, we don't bloody care.
Can a moderator / editor, someone please somehow filter this garbage? Why are these people constantly bringing their politics here?
Seriously it's about time we got flushed with some right / alt right / new right stories to counterbalance the endless whiny Russia posts.
STOP.
Their citizens have suffered enough already. Why focus on one dictator when the world is full of them?
I'm glad Putin did it, even though he's an asshole in general, just like I'm glad Trump reduced H-1B "body-shop" application approvals even though I disagree with most his other stances. I'll give kudos to jerks when they accidentally do right.
Table-ized A.I.
The title screams "secret" like there was a deeply hidden conspiracy. It's not illegal to set up new cryptocurrencies. It also doesn't seem that the Russians tried to hide their involvement at all.
Since the U.S. has been undermining, attacking, or setting up proxy wars against Russia and all of its allies for more than a decade I would be surprised if Russia wasn't setting up payback in any way they can.
We have a gazillion altcoins. Any idiot can start one. There was even a website that let you stick in a few bitcents and out came a fully re-branded model client. What is lacking in Venezuela that Russia needs to step in and do a thing that 14 year olds can do on their own?
To put them in place Obama had to claim Venezuela was a threat to the United States. Even a habitual liar as gifted as Obama had to struggle with that one.
And meanwhile, we're still merrily selling tens of billions in weapons to Saudi Arabia at a time. You know, the country where almost all the 911 hijackers were actually from, and a sponsor of jihadist groups across the middle east.
This crypto currency stuff is going way too far.
It has no value. (beyond the obvious perceived value where it's worth what someone will pay for it)
In theory this venezuela thing could work. But I am pretty sure I can't just go pick up a barrel of oil at the terminal for it. And oil gets mined at different rates than the coins.
Computers crunching math doesn't make more oil get drilled or shipped.
I am OK with other nations having whatever they chose. It is like other people's relationships. If they can't think for themselves, I have no business thinking for them. It is sympathetic that you empathise with suffering of fellow humans from a distant land, but you are deluding yourself thinking that you know exactly how they feel, what they want, and what they would trade for what else, if they could. And meddling in their affairs is just over the top - it is questionable at best, suspicious of ulterior motives at worst, and it certainly undermines some important principles like sovereignty and right to self-determination.
I too am American and hate antirussia stories. I will definitely unsubscribe from Slashdot.ORG because of it!
The Russians secretly helped Venezuela by sitting in the front row at the launch ceremony. Good catch TIME
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Venezuela fricks up bitcoin like they did to the rest of their economy?
The CIA and the Media
I vaguely remember Russia supporting and test running Ethereum given it's russian background (maybe I'm mistaken) with Putin himself showing considerable interest in it.
Obama is a professional liar like every lawyer, it was not habitual nor was he gifted at lying.
After being elected to office, any politician trying to be popular MUST lie and since they are paid and maintain their job hinging upon that skill; therefore, politicians are professional liars.
National Security is the last resort excuse to justify anything and to the paranoid people with wild imaginations anything is honestly possible. Multiple cogent arguments can be made against Venezuela's threat... I disagree with most the premises upon which all of those are based but some people DO believe those. So to assume they lie when some batshit crazy decisions come out-- you underestimate the power of the dark side of the force.
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that's why. They thumbed their noses at global oligarchy by giving a lot of their oil money to the people at large. Chavez also seized land that was being left fallow for no reason (and did it in spectacular fashion, the well to do were declaring the land was worthless to avoid property taxes. He went to them and demanded they sell them the land at the value they'd declared or pay the back property taxes and fines from lying to the tax man).
Tl;DR: We're making an example out of them to support a political narrative.
This is not to say they're a bunch of knights in shining armor. As usual it's more complex than that. Venezuela is rife with corruption. But an unusually high amount of money made it to their working class. But their biggest problem was the price of oil collapsed before they could build an economy that isn't dependent on it. That and a drought that rendered their hydo electric plant useless. That's another thing, folks forget that Venezuela is only about 20 million people. It's small enough that one hydoelectric plant going down is a major economic issue. Add to that international sanctions that kept them from re-financing debt and they're screwed.
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If so-called cryptocurrencies are really good innovation, why they attract so many criminals/criminal activity?
Could it really be because, all cryptocurrencies themselves are scams, and that is why they attract all kinds of criminals/criminal activity?
If so-called cryptocurrencies are really currency, why no company/store can use Bitcoin as currency anymore?
Because the price of Bitcoin proved to be extremely unstable to use as a currency?
Would the result be different, if Bitcoin replaced by any other "cryptocurrency"?
Aren't all work the same way?
Or, they are not actually virtual currency but virtual investment?
But, if they are actually investment, why we need/want them?
What would happen to world economy, if people invested in virtual investments, instead of real investments?
Or, all so-called cryptocurrencies are actually just a modified (made decentralized and paying variable interest) Ponzi Schemes?
(Price of cryptocurrencies would keep increasing in the long term (by their design), so it is equivalent of paying variable interest to all long term investors.)
As more and more people invest in cryptocurrencies, it will become harder and harder to ban their trading everywhere!
All cryptocurrencies need to be banned globally before it is too late!