Bitcoin finds a new use! Helping Russia finance its war of agression against Ukraine.
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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Dedollarization has been tried before: Saddam did it, Gaddafi did it, now Putin wants to join the club?
Wonder if the pattern will repeat 🤔
This has nothing to do with dedollarization imho but rather with circumventing sanctions. China has been refusing to use Swift over fear of Western sanctions. Now China and Russia might even use barter trades at larger scale by the end of this year.
Trading is trading and they'd be risking sanctions whether they take payment with Swift or Bitcoin.
Yes, but for the West it's just easier to block Swift than a decentralized network. But in principle I agree. That China and Russia haven't obviously found something better to arrange payments than barter and a blockchain is a clear sign imo that they are in big trouble.
Barter is not a unheard of way to conduct business, even between countries without sanctions. The SWIFT network itself has become a sort of barter system.
I'm guessing in this case, they both distrust each other's currency, so they might as well trade in Bitcoin as in any other currency they'd both trust more... if there was one.
Still, the USD losing that chunk of trade, weakens the USD, which the US might feel the need to strengthen with some "decisive action".
they both distrust each other's currency
Yes, I fully agree especially with this, but also the other views.
US hegemony is over. Get used to it.
I can't tell if you are sarcastic
it was forbidden before?
They banned it after it kept driving up energy prices.
I wonder how quickly they reverse this decision if Ukraine manages to reach a certain nuclear power plant in a certain formerly Russian-controlled territory.
I doubt they intend to mine it. For the Russian state is easier to acquire Bitcoin by hacking wallets than mining, and the plebs can't afford the electricity.