Tuesday, March 11, 2014

OMG Bitcoin Foundation Hires Cato Institute Analyst

The Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group,has annouced that it has hired Jim Harper, an official at the Cato Institute to "identify political impediments to bitcoin adoption, and build confidence in bitcoin among governments around the world," WSJ reports.

This is a serious sign of desperation. BF knows governments are breathing down Bitcoin's neck, but it is hard to see how a Cato official is going to be able to reverse that trend. Keep in mind that BF is going up against the credit card industry, which generates multi-billions annually in credit card fees. When you generate multi-billions, you can hire some very sharp and polished lobbyists that will do end runs around a think tank researcher.

I doubt Harper will be an effective advocate for Bitcoin, but he is a full-fledged government crony, which, obviously, is not good from a libertarian perspective. He was an original member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

5 comments:

  1. Bitcoin+Cato= "All aboard the fail train!"

    lol...it's a perfect marriage

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  2. Let's get Cato to market this monopoly money. Whoever is still holding a bunch of bitcoin is obviously trying to get the price up. Look for another pump and dump. How naive are these kids? Seriously, this is ridiculous.

    How is Bitcoin Foundation going against credit card companies? Maybe debit cards but Bitcoin is not credit. People use credit cards to buy something today and pay it over several months. Bitcoin is like a Visa gift card or a debit card.

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  3. Bitcoin Foundation just put the last nail in its coffin by appointing a libertarian lawyer from the libertarian Cato Institute and a media specialist to fill the two vacancies. Our bitcoin infrastructure is not safe and secure, and the last things bitcoins needs now are a libertarian lawyer and a media specialist — neither can fix, or even help fix, what's wrong. Some politicians and regulators even tag both as rabid dogs.

    The only things I see that the Bitcoin Foundation has done with its money is cuddle with Washington and NY politicians and regulators, fight amongst themselves, and feather their own nests. They are like foxes guarding the hen house!

    If I were a politician or regulator, cuddling with a libertarian lawyer and media specialist would be like sleeping with the enemy, both with rabies :)

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  4. The Bitcoin Foundation does not represent the majority of the bitcoin users so don't get too excited about this "news". The bitcoin code is controlled by no one. It is only used by consensus. Any attempts to compromise the code will result in an immediate "fork" in the blockchain.

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  5. Getting tired of EPJ's consistent cynicism of Bitcoin. It's a clear case of wanting Bitcoin to fail, and thus looking for any signs of vulnerability and exposing those, as opposed to considering that Bitcoin could fail or succeed, and it certainly worth having an open mind and objective perspective.

    The currency is currently up over 12,000% from two years ago. Does that really seem like a project that is in "serious desperation?"

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