Hodder Law Weekly Newsletter - April 13, 2023
Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a great week! The price of Bitcoin as of Thursday, April 13 at 4:14 p.m. EST is $30,268.
Headlines.
Bank of England targets 30-Strong team for digital currency. A four-month public consultation process was launched in February to gauge public support for the project. Good luck finding qualified developers willing to build a CBDC for less than $100K a year.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment. With about 70% of El Salvador’s population without access to a conventional bank account, something had to be done. With more than one cell phone connection for each person in El Salvador, a digital currency solution was the obvious choice.
Binance's US arm struggles to find bank to take its customers' cash. With the failures of Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital Corp Binance U.S. is running out of options to store funds. Binance U.S. has resorted to using an intermediary to store funds, as they are having difficulties finding a bank comfortable with the regulatory problems Binance has with the CFTC.
Drugs, erratic dismissals, and feuding founders: behind Paxful's unraveling. Wild stories about the culture at Paxful are all coming to light. Founded in 2015, Paxful had 200 employees based in 4 countries. Disagreements between the two founders played a role in the unraveling of the organization.
Arkansas House and Senate pass bill protecting right to mine Bitcoin. The bill recognizes the benefits that these mining operations provide to the local economy, such as more jobs and taxes. The bill even opens the door for home Bitcoin mining operations.
FedNow enables government surveillance while Bitcoin protects privacy. As CBDCs are centralized, they’re more vulnerable to hacks or technical issues than a decentralized platform like Bitcoin. CBDCs threaten the financial autonomy, privacy, and personal liberty of all Americans.
US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy says FedNow is first step to banning Bitcoin. Just as gold was banned in 1933, Bitcoin threatens the Federal Reserve system in a similar manner. A CBDC system allows the government to freeze citizens' funds, tell them when or where they can spend their money, and force people “to comply with arbitrary diktats” said Kennedy.
Libertarian public policy think tank the Cato Institute has released its CBDC analysis. Their recommendation is clear, a CBDC will be expensive with no real benefit. Risks include a lack of financial privacy and a threat to financial freedom and free markets. Congress should ensure the Federal Government never moves in this direction.
A Public Service Announcement about Operation Chokepoint 2.0 from the @nic_carter Twitter account. Click below to view the Twitter thread.
HODLCast.
BlockFi has approved California customers to be refunded for payments sent after Nov 11, 2023. Executives like Zac Prince are still earning $400K per year. The bankruptcy trustee warned BlockFi that they need funds in FDIC-insured accounts. Watch the latest HodlCast on my YouTube channel.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts. -Winston Churchill.
Make it a great week!
Sincerely,
Sasha Hodder
Hodder Law
