“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it’s tiresome for children always and forever to be explaining things to them.” – The Little Prince Update: I originally published this piece in December 2017. At the time, I had slept about five hours over three days of hectic work on a number of projects. I wanted to publish and move on to the next thing, but my instincts told me to pull back out of concern that I could have missed something important. Experience has taught me to make sure I have done a satisfactory job of challenging my intuitions. Coming back to it some weeks later, I have changed little other than adding a brief section on Turkey. Why Care about Cryptopolitcs? One reason I ignored cryptocoins for a long time is their exposure to cyber threats. They are much easier to trace and disrupt than what the packaging says, and subject to security vulnerabilities just as your email or bank account. For the benefit of the most delirious Coin Fiends out there, I take this opportunity to congratulate the Bulgarian government on seizing $3bn in bitcoin and other cryptocoins, equivalent to about a quarter of the country’s national debt. The Bulgarian Government Is Sitting on $3 Billion in Bitcoin https://t.co/U0n4xJiExf pic.twitter.com/aY3FIeYdT4 — CoinDesk (@coindesk) 2017-12-07 Please understand this, and understand it well. Cybercriminals aren’t anywhere near as dangerous to cryptocoins as governments are. A multipronged government crackdown has a much greater chance of disrupting cryptocoins than someone hacking an exchange from one’s grandma’s basement. A cyberattack can defile your hard drive; the government can defile your body too. That’s why the smart kids at school care about cryptopolitics at least as much as they do about cybersecurity. Monetary systems are the main instrument of domestic control for political and … Continue reading Global Cryptopolitics: What You Need to Know Before You Buy More Bitcoin