17th April 2024 > > BoE, & old coins.
tl;dr
The Bank of England reminds us again of one of the many benefits that accrue from the crypto revolution.
Market Snap
Market Wrap
Perpetual futures funding rates have turned negative for the first time in a long while. I always feel more comfortable when the consensus opinion is in direct contrast to mine.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Bank of England
When Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, appointed Ben Bernanke (an ex-member of the central banker’s club) to conduct an “independent” investigation into the shortcomings or otherwise of the bank during his tenure to date, his expectations were surely the same as ours. Namely, that Bernanke would play the game, in a forlorn attempt to shore up Bailey’s already shattered credibility. Imagine the look on Bailey’s face – and ours too – when Bernanke proved to be surprisingly resilient in the face of what must have been overwhelming pressure to be much less critical than the report turned out to be.
In brief, Bernanke shot to pieces the bank’s internal processes, and its methods of forecasting on which it bases its decisions for the market manipulation of short and long-term interest rates. Bailey’s response was predictable, evading all responsibility, in particular batting away questions about Bernanke’s report with the comment that “the bank doesn’t do hindsight”, a frightening abrogation of duty from a man who wields such immense and democratically unaccountable power.
A wag in the letter’s page of one of our leading newspapers, responded:
“If the BoE does not do hindsight, and is institutionally incapable of doing foresight, what exactly does it do?”
…
The crypto revolution provides a partial escape from the clutches of the technocratic elite, if you wish to have that option.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Satoshi era
An owner of a wallet that mined one block, receiving 50 BTC in the process, on 22nd April 2010 – only a year and a bit after Genesis – has transferred those coins elsewhere:
That is pretty impressive keeping your private keys safe for 14 years. It is also impressive not to have cashed in before now, given that these coins acquired for zero are worth about $3m today.
I wonder if more of those Satoshi era wallets – many of which own one block rewards of 50 BTC – will also start to wake up.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Private keys
Arkham has created a dashboard of the top ten holdings of cryptos by known individuals:
Two of the top five with portfolios worth $790mm and $450mm have publicly admitted they have lost the private keys to those wallets.
Ouch.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – How to hide your private key
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