2nd December 2023 > > Groupthink.

tl;dr

Constraints in Australia means that today’s CCC is curtailed once more to a short discussion about the need for decentralisation to counteract the pernicious effects of groupthink in government agencies.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Despite the clear trend of improving prospects for BTC as ETF expectations grow, Glassnode reports that 37,000 BTC worth well over $1bn has left centralised cryptocurrency exchanges since November 17th. This does not suggest to me that current holders are getting themselves ready to sell into strength though the leveraged children are getting excited about being short again.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Debt Box and the SEC

The SEC sued Debt Box back in July for selling unregistered securities, and on the face of it there is a strong case.

Debt Box sold “node licenses” which it claimed would mine cryptocurrency and earn crypto income. Debt Box was mining cryptos itself. The node licenses were funding that mining, and payments were made from that venture to owners of node licenses. This seems to me to pass all elements of the Howey Test.

During the proceedings, the SEC claimed to the judge that Debt Box was in the process of transferring assets overseas. Considering this claim, the judge rightly froze its access to those funds.

Except that the SEC was lying.

Lawyers for the SEC will likely receive a court sanction.

…

Once again, we see the pernicious effects of groupthink when it takes hold over an organisation, especially one which wields such power as does the SEC. The SEC has now been given slaps by several judges over its approach to crypto regulation. This is probably due to an overwhelming culture within the SEC that assumes cryptos are bad, and that the SEC is the good guy.

We see this problem in other parts of the machinery of government.

Regardless of whether you voted leave or not, the culture within the Treasury led to such dire warnings of the economic effect of Brexit (contrary to those warnings neither the car industry nor the finance industry have ever been in ruder health) that bore no resemblance to reality. Mark Carney’s threat to dramatically increase interest rates in the event of Brexit was proven a lie when the day after the vote he cut interest rates.

The proliferation of diversity officers in the NHS with six-figure salaries (the NHS is already the most diverse organisation in the world) at the expense of front-line care to cancer patients and others can only happen when the culture has been improperly directed from the top.

Groupthink at the Bank of England must take most of the blame for the runaway inflation in the UK of 2023, but that very same groupthink prevents those decision makers from ever taking personal responsibility.

The healthy functioning of society needs decentralisation more than ever.