On July 30, 2024, Russian lawmakers passed a bill that will allow businesses to use cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, to skirt Western sanctions imposed after Russia's Special Military Operation into Ukraine. This is to go into force in September 2024. This is hoped to help with trade between Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and others. What are several advantages to Russia in doing so? Could there be "unintentional consequences" in dealing with Bitcoin? Is Bitcoin "as good as gold" or silver? What does the Bible teach about gold? Does the Bible allow for the '666' power to use unregulated Bitcoin? Has a bill been introduced in the US Congress for its Treasury to purchase 1 million Bitcoin? Has Donald Trump made statements about the USA stockpiling Bitcoin should he again become President of the United States? Does the Bible warn against debt accumulation, show that the USA dollar will one day be worthless, and prophesy that the strongest military on the earth will be conquered? Should you rely on any nation, gold, or cryptocurrency? What should Christians rely on? Dr. Thiel and Steve Dupuie address these issues.
A written article of related interest is available titled 'Reuters: Russia to allow crypto payments in international trade to counter sanctions; Bloomberg: Trump Likes the Idea of a Federal Bitcoin Reserve' URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/reuters-russia-to-allow-crypto-payments-in-international-trade-to-counter-sanctions-bloomberg-trump-likes-the-idea-of-a-federal-bitcoin-reserve/
A written article of related interest is available titled 'Reuters: Russia to allow crypto payments in international trade to counter sanctions; Bloomberg: Trump Likes the Idea of a Federal Bitcoin Reserve' URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/reuters-russia-to-allow-crypto-payments-in-international-trade-to-counter-sanctions-bloomberg-trump-likes-the-idea-of-a-federal-bitcoin-reserve/
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00Greetings, friends, this is Steve Dupuy for the Bible News Prophecy Program with Dr. Bob
00:08Thiel.
00:09Dr. Thiel, are the countries with sanctions placed against them by the West finding ways
00:14to deal with those sanctions?
00:15Absolutely.
00:16We see the economies of countries such as Iran, North Korea, and Russia have continued,
00:25but one of the things that some of them are doing are trying to look at ways to get around
00:31the U.S. dollar.
00:32For example, Reuters reported the following on July 30, 2024, Russia to allow crypto payments
00:41in international trade to counter sanctions.
00:44Russian lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that allowed businesses to use cryptocurrencies
00:49in international trade as part of efforts to skirt Western sanctions imposed on Russia
00:55after its invasion for special military operation into Ukraine.
00:59The law is expected to go into force in September, and the central bank of Russia's president,
01:08governor, he's in favor of this, and one of the reasons is apparently Russia's faced significant
01:14delays in international payments from major trading partners they have such as China,
01:19India, and the United Arab Emirates after banks in those countries being under pressure
01:25from Western regulators become more cautious.
01:31And so these are nations that they actually are part of the BRICS alliance with Russia,
01:38and they are feeling pressure from the international community.
01:42So in order to do this, it was reported by Forbes, or Bitcoin Magazine actually in this
01:49case, said this decision by Russian lawmakers aims to mitigate economic challenges posed
01:54by sanctions and to ensure smoother international trade operations.
02:00Will the countries Russia is dealing with accept payment in Bitcoin?
02:04Probably.
02:05You know, there have been a whole bunch of proposals that the BRICS nations, which is
02:08Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, but other nations such as Saudi Arabia and
02:12the United Arab Emirates, became part of the alliance recently, they've been looking about
02:20having their own currency.
02:22Maybe they'll do that, maybe they won't, but Bitcoin is something many are already willing
02:26to deal with and already have been dealing with.
02:29Now this helps Russia in a whole lot of ways.
02:32For example, it's accumulated more Indian rupees than it really has reason to spend.
02:39Secondly, it helps bypass the US dollar and US banking system for Russia, as well as the
02:47trading partners who have to deal with it.
02:49And third, it also gives Russia more flexibility when it comes to buying from nations that
02:55are not part of BRICS alliance, because a lot of people, places take Bitcoin.
03:01Thus, Russia realizes that anything it can do to bypass the US dollar hurts the USA.
03:08Why would Russia want to hurt the USA?
03:09Well, the USA is doing all this to hurt Russia, and Russia feels, you know, they're an air
03:15mine.
03:16Anyway, I've long warned about unintended consequences of US sanctions policies against
03:23Russia.
03:24And one of them has been to get more and more countries wanting to bypass the US dollar.
03:30And we've seen this happening.
03:31Well, could there also then be unintended consequences in dealing with Bitcoin?
03:38Yes.
03:39You know, some think that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are as good as gold and silver.
03:45But back in November 2022, Zero Hedge posted the following.
03:52The Bitcoin is as good as gold myth is over.
03:55He says, when you invest in gold or buy silver coins, you're choosing to invest in an asset
04:01that has no counterparty risk.
04:04Yet those who've been holding Bitcoin on crypto exchange FTX haven't had that same type of
04:11reassurance.
04:12He says, a year prior, people were saying crypto was the new gold, and it had the same
04:21safe attributes as gold.
04:23But that's simply not the case.
04:25It's true that cryptocurrency is something governments didn't control then.
04:31But it has what's called counterparty risk when you have to use crypto exchanges.
04:36And for example, FTX filed for bankruptcy November 5th, 2022.
04:42And so this caused all kinds of problems that people didn't think would happen.
04:47Now some wonder if it's simply bad timing or an omen of a system building in even more
04:53risk.
04:54This article concludes, investing in physical gold and silver are still the tried and true
05:00alternative.
05:03What makes gold and silver the tried and true alternative?
05:06Well, they've been used for thousands of years.
05:10Gold's even mentioned in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis.
05:14And the other reality about crypto is a difference when it comes to what's called physics or
05:20reality here.
05:23Gold cannot be destroyed.
05:24Let me read from this article.
05:28Everything else can.
05:29Computers, exchanges, mining pools, wallets, power grids, internet, nations, you name it,
05:34you can blow up planet Earth, but there'd still be gold atoms there.
05:39Unlike anything you can invest or store money in, gold doesn't rely on any external force
05:44to be true over time.
05:47It's got an atomic number of 79 on the periodic table.
05:51It's chemically inert.
05:52It doesn't interact with oxygen.
05:53So in other words, it doesn't rust, it doesn't corrode like a lot of other things do.
06:00And the only way you could destroy it, basically do nuclear fusion to it, okay?
06:06And so that way, certainly they're different than a cryptocurrency, cryptocurrencies, of
06:15course, like Bitcoin, they haven't been backed by anything other than the desire of many
06:21people to use it in trade or speculate with it.
06:24And actually, part of the value for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is because a lot
06:31of people don't trust government finances.
06:34In this case, Russia is going that way as North Korea and some others to Bitcoin because
06:39they don't have to deal with the US financial system.
06:43But it's not really backed by anything.
06:47Now, of course, in the old days, currencies like the United States dollar were once backed
06:52by gold.
06:53And now it and pretty much all the other currencies in the world are backed by basically nothing.
06:57So that way, they're not much different than cryptocurrencies.
07:01But I've been saying for a long time that I didn't buy into the myth that Bitcoin was
07:08as good as gold, and I've long warned about it.
07:12So then is there no place for Bitcoin in the economy?
07:16Oh, there's certainly places for Bitcoin in the economy for lots of reasons.
07:21But this is basically talking about nations like Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
07:26They've got different needs.
07:28They need to bypass the US dominated financial system, and this gives them a way to do it.
07:35There's other places for it as well.
07:37But it has remained my view that once governments get involved enough with their own digital
07:43currencies, steps to eliminate Bitcoin are going to take place.
07:47Now, as far as governments being involved, I want to read something here from an article
07:54from Bloomberg.
07:55It says, Trump likes the idea of a federal Bitcoin reserve.
07:59Don't laugh.
08:00The idea of a government fund invested in cryptocurrency might sound foolish, but there
08:05are reasons for the US Treasury to consider adding Bitcoin to its portfolio.
08:13Most generally, central banks often hold gold, so Bitcoin is suggesting maybe it's also okay
08:18to hold cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
08:25And then Forbes went out and said that there's a bill to make, it's a Bitcoin bill.
08:38And after Trump promised to create a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, US Senator Cynthia
08:48Loomis, a Republican from Wyoming, introduced a bill to direct US Treasury to produce a
08:53million Bitcoins worth about $70 billion.
08:57While somebody called micro strategies, Michael Saylor, upped his huge Bitcoin prediction.
09:05So there are two wealthy owners of Bitcoin and a politician from Wyoming luring the nation
09:11to buy Bitcoin.
09:13That's three red flags.
09:14What does Mr. Trump have to say?
09:16Quote, if I'm elected, it would be the policy of my administration, United States of America,
09:22to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin US government currently holds or acquires in the future,
09:28we'll keep 100%.
09:30This will serve in effect as the core of strategic national Bitcoin stockpile, end quote.
09:37And what does the Bible have to say?
09:41Well, the Bible teaches that the coming beast power, we're going to control buying and selling.
09:49And you know, that's not like Bitcoin is supposed to be, there's no control.
09:53So I don't see the Bible making provision for something like Bitcoin being able to operate
09:57like it is.
09:58Even Donald Trump, by the way, said he was going to do some kind of regulations.
10:03Now he's not the only one who's looked at, you know, how to get ahold of Bitcoin or do
10:07something with it.
10:08A couple of years ago, the European Union stated it was going to be the sheriff of Bitcoin.
10:17And they're going to control it to be the new sheriff of the town to deal with the wild
10:23west of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
10:29And so they're going to finally try to control it.
10:32Now, this differs from gold, which is mentioned in the Bible, you know, free trading currency
10:40like Bitcoin isn't what 666 is all about.
10:44Gold is mentioned in the scripture.
10:46It's actually mentioned 453 times in the New King James Protestant translation of the Bible,
10:53and 464 times in the Roman Catholic Douay Rheims Bible.
10:57So whether you're Catholic, Protestant or Church of God, you know that the Bible talks
11:02about gold.
11:04Furthermore, the New Testament shows that gold is prophesied to have worth into the
11:09time of the Great Tribulation in Revelation 18.
11:12But also says, by the way, that won't be permanent.
11:16So even into the Great Tribulation, gold will ultimately fail.
11:21What about Bitcoin?
11:22As far as Bitcoin goes, unless it's adopted and controlled by the beast, it will become
11:28worthless.
11:29All right.
11:31So unless I am willing to be controlled by the beast, Bitcoin will also become worthless.
11:38What about the almighty U.S. dollar?
11:40Well, the time is going to come when the U.S. dollar is worthless, too.
11:44Now, let's get back to this Bitcoin U.S. government proposal.
11:47I want to go into a few details, because I read more about this.
11:52So basically, here's the proposal.
11:54United States has a certain amount of gold reserve, which everybody knows how much it
11:58is.
11:59It's an official accounting of it.
12:01But it's valued at a lower rate than what gold is currently worth.
12:04Gold is north of $2,000 an ounce right now.
12:09And they say, hey, what we can do is we'll revalue gold to what it's currently worth.
12:16And then that great increase, that money, we can use that money to go out and buy Bitcoin.
12:22So that way, we don't increase the debt of the United States government, and we could
12:27just own this.
12:29You're looking puzzled, and you should, because this whole idea is idiotic.
12:32The United States government doesn't have enough gold when you revalue it to pay for
12:37its debt as it is.
12:40This is really another way to get more debt.
12:44Over $35 trillion now, the United States government has more debt than any nation in the history
12:50of humanity ever has.
12:52And the Bible, in the book of Habakkuk, chapter 2, talks about something that's going to happen
12:57at the appointed time of the end.
12:58It says, woe to you who loads up pledges to yourself, will your creditors not rise up
13:04against you suddenly.
13:06There's a warning against the highly indebted in the end time.
13:09And the most indebted nation of all time is the United States of America.
13:13This dollar will become worthless, and it's loading up pledges.
13:18In addition to that, people say, oh, it couldn't happen to the United States, because it's
13:22the most powerful military on the earth.
13:25Well, Daniel chapter 11 talks about the rise of a king of the Northeast power.
13:30He's going to value gold, and according to verse 39, he's going to destroy the nation
13:38with the strongest military, which would be the United States.
13:42And then a few verses later, talks about him destroying others and ending up with the
13:46gold, silver, and precious things of Egypt.
13:50So it's showing after, the Bible's showing after the destruction of the United States
13:57that gold will have value for some time.
14:02But anyone, one who places their confidence in the United States government, or gold,
14:08or U.S. dollar, currencies, cryptocurrencies, or whatever, will find it will not save anyone.
14:15Okay, so there's no gold, no Bitcoin, no U.S. dollar.
14:20Are you trying to tell me that there is nothing that can save me?
14:24Well, true repentance and turning to Jesus in the Bible certainly can.
14:28Okay.
14:29Don't place your confidence in Bitcoin, U.S. dollar, or gold.
14:33And as Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
14:39Thank you, Dr. Thiel.
14:40For more interviews with Dr. Thiel, in addition to written as well as audio articles, visit
14:45our website at biblenewsprophecy.net.
14:48This is Steve Dupuy for the Bible News Prophecy Program.