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Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

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Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#151

Iran could easily have garnered a lot of international sympathy and support. Instead, they attacked their neighbors, impacted the world economy, and now are basically asking for blackmail money: "nice ship you have there...". Maybe Trump should bomb them some more?

This is an incredible 180 degree misinterpretation of who attacked whom. Iran is garnering incredible international sympathy and support. There is no just war theory that can support what America has done to Iran. It is immoral, illegal aggression.

They ate getting relatively little sympathy. Why? Because they are pissing everyone off who might have sympathized.

Seriously dumb. And now this mafia-esque blackmail?

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Military history is full of quotes like "war is too important to be left to the generals". When you put people who focus on technical matters in charge, they often make poor decisions, as they are not looking at the big picture. The question is not about whether the US can blockade the Hormuz Strait but who gets blamed for the blockade. Iran is messaging that it is making serious attempts to reopen the strait, while…

No government have accepted Iranian tolls so far, that is just not going to fly ever. If every country controlling a strait started taking out such tolls that would cause much worse issues than we are seeing currently, nobody will have that.

No government has accepted Iranian tolls so far, but some shippers sure have; ships have been passing through the strait. Those shipments go on to countries with governments. I don't think you can actually know that there wasn't government support for any of those payments so far.

And cryptocurrency should be even better for deniability. In reality it would be a really good idea for certain governments that rely heavily on Middle Eastern oil (e.g. Philippines) to pay fees in the short term. More than a month ago the Philippines was already claiming to have "safe and preferential access", if that involves money they'll pay it. (https://www.rappler.com/business/philippine-flagged-ships-sa...)

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#153

Iran could easily have garnered a lot of international sympathy and support. Instead, they attacked their neighbors, impacted the world economy, and now are basically asking for blackmail money: "nice ship you have there...". Maybe Trump should bomb them some more?

> [Iran] now are basically asking for blackmail money: "nice ship you have there..." This doesn't sound like the don to you? "hey Iran, nice country you have there..." > Maybe Trump should bomb them some more? If the USA is going to be bombing every country which doesn't give up their sovereignty and bend the knee to the don, then the USA is going to need more bombs.

My comment about Trump was meant to be sarcastic. Sorry, if that was not obvious...

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#154
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also supports the government capacity argument. The US was able to make peace with the barbary states and extract a right of safe passage assurance from them. Why? Because the leadership of these states had enough government capacity to compel their domestic pirates into agreeing to the terms their government dictated. Today, in Somalia, we see what the lack of government capacity manifests as. I'm sure the gove…

The Islamic governments there always had the capacity though contrary to your central point. As evidenced by the many treaties there were entered into by those governments, not by the Islamic pirates/slavers. From the writings at the time 'Muslim sources, however, sometimes refer to the "Islamic naval jihad"—casting the conflicts as part of a sacred mission of war under Allah' These Islamic pirate/slavers are the SPE…

Of course it gets a little muddy when you consider the europeans also had state sponsored privateers. I would not consider state sponsored pirates like this to be the same as pirates who operated against the interests of basically all states and required a little corner of the earth free of anyone's control to operate. Kind of a different phenomenon with different incentives and funding structures and goals.

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#155
Why is everyone obsessed with US military when the news seems to be Bitcoin? Just like that the US Dollar suffered because clearly a crypto currency may well become what the US Dollar was, a commodity to exchange value in a way that nobody can reasonably refuse. Whether that is for better or worse, I think that is bigger news then whose got the bigger gun.

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#156
post #69

There's no insurance scheme the IRGC can concoct that protects against the US navy hitting your rudder with a 20mm gun.

Exactly. The US just announces that they will take any vessel that pays for transit. So, what happens then? Any vessel that goes through and the IRGC doesn't shoot them, the US seizes. So, no one pays since they can't pay for successful transit. The fun game is that all the vessels just go at once. Any that the IRGC doesn't shoot the US takes. Any that it does shoot sink. So, no transit. Unless IRGC doesn't shoot at…

Or they'll use a pair of binoculars (or a drone with a camera) to ignore the decoys and shoot at the actual ship...

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 - Iran moderates are neutralized, so hardcore fanatics from IRGC take over. Loss for literally everybody. Otherwise, 1) and 2) are true, Europe is bleeding through the nose with buying US oil and depending on its current antagonist, not smart long term situation that we need to move away asap. Somebody in US government is making literal billions on shorts and various trade deals just before major announcements keep…

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The peaceful daughters mother's and sisters protest you think happened resulting in thousands of people killed were really men with machine guns backed by the CIA and Israel trying to give Trump justification for invading.

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#158

Much of the post-WW2 American-led world order was founded partially on the United States using its military to keep international waters open. It would be quite stunning Iran defeated the united states in this sense. The military might is there, but this administration clearly had no idea what they were getting themselves into and did not plan accordingly. (and does not have the will or public support to do so) The b…

Say what you want but it seems like Iran are the ones playing 4D chess here.

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#159

There's no insurance scheme the IRGC can concoct that protects against the US navy hitting your rudder with a 20mm gun.

Sure, but when it happens it's no longer Iran's problem - it's your problem. (And maybe America's problem, unless America gains anything from the global trade burning down.)

Re: Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait

#160
post #155

Why is everyone obsessed with US military when the news seems to be Bitcoin? Just like that the US Dollar suffered because clearly a crypto currency may well become what the US Dollar was, a commodity to exchange value in a way that nobody can reasonably refuse. Whether that is for better or worse, I think that is bigger news then whose got the bigger gun.

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