bitcoin is going to be tricky. unless most miners are in russia they can be convinced to fork chains
China has basically fully eliminated bitcoin mining.
A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
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Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#22Interestingly SWIFT was used to effectively depose a Head of State already, specifically Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The Vatican's Bank was banned from the system and allowed back on after Benedict's resignation. The lesson was not lost on Russia or China and they have been building an alternative system called BRICS. Edit: Here's a contemporary source[1] from a "reputable" newspaper. It doesn't mention SWIFT by name…
The only reference I could find about that is an obscure Italian blog with the comment section filled with absurd conspiracy theories. Do you have some credible sources?
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#23>Russia has also been building an in-house system since 2014—the last time SWIFT cutoff was threatened—which may mean they are able to temper some of the impact a cutoff would have on its economy. If they're building a replacement, doesn't that also mean we should use "cut off SWIFT" now, rather than later when it'll be ineffective?
Replacement that other country don't use so I'm not sure exactly what it would be used for, just connecting to China maybe?
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#24Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#25Well that didn't age well
> When Western nations threatened Russia’s access to Swift in 2014, Alexei Kudrin, a onetime finance minister close to President Vladimir Putin, estimated that it could reduce Russia’s gross domestic product by 5% in a year. Cutting Russia off from Swift could have ramifications for other nations as well, since Russia is a key energy supplier to Europe and countries rely on the Swift system to pay for fuel. Russian officials have repeatedly denied assertions that they intend to invade Ukraine.
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#26I often wonder how money is stored.
It can't be just a number on a computer in a bank, right? Otherwise some Russian bank could just increase that number to whatever they like. And say "Look, we own 100 Trillion USD. Now let's go shopping.".
So I guess USD needs to be recognized by the US somehow?
Could the US simply "void" all USD that are owned by Russia?
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#27I often wonder how money is stored. It can't be just a number on a computer in a bank, right? Otherwise some Russian bank could just increase that number to whatever they like. And say "Look, we own 100 Trillion USD. Now let's go shopping.". So I guess USD needs to be recognized by the US somehow? Could the US simply "void" all USD that are owned by Russia?
They do have physical cash reserves in central banks.
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#28bitcoin is going to be tricky. unless most miners are in russia they can be convinced to fork chains
1. Russia has been building up gold reserves, not crypo reserves 2. It's actually much harder than convincing 51% of miners that Russia is bad. You'll need to get them to agree on a list of addresses to freeze/sanction. Given that bitcoin addresses are pseudonymous, I'd imagine on agreeing on such a list would be politically impossible. Not to mention, how such action would affect trust in the network and the value o…
I doubt the majority of bitcoin miners live in places that care about the western neoliberal agenda.
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#29IDK. In an interconnected global economy my sanction of you hurts you, but it hurts me as well. For example, the higher price of oil is good for Russia and OPEC, but not the rest of us.So where is the pain? Certainly there are things that Russia has that the West needs. In addition, if Russians are generally used to less - and the West isn't - then again where is the pain? After two years of pandemic are most America…
High price of oil is good for Russia only if they have buyers.
And yes, in the short term it will hurt us but in the longer term you are disarming the influence of a bad actor with the added benefit of incentivizing cleaner energy and perhaps more efficient means of transportation.
Re: A quick breakdown of what SWIFT is and why it matters
#30I often wonder how money is stored. It can't be just a number on a computer in a bank, right? Otherwise some Russian bank could just increase that number to whatever they like. And say "Look, we own 100 Trillion USD. Now let's go shopping.". So I guess USD needs to be recognized by the US somehow? Could the US simply "void" all USD that are owned by Russia?
Numbers on a computer paired with account balancing/settlement protocols, one example being: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostro_and_vostro_accounts
When people talk about the manual inefficiencies of finance, it's referring to all this happening in the backend behind the abstraction of quick/automated digital payments in fiat currency. It gets especially complex in international finance, hence SWIFT etc.