Thread by @DSBatten

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How 3 EU Central Banks are working together to try to weaken Bitcoin

What action each of them has taken

What are their next moves

What we must do

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First, some background

During The GFC, Central Bankers realised the risk people could discover our Central Bank based financial system had been transferring from the poor to the rich for generations.

The injustice of bailing those who caused the crisis led to the Occupy Movement.

In response to these injustices, Satoshi Nakamoto created an open source alternative to central bank control, a currency controlled only by the consensus of the people: Bitcoin

Satoshi understood that Central Banks were the root of all the monetary system's injustices

In a move that threatened Central Banks more than they let on, Stella Assange in 2022 called Bitcoin "The real Occupy Wall St"

Central Banks now know they cannot kill Bitcoin. Their strategy is to weaken it to the point that CBDCs to gain ascendency.

Until 2018, The European Central Bank (ECB)'s approach was to ridicule Bitcoin

After this 2018 survey, they moved into fight mode.
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But ECB did not work alone. Central Banks are a powerful network who look out for eachothers' continuation of power, control & the financial status quo

Meet EUs top Bitcoin fighting generals
1. Bank of International Settlements (BIS)
2. ECB
3. DNB (Dutch Central Bank)

First lets pause to remember, this is nothing new. The disrupted always attacks the disruptor

The Horse&Cart attacked the automobile industry
The print industry attacked the Internet

The attack vector will always be the biggest issue of the times

https://x.com/DSBatten/status/1598437895077236736?s=20

Which is why the prime attack vector has been "Bitcoin is bad for the environment". It's a lie of course, which anyone who has looked into it deeply will know.

But when your banker-connections own the media, you have a tool to influence public opinion against the disruptor

They enacted a 3-pronged strategy

BIS used its influence with Nation State leaders to create a report for the G20 claiming:

"Inherent structural flaws" make Bitcoin unsuitable to play a role in the monetary system, while threatening financial stability

bis.org/publ/bppdf/bis…

ECB leveraged their relationship with ESMA (European Securities and Markets Association) - who'd been empowered to assess Bitcoin's threat to the environment, and EU energy security.

By 2025, ECB could have the power to weaponize ESG to disincentivize Bitcoin investment

But DNB - technically the least powerful of the Central Banks have had the most power of all.

They saw that if Bitcoin mining could be villified as an environmental threat, both the public and regulators could turn against Bitcoin.

A DNB employee fronted the attack

An introverted post-graduate with a hobby website was catapulted to stardom as DNB worked to ensure every article, paper and commentary was reported in every major news channel.

He used methods that have since been debunked, but by that stage the damage was done.

In 2021, Elon Musk, believing print media reports on Bitcoin declared Telsa would no longer accept Bitcoin payments. According to @woonomic, this more than the China ban, was the event that halted Bitcoin's 2021 bull run.

Central Bankers watched on. But they didn't stop there. Already working with Ripple Founder Chris Larsen to develop a CBDC, they had other plans

Ripple = industry competitor to Bitcoin
Bitcoin =Central Bank's potential disruptor/

So what happened next should shock no-one

In March 2022, Chris Larsen donated $5M to GreenpeaceUSA to help them run an anti-Bitcoin campaign.

In any other industry, funding a campaign against a competitor using an NGO would be a scandal. But the media in concert turned a blind eye to Larsen's conflict of interest.

The campaign ended badly for GreenpeaceUSA. Not one node owner "changed the code". Membership dropped. Even the Skull of Satoshi artist modified his stance on Bitcoin

But that way never the point. The point was to reinforce a narrative that regulators could use to ban Bitcoin.

And it worked: The Guardian ran a hitpiece where their main interview subject was GreenpeaceUSA, which precisely replicated the GPUS message.

de Vries followed up, using the Cambridge-debunked "per transaction" metric to vilify Bitcoin water use

theguardian.com/technology/202…

Not everything of course went to play.

Bitcoin was not supposed to rally 150% after ECB's "Bitcoin's Last Stand" obituary late last next year.

KPMG was not supposed to realise that Bitcoin is a great ESG asset


Blackrock was not supposed to launch an ETF.kpmg.com/us/en/articles…

Cornell University were not supposed to publish research co-authored by a distinguished scientist who understood carbon accounting and digital assets - showing Bitcoin was not only "not harmful" but could accelerate the renewable transition

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

So where are we today?

We stand at the crossroads of 2 visions of the future

Both will digitize money.

One gives more control to Central Bankers than ever

The other gives us a shot at freedom, and a world without the intergenerational widening of wealth gaps

Central Bankers will stop at nothing to try to prevent the 2nd vision occurring because ... it does not require them

For the first time in a long time, a grassroots movement has the chance of standing tall in the face of a powerful force and through non-violence, win

What else you can do

1. support @ODFoundation who are engaging with ESMA head on

2. support other organisations who work tirelessly against the FUD @bitcoinpolicyuk @btcpolicyorg @SatoshiActFund @EBEA_eu

3. Share the Bitcoin mining projects that are changing the narrative