Bitcoin Slandered By Poland, JPMorgan Funding Swiss "Stable" Crypto...

Western Europe is turning more and more crypto-friendly. Except for Poland.

Just this week, private Swiss foundation received $30 million in seed funding to begin development of a "non-volatile, complementary global currency." I find this to be a dubious endeavor, though I will wait and see what will happen. "Stability" cannot generally be enforced in a free market, and the company this new project (called "Saga") is keeping leaves much to be desired (they are financed by JPMorgan Chase and a former governor of the Bank of Israel.)

Somehow, I doubt those two parties have the best interests of the common man at heart. However, they will certainly claim to - all Saga purchaes "will require owners to pass anti-money laundering checks and allow national authorities to check the identity of a Saga holder when required."

Be still, my heart - there's still a chance to sink all my dough into this totallynotterrible plan!

By the way, I wasn't just taking a cheap shot at the Polish above. Their government really is being a little crybaby.

Per Zero Hedge: "The social media campaign against crypto was carried out by Central Bank of Poland in conjunction with Polish Youtube partner network Gamellon, Google Ireland Limited, and Facebook Ireland Limited, allocating about 91,000 zloty (around $27,000) for producing anti-crypto content."

How many Poles does it take to slander a blockchain? Based on the funds allocated, I'm guessing like...3 at most.

In news that excites me personally, (partially owing to the future comedy potential here,) a Dutch court has declared Bitcoin to be a legitimate legal store of value after ruling in favor of a plaintiff who was reportedly owed "owed 0.591 Bitcoin" in a civil contract dispute.

The logic required to make this ruling (shown below) wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but it is reassuring to see it asserted in a court of law. It would have been more reassuring if it wasn't a Dutch court of law, but we'll have to take what we can get.

Glad we got it sorted out that you can own your own property.

In a final, bonus story, President Trump recently issued an arguably unusual executive order "banning purchases of Venezuela's cryptocurrency", the "Petro". Now, you should probably stay away from this currency anyway, as holding the financial bags of profligate-spender, crony-socialist nations is almost always a bad idea. However, this move by Trump is likely to have more to do with Geopolitics and wishing to continue isolating Venezuela from the financial spigot (of printing, borrowing, or issuing) than any real malice towards cryptocurrency.