A few weeks back I was reading about market manipulation on a basic-bitch Investopedia page. I forget why I was doing it, but almost certainly something to do with my fascination revolving around cryptocurrency and the law.
The more I learn about cryptocurrency and the law in tandem, the more I realize they are completely incompatible, especially in the long term. This should be obvious given the definition of what "law" actually means, but even with this information: the light research I've done on these topics baffles the mind.
What does "LAW" imply?
Quite simply the rule of law heavily implies the existence of a sovereign centralized government that controls some other non-sovereign entity. At the core of law is a heavy implication that imperialism and control are a requirement, especially during this modern age.
Once we realize that crypto is self-sovereign and digital, it becomes quite obvious that the laws of government do not apply to it. Like: at all. Thus there is a tug-of-war going on with the regulators and crypto. While crypto is completely uncontrollable and digital/borderless in nature: people are not. Regulators do everything they can to capture the bottlenecks of the industry (crypto banks aka exchanges) and force people to act a certain way. After all: people are not digital (yet... as far as I know).
It's a sad state of affairs when an outdated governance model that involves Boomers (who should be retired) controlling everything we do. Not to mention this rulership is largely no longer consented to and basically revolves around the threat of violence and imprisonment. But that's a topic for another post that I've probably already written by now.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/manipulation.asp
So I was reading about market manipulation and found some interesting tidbits.
Market manipulation is conduct designed to deceive investors by controlling or artificially affecting the price of securities. Manipulation is illegal in most cases, but it can be difficult for regulators and other authorities to detect and prove.
Simply the base definition is noteworthy.
Right off the bat it is admitted that it's easy to break the law and get away with it. This points to the concept that white collar crime is often worth the risk (especially if we strip the morality argument away). In fact, once we get to the top of the pyramid and look at high-level banking crimes: the fine is almost always lower than the profit of the crime. Talk about legal for a price. It's the ultimate pyramid scheme. Crime is profitable even when caught within these circumstances. It becomes absurdly profitable when undetected.
The pump-and-dump is a market manipulation often used to artificially inflate the price of a microcap stock before selling it.
Ah yes the classic pump and dump.
Quite impossible to be involved in crypto for any amount of time without hearing this phrase. It can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including spoofing the order books with fake buy walls or spreading false rumors to big high-risk investors (degens).
Less common is the inverse poop-and-scoop scheme, in which false derogatory statements are made about a stock in order to buy it on the cheap.
Wait hold on the actual name for a dump and pump is truly referred to as a poop and scoop? Wow how have I never heard this one before? My crypto vocabulary has just leveled up.
But then I scrolled down to this gem.
And what a ruby it was. Add it to the long list of reasons why under no circumstances are governments allowed to refer to cryptocurrencies legally as currency (even though they obviously are just that). Why? Because it breaks all the laws and makes them irrelevant!
If you'll recall...
You can't be sued for financial advice unless the thing being shilled is a security. You can't be convicted of insider trading unless the thing you're trading is a security (although I'm sure there some noteworthy exceptions like silver and other commodities).
Currency manipulation is a political term rather than a legal one because foreign exchange policies are set by sovereign countries. Currencies are fixed or allowed to float for a variety of internal and external motives, while currency manipulation claims are almost always the result of dissatisfaction with trade flows. As a result, whether a currency manipulation is taking place or not is often a subjective judgement.
And now we see that market manipulation itself is literally impossible when the asset in question is a currency.
What an insane revelation! This is the power of sovereignty. When an entity rules itself another entity can not tell it they are breaking the law. Such action requires imperialism and subjugation at the core. And as we all know crypto (combined with decentralization) is designed to be self-sovereign. Thus crypto manipulation is impossible on a legal level. Well... not yet, but it will be.
It's only a matter of time.
The value of crypto and self-sovereignty within this broken world of lies is simply too great. Crypto city-states will rise. Cryptocurrency will be legally currency within the next decade. It will be impossible to manipulate. It will be impossible to insider trade. It will be impossible to sue people for "financial advice". The city-state itself will be self-sovereign. And thus it's pretty obvious that war will follow, because imperialists are going to be damned if they let this all happen without reacting to it.
But it will be an unprofitable endeavor.
We've already gotten a taste of what it's like when vulture imperialists try to dominate our network. Not only is it madly unprofitable for the attacking party, there is even a good chance it will end up profitable for the community being attacked (which is insane when you really think about it). It's a complete paradigm shift from the parasitical worldwide empire model that we know and love.
If a crypto city-state is built in such a way that can repel invasion on a political level, then it's simply all over for the war-mongers. Yes, strong militaries will easily be able to overpower a sovereign city-state, but will they actually be able to profit from this action?
First off, the optics on such an invasion are going to look absolutely abysmal for the attackers, no matter how the propaganda machine tries to spin it. It will look very bad, and it will be very public and in-your-face. There's not going to be a whole lot of poor people living in a crypto city state. These people are going to have money, power, and they're going to be fucking pissed. That's not a good combination for the attacker unless they can siphon a lot of value into their own pocket: which they can't.
Why can't they?
Because like I said the politics of the city-state will be unassailable. How can you install a puppet government within the city-state if the city-state runs all elections with DPOS voting? It's not one person one vote. There are no paper or mail-in ballots. Everything is not only digital, but encrypted across the board. Good luck trying to hack it with rigged elections and puppet politicians. The old rule-by-force toolkit will be completely antiquated and neutered.
Okay, so you can't usurp the political machine, but what about the economy itself?
Maybe the city-state has a resource that the attackers want, but again how will they steal that resource if the resource is decentralized? We go into the middle east and station our soldiers at oil fields, this is how they are accustomed to stealing resources. It's simple, it's easy, it's centralized. It's a good strategy.
But what if the city-state has decentralized factories in play with parts being manufactured all over the city? What if food is being grown and harvested at dozens of locations? How do you capture something like that and still maintain profitability? Short answer is that you can't.
The cost of soldiers it would take to garrison a crypto city-state that operated in this way would be magnitudes greater than the value of the entire city-state. And thus war becomes totally unprofitable (and perhaps even valuable to the victims, who now hate the attackers with every fiber of their being). In short: crypto and decentralization can completely kill the profitability of an empire. Balkanization is at hand.
Conclusion
What a wild ride! How on Earth did we go from boring legalities to full on all-or-nothing warfare? The answer is simple: sovereignty. You know you doesn't like sovereignty? The empire. You know what provides sovereignty? Borderless decentralized digital assets. This is obvious and apparent even from the most cursory research into the law itself that governs us.
This clash of the titans is far from over I assure you. The regulators are just warming up. In fact the regulators are only the first line of defense. Military action can and will be taken against materialization of crypto in the physical world. This is bound to happen; probably sooner than we imagine.
Still, it's going to be a very weird war. Many would like to see a peaceful resolution. Simply allowing crypto to win in the end can be beneficial to all parties involved in the long run (including the powers that shouldn't be). At a certain point there will be no reason to fight it. Perhaps that's when the Age of Aquarius truly begins.
Return from Market Manipulation 101 into Decentralized Warfare to edicted's Web3 Blog
