Comments
Transcript
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STThis is a complete non sense - he could as well sell his mother Associate it to the Swiss government and we talk again, backed with gold
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LWDoes anyone know which blockchain the token will be built on and which digital identity platform will be used? In the splintered world we live in, I believe we will see more and more entities, governments or companies create their own, native tokenized economy.
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FCThis is a very sad situation for the Marshall Islands and it’s citizens. This idea was more or less “sold” to a select group of leaders in the hope that this would “save” their island nation. The IMF is fully aware and made objections in September 2018. The Marshallese government rejected their objections and has moved forward to implement: www.ccn.com/marshall-islands-launch-digital-currency-legal-tender/. Thank you RV to making others aware of this!
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ROOr the Marshall Islands could just open Goldmoney accounts for its citizens.
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WSVery naive to believe government won't simply turn off the ID's of political dissidents. etc. Building the first stage of the global Beast system.
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RRI can only agree with the comments that precede mine. I certainly hope that crypto does not go down this path. God help us all!
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THJudging by the fierce rejection by the audience, this guy is onto something :-) There are a couple of realities of life, that you need to acknowledge, if you want to build the next-gen financial system, including its currency. These are: 1) You cannot digitalize financial transactions without digitalizing the identities of the parties of the transactions. Dreaming about financial world based on pseudonymous identities is waste of time. Such thing will never become legal nor trustworthy. You need proper digital identities to digitalize the economy! The pseudonymous identities promoted by the bitcoin maximalists actually leak privacy very easily. You just need to correlate your blockchain transactions with your other activities. The more pseudonymous transactions there are, the more certain the privacy leaks are. It is essential to understand, that digital identities, when done right using the self-sovereign principle, actually guarantee privacy because you can use non-correlateable single-use identifiers in your transactions. 2) Whether you want it or not, the authorities need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. For example, the tax authority is a party of practically every single transaction out there. If the tax authority does not approve your transaction, it is illegal. If you can't beat them, you better join them and design something, that works and is fair to all participants, also in terms of privacy. After working on the field for a few years, I know, that such solution is achievable. Barak seems to understand something about both of these aspects, but he may not have all the needed building blocks yet in his hands. The identity solution he proposes does not address the privacy properly. As presented, it is too centralized. Furthermore, the business model he is using to build the solution seems somewhat questionable. Yet further, the underlying blockchain technology probably probably is not properly designed to match the true requirements. Anyway, good luck with the project. It will be a rough ride and chances are high, that it will fail. However, it is in many aspects a big step towards the right direction.
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JVThey are digitalizing money, not creating a cryptocurrency. Shutting down accounts and monitoring transactions is basically what blockchain and crypto is trying to get rid off
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JD"A central banker wet dream come true." Perhaps he could have left out the "wet" from that sentence.
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MTI do not agree with the presentation (on multiple levels), however, I think it is VERY important for RV to bring us this type of material. Thank you, Milton you big dummy! This project is going to proceed and it will help to shape the crypto currency and Bitcoin ecosystems. Everyone involved needs to start being extremely precise in their use of terminology and examine the underlying definitions. For example, I define privacy as the condition where one person has access to and control of information. I define custody as one person having possession and ability to transfer or otherwise dispose of property. Many of the comments below are exactly correct and the issue is often rooted in a difference in assumptions and definition of terms. Anyway, great job RV for bringing this story to us. Well done. I don't learn anything from people I agree with!!
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SU44 minutes of complete rubbish, please make sure you never bring this clown back.
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ABOrwell would be so proud
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AWSCAM ALERT. No precision, no intellectual rigor, vague platitudes, lots of bravado, no focus on numbers and all focus on the hype story. Classic promotional tactics. His body language says it all.
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MSthis sounds so stupid that it might somehow work. well...at least these stakeholders think it will. once implemented let's see how it explodes or implodes. a nice real-life experiment. see how the theory is proven in practice ...but this project has nothing to do with the premise of a decentralised cryptocurrency world...only taking advantage the word "digital"...reminds me of the 2000 tech boom when out of favour mining companies become tech companies and changed their name to something " dot com".
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JFReminds me of Gerald Cotten – QuadrigaCX’s CEO and founder.
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KSNever happening -- Shit coin, that misses the entire point of crypto.
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SSSteamiest pile of turd ever aired on RV. I’m no psychic, but I can tell you this guy has not an ounce of integrity and wouldn’t know a principle if it hit him in the head. He says he believes in free markets and yet is creating a currency that gives a government (the enemy of free markets) complete control over who is sanctioned and who has the privilege of (pseudo) privacy, down to the individual. He says this currency will enable the individual citizen to be a custodian of their own money with no third party risk. LOL! As anyone with eyes and ears knows, government/central banks are the biggest risk of all to the value of the money you hold, and they will most definitely be a third party to this “sinister coin”. They will hold the kill switch to the contents of your wallet. He also seems to imply initially that only those with something to hide, want or need privacy (wow!!!), but later almost contradicts that in a vain attempt to make his shitcoin sound appealing, as it will offer the pretence of privacy for the lucky user, until of course the government decides you no longer deserve quasi privacy. I’m truly loathed to hold such suspicions, but can’t help wondering which intelligence agency pays this guy... 🤨 Worst interview ever. Not because of the interviewer, she did a decent job, but despite her valiant efforts, was unable to pin down this slithering organism. I don’t doubt he or others like him will succeed, but I wish them no luck. Freedom is dead.
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JNhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/rising-seas-force-marshall-islands-relocate-elevate-artificial-islands/ The nation won't last, but their currency will live on forever
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RKYes, let's launch a digital currency in a banana republic, my friend knows the main man minister. I understand of course that launching currencies with a bit of credibility narrative mumbo-jumbo is a way to retire. Not bad climate on this Marshall Islands (had to look it up where it actually is).
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SDI am convinced about crypto, but this looks bad on so many accounts. Centralized, permissioned heavy KYC blockchain, is not a crypto and don't need blockchain. Way inferior to cash even... The inception plan sounds questionable: Air dropping 5% of the monetary base is like a MMT implementation, is OK. This guy is taking 10% of a country monetary base to devellop a currency, is like alot no ? Auctioning the rest of the country monetary base to international investors is a bit strange, isn't it ?
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DSThank you for this great interview. I'm impressed by this innovative move of the Marshall Islands and would love to see it live. This was also the by far the best project presented few weeks in the UN Blockchain summit.
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HKnope
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PFThis was not a good interview, one of the worst Real Vision has ever published. I have talked to 20+ "stable coin" type projects. All have the basically the proposition and all claim to be "the worlds first something". This project is in no way unique. This guy is a charlatan and the project is going nowhere. I don't know what is worse, the fact that Real Vision actually published this, or the fact that I paid them for it. #disappointed
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SPThis guy completely misses the point of Cryptocurrency. Anonymity, privacy and being outside of the global fiat system are the three things that are extremely important features for an alternative to the corrupt system we have today. When he says that Governments need to have KYC/AML to track criminal activity he doesn't mention the crimes committed by Politicians who extort money via taxes to spend on endless wars and covert operations which don't have any transparency whatsoever. Like Javier V said below, he has simply helped a country to create digitised money and not created a cryptocurrency at all. In fact, he has helped to create a Social Credit system like they have in China. They can simply view your transactions whenever they want to. This was one of the worst interviews I've seen on RV for a long time. It was the total opposite of the awesome interview yesterday with Jimmy Song. Now he's a guy who truly knows what Crypto is all about.
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JPThis is a complete scam. So much of a scam that the scammers may not even realize it. I really enjoy Gaby and I wish she could’ve had something better to discuss.
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OCIf this is not a scam, what is it?
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JLdon't necessarily see anything in this project but this was not a bad video and the interviewer was competent and funny, perhaps we really need a thumb up/down for video quality and another for agreement with the content
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ABThis guy got completely wrong the idea of bitcoin. The reason of bitcoin is not be part of the global financial system but to be a real island, using his own analogy, completely outside the financial system. Who needs another crap currency controlled by government or central authority?
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PVWith so many excellent and knowledgeable people in the crypto space is hard to understand how this video found its way on “Crypto Week”. The whole project makes little sense and, at least in the way was articulated, will get little or no traction/adoption. Especially the privacy aspects. Cash is by definition private as a bearer’s instrument and the idea of entrusting a government with a record of all transactions ever deployed in the national currency is a privacy nightmare waiting to be hacked. In a world of Bitcoin, stablecoins and, now, LIBRA, the whole project seem as doomed as the Venezuelan PETRO.
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JBExcellent interview. I believe the SOV will be a major landmark in the world's financial history. many people still dismiss crypto but that's just so very normal
BARAK BEN-EZER: Real money is defined by the FATF, the IMF, the IRS, et cetera, et cetera, as something which is a circulating legal tender of a sovereign nation. What we are doing now is developing the new type of blockchain that will basically facilitate this legal tender.
Anybody who thinks that in a post-911 world, you can have a currency go mainstream that is anonymous and doesn't have compliance measures is probably putting their head in the sand. You need to go through a higher bar of due diligence and all that. But once you've met this bar, everything inside is much easier for you.
SOV will be the first crypto that has all the wonderful benefits of crypto but could also become a global trading currency because it has all the network effect that fiat currency has.
GABY HEFFESSE: Hi, I'm Gaby Heffesse. I'm a public policy and political consultant for investors. Today, I'm about to sit down with Barak Ben-Ezer, who's helping the Marshall Islands launch the first ever sovereign cryptocurrency. We'll find out what he's doing, why he's doing it and what his vision is for the future with digital currency.
Barak, thank you so much for being here with us today. So, the Marshall Islands is launching the first sovereign cryptocurrency with your help. Can you tell us a little bit about this project?
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. So, basically, the idea here was to solve a big problem with crypto, that we all really- like Bitcoin. But Bitcoin and the other crypto assets, they have a problem, which they are like an island, and the island has its own activity and speculation going on all that stuff. But it's not really connected to the global, financial, economic and banking system. If the idea is to facilitate real commerce and financial use cases with crypto, you've got to find a way to integrate with the mainland of financial services, you cannot just remain an island.
And so, we start with the premise of why is crypto an island? Why is it in a way, ostracized from the mainstream system? And then how can we solve it? The conclusion we got to is that, A, crypto today, there's a lot of regulatory and legal ambiguity as to what is actually it's legal status. And if you ask the SEC, they would tell you it's a security. If you ask the CFTC, they would tell you it's a commodity. And the IRS would tell you actually, that's crypto or Bitcoin is a property. And so, if you do a simple transaction like buy a cup of coffee, let's say with your bitcoins, you need to pay capital gains on this transaction, which is a- forget about the taxes. It's a bookkeeping nightmare.
How do we solve that? We want to have regulatory clarity and to really know what is the legal status of this thing. So, basically said, they're going to put it in one of the baskets right, a security, a commodity, or something. What is the natural basket for a currency to legally be a currency? Now, turns out that then we ask ourselves, okay, what is the legal definition of a currency?
So, real money is defined by the FATF, the IMF, the IRS, et cetera, et cetera, as something which is a circulating legal tender of a sovereign nation. Basically, there's a monopoly only sovereign entities can issue currency. So, that was the premise of how we started, let's partner with a country. Let's be hired by a country that is interested in issuing a crypto legal tender.
GABY HEFFESSE: So, that already differentiates you from all the other cryptos because they're not breaking that definition that's established that you're partnering with a sovereign. So, that's one barrier that you've moved past.
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. That is why the currency is called The Sovereign or SOV.
I'm a public policy and political consultant for investors. Today, I'm about to sit down with Barak Ben-Ezer, who's helping the Marshall Islands launch the first ever sovereign cryptocurrency. We'll find out what he's doing, why he's doing it and what his vision is for the future with digital currency. Barak, thank you so much for being here with us today. So, the Marshall Islands is launching the first sovereign cryptocurrency with your help. Can you tell us a little bit about this project? BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. So, basically, the idea here was to solve a big problem with crypto, that we all really- like Bitcoin. But Bitcoin and the other crypto assets, they have a problem, which they are like an island, and the island has its own activity and speculation going on all that stuff. But it's not really connected to the global, financial, economic and banking system. If the idea is to facilitate real commerce and financial use cases with crypto, you've got to find a way to integrate with the mainland of financial services, you cannot just remain an island. And so, we start with the premise of why is crypto an island? Why is it in a way, ostracized from the mainstream system? And then how can we solve it? The conclusion we got to is that, A, crypto today, there's a lot of regulatory and legal ambiguity as to what is actually it's legal status. And if you ask the SEC, they would tell you it's a security. If you ask the CFTC, they would tell you it's a commodity. And the IRS would tell you actually, that's crypto or Bitcoin is a property. And so, if you do a simple transaction like buy a cup of coffee, let's say with your bitcoins, you need to pay capital gains on this transaction, which is a- forget about the taxes. It's a bookkeeping nightmare. How do we solve that? We want to have regulatory clarity and to really know what is the legal status of this thing. So, basically said, they're going to put it in one of the baskets right, a security, a commodity, or something. What is the natural basket for a currency to legally be a currency? Now, turns out that then we ask ourselves, okay, what is the legal definition of a currency? So, real money is defined by the FATF, the IMF, the IRS, et cetera, et cetera, as something which is a circulating legal tender of a sovereign nation. Basically, there's a monopoly only sovereign entities can issue currency. So, that was the premise of how we started, let's partner with a country. Let's be hired by a country that is interested in issuing a crypto legal tender. GABY HEFFESSE: So, that already differentiates you from all the other cryptos because they're not breaking that definition that's established that you're partnering with a sovereign. So, that's one barrier that you've moved past. BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. That is why the currency is called The Sovereign or SOV. GABY HEFFESSE: And why the Marshall Islands, though, why is that the first? Why does that make sense there? BARAK BEN-EZER: There's 196, sovereign nations in the world, it's very scarce. We have billions of people, you have millions of corporations and only 193 sovereign entities now, sorry, 196. And the biggest, let's say, threshold to be sovereign is if you are a voting member of the UN. So, we're looking for a country that was a voting member of the UN, that doesn't have its own currency. And that is small, because you got to be able to put all the right people in the same room in one week.
GABY HEFFESSE: I guess you didn't want to deal with the bureaucracy of a very, very big country?
BARAK BEN-EZER: Exactly. The goal was to make it happen in 2018, to prestidigitation. And lastly, it has to be a democracy. Because we want to deal with our agenda, we can identify with their values. And has good relationship with the United States. Because it's critical. After applying all those filters, the Marshall Islands was shining through. And it's a thriving democracy. They have even a woman president, and they have very good relationship with United States. They have even a comp of free association with America, the United States have a missile base over there, et cetera. They never had their own currency, they use the US dollar. And they're a member of the UN.
GABY HEFFESSE: Right. And do you also see the Marshall Islands as a place where the current system disadvantages them particularly more than in the US, for example? That the digital currency could help this current structure of the Marshall Islands more so than maybe within the United States for example?
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes, absolutely. So, one of the biggest benefits of cryptocurrencies is that they can really help people in developing nations that are unbanked, because the economics for banks to operate are sometimes- and other banks don't want to deal with people who have low income, for instance. And so, when you have a crypto wallet, it's like, level the playing field. Everybody can just download a crypto wallet and have and hold their money in that way.
GABY HEFFESSE: So, talk to me about a crypto wallet, how would I hold a crypto wallet?
BARAK BEN-EZER: The natural way to have crypto wallet today is on your phone. And the ways of having a smartphone today almost like you can get a Chinese Android for like less than 50 bucks today.
GABY HEFFESSE: So, you work with the Marshall Islands. Where are you today with that process?
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. So, after having moved to the Marshall Islands last year and spending months and months over there and ended up- the government their best legal tender legislation in the parliament. It's called The Sovereign Legal Tender Act. And now, there's the legal foundation to issue the world's first crypto legal tender. What we are doing now is developing the technology, the new type of blockchain that will basically facilitate this legal tender.
It's going to be very different than the blockchains we know today. Because when you're talking about government money that you want to have integrated with the global financial system, you got to have compliance built-in, you got to have real identity, it cannot be anonymous. Anybody who thinks that in a post-911 world, you can have a currency go mainstream that is anonymous and doesn't have a compliance measures, is probably putting their head in the sand.
GABY HEFFESSE: Right, it's ironic, because this whole crypto thing started as fraud and the anonymity and it was associated with crime. But really, it can actually help with that, because you have footprints and you can actually get rid of the anonymity. There's no reason for that to be a part of it.
BARAK BEN-EZER: Exactly. So, ask yourself, if you have nothing to hide, and most people who use crypto or invest in crypto, they don't really have anything to hide, then in that case, anonymity becomes a burden. And so, if we enable you to hold crypto that can easily be also deposited into a bank, then we have solved a big barrier for mainstream adoption. And so, if you take this decentralized database, which is essentially a blockchain that records all the transactions, and you overlay real identities on top of it that has been vetted with all the- to see that you're not some a terrorist or something like that, there's some approval process to be able to go into the system and start transacting, then you're actually creating- and you had obviously, a privacy layer, this is essential. Then you have actually created a system that is much more compliant than the- not only the current crypto that we have, but also the current banking system.
GABY HEFFESSE: So, tell me a little bit more about the privacy how that's different from our current system?
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. So, first, Bitcoin, for instance, it's pseudo anonymous, meaning that you have your public address, and you can look anonymous, but then once you do KYC, your public address is associated to a real identity. And then from that point on, you're actually completely exposed, and everybody knows all your transactions going backwards, and also in the future. And so, it's essential if you're going to combine identity with a blockchain system to also have privacy measures. Now, your privacy in the SOV system of the Marshall Islands is going to be maintained.
If there is some like a global, let's say, court order against you, then the regulators in the Marshall Islands might consider to leave the vet of anonymity from specific accounts and give this information to the law enforcement in that country that had this court order.
GABY HEFFESSE: Did you approach the Marshall Islands with this idea? What was their reaction when you said I want you to launch the world's first cryptocurrency? BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. So, first, when it started, everybody looked including family and friends thought that we went crazy. Yes, we're going to get a country to issue currency. Yes, good luck with that, Barak. But I really thought, and the people working with us, that it makes sense. It makes sense for crypto to have a crypto that's a legal tender, it makes sense for the global financial monetary system, and it would also make sense for the country because there's a lot of upside for them, because they're going to own most of these currency. And if it actually become a success, they're going to become- It's like they found digital gold on their islands.
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yes. So, first, when it started, everybody looked including family and friends thought that we went crazy. Yes, we're going to get a country to issue currency. Yes, good luck with that, Barak. But I really thought, and the people working with us, that it makes sense. It makes sense for crypto to have a crypto that's a legal tender, it makes sense for the global financial monetary system, and it would also make sense for the country because there's a lot of upside for them, because they're going to own most of these currency. And if it actually become a success, they're going to become- It's like they found digital gold on their islands. And so, I believe that if something makes sense, then it's bound to happen at one point of time, so why not give it a try? When we got to the Marshall Islands, initially, we pitched it to some of the ministers, the Minister of Finance, and also the minister and Assistant to the President, Mr. David Paul. And he got it immediately. Yeah. He was like, wow, that's amazing actually. It could really benefit our country, because we can become a global financial center, much like other island nations that became financial centers. But if you're going to become a financial center in the 21st century, everybody understand that the puck is going into blockchain and crypto, why not be the pioneer of that and be the trailblazers and capture all this value there?
GABY HEFFESSE: So, he became the main engine for pushing this through and getting a legislation?
BARAK BEN-EZER: Yeah, he was a big champion for that. But then it became like more and more people got into that in the Marshall Islands and became excited about it. And they understood how it could really benefit the country long term.
GABY HEFFESSE: But how long was this process?
BARAK BEN-EZER: It was months that we were living there full time, and not really communicating too much with the outer world, keeping it on the down until it actually happened. And the law eventually passed in end of February 2018. And at that point also, my co-founder, Dr. Peter Dittus joined us on the island. And Dr. Dittus was the former Secretary General of the BIS, the Bank of International Settlements, arguably the most senior monetary economist that has ever joined the blockchain project. But he recognized that there's a lot of things to be fixed in the global monitoring financial system. That's why he was excited about joining this project.
GABY HEFFESSE: So, geographically, the Marshall Islands is interesting for this project, right? Because one of the things you talk about is how there's what- 1000 little islands that make it up and there were four banks. So,