#845 We Should Not Normalize Economic War On Innocent Civilians

This episode is a little different than the usual podcast format. There is no guest. Instead, I will share a couple of thoughts I have around a specific topic. Today I discuss the long-term implications and risks to the United States Dollar from the recent financial sanctions. While strategic in the short-term, removing Russia from the global financial system presents a threat to the U. S. Dollar as the global reserve currency. ======================= Bitcoin 2022 is the LARGEST Bitcoin event in the world that takes place April 6th - 9th in Miami Beach, Florida. All four days will be jammed-packed with exclusive content, exciting announcements and an incredible lineup of bitcoin speakers, artists and leaders. Day 1 is INDUSTRY DAY for enterprising bitcoiners who are looking to build a business or career within the ecosystem. Days 2 and 3 are general conference days featuring speakers like El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, CEOs like Michael Saylor, Elizabeth Stark, Jack Mallers, Adam Back and hundreds more. The conference caps off on the fourth day with the world's first and largest Bitcoin Music Festival - Sound Money Fest headlined by rapper and fellow bitcoiner Logic, featuring artists K. Flay, MØ, Royal & the Serpent, Apashe, Asadi and more. Stay tuned for the upcoming lineup announcement! Last year’s conference SOLD OUT and this year’s is on pace to be 3x larger so make sure you grab your tickets before it's too late. Visit b.tc/conference to learn more. Ticket prices increase on JAN 14th, use promo code POMP for 10% off and I will see you in Miami!ire ecosystem bringing utility to #NFTs. ======================= Brave Wallet is the first secure crypto wallet built natively in a web3 crypto browser. No extension required. Store, manage, and grow your portfolio, get NFT & multi-chain support, and more. Download the Brave privacy browser at brave.com/Pomp, and click the wallet icon to get started. =======================

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Today's episode takes a look at the Russia-Ukraine conflict and how the various financial systems, both the legacy and new digital financial systems, treat everyday, average, innocent Russian citizens. I hope that you enjoy this episode. It gives you a lot to think about. But before we get into this episode, I want to quickly talk about our sponsors. Today's episode is sponsored by the Bitcoin 2022 Conference. Bitcoin 2022 is the largest Bitcoin event in the world that takes place April 6th through the 9th in Miami Beach, Florida. All four days will be jam-packed with exclusive content, exciting

• 0:44Anthony Pompliano?

  announcements, and an incredible lineup of Bitcoin speakers, artists, and leaders. Day one is Industry Day for enterprising Bitcoiners who are looking to build a business or career within the ecosystem. Days two and three are General Conference Days, featuring speakers like El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, CEOs like Michael Saylor, Elizabeth Stark, Jack Mahlers, Adam Back, and hundreds more. The conference caps off on the fourth day with the world's first and largest Bitcoin music festival, Sound Money Fest, headlined by rapper and fellow Bitcoiner Logic, featuring artists K. Flay, Mo, Royal, and The Serpent, Apache, Asadi, and more. Stay tuned for the upcoming lineup announcement. Last year's conference sold out, and this year's is on pace to be three times larger, so make sure

• 1:25Anthony Pompliano?

  you grab your tickets before it's too late. Visit b.tc/conference to learn more. Again, that's b.tc/conference to learn more. Ticket prices increase on January 14th. Use promo code POMP for 10% off, and I will see you in Miami. Today's episode is brought to you by Fundrise. You all know I believe that the best investors both understand and seek out extreme asymmetry. Fundrise is here to help you do just that. It's the largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform out there, giving you the opportunity to achieve upside of an asset class previously reserved for institutions and high-net worth individuals. That's right, Fundrise is making high-end, private-market real estate investing accessible to everyone via an easy-to-use automated platform. Its 1 million users already

• 2:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Know that the investment with Fundrise is capable of producing strong appreciation returns and income generation while helping to stabilize a diversified portfolio. That's more important now than ever in our inflationary environment. See for yourself how over 190,000 other investors have built a better portfolio with private real estate. It takes just a few minutes to get started with as little as $10. Go to fundrise.com/pomp today and for a limited time, you'll get $10 when you place your first investment. Again, that's fundrise.com/pomp. Go check it out and when you make your first investment, they'll give you $10 on top of it. Fundrise.com/pomp. Today's episode is brought to you by Brave. Brave Wallet is the first secure crypto wallet built natively in a Web3 crypto browser. What's Web3?

• 2:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Web3 is freedom from big tech and Wall Street. More control and better privacy. But there's a weak point in Web3, your crypto wallet. Most wallets are browser extensions, a Web2 technology. That means the same old risks, app spoofing, phishing scams and theft. Brave Wallet is different. Brave Wallet is the first secure wallet built natively in a Web3 crypto browser. No extension required. With Brave Wallet, you can buy, store, send and swap assets, manage NFTs, even connect other wallets and dApps. All from the security of the best privacy browser on the market. Whether you're new to crypto or a seasoned pro, it's time to ditch those risky extensions. It's time to switch to Brave Wallet. Download Brave at brave.com/pomp and click the wallet icon to get started.

• 3:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Again, go download Brave at brave.com/pomp and click the wallet icon to get started. All right, let's get into this episode. I hope you guys enjoy this one.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 4:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Good morning, everyone. Bang, bang. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to a flurry of financial sanctions from the United States and their allies over the last week. These actions include cutting Russian banks off from SWIFT, seizing the assets of various Russian oligarchs, outlawing US citizens and companies from transacting with Russia's central bank, and much more. Sanctions are levied during times of conflict to apply pressure to the leadership of our adversaries, but they accomplish this goal by actually cutting the average citizen off from the global financial system. Nearly 150 million Russian citizens have watched their savings evaporate as the ruble is in a freefall. Their stocks are inaccessible since the stock market was shut down due to high volatility, and they cannot withdraw or spend majority of their money due to sanctions and self-imposed

• 4:54Anthony Pompliano?

  limits by the banks. It should go without saying, but there is an incredible amount of inhumanity that goes into the decision to cut off the average citizen from the global financial system. What was their crime? Being born in the wrong city? This is obviously a complex issue, and there is a strong argument for why sanctions are being pursued, but it is essential that we remember that financial censorship hurts the individuals who have no say, and usually no desire, to engage in this violent conflict. So why am I writing or talking about this? There was an interesting development in the last 48 hours that highlights one of the key differences between the legacy financial system and the new digital financial system. Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Fedorov asked major crypto exchanges on Sunday to block

• 5:38Anthony Pompliano?

  all Russian users from using their platforms, regardless of whether they were accused of participating in any crimes or not. This request was followed up on Monday with a similar request from the White House's National Security Council and the Treasury Department to major crypto exchanges. As of this writing, all major crypto exchanges have stated that they will not cut off the average Russian citizen from using their products to buy, sell, or store Bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies. The largest crypto exchange in the world, Binance, stated that they are "not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users' accounts." The company's spokesperson explained to CNBC that crypto is meant to provide greater financial freedom for people around the globe.

• 6:22Anthony Pompliano?

  To unilaterally decide to ban people's access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists.

• 6:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Kraken CEO Jesse Powell publicly stated that his platform quote "cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so" end quote. He continued with the following explanation quote "our mission at Kraken is to build..." "our mission at Kraken is to bridge individual humans out of the legacy financial system and bring them into the world of crypto where arbitrary lines on maps no longer matter, where they don't have to worry about being caught in broad indiscriminate wealth confiscation. Our mission is better served by focusing on individual needs above those of any government or political faction. Besides, if we were going to voluntarily freeze financial accounts

• 7:10Anthony Pompliano?

  of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, step one would be to freeze all US accounts. That's a practical matter that's not really a viable business option for us" end quote. Now this situation continues to evolve, but as of right now, it is quite telling that the crypto companies are refusing to shut off access to the digital financial system at the same time that the legacy financial system is kicking innocent citizens out. There's a belief in the legacy world that financial freedom should only be afforded to those that act a certain way, subscribe to a certain worldview, and support those that monopolize the system. It is clear that the true test of free speech is to defend the speech of those you disagree with. In that vein, the true test of financial freedom

• 7:53Anthony Pompliano?

  is to defend the right to transact for the citizens that live in a country you disagree with. In some way, the countries that are levying sanctions right now are destroying the lives of almost 150 million innocent people, which is equivalent to just under 50% of the US population. There are reasons why these countries are doing this, but we wouldn't wage violent war on innocent citizens, so why are we okay with waging economic war on them? The idea of waging economic war against innocent civilians has been normalized over the last two decades, but that doesn't make it right. Regardless of how unpopular an opinion it is, we must continue to have the courage to call out the intentional infliction of pain on those Russian citizens who are also against the invasion of Ukraine. Ultimately, we are watching the divergence of two financial systems.

• 8:38Anthony Pompliano?

  The legacy infrastructure is built and run by a group of financial firms who are susceptible to the whims of their governments. The new infrastructure is built on open source software that is run by no single individual or organization. The decentralized nature leads to a different outcome in these situations. The Bitcoin and crypto industry has long promoted the idea of financial freedom and inclusion. For example, Bitcoin is now the only global payment system that won't discriminate against anyone, regardless of their race, nationality, religion, politics, or actions. We are seeing these theories get put to the test in real time over the last week or so. So far, so good. We must continue to focus on our principles, resist the urge to pursue the easy path, and

• 9:21Anthony Pompliano?

  remind ourselves that hundreds of millions of people around the world are relying on this new digital infrastructure to have any semblance of a normal life. Hope you guys have a great day, and I'll talk to everyone tomorrow. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Make sure you subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. And if you're looking to try to transition to get a new job in the Bitcoin or crypto industry, we've got you covered. Head over to pompscryptocourse.com. We've developed a curriculum with the top teams across the industry. It's a three-week intensive training program with over 50 events packed into that three-week time period. Go to pompscryptocourse.com to learn more, and I'll meet you guys for the next episode.