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News Bitcoin - Bitcoin Drives Revolution and ‘Startup Government’ for Syrian Kurds

Amir Taaki, the developer of DarkMarket/OpenBazaar and Dark Wallet, seemed to disappear from the Internet in early 2015. Why? Speculation on the Bitcointalk forum ranged from suicide to fighting with or against ISIS.

“Rojava’s [Syrian Kurdistan] under embargo, so there’s no way to move money in or out. So we have to actually create our own Bitcoin economies. Now we have a technological tool for people to freely organise outside state system. Because it is a currency not controlled by central banks.” — Amir Taaki

READ MORE >>> https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-revolution-startup-government-syrian-kurds/ (https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-revolution-startup-government-syrian-kurds/)

Surely Bitcoin can be of big help for people who are fighting the government in Syria. I heard so many things about Syria and how their own government was using chemical warfare to kill people. It is a very sad situation to be in and we are all weeping for the hopeless and helpless children crushed by opposing forces around them. When will the fighting will end is something beyond anybody's ability to predict as this is getting to be a colossal proxy war. Bringing the technology of Bitcoin to the area can test how the currency can be of big use in times of conflict and chaos.

Bitcoin allows you to transact outside the banking and governmental system, but the thing is, you still rely on internet to transact. Exactly there lies another point, who controls the mobile carriers and ISP's, has the power to put a stop to all of this. If the internet there is shut down completely, the economy there, which already is the case for a large part, will be a physical (cash) money economy.

I'm finding it hard to tell the difference between lies and the truth with the swirling masses of claims and counter-claims that come out of Syria.

The conclusion for me is that I can't either believe or disbelieve any of it, and I'm getting the feeling that that's the whole point. There is pretty good evidence to suggest that the Shanghai Co-operation Pact side (China, Russia, Iran etc) are equally as malevolent as the NATO side. Some even say the 2 are working together, and I can see the argument for that, but the evidence is not there.


And why should we be surprised? In the age of abundant information, pumping the world full to bursting point with information that's weird or difficult to interpret is an obvious resort of those that don't want the truth to be known (which has the useful side-effect of heightening tensions). "Cursed is the man who lives in interesting times" is the expression that come most readily to mind. We are slowly descending into full-on overt Orwellianism, and it's likely going to get worse before it gets better. Prepare accordingly.

The article is ridiculous. The headline claims to explain what Taaki did in Rojava but there are only a couple of cites copied and pasted from old statements and interviews probably found in Google and an outdated (and failed) crowdfunding campaign. The rest of the article is filled with the author's personal opinion about Rojava.

Nothing to see here, unfortunately. It could have been an interesting topic to research, as Bitcoin could be an interesting tool for regions in conflict. But I think if you search good journalism on Bitcoin.com, you're probably searching on the wrong place.

Taaki's a strange character IMO.

He gets alot of publicity, through very mainstream establishment channels, and always as a poster-boy for "darkweb anarchy" and "flaky drugged-up intellectualism" (somewhat like Bitcointalk users iamnotback, trainscarwreck and dinofelis; all meandering talk and no action). And I think that's because he's playing the perfect role that the establishment media prefer to present when it comes to self determined crpytographic tools (like Bitcoin) and anarchism; the BBC can put him on a news magazine as a talking head, looking strung-out and sounding jsut that little bit incomprehensible and incoherent. That's goin to be unappealing to some, and perhaps even frightening, and certainly elicits a "change the station" response from such people. I seem to remember Amir Taaki forming a part of a Guardian article doing the same. I have been comporting myself increasingly dapper and clean shaven ever since, I'm considering beginning to wear full on Carlton turtle necks and bow ties, not even joking.


Is Amir Taaki a knowing dis-info agent though? He'd have to be a fairly extraordinary actor if so, so I'd lean towards him being a "useful idiot", as the intelligence services parlance goes. Even still, it's yet another reflection of Plato's allegory of the Cave, which is fast resembling a hall of mirrors the more I look. At the least, Amir Taaki is a self selected shadow against the wall of the establishment-run theatre that imprisons our interpretations of the world we live in.