Israel and Crypto
Many see the recent tensions between United States and China as posing a crisis for the State of Israel.
While Washington has at times pressured Jerusalem to pursue policies inconsistent with Jewish national interests, Israel can’t easily go full anti-imperialist and join forces with Beijing and the Global South given that Iran is currently part of that Axis. If the Jewish state were to become a potent force against imperialism in the world – as Sternist leaders imagined it would – it might lack firm ground to stand on before breaking free from the anti-Semitic “middle agent oppressor” role.
In order for Jerusalem to have room to maneuver geopolitically, there must be a third pole.
Tech mogul Balaji Srinivasan recently released a book titled “The Network State” as a manifesto for creating Crypto-based alternatives to the nation-state. The idea is that individuals and companies could organize themselves online and attain international recognition of their sovereignty. It’s generally thought that they could amass financial and social power significant enough to be deemed independent formations.
In the past two years, Balaji’s movement has amassed thousands of followers and entrepreneurs who are already building thousands of these network states.
In a chapter titled “NYT, CCP, BTC” (“New York Times [vs. the] Chinese Communist Party [vs.] Bitcoin”), we’re presented with the notion that there will now emerge a tripolar world order whereby Bitcoin (now becoming worth roughly 2 Trillion Dollars in market capitalization), along with its related Cryptocurrencies, could become a more powerful force on the global stage by utilizing these new network states.
Many in the Vision community have long noted the need for Israel to free itself of American control. While many have argued that Washington’s leverage over Jerusalem lies in its military aid, others see Uncle Sam’s leverage more in defending Israel from threats of international sanctions. We’ve seen these threats increase during the course of Israel’s current war with Iran and its regional proxies.
There was a recent ruling in the US regarding a cryptocurrency protocol called Tornado Cash (a protocol for anonymizing transactions), which determined that the US government does not have the authority to enforce against cryptocurrency protocols.
Countries in the Global South have thus turned to Tornado Cash as a way to relieve the impact of sanctions.
Torah
What does Israel’s Torah have to say about a cryptocurrency revolution coming to the aid of the Jewish people?
The last verse in Sefer Malakhi talks about what will happen just prior to the final redemption. Commentators have wondered what was the meaning of this word “Ḥerem” (it could mean destruction but it could also mean sanctions or boycott). We see in the verse that Israel may be hit with a Ḥerem.
Is it possible that the prophet is talking about the success of the BDS movement against Israel? And if so, can the proliferation of cryptocurrency in Israel be the answer to this Ḥerem?
Many Jews have been conditioned to think of Israel’s redemption as being an erntirely spiritual event. But we must remind ourselves that the first mention of redemption in our Torah appears in Yosef’s dreams: dreams of wheat and farming that we could understand as symbolizing material success.
We can also look to the Talmud for its description of redemption. Sanhedrin 97a informs us that within the span of a few short years there will be a transition from having arrows of famine shot at us to enjoying great wealth.
Reserve Currency
We are taught by the prophet Mikha that the final redemption will mirror the redemption from Egypt. The Torah shows us that Israel went forth from Egypt with great wealth.
Investor Ray Dalio has written in his recent book, “The Changing World Order,” that the current tensions between the US and China (plus the Global South) will likely result in the emergence of a new reserve currency. He notes that this transition may take place at a rapid pace.
While legacy financiers often scoff at the notion of a crypto-reserve, US President Donald Trump’s recent designation of various entrepreneurial coins as a reserve could beg the question of whether or not an entrepreneurial reserve currency could become the next contender.
This of course leaves us with an important question: if the redemption process is meant to place the nation of Israel at the center of world events, why should Israel not host the next reserve currency?
