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Comment by MASNeo | Hacker News Reader

Why is everyone obsessed with US military when the news seems to be Bitcoin? Just like that the US Dollar suffered because clearly a crypto currency may well become what the US Dollar was, a commodity to exchange value in a way that nobody can reasonably refuse. Whether that is for better or worse, I think that is bigger news then whose got the bigger gun.

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The problem with bitcoin for this-it is very traceable. The US government can declare paying Iran Hormuz “insurance” to be a sanctions violation (they probably already have). Any Western company - even non-US - paying this “insurance” will be faced with the full ire of the US government.

I guess it might work if shipping company is non-Western (such as Chinese or Russian) - but I’m not sure what the advantage of bitcoin is in that case, as opposed to simply paying in yuan or rubles

How does it matter that it's traceable? Everyone knows the ships going in and out thanks to AIS. Many of these ships are already either falsely flagged, sanctioned, or just Iranian flagged. And as far as paying in rubles or yuan, this tells me that Iran doesn't think the shipping companies are willing to pay in either or think there's a safe/effective way to accept payment through those currencies.

I'm curious what makes your think these ships are unknown. There are 2 blockades in place and suspicion of mines in the conventional shipping route through Omani controlled waters.

The significance of being traceable is simply that US could tell you to not abide by Iran's insurance scheme by threatening sanctions if you do.

Whereas if it's not traceable then all that others know is that your ship got through the strait and there's at least some plausible deniability of why it got through

Iran is already sanctioned. The actors willing to ignore the US's feedback on Iran's insurance plans are already not playing by US rules. This is insurance for the shipping companies that are already operating on sanctioned fleet and oil.

More than USA would sanction you if you start paying terrorists to pass a strait, none of the big players wants that.

I think this is more due to the fact that the Iranian currency has completely collapsed.

It is bigger news indeed. I think previously China and Saudi were settling their account deficit with gold, a big airplane load every now and then.

One thing I'd wonder is whether using bitcoin actually involves real de-dollarization. Most stable coin is dollar based and other stable-coin don't seem like strong US competitors. China bans bitcoin trading so any Yuan/rmb based stable coin is marginal. So bitcoin seems strongly related to dollars.

They are using Bitcoin exactly for what it's good at, which is to support sanctioned regimes against the interests of the West. We've seen Russia and North Korea siphon money from gullible Bitcoin promoters this way, and now Iran is getting in on the action.

I would have thought so too, but the current bitcoin prices do not suggest the market agrees?

Because people are not going to pay this. The US will block or even seize the ships that pay Iran fees, whether in Bitcoin or other currencies. Iran isn't the only one who can close the strait.

> Why is everyone obsessed with US military

Shock of the unsavvy

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