I don't see how it makes sanctions useless if you can't buy actual stuff with your bitcoins -- you still have to transport goods and services in the real world, which is where the sanctions are applied. You can already dodge the dollar and the international banking system if you pay in gold, drugs or just some other currency, bitcoin is less secure than that
It's about money transfer. It doesn't matter if you can buy things directly with Bitcoin, it's that you can pay someone cash for Bitcoin, take your wallet somewhere else (say to a bad country like Russia or Iran) and sell it there without having to interact with the American banking system. Bitcoin is far less risky than gold or drugs - theoretically you could just memorize your seed phrase and not have to carry anything at all on you vs. the physical burden of gold or drugs. They don't care about you doing whatever with your dollars really, they care about not being able to sanction Russian companies or other states the US might set its sights on.
That's nice if you're a person or group trying to launder money, but I still don't see how it would help Iran or Russia or Cuba dodge sanctions? How would Cuba buy syringes with bitcoin?
Only thing I could think of is that it allows the accumulating of enough wealth, while dodging the obvious hardships that comes with trying to run gold or other shit, to allow sanctioned countries to purchase not just needed supplies but also the infrastructure and defenses to move those supplies. As in building or purchasing your own barges and navy to move goods to and from your country.
Obviously that's both far out in terms of planning, implementation, and reality. But it's a possibility at least.
I don't see how it makes sanctions useless if you can't buy actual stuff with your bitcoins -- you still have to transport goods and services in the real world, which is where the sanctions are applied. You can already dodge the dollar and the international banking system if you pay in gold, drugs or just some other currency, bitcoin is less secure than that
It's about money transfer. It doesn't matter if you can buy things directly with Bitcoin, it's that you can pay someone cash for Bitcoin, take your wallet somewhere else (say to a bad country like Russia or Iran) and sell it there without having to interact with the American banking system. Bitcoin is far less risky than gold or drugs - theoretically you could just memorize your seed phrase and not have to carry anything at all on you vs. the physical burden of gold or drugs. They don't care about you doing whatever with your dollars really, they care about not being able to sanction Russian companies or other states the US might set its sights on.
That's nice if you're a person or group trying to launder money, but I still don't see how it would help Iran or Russia or Cuba dodge sanctions? How would Cuba buy syringes with bitcoin?
Only thing I could think of is that it allows the accumulating of enough wealth, while dodging the obvious hardships that comes with trying to run gold or other shit, to allow sanctioned countries to purchase not just needed supplies but also the infrastructure and defenses to move those supplies. As in building or purchasing your own barges and navy to move goods to and from your country.
Obviously that's both far out in terms of planning, implementation, and reality. But it's a possibility at least.