Marius Ferreira retweetledi

The South African government published draft regulations that would criminalize self-custody of Bitcoin. Border agents could demand your private keys. Treasury could force you to sell your Bitcoin back to rand. All holdings must be declared within 30 days. This happened by ministerial decree without a parliamentary vote.
Murray Rothbard described the state as nothing more than a gang of thieves writ large, legitimized through the mythology of democratic consent. South Africa's National Treasury demonstrates this perfectly. They are using a 93-year-old law from 1933 to regulate technology that didn't exist until 2009, overriding court rulings that said crypto assets fall outside exchange controls. The rand has lost 90% of its value in thirty years, and now they want to trap you inside their sinking currency.
They are doing this because of what economists call the Impossible Trinity. Any government can only maintain two of three things: stable exchange rates, free capital movement, or independent monetary policy. South Africa chose capital controls plus monetary independence, sacrificing your freedom to move money. Bitcoin breaks that equation. When you can custody your own wealth outside their system, their capital controls become meaningless.
Eleven million South Africans remain unbanked. For them, self-custodied Bitcoin is their bank. The same government claiming to care about financial inclusion just moved to criminalize the only viable savings technology these people can access. Bastiat would recognize the paradox: what is seen is "investor protection," what is unseen is the destruction of the only escape route from monetary theft.
The comment window closes May 16th. They are betting you won't notice until it's too late.

English




























