by James Corbett corbettreport.com December 14, 2019 I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in my 12 years of watching the news headlines for a living: Stories often pop up in mirror image pairs. Take these two recent stories, for example. One from the Department of (in)Justice: "Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Arrest Of United States Citizen For Assisting North Korea In Evading Sanctions." And the other courtesy of the Pentagon . . . uhhh, I mean, the MIT Technology Review: "China may be just about to launch its digital currency in two cities." Just glancing at the headlines, it would seem that these are two completely unrelated stories. But once we look at the details, we will see how these two tales represent a fork in the path. Down one path we can see the promise of currency decentralization and the real threat that it poses to the existing establishment. Down the other path lies a future in which all transactions are centralized once and for all, a nightmare of constant and total surveillance from which there will be no escape. Once we recognize this fork in the road for what it is, we can make an informed decision about which path we wish to follow. But we don't have long before this window of opportunity closes and the elitists choose our path for us. The problem, as usual, is that most people are unaware we are even at this fork in the path, let alone that we have a decision to make. So let's examine these stories and see what they tell us about where humanity is heading in the next decade. The press release from the DOJ tells the tale of Virgil Griffith, dastardly cryptocurrency enthusiast turned sanction-evading felon. As U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman helpfully explains: "As alleged, Virgil Griffith provided highly technical information to North Korea, knowing that this information could be used to help North Korea launder money and evade sanctions. In allegedly doing so, Griffith jeopardized the sanctions that both Congress and the president have enacted to place maximum pressure on North Korea’s dangerous regime." So what "highly technical information" did he supply the North Korean bogeymen with, precisely? Nothing less than information on "how to use blockchain technology to evade sanctions." Heavens to murgatroid! Shut the barn door! Won't someone think of the children? (etc.) Clearly this man needs to be shut in a prison for the rest of his natural life. Or at least the next 20 years, which is the maximum penalty for his egregious offense. But what was his offense, exactly? Surely they're not locking a man up for attending a technology conference, are they? Of course they are! But they don't really have the authority to do that, do they? Well, not really, but assuming you believe in The Most Dangerous Superstition, this is all perfectly legitimate. You see, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act holds that "United States Persons are prohibited from exporting any goods, services, or technology to the DPRK without a license from Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control." And, needless to say, Virgil Griffith did not have a license to attend that conference. In fact, if Griffith can be faulted for anything, it's that he not only made no effort whatsoever to hide his travel plans (even tweeting out a photograph of his DPRK visa), but actually asked the government for permission to go to North Korea, talked with the FBI after his trip, and even allowed them to inspect his cell phone. And his reward for all of this enthusiastic cooperation is a pit stop in prison on the way to a trial that could see him facing 20 years behind bars. And all of this because an Ethereum developer attended a conference called "The Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference" to talk about cryptocurrency. Strange, huh? Now let's contrast this with that other article we highlighted above, the one from MIT. This article tells the story of China's "digital currency electronic payment" system (DCEP), which promises to be the world's first digitized domestic currency. According to a report cited by MIT, the system could be operational by the end of the year and may be rolled out as a small-scale experiment in Shenzen before being introduced more broadly across the country next year. Details of what the DCEP will entail or how it will actually function, however, are sketchy at best. But don't worry, everyone. The Chinese government wants everyone to know that DCEP will come with "controllable anonymity." In case you're wondering what that means . . . well, keep wondering. But it probably doesn't mean actual anonymity. As the deputy director of the central bank’s payments department recently explained: "As long as you aren’t committing any crimes and you want to make purchases that you don’t want others to know about, we still want to protect this kind of privacy." Oh, great. So Big Brother will be looking over your shoulder at each and every one of your transactions to make sure you're not doing anything against the ChiComs' dictates, but don't worry, they totally won't tell your kids what you bought them for Christmas. That the world's first domestic digital currency would be used as a way to track each and every transaction of each and every citizens of that country is hardly surprising. In fact, as I've talked about many times before, the cashless society is the ultimate dream of the technocrats. This is why China is rushing headlong to implement it in their country first. It's why arch-bankster Mark Carney has taken to going around urging that a "Libra-like" currency replace the dollar as the world reserve currency. It's why the BIS and all their globalist bankster cronies have been showing such interest in digital national currencies in recent years. Now, some in the crowd may be asking why Uncle Sam is busy cracking down on cryptocurrency advocates at the same time that the globalists are pimping digital currencies. And that, my friend, is because The Bitcoin Psyop is complete. People who can't even set the time on their VCR (am I dating myself?) are unable to distinguish between permissionless, open, distributed cryptocurrencies and permissioned, closed, centralized digital currencies. If you're confused about the difference, don't worry; the BIS has a handy-dandy guide to all of this that definitely won't bore you to tears. Now, let's be clear: It is not Ethereum that the powers that shouldn't be are worried about. Nor is it Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash or Dash or any of the other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies that are currently available. None of them have yet delivered on the promise of an actually decentralized, truly anonymous, totally uncensorable currency for the masses. No, it is not one or the other of these particular cryptocurrencies that is threatening to the establishment. It isn't even the idea of cryptocurrency that's the threat. It's the idea that the public might actually one day contemplate the nature of the central bank-dominated fiat funny money system we currently live in and wonder if there are alternatives to it. That they might be tempted to start thinking about alternative currencies and complementary currencies and community currencies and cryptocurrencies and all the other ways that people can start to wean themselves off the bankster system. Because in the end, this isn't about stopping nations like North Korea from skirting sanctions and sending and receiving money without the consent of the global(ist) banking mafia. It's about stopping you from doing those things. So, my friends we arrive at the fork in the path. Down one route we see the promise of radical decentralization of everything, even currency itself. The banksters and their political puppets are so scared of the populace even attempting to explore these possibilities that they are willing to throw people in prison for simply talking about the existence of this technology. Down the other path is a world in which everything you do, every purchase you make, every transaction you conduct will be recorded and monitored in real time by Big Brother himself. But that path is so much easier, and it has so many shiny baubles and sleek iGoogads beckoning us on. The question is, which path are you going to take? Better hurry up and decide, though, because if you don't head down the decentralization path now you'll find that it's been walled off completely by the gatekeepers of the globalist world order.