Catalan Crypto?

October is ripe for revolution. When nature turns russet with age, the flush of changing seasons bud rising popular movements, chief among them the Bolshevik uprising in Russia in 1917. A century later sees a twist where communist collectivism breaks asunder in a world where all have a chance of individualism (at least in a cyber sense). It is the increasing ubiquity of the online world that has allowed individual chains to break; independent media permitted the rapid spread of information in ways controlled press of the past fear - hence the Fake News outbreak and attempted moral panic from Wall Street backed legacy media. The masses can see clearly now the rain editorialism has gone, which has reacted in a tremendous show of populism, from the mainstream and college "elites" failing to see Trump's rise last October, to the first country in Western Europe announcing independence, possibly since Ireland became independent from the United Kingdom: Catalonia.

At the start of this month, the Catalan region of Spain that has had an autonomous government more or less since the death of Francisco Franco held a referendum on whether the area should become independent from Spain. Despite repeated denouncements from Madrid, the vote went ahead and aside from the allegations that a small percentage turned out, 90% of Catalans who voted favoured independence. During referendum day the Catalan people met fierce resistance from the national police, resulting in violence erupting between forces and locals. The disruption still never stopped the Catalan parliament acting on the vote by attempting to have talks with the Madrid government that failed to transpire, leading to the Catalan parliament and its President - Carles Puigdemont - declaring independence. In response, the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy acted on the rest of Spain's view that Catalan's self-determination is illegal (along with the Spanish King Felipe VI, the EU and even the UK) stripping Catalonia of self-rule.

The EU made their play from the start, announcing that Catalonia could not join the EU as a nation in its own right, which puts Catalonia in quite a Catch 22 for existence. As a nation held to ransom by Madrid and the wider continent, Catalonia is barred from using the Euro as a currency (even though non-EU member Andorra uses the Euro) - a potential boon due to the severe strain and debt on the currency - so where to turn for a nation urging citizens to resist Madrid repression peacefully? The Peseta? Perhaps not, maybe the first wealthy nation to spawn in the 21st century should look to a 21st-century currency instead, to break with centralisation and globalisation?

Crytocurrency's success almost runs concurrently with a populist uprising from the US to Eastern Europe; Bitcoin has recently broken through the $6,000 barrier, with some predicting that Bitcoin will soon peak $10,000! Many are getting their fingers into the crypto pie, with even tech giants like Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, stating Bitcoin's value might exceed that of gold, contrary to the views of Warren Buffett who likened Bitcoin to a "real bubble," even though he was wrong about Google and Amazon! In a time when the traditional protectionist elite establishment have turned their back on a nascent nation (would they have said this with Scotland?) perhaps cryptocurrencies could permit Catalonia to exist outside that bubble?

The Catalan digital office director has visited Estonia; the former Soviet nation is considering establishing its national Blockchain based digital currency, Estcoin and if Catalonia has no central bank, they might have to consider such an option. One can see why the old guard of the financial dinosaurs such as Warren Buffett would start to panic when a new nation doesn't have to play ball with the Wall Street elite, the EU cartel (the European Central Bank) has already issued warnings against Estonia's plans for Estcoin. However, hopefully, such censure will not deter these ideas from entering a brave new world, the age of Wall Street and co. making up debts and crippling economies is waning, you know it, they know it, Barcelona may soon herald this see change.