US Pentagon Created A War Game To Fight The Establishment With BTC #GotBitcoin #BitcoinFixesThis

Documents reveal the Pentagon created a war game in which players were rewarded in Bitcoin for taking down financial institutions. US Pentagon Created A War Game To Fight The Establishment With BTC #GotBitcoin #BitcoinFixesThis

In the midst of ongoing protests across the United States, some turned violent by police brutality, one publication has uncovered information on a Pentagon war game created in 2018 that has an uncanny resemblance to current events.

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The Weaponization of Bitcoin And Global Finance

According to a June 6 article on The Intercept, documents reveal the United States Pentagon created a game called the 2018 Joint Land, Air and Sea Strategic Special Program (JLASS). In the scenario, members of Generation Z — people born starting in the mid-1990s — are rewarded in Bitcoin (BTC) for their efforts starting a rebellion, i.e. “Zbellion”.

Players in the fictitious United States in the 2020s are given the proceeds of their attacks on target corporations, financial institutions, and political and non-profit organizations that support “the establishment” in the cryptocurrency.

According to the document, “Zbellion uses software programs to route any proceeds into laundering programs that ultimately convert national currencies into Bitcoin” and makes “small, below the threshold donations” to “worthy recipients”, including members who conduct the attacks or have a financial need.

Echoes Of The Real 2020s

Though purportedly created in 2018 — before the coronavirus pandemic and the rising authoritarianism of Trump and his supporters in Congress — the backstory of the game resembles the current forces driving some towards cryptocurrency in the United States.

The JLASS cites governments providing “erroneous or misleading information into official websites intended to confuse citizens and create mistrust” while citizens lose faith in traditional information networks. The scenario accurately describes Trump’s attempts to use social media to obfuscate the truth.

Meanwhile, the Zbellion begins with rallies and protests to “expose injustice and corruption”. People across the country are currently gathering in major cities to demand justice for the police murder of African-American George Floyd.

Protesting With Bitcoin

In the actual 2020s, it’s not just the youngest generation moving towards crypto in response to “a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity”.

Cointelegraph has reported on how Bitcoin can be a tool for protesters of all ages against financial institutions. One crypto YouTuber even moved to Saipan to escape the “totalitarian tyranny” he predicted was about to occur in America.

Updated: 11-22-2019

Harvard University Stages ‘Digital Currency Wars’ Crisis Simulation (#GotBitcoin)

Harvard University’s Kennedy School carried out a live simulation of a White House National Security Council meeting on Nov. 19, featuring former senior administration officials and thought leaders. The “Digital Currency Wars” event examined a potential future scenario, following a North Korean missile test, potentially enabled by China’s proposed digital yuan.

If Economic Sanctions Fail, How Will The U.S. Wield Power?

The simulation was set two years in the future, with China’s digital yuan having theoretically been launched 20 months previously. The digital yuan has risen to not only dominate the Chinese domestic payments space, but its ease of use and the Belt and Road Initiative is seeing adoption spread across South East Asia.

The game includes a newsflash of a North Korean missile test, more advanced than Washington had believed, and thought to have been funded through U.S. sanction avoidance via the use of the digital yuan.

With sanctions failing, the Security Council meeting discussed options to put to the president.

United States Becomes Reliant On Chinese Cooperation

One of the key points put forward was that the U.S. would at this point be reliant on the Chinese. The simulated Treasury Secretary pointed out:

“We will not successfully starve North Korea economically without the cooperation of China, and certainly not if it is their objective to see us fail.”

He also pointed out the 30 years of history in which the U.S. had not been successful in persuading China to use its leverage.

The meeting was interrupted mid-way through with another newsflash, this time revealing that the SWIFT system had been cyber-attacked and $3 billion stolen from commercial banks in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

An Interesting Thought Experiment

The eventual recommendations which the group decided to put forward to the president hinged on measures attempting to prevent a bifurcation of the global economy.

The weaponization of SWIFT was proving less effective, although some at the meeting still seemed intent on hardening the system and relying on existing strategies. The more forward-thinking attendees felt that more should be done to ensure the U.S. had a similar digital currency capacity, to resuscitate its financial power.

This included the option of putting diplomatic pressure on China to cooperate, use electronic intelligence to highlight North Korea’s sanction breaking, or develop its own digital dollar competitor. The threat of military pressure was also considered as a less desirable option.

Dollar Dominance Threatened

As American policymakers increasingly engage with the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, several lawmakers have called for rapid regulation and legal certainty for the nascent technology and digital assets, so as not to fall too far behind more lenient jurisdictions.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, the number of Chinese blockchain patents now numbers in the upper 7,000s, outstripping the U.S. over three times.

Updated: 6-26-2024

Evolve Bank & Trust Confirms Data Was Stolen In Cyber Attack

* The Bank Said The Hacking Incident Has Been ‘Contained’

* Data Posted On LockBit Dark-web Site After Claims of Fed Hack

Evolve Bank & Trust confirmed it was the victim of a cyber attack and that customer data had been posted on the dark web, less than two weeks after the Arkansas-based lender was ordered by regulators to improve its risk management and get approval before entering into any new partnerships.

The Russian-linked hacker group LockBit 3.0 on Tuesday posted data taken from Evolve’s systems after claiming earlier in the week that it had hacked the US Federal Reserve, giving US officials until Tuesday afternoon to pay an undisclosed amount in exchange for the information purportedly stolen from the central bank’s systems.

So far, it does not appear that any sensitive data from the Fed has been released by the group.

A spokesperson for Evolve said in an email that the incident has been contained and the company is currently investigating the situation with “appropriate law enforcement authorities.” The bank also said it will offer all affected customers complimentary credit monitoring with identity theft protection services.

It’s still unclear exactly what information was included in the data, which Evolve said was stolen by a “known cybercriminal organization” without naming LockBit.

The disclosure of the hack follows a June 14 wide-ranging cease-and-desist order issued by the Federal Reserve and the Arkansas State Bank Department to Evolve Bank & Trust and its parent, Evolve Bancorp Inc., after examiners discovered shortcomings in the bank’s oversight of partnerships with financial-technology companies and anti-money laundering requirements.

Following the order, a spokesperson for the bank said it had “made significant investments in technology and personnel” to strengthen oversight and “enhance the risk framework,” Bloomberg Law reported.

Evolve is best known for its partnerships with fintechs, which rely on traditional institutions to offer bank-like services to customers and recently have fallen under closer scrutiny by regulators. West Memphis, Arkansas-based Evolve works with popular fintechs including Affirm Holdings Inc., Marqeta Inc., Dave Inc. and others.

Evolve was one of four banks that teamed up with Synapse Financial Technologies Inc., the Andreessen Horowitz-backed fintech that filed for bankruptcy protection in April.

Synapse, a “banking as a service” provider that worked as a middleman between banks and fintechs, partnered with approximately 100 fintechs covering around 10 million customers, according to bankruptcy court filings.

Jelena McWilliams, the former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman serving as the bankruptcy trustee, estimated that the shortfall in end-user funds ranges between $65 million and $95 million, according to a June 13 status report filed with the bankruptcy court.

Lockbit 3.0, the hacking group behind the Evolve leak, functions as a ransomware-as-a-service gang, in which members lease their technical tools to affiliates and demand a cut of any extortion payments.

The group posted the Evolve information on a darkweb forum tied to Lockbit, a prolific ransomware gang that has received millions of dollars in payments following attacks on thousands of victims, including the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Boeing Co and the UK’s Royal Mail. By 2022, the group had rebranded itself as LockBit 3.0.

In February, law enforcement agencies from 11 countries – led by the UK’s National Crime Agency and aided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations – seized LockBit’s technical tools in an operation that targeted its malware deployment system.

But the group’s hacking tools have remained widely used since they were leaked to the public in 2022, and members of the group are believed to remain active.

The compromised information included tax identification numbers, as well as wires and settlements, linked to people who have directly and indirectly worked with Evolve, according to Dirce E. Hernandez, a cybersecurity expert with experience in insurance and financial services who has spoken to analysts familiar with the data.

“From an end user and customer perspective, it’s about as bad as it gets,” Hernandez said. Criminals could use leaked social security and permanent account numbers to steal people’s identities and extort them, he added.

Bloomberg couldn’t immediately verify the authenticity of the leaked information after viewing it on LockBit 3.0’s website.

The release of the Evolve data on the LockBit website suggests some of the group’s core actors could have been behind the hack, said Brett Callow, a threat researcher at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. Still, the lack of a release of genuine Fed data suggests that the group is “dead in the water,” Callow added.

“The Fed claim was really a desperate play to stay relevant,” he said.

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