LIBERTY DOLLAR RESURRECTED AS CRYPTOCURRENCY

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 25, June 24, 2018, Article 40

The Liberty Dollar has been resurrected as a cryptocurrency. A press release published June 18, 2018 announces LD2, a cryptocoin backed by precious metal assets. Here's an excerpt. -Editor

Long before Bitcoin, back in 1998, Bernard von NotHaus developed the asset-backed Liberty Dollar (LD) into the most successful alternative/digital currency, behind only the US Dollar. This resulted in over $50 million dollars of gold and silver-backed currency entering circulation and ultimately three federal convictions of counterfeiting as “current money”. Instead of life in prison, he served a short probation with house arrest and eventually the federal judge forced the FBI to return virtually all of the seized $7 million in silver to their rightful owners. After that almost ten-year legal saga, Bernard von NotHaus was a free citizen in December 2015. And today the Liberty Dollar legacy lives on in the new asset-backed cryptocurrency, LD2!

LD2 is a cryptocurrency poised to bring old-school, value-based monetary principles to modernday cryptocurrencies. Developed by Bernard’s son, Extra von NotHaus, and a Currency Officer of LD, Steven Brendtro, LD2 mirrors the original Liberty Dollar in that every digital token is backed by real, physical, precious metals. Custom minted one troy ounce silver LD2 coins are stored in a secure vault, backing up every single digital LD2 token issued. According to cofounder Extra von NotHaus, “LD2 is reimagining my father’s very successful concept of an asset-backed currency by bringing it into the modern technological paradigm of blockchain, which significantly improves the functionality and utility.”

All digital tokens issued by LD2 can be redeemed for the actual minted silver coins with true market value. Enhancing the versatility and usefulness of LD2 is its integration of the Ethereum blockchain technology, making it easy for existing cryptocurrency users to jump on board. Unlike the more common security-based Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) that are in the news almost everyday, these are actual hard, physical assets, tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain. This innovative precious-metal-backed cryptocurrency is being released in these two initial phases:

• LD2.zero is currently offering 10,000 digital tokens backed by a stunning one troy ounce .999 fine silver 20th Anniversary Liberty Dollar commemorative coin

• LD2.silver will be an open-ended issuance of silver-backed LD2 digital tokens

So what will these 20th Anniversary Liberty Dollar commemorative coins look like? Below is the abstract of the LD2 White Paper; it includes placeholders for future partners. -Editor

LD2 is an asset-backed cryptocurrency that facilitates vaulted, physical, ownership of precious metals and the real-time trading of physical precious metals. LD2 embodies the spirit, methodology, principles and community of the Liberty Dollar currency. The management of LD2 LLC leverages years of operational and market experience from Liberty Dollar, which issued over $50 Million USD of silver and gold into circulation through its physical and digital, private alternative currencies. Building on this predecessor, LD2 aims to function as a “stablecoin” – a globally liquid, value-stable, low-volatility cryptocurrency, without a central bank, that’s 100% backed by, and 100% redeemable at any time, in precious metals.

The LD2 cryptocurrency is a blockchain-based digital warehouse receipt , issued by [ISSUER], with the precious metals backing on deposit with the [DEPOSITORY], and the [AUDITOR] providing a monthly examination of all holdings. The [AUDITOR] works on behalf of the token holders to verify that all issued tokens are backed by the prescribed amount of precious metals. This third-party vaulting verification and independent auditing ensures that there is exactly one troy ounce of physical precious metal in the vault for each token issued, at all times – independent of token ownership.

As a digital warehouse receipt, every LD2 token is fully redeemable through the [DEPOSITORY] for its precious metals backing. Physical redemption not only structures LD2’s economic and value proposition, but builds trust with token holders, something badly needed in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

The idea of a paper currency had been suggested in an anonymous British pamphlet in 1650, but the proposal was modeled on the receipts issued by London goldsmiths and silversmiths for the precious metals left in their vaults for safekeeping.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of this. The press release notes that mainstream media coverage and "strategic partnerships and direct investments" are being sought.

In a recent interview Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein shared his views on the future of crypto-economy. He's got a good perspective on the evolution from "real" money to fiat currency and beyond. -Editor

Blankfein cited the inception of cell phones as an example to make a point that it is hard to predict what an invention is worth until it has been introduced as a utility. He added that any forecast regarding the future success of cryptocurrencies is only possible through postulation or hindsight, and further connected it with evolution, saying:

“You start out with gold as money, and people only take hard currency and you make gold coins. A gold coin is worth five dollars. You had five dollars in gold and eventually they would give you a piece of paper with a promise that there was five dollars in gold to back the five-dollar piece of paper and you could redeem it. Then they gave you a piece of paper and said there’s five dollars of gold but you can’t redeem it.”

He continued the dialogue with a sarcastic statement indicating the recent scenarios of our economic system:

“And at some point they give you a piece of paper and say it’s worth worth five dollars, you can’t redeem it, you don’t have it. We don’t have it even if you wanted it. And we’re still doing it today”

In Blankfein’s opinion, if we as a society could go through this “morphing” from gold coins to fiat currency where the center makes the most important decisions, then we cannot entirely erase the possibility of a consensus currency. He wisely closed the discussion, saying:

“I’m not in this school of saying – because it’s uncomfortable with me, because it’s unfamiliar, this can’t happen. That’s so arrogant.”