It’s always the best of times in Alberta; it’s always the worst of times.
Readers may recall how Jason Kenney’s Best Summer Ever ™ was followed by the worst winter ever. But that was just COVID, and never mind the wastewater viral load and all the kids home from school with a mysterious cough, COVID-19 is just so 2020.
As if in compensation, February 2022 brought us the spring of crypto-hope.
Who can forget the United Conservative Party Government’s Throne Speech that month? “New legislation will solidify Alberta’s position as a modern electricity powerhouse and a magnet for investment in emerging technology like data storage and cryptocurrency,” it promised.
In March, jobs minister Doug Schweitzer bragged that companies operating in the “crypto space” had shown “immense interest” in the government’s big ideas.
In April, the Financial Innovation Act received Royal Assent. The act, the government boasted, created a “regulatory sandbox” for crypto bros – that is, “a ‘safe space’ in which companies can test innovative products or services, without immediately meeting all regulatory requirements.”
“Alberta’s regulatory sandbox signals that Alberta is willing to work with and support innovators with cutting-edge products, like blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies,” the government’s description went on.
And in June, premier Kenney tweeted enthusiastically that “one of the world’s largest crypto companies is launching in Calgary! Alberta is open for business.”
Woo-hoo!
Never mind that most of us had never heard of the company, called FTX Exchange, but Mr. Kenney provided a link to a Globe and Mail Business story to illuminate us.
“Bahamas-based FTX Exchange, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency companies, plans to officially launch its business in Canada by acquiring Bitvo Inc., a Calgary-based cryptoexchange that is regulated by all 13 provincial and territorial securities commissions across the country,” the story began in typical Report on Business gee-whiz style.*
Cue the doom soundtrack:
Well, OK, the Globe’s reporter admitted, “the move comes amid severe industry volatility,” but whatever.
Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s youthful mop-topped CEO, sure wasn’t worried.
“Markets are going to do what markets are always going to do,” he reassured. “… We’ve had some fantastic conversations with the government of Alberta, which has been really constructive and is trying to take the lead in Canada and around the world for crypto policy and frameworks.”
Today, of course, Mr. Schweitzer is no longer a member of the government or even the Legislature. Indeed, his Calgary-Elbow riding goes unrepresented in the Legislature.
Mr. Kenney, too, is gone from the premier’s office, although still nominally an MLA. He has grown a beard, though, and appears to be taking to the lecture circuit, the latter-day equivalent of wandering in the wilderness.
The same Mr. Sam Bankman-Fried has been in the news again in the past few days, too.
Three days ago , on Remembrance Day, the leading cryptocurrency company that brought such hope to Mr. Kenney, collapsed in to bankruptcy, dragging the price of Bitcoin and like cryptocurrencies with it further into the toilet.
The “King of Crypto” resigned, presumably with most of his crypto-billions transferred into something more secure, like municipal bonds or Krugerrands.
“Approximately 130 additional affiliated companies have commenced voluntary proceedings under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code,” FTX said in a news release.
So I guess that big crypto-boom we were promised in Calgary is off now, eh?
Danielle Smith, who would eventually become premier of Alberta when UCP members gave Mr. Kenney the bum’s rush for not being extreme enough, warned us last summer that we should all be thinking of getting into crypto to escape the plot by the Trudeau Government, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, the dreaded WEF, to force us to use an international digital currency.
Whatever are we to do about that now that the spring of crypto has given way to winter in Wild Rose Country?
Premier Smith?
*Your blogger knows whereof he speaks. He spent several years writing gee-whiz business stories for the Globe’s Report on Business.
Lest we forget, Poilievre was also an enthusiastic promoter of crypto, so perhaps that makes it almost unanimous amongst Alberta Conservatives. Yeah, he’s a Federal Conservative, but spent a long time in Calgary, although he now seems to prefer to be viewed as an Ottawa MP for whatever reasons.
Schweitzer seems to have now abandoned the UCP, like a rodent fleeing the Titantic. I am not sure how enthusiastic he is about crypto now. Presumably most of Kenney’s Federal MP pension money is more safely invested in places that are not crypto, otherwise he might have to hang on as an MLA past the next election. If he can’t he may have to gear up his public speaking business. There may be be some market for a conservative speaker with a beard like Ted Cruz, but I suspect it is at best a niche one.
Smith and Poilievre seem to still be quite hung up on the World Economic Forum although reticent to explain exactly what conspiracy theories related to it they believe. With the demise of crypto, perhaps they should become old fashioned gold bugs instead, like some of their grandfathers Conservatives perhaps at one time were. At least the value of gold seems to at least be holding up better so far.
Anyone who took these peoples investment ideas seriously could have lost a lot of money. It is not a good sign that Smith is in charge of our provincial finances now and Poilievre hopes to be in charge of our federal finances. Hopefully the first will be temporary and the later will not occur.
“Icebergs have a silver lining, “ said the Titanic rat.
Let me be the first to affirm to this commenter that support for cryptocurrency is not universal amongst conservatives!
One of the few public appearances I’ve done was a talk on cybersecurity and blockchain right around the time John Oliver did his Last Week Tonight bit on Bitcoin. Needless to say, since you’ve never heard of me the talk didn’t catch fire on social media. My rough position was that cryptocurrency was a terrible idea and that every benefit John Oliver mentioned in his piece was ill-informed at best. Feedback from the talk included “Joe is such an old man that he can’t understand how awesome Bitcoin is. He should include a young person with the requisite knowledge next time.” (I’m paraphrasing… though not by much. FYI, I was 42 at the time.)
I mention this in part because at the time when FTX moved into Calgary it was before Pierre Pollievre turned Bitcoin into a conservative talking point. At that time I don’t think any political party would have turned down FTX as a corporate citizen. (If I recall correctly, it was also at a point before the notion that cryptocurrency was a massive energy consumer had taken hold.)
I was not a fan when the government suggested they would make a cryptocurrency “safe space” in Alberta for two reasons. First, as I mention above, cryptocurrency was a bad idea on day one. Second, it’s a promise that I doubt the Alberta government could reasonably make; I would have assumed financial regulations would be federal for the most part.
I don’t know the details well enough to authoritatively say whether the prior UCP government gave cryptocurrency companies any special cutaways with respect to tax savings, or whether they attempted to lower the burden of entry for all companies interested in doing business in Alberta. My hope is that the latter is true and not the former. I would be supremely pissed off if a single dime of my tax money went to fund any cryptocurrency enterprise.
I’m not willing to concede the point that conservatives in general and the UCP in particular is uniquely dumb when it comes to cryptocurrency investment. John Oliver’s segment on cryptocurrency that I reference above had lots of bet-hedging but it vastly overemphasized the theoretical benefits with no real basis in technological or economic reality. I hardly think one could consider John Oliver a right-wing personality.
I’m waiting with bated breath for Mr. Pollievre to walk back his cryptocurrency comments.
The local farm packed up in the last few months. Once the Energy regulator caught on to them making electricity natural gas, things got a bit quiet out there. It seems that the natural gas is more valuable than a bit coin right now…
I wonder how many millions of dollars AIMco lost in this one? Would that be Heritage Trust funds, Alberta Public Service Pensions, Local Authorities Pensions and Teachers Pension, just to name a few?
Given this are the AIMco execs still going to get their top up bonus so their salaries are between 2-5 million a year?
Chances are this Bankman-Fried character was playing League of Legends, a leading online multiplayer game, during his tête-à-têtes with any Alberta government officials. The mediascape is awash with stories about BF gloating about playing League of Legends during zoom meetings with potential investors. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan sunk $95 million into FTX. All gone. And what about those stories now emerging about FTX being a conduit for US aid to Ukraine and funneled back again into the campaign chests of Democratic Party candidates, a vast money laundering scheme. Alberta seems to be small potatoes.
I don’t like watching people get cynically fleeced, so I don’t think too much of the “crypto industry.” Maybe Ms. Smith heard someone talk about “Greater Fool Theory” and thought it meant the greatest fool ends up with the wealth? lol I can just see her reasoning, “Elon Musk has proven that being irresponsible and poorly informed is the world’s best business model, I can be a WAY bigger dumbass than him!”
Sorry, that was a mispost – I meant it to show as its own post, not a reply to yours. I am interested in hearing evidence to back your claims about a huge money laundering scheme though, it would be refreshing to hear about a country other than Canada knowingly welcoming and enabling money launderers to bring their “business” here (google “snow washing” for more info on that).
The only way to come out of crypto space with a small fortune is to go in with a big one. Apparantly it’s true, one is born every minute.
Apparently Smith was right rural Albertans are the morons she wanted them to be. While they show no respect for how our doctors, nurses, teachers, and students, have been treated by these Reformers, they throw their fellow farmers and ranchers under the bus and don’t care that the oil industry has been allowed to pollute their land with abandoned oil wells, making it impossible for them to sell out and enjoy their retirement. Nor do they care that their towns have been cheated out of oil industry tax money they desperately need. In a disgusting display of stupidity they have once again voted for the name conservative and don’t care what these Reformers, pretending they are conservatives, have done to us. To quote a beef producer I met years ago ” It doesn’t matter what Ralph Klein does to us many of my friends and family members still support him. I’ve got fence posts that are smarter than them”.
Maybe Alberta’s crypto kings took their money out of the crypto ATM at the mall and put it in the cake machine, also at the mall, mere steps away. Let them eat overpriced cake!
Isn’t the new Canadian conservative leader going to ensure we’re all in on crypto?
BS baffles brains all day long.
UCP will be counting on this.
“The Market” Will Do What It Always Does
Rich or poor
Dismo-cryptality or crypto-dismality
The gollies are minced, the gees are whizzed
I wonder where the bit-coins is
This is a pathetic attempt at guilt by association, i.e. some crypto companies are bad actors, the AB government tried to attract crytpo companies to invest in Alberta, ergo the AB government supports bad actors. (NOTE TO COMMENTER: Stick to the topic. DJC)
Doug: so I’m surmising that you are a UCP supporter, I will accept that I could be wrong….
“”Guilt by association”” is when your whacky neighbor, whom you usually avoid, hobbles over & asks you to take him to the store, asks you to go in with him, shops around and purchases an item and on the way out asks you to carry the bag and once outside the police show up and you’re both charged with shoplifting .
But when you go to the neighbor, tell him you have this great plan, you’re both going to have a great day , tell the security guard to look the other way (hand/palm) go about your ” business ” , complete plan and congratulate yourselves on your cleverness…then go bragging to your buddies about your prowess. and unbeknownst to the mrs you’ve put your cache on kjee/eb and not until the police show up at your door, do you have to start explaining yourself.
IMHO, not only did the AB gov “try” to attract, they added a new law” to make it a red carpet entrance, but an inclandestine one, just ask the people of the Sturgeon County, who couldn’t figure out what the noise was, until they did a closeup and the company said they “know ” they were doing anything wrong…how would that be possible.
If you did your homework, after reading DJC’s comments, the facts are there for anyone to see , if they wish to….some don’t for whatever reason…deniers will deny.
The difference here, is accountability….do you want your government leaders promoting a risky volatile investment to it’s citizens, or worse, using taxpayers dollars to accommodate them fleecing the unsuspecting without their knowledge….and then be like PP and say, oh well I wasn’t promoting, I just think everyone should have a choice. Which is true on its own, but if it’s tax dollars that are being used in this matter ??, I believe people do have a right to know.
If you’re still not convinced, look at all the sports celebrities, the ones like Brady, Curry, Ortiz, that’s from 3 different sports, all promoting FTX, and that gong show is having the ripple effect now, and the celebs might have enough to withstand some losses, but it’s always the little guys who bear the brunt of these schemes.
Ergo: if it looks like a duck…
What in the dickens is going on? Sure, back in the time of the winter of our discontent, tulips were the get rich quick scheme. But with crypto, things were going to be different, a difference engine so to speak. While a brave new world awaits, We are not only numbers in a society. Some may say, While April is the cruellest month, Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow. What is in store for AB? Will we all become the dispossessed? The recent results in the US midterms may portend a brighter May, assuming the ‘lawfully mandated’ election proceeds.
Interesting opinion piece in Toronto Star this weekend. Writer suggests that we look at Smith’s lobbying activities and the proposals her clients directed to cabinet ministers. The writer argues that Smith won’t change her stripes re health, education and royalties.
Oh my, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is on Russia’s new cannot enter list….which also includes Peter Mackay, Margaret Atwood and Jim Carrey. …..go figure,???
Skippy and friends need to explain to the rest of us peasants just how much we have to gain from the cryptocurrency bash they propose now that the totality of crypto’s have lost some 72% of their $3 Trillion “value” – down below a mere $850 Billions. The plethora of these items that trade among themselves to keep each other afloat is in serious trouble – many bankrupt already and probably more to come soon.
A comment for those who wish that Alberta seniors would “see the light”: from Tom Wilson – “Wisdom does not necessarily come with age; too often age just shows up all by itself”.
The big, irresponsible (because there is ZERO (0) political accountabilty to be found anywhere in this Province and its Junior High School student council leadership style that is apparently stuck in a type of permanent intellectual adolescence.) bone headed gal from southern Alberta is certainly on a consistent roll of sorts, if one is amenable to the ideas of shallow thinking, conspiratorial flakes, cranks, and true believers contrary to the larger apparent tangible reality that suggests “that the crypto boom is a product of greed, speculation, criminal activity, and the exploitation of unwitting investors. Their true value isn’t 0; it is rather negative given their negative externalities,” he said, meaning that the market doesn’t price in the environmental costs of mining and trading the coins.”
And where, “I’m afraid they don’t have intrinsic value,” Bailey told journalists on Thursday. “Now that doesn’t mean to say that people don’t put value on them because they can have extrinsic value. But they have no intrinsic value. “So I’m going to say this very bluntly again: buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money.”
Apparently the crypto scam and the UCP (‘asylum inmates’) scam/legerdemain are made for each other.
Banking an economic and financial revolution based on something as sketchy as cryptocurrency has got to rank alongside that disaster from time gone by known as the “South Seas Bubble”.
The claim was that there was enormous wealth to be got in the South Pacific. Untold riches that rivalled everything in every industry awaited. France went for the South Seas and borrowed heavily, leveraging their exclusive access to all this untold wealth. That is until the bubble popped and France’s over-leveraged credit paved the way for economic disaster, revolution, and the end of the Bourbon Dynasty. That and the deaths of tens of thousands of French citizens in various purges, and the deaths of over two million more in the Napoleonic Wars. Damn those bubbles.
It’s hard to say what the destruction of the crypto market will wrought, but it’s pretty clear the hucksters among the CONs are truly “observationally stupid” for not seeing this nonsense for what it is…hot air.
Oh well, if people get tired of hearing Kenney bloviate I understand restaurants are in dire need of burger flippers. I’d forget being an investor shill though.
How ironic. Even in Alberta’s lightly regulated sandbox, FTX couldn’t keep from being buried. I wonder if they opened an actual, bricks-and-mortar office in Calgary (or somewhere cheaper)? I wonder if they got a loan from ATB Financial to move in?
If not, we’re probably safe. If they did, whoever’s reluctantly in charge will probably have hit up the UCP government for bail-out cash. If one of those 130+ affiliated companies has a Calgary PO Box number, Queen Dannie will be hearing from them real soon now.
Anyone wanna bet that Queen Dannie will waive even more rules for crypto startups? What will Pierre Poilievre say?
Mike–Canadian Blockchain Consortium….(non profit organization in Calgary) on Twitter 2days ago—–in partnership with the Alberta government with AEG ,we start our trade mission to Texus tomorrow .Meetings with government officials ,Railway officials and the Bitcoin Mining Conference are a few of the highlights. We look forward to updating you daily .—–
So make of that what you will,
IMO , I would have to yes to an address….or maybe someone could ask Ben or Doug..??
Cryptocurrency is the same thing that Pierre Poliveire has been touting as being something good. That’s not the case at all. If we let the likes of Pierre Poliveire, or the UCP handle our retirement savings, or investments, it will be a disaster. For those who remember the CPC’s income trust affair, where so many lost their life savings, and $35 billion went into a black hole, never to be seen again, they will know what I mean. An Alberta provincial pension would be the same way.
Who would have thought that the buffoon promoting “the best summer ever” would be replaced by an even worse buffoon?
Can Alberta receive tax credits or equalization payments for providing sub-par politicians to the rest of Canada to compensate the other provinces for having to expend the time and energy involved in telling them to pound sand?
Flying high ,soaring accomplishments then down we go ,nothing for moderates ,just can’t wait to see what December and January brings if history speaks for itself ,maybe a few trips to St Kits too
Just can’t leave us be in December
Meanwhile the cull continues and people are harmed ,drum roll for December
Ponzi schemes continue in Alberta ,ripping off ordinary working people with the hussle ,
It never ends
Bitcoin mining is another secret
Juicing Seniors to invest with confident narratives ,it’s like watching my disabled patient by a horse he can’t ride ……no interference s in juicing
Sucking savings
I think Klaus (if real) should get to Alberta and show some Klaus clout,
And where the hell is the Rockefeller s ?
Defend their truths
Live and learn, as they say, or in the case of Alberta, don’t!
https://twitter.com/cspotweet/status/1592613290542497795
Whoever thought that a system that goes through electricity like a conservative plundering the social coffer was a winner needs to stay away from the racetrack. At the same time, what better way to drain away the public good than by flushing it down a bottomless cyber hole? Are conservatives stupid or are they evil geniuses bent on reverse Robinhoodism? Maybe people like Little Peepee and Shitty Smitty are fiscal idiot savants? Nah, not so much with the ‘savant’ part.