by Kenneth Schortgen, Shotgun Economics:
There have been some analysts on Wall Street, as well as a large portion of the cryptocurrency community, who believe that Bitcoin can and is the new replacement for gold as a store of wealth. However in a new study out on Nov. 5, data is showing that the energy cost right now to mine a single Bitcoin is three times greater than the amount of energy required to mine physical gold, and that this will only increase as the Bitcoin algorithm demands more and more energy for each new token.
It may well be that the unilateral wrecking ball politics of the Trump Administration are bringing about a result just opposite from that intended. Washington’s decision to abandon the Iran nuclear agreement and impose severe sanctions on companies trading Iran oil as of 4 November, is creating new channels of cooperation between the EU, Russia, China and Iran and potentially others. The recent declaration by Brussels officials of creation of an unspecified Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to legally avoid US dollar oil trade and thereby US sanctions, might potentially spell the beginning of the end of the Dollar System domination of the world economy. 
In 2008, the statutory Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack delivered over 100 recommendations to Congress to protect the national electric grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures — including communications, transportation, energy, business and finance, food and water. We were hopeful the job would get done.
