Iran Starts Bitcoin-Backed Ship Insurance for Hormuz Strait
52 points by srameshc 45 minutes ago | 44 comments

everdrive 18 minutes ago
Much of the post-WW2 American-led world order was founded partially on the United States using its military to keep international waters open. It would be quite stunning Iran defeated the united states in this sense. The military might is there, but this administration clearly had no idea what they were getting themselves into and did not plan accordingly. (and does not have the will or public support to do so)

The baffling part of this is that nearly everyone was aware that Iran could close the straight if pressed hard enough. The fact that this outcome is surprising represents a very loud and public failure on the administration's part.

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nerfbatplz 2 minutes ago
Ironically the US has never ratified UNCLOS. The American professed interest in maintaining right of passage does not appear to require them to be held to the same standards.

Also the Strait of Hormuz is an international strait not international waters. The entire strait lies within Iranian and Omani waters. Frankly it's a bit absurd to complain that your ships can't transit a country's waters while you bomb them.

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rainbowzootsuit 4 minutes ago
I would amend that to be that everyone thought Iran could close the straight, but now they _know_ they can close the straight.
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int32_64 16 minutes ago
There's no insurance scheme the IRGC can concoct that protects against the US navy hitting your rudder with a 20mm gun.
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baq 12 minutes ago
Just wait for CENTCOM bulletin with their USDC blockade insurance address
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spwa4 4 minutes ago
You mean that these mafia style insurances are a joke, but free (as in safe and not taxed) access to the seas is something many wars have been fought over. "Insurance" selling by navies was the norm until WW1 at least.
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bdangubic 13 minutes ago
US Navy has shown particular strength in this conflict against Iran, sitting in the international waters many (many, many) miles away and chillin :)
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srean 7 minutes ago
I would have never realised that things would have taken such an Onion worthy scatological turn.

s/n/d/6

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Jensson 6 minutes ago
Whats weak about doing the smart thing?
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srean 27 minutes ago
Bitcoin does make the transaction publicly traceable. Either they have not realised that, seems unlikely, or they prefer it that way.
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misja111 22 minutes ago
It's not about traceability, it's about not having to use the dollar as currency.
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srean 18 minutes ago
That's significant messaging though -- we don't have anything to hide, down with the dollar.

I have read many comments that the regime wants to money launder the inflow. Bitcoin would be rather inconvenient for that.

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bdangubic 12 minutes ago
What would be a reason to money launder the inflow?!?
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srean 10 minutes ago
I have no clue.
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Waterluvian 19 minutes ago
I don’t know stuff but I feel I’ve learned that the Americans can make basic commerce unbelievably painful for whoever they choose through sanctions and disconnection from various financial systems.
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hggh 4 minutes ago
> Bitcoin does make the transaction publicly traceable

It can be untraceable with CashFusion

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tboyd47 19 minutes ago
What difference does it make?
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yxwvut 17 minutes ago
More of a "Bitcoin-Backed Protection Racket", presumably?
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genxy 15 minutes ago
We know they are just going to spend it all on polymarket.
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mrandish 18 minutes ago
I guess I'm just surprised they even bother trying to mask an obvious shake down under the euphemism "insurance" when it's such a trope. Obligatory Sopranos clip of old school mobsters trying to sell "protective insurance" to a Starbucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gsz7Gu6agA
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2OEH8eoCRo0 4 minutes ago
Armchair amateur opinion:

I suspect that letting Iran charge a toll is damaging to US freedom of the seas hegemony but it would be more damaging to open the strait by force because US ships would probably take damage.

They'd lose the air of invincibility. They'd rather not put them in any position to jeopardize that.

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bradley13 17 minutes ago
Iran could easily have garnered a lot of international sympathy and support. Instead, they attacked their neighbors, impacted the world economy, and now are basically asking for blackmail money: "nice ship you have there...".

Maybe Trump should bomb them some more?

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nkrisc 3 minutes ago
Well the strait was open and freely navigable before trump bombed them.

What Iran has learned from this is they don’t need sympathy, they need to exercise the leverage they do have, and there’s no way they’re ever going to willingly give that leverage up - they’ve seen what would happen.

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srean 11 minutes ago
Sympathy gets you Gaza, West Bank and a few refugee camps.

Geopolitics understands one language alone.

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statguy 14 minutes ago
yeah right, lets kill some more Iranian schoolgirls!!
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pphysch 6 minutes ago
International law, much less "international sympathy", is a meaningless phrase in 2026.
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ImPostingOnHN 2 minutes ago
> Maybe Trump should bomb them some more?

If the USA is going to be bombing every country which doesn't give up their sovereignty and bend the knee to the don, then the USA is going to need more bombs.

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HappyPanacea 16 minutes ago
Iran knows hard currency is better than soft power
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mempko 11 minutes ago
I had fairly deep knowledge about the bitcoin code base 7 years ago and I got a weird vibe from it as I've seen government code before. When I learned that Tor was funded by the Navy something clicked. Just as it makes sense to have a large onion network to allow spies abroad to surf the web anonymously, it would make sense to also have a currency you can use to fund agents or groups abroad that lived outside the banking system. Bitcoin makes sense for that purpose. If you have a large border-less digital currency with many people on it, even if it is traceable, it's still less risky then using cash which you would have to launder.

The fact that many states are now using it for funding purposes to get around the banking system further adds proof to bitcoin's potential origin.

Also, it doesn't help that Satoshi Nakamoto means basically central intelligence in Japanese...

I'm not saying Bitcoin was created by the government, but if it was there are signs...

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jauntywundrkind 35 minutes ago
Maybe after the mobster losers in the white House finally get kicked out we can just ban this thing forever. How can we abide this crypto stuff?
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anukin 27 minutes ago
How do you ban bitcoin? It’s not hosted or supported by American financial rails or any entity like swift which can be influenced by the USA in any meaningful way.
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wrs 25 minutes ago
It's supported and influenced by the USA in the sense that if you can't ever turn it into dollars it becomes much less interesting.
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nuancebydefault 14 minutes ago
Anything anyone wants to spend money on, can be converted into dollars. The currency has no tell in what it is used for.
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wrs 7 minutes ago
The hypothetical was that the US "bans" bitcoin, presumably meaning it becomes illegal for US financial institutions (or US-dependent ones, which is nearly all of them) to convert bitcoin to dollars. Somebody else might give you dollars for bitcoin, but then it becomes their problem. As the saying goes, "you can't eat bitcoin".
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anukin 30 minutes ago
How do you ban this? It’s not part of swift or any us govt. backed global financial rails. If Iran(a sanctioned entity) supports this then this is more proof that the thing works.
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LPisGood 26 minutes ago
I’m not gonna comment on if it’s a good idea or not, but the US government could make it illegal for any financial institution that does business in America interacting with crypto.

They could also make it illegal for any US financial institution to do business with any financial institution that interacts with crypto.

They could probably also make it a crime to buy/sell crypto in America.

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sheikhnbake 21 minutes ago
I wish I could pick the brain of banking finance expert on how feasible/realistic that could be after the cartel and FTO money laundering fiasco.
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donkyrf 20 minutes ago
China already bans crypto. If America and Europe followed suit, the market for crypto would quickly collapse
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iamkrazy 10 minutes ago
China has banned crypto about a 100 times now.
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bigyabai 29 minutes ago
> How do you ban this?

In America? KYC would suffice.

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anukin 23 minutes ago
America is not the world. They can’t go and sanction companies operating out of China or Japan who want a safe passage through hormuz. Especially now that the military power that supports the sovereign guarantee of US dollar is under siege.
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ck2 25 minutes ago
Kicked out?

If the Dems don't win the Senate, nothing will change until maybe February 2029 but pretty sure the same people that gave him this power of insanity are just going to vote for the next nightmare, there's no lesson learned, not even with $5 gas and $6 diesel

I don't even think a full blown recession would change anything

And now they are bringing the warships back to Cuba so get ready for next distraction from this distraction from the other distraction while they crime-spree away

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selectodude 16 minutes ago
You and I and everybody else just handed $1 million to Jan 6th insurrectionists.

Whatever is going to happen over the next 24 months is already in motion. All we can do now is prepare. And maybe get a little less squeamish.

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konschubert 32 minutes ago
“Insurance”
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trunkiedozer 21 minutes ago
[dead]
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