Will people ever listen: for all the ills of governments and regulators, they remain a better alternative than handing over your future to young men in garages and unknown addresses. Yes, Bitcoin is decentralized, they preach, but they never remember that everything is unified at the exchange. In the traditional fiat money, you know your enemy – crazy central banks who “mess up” a lot. To avoid that mess, people now move into a bigger mess, disguised as liberation.

Yes, the news is that two brothers in South Africa have wiped out a cryptocurrency exchange, and are off with the coins, valued at close to $4 billion: “Two South African brothers recently vanished with $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin in what could potentially be the biggest cryptocurrency heist in history. In 2019, Ameer Cajee and his younger brother, Raees Cajee, founded crypto investment app Africrypt. Not long after, the siblings, along with 69,000 bitcoins worth roughly $4 billion at their April peak, are nowhere to be found.”

It all began in April when Ameer, who is the company’s chief operating officer, informed their clients that Africrypt was hacked, compromising their accounts, wallets, and nodes.

In an unusual step, 20-year-old Ameer told them not to report the incident to authorities as this would impede attempts to recover the funds.

A few suspicious customers, however, did report the hack. They contacted Hanekom Attorneys, according to Independent Online, who then tried to track the brothers down. When unsuccessful, Hawks, a police unit in South Africa that targets crime and corruption, was looped in.

“We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action,” Hanekom Attorneys told Bloomberg over email. “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.”

This is my suggestion: the best thing that will happen in the world of cryptocurrency is the government coming to regulate it. While the believers will not like to hear that, the fact is this: unless we can eliminate the weakest link which remains the crazy exchanges, never count your coin blessings yet!

Bitcoin continues to crash

Meanwhile, Bitcoin continues to struggle. The leading coin is well below $35,000 per unit now and the reason is connected to sustained coin warfare by China: ” a major catalyst for the decline is the Chinese authority’s war against cryptocurrencies. “

As mentioned above, a major catalyst for the decline is the Chinese authority’s war against cryptocurrencies. In their latest attempt to stop all cryptocurrency-related transactions, miners in Ya’an, one of the major crypto mining hubs in China’s Sichuan province, received an inspection notice that required shut-downs.

Friday, Wu Blockchain reported that Alibaba Cloud, China’s largest cloud service provider, made calls to cryptocurrency and mining companies registered in China regarding potential domain name cancellations due to regulatory requirements. This caused the hashrate for Bitcoin to drop to an 8-month low which indicates that mining activities in China are at an all-time low.

That’s not all, another factor causing the decline is that the Agriculture Bank of China, the world’s third-largest bank by assets, is set to implement anti-cryptocurrency measures and rigorously vet its clients to ensure they are not engaged in any form of illegal activities including crypto transacting, trading or mining.

This is what happens when your mind is conditioned to something. South Africa is legendary for stealing mobile devices but expecting a president to taste that experience may be another level. So, when the president of the southern African nation,  Cyril Ramaphosa, could not locate his device, the first thought was this – they had “stolen” it. Of course, nothing was stolen as the device was later reunited with the president. 

But it tells you something: our minds could default to things even though that state may not be evidently possible. I will not expect a criminal to break police, state security, etc just for a president’s iPad. Yet, this tells everyone that even a president is just like us: for all the precious things from the state, only an iPad could rattle him on a live press podium.

The controversial Nigerian Twitter ban has taken a new turn today in favor of the Nigerian people, having lingered for weeks playing out the wish of the government.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja, in a landmark ruling today “restrained the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and its agents from unlawfully imposing sanctions or doing anything whatsoever to harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Twitter and/or any other social media service provider(s), media houses, radio and television broadcast stations, the Plaintiffs and other Nigerians who are Twitter users, pending the hearing and determination of this suit.”

The ruling followed the suit filed against the government by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians arguing that “the unlawful suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, criminalization of Nigerians and other people using Twitter have escalated repression of human rights and unlawfully restricted the rights of Nigerians and other people to freedom of expression, access to information, and media freedom in the country.”

SERAP and other concerned Nigerians had filed a suit in ECOWAS court against the Nigerian state, as Nigerian courts under the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), were on strike.

The court gave the order after hearing arguments from Solicitor to SERAP, Femi Falana SAN, and lawyer to the government Maimuna Shiru.

The court said: “The court has listened very well to the objection by Nigeria. The court has this to say. Any interference with Twitter is viewed as inference with human rights, and that will violate human rights. Therefore, this court has jurisdiction to hear the case. The court also hereby orders that the application be heard expeditiously. The Nigerian government must take immediate steps to implement the order.”

Reacting to the ruling, Femi Falana, SAN said: “The intervention of the ECOWAS Court is a timely relief for millions of Nigerians using Twitter who have been threatened with prosecution under the provision of the Penal Code relating to sedition.”

“Contrary to the assurance credited to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN that violators of the Twitter would not be prosecuted, the Federal Government filed processes in the ECOWAS Court threatening to prosecute Nigerians using Twitter for violating the suspension under the provisions of the Penal Code relating to sedition.”

“It is extremely embarrassing that the Federal Government could threaten to jail Nigerians for sedition, which was annulled by the Court of Appeal in 1983, in the case of Arthur Nwankwo vs The State.”

The suit and the ruling followed the suspension of Twitter by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed after the social media giant was banned in the country for deleting President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet. The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) also ordered TV and radio stations to “suspend the patronage of Twitter immediately”, and told them to delete ‘unpatriotic’ Twitter.

The substantive suit has been adjourned to 6th July 2021 for hearing of the substantive suit.

The ruling means Nigerian broadcasters and the general public, who have switched to VPN, now have the liberty to use Twitter once again, without the fear of being sanctioned by the regulator, Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) or prosecuted by the Nigerian authorities. It also casts doubt on government’s chances to successfully defend its decision to ban Twitter.

It’s been six months since Joe Biden became the president of the United States, ushering in politeness that has erased the abusive words, name calling and unpresidential utterances that characterized day-to-day activities of Trump’s four years as president.

‘Pocohantas,’ ‘sleepy Joe,’ ‘crazy Bernie,’ ‘crooked Hilary,’ ‘wild Bill,’ ‘mini Mike,’ ‘Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’ etc. were the sort of names echoing through the Oval Window as they were puffed out by Trump.

A lot has changed since January, as the etiquette befitting the presidency returns to Washington following the swearing in of Biden. In the first G7 meeting since Trump left office, leaders of the group didn’t hide their excitement seeing Biden representing the political ideals that America is known of, which Trump, by his uncouth utterances and actions, had misrepresented in the past four years.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Biden as “breathe of fresh air,” echoing the sentiment of world leaders who watched helplessly as Trump trampled on the fundamentals of multilateralism they had worked so hard to build.

“The president and the prime minister set out a global vision in a new Atlantic Charter to deepen cooperation in democracy and human rights, defense and security, science and innovation, and economic prosperity, with renewed joint efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and emerging health threats,” a joint statement by Biden and Johnson said after the G7 meeting, marking the restoration of multilateralism.

Trump’s impoliteness, which went beyond calling his political opponents and whoever disagrees with him names, to maligning other countries, thrived under his “America first” mantra. A nationalistic idea that was backed by millions of Americans at the cost of multilateralism.

The United States leads the world on many fronts including combating climate change and emerging health threats. The defining moments of its leadership came following the outbreak of COVID-19, a pandemic of Chinese origin, which has claimed nearly four million lives globally, including over 602,000 Americans. But Trump was the president, and as he had done in other multilateral issues, he took to blame, name calling and making excuses, failing to uphold the leadership legacy the US has set in times of global crisis.

It is “China virus” it is China’s fault,” Trump had said. He had alleged that COVID-19 was created in a Chinese lab, pressuring the World Health Organization (WHO) to preach along. The UN’s health arm didn’t push the unsubstantiated claim, and it became another victim of Trump’s nationalism.

In his four years as president, Trump pulled the US from many multilateral organizations. The WHO, which he severed ties with at the peak of the global health crisis was considered the most arbitrary among them. Trump’s decision meant the WHO would no longer receive yearly $400 – $500 million from the US government to carry out its operations, and that also means that low income countries, some of which he had described as s**hole countries, would be denied medical aids when it is most needed. But to Trump, the WHO was just another name to be delisted for the “America first” movement.

By his third year in office, Trump had pulled or threatened to pull the US out of most of the multilateral organizations. Below are some of them.

• Trans-Pacific Partnership
  NAFTA
  Group of Seven (G7)
  UN Human Rights Council
  UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
  Iran nuclear deal
  World Trade Organization (WTO)
  World Health Organization (WHO)
  Paris Climate Accord

With the US leadership missing in these organizations, its allies were left reeling on the hope of a US president they can reckon with. The hope came true on January 20, when Biden became the 46th president of the United States, and its allies didn’t hide their joy.

“Once again after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House,” European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told lawmakers then at the EU Parliament in Brussels. “This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been waiting for so long. Europe is ready for a new start with our oldest and most trusted partner.”

“From climate change to health, from digitalization to democracy, these are global challenges that need renewed and global cooperation, and the European Union and the United States must lead from the front and bring an alliance of like-minded powers with us,” von der Leyen said.

Biden’s first line of action was geared toward restoring the tradition of American leadership and reversing to great extent, the chaotic and saucy leadership introduced by Trump. In his first week in the Oval Office, there was a colossal reversal of Trump’s arbitrary executive orders, including those on WHO and climate change.

“There is simply far more scope for political agreement with President Biden. That is clear just looking at the executive orders he signed yesterday (Jan 21.). We will once again work together in the WHO, on the Paris climate accord. And on issues of migration, we will likely have a more similar view,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the eve of Biden’s inauguration.

While there is still a huge task to undo all the chaos orchestrated and spurred by Trump’s style of leadership, sighs of relief are echoing, not just in the United States, but also around the world, for the “breath of fresh air.” For the United States, it is the return of presidential etiquette among other things; for the rest of the world, it is the return of multilateralism spearheaded by American leadership.