Compass Points - A Trusted Coin?

One more thing for the Marine Corps to commemorate.

Compass Points - A Trusted Coin?

One more thing for the Marine Corps to commemorate.

January 8, 2025

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What is bitcoin?

Whatever it is it will never be able to conduct global crisis response.

The financial site, Investopedia, in their recent report, "What is Bitcoin? How to buy, mine, and use it." explains the fundamentals.

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Bitcoin (BTC) is a cryptocurrency (a virtual currency) designed to act as money and a form of payment outside the control of any one person, group, or entity. This removes the need for trusted third-party involvement (e.g., a mint or bank) in financial transactions.

Bitcoin was introduced to the public in 2008 by an anonymous developer or group of developers using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. It has since become the most well-known and largest cryptocurrency in the world. Its popularity has inspired the development of many other cryptocurrencies.

-- Investopedia

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Over its brief existence, the value of bitcoin has varied tremendously. Will bitcoin have lasting value? Investopedia warns,

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There are many risks involved with investing in and using bitcoins, including volatility, fraud, and theft.

-- Investopedia

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Investors move toward investments that retain and increase in value.

Long term, high value investments, where are they?

Pick a coin. Which will hold its value? Bitcoin or the Marine Corps coin?

The US Mint has designed and will soon issue actual money in the form of Marine Corps coins.

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The United States Mint is proud to present the 2025 United States Marine Corps 250th Anniversary Uncirculated Clad Half Dollar. This coin honors the Marines and recognizes their significant contributions to the security and protection of the United States.

The obverse design depicts a modern Marine in the foreground and a Continental Marine in the background. The inscriptions are “250 YEARS OF HONOR, COURAGE, AND COMMITMENT,” “1775 – 2025,” “USMC,” “LIBERTY,” and “IN GOD WE TRUST.”

The reverse design features the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the official emblem of the Marine Corps. The inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” “THE FEW, THE PROUD,” and “HALF DOLLAR.”

Surcharges in the amount of $5 for each half dollar sold are authorized to be paid to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and shall be used for the purposes of supporting the mission of the Marine Corps Heritage Center.

-- United States Mint

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While the Marine Corps coin is produced by the United States Mint and can be used as actual money, it is still designed to be a commemorative coin. It is not a competitor to bitcoin. For the broad community of Marines and friends of the Corps the Marine coin is a way to commemorate something much bigger, more powerful, and much more important than any digital currency.

The Marine Corps can be commemorated by a coin, but the Marine Corps is not a coin. The Marine Corps is worth commemorating today because of what Marines have accomplished across the centuries.

Marines have the skill to find the suspected headquarters of a enemy cell, stealthily approach the door, instantly break down the door and enter ready to destroy all enemy forces inside. Just as quickly, however, if they find inside only non-combatants, Marines can rapidly secure the site, secure the people, and provide aid and protection to the innocent.

Marines are special warriors, with special courage, skill, and discipline to overcome all obstacles and accomplish every mission.

It has been said that the former Presidential First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had her own view of Marines.

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The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!

—Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945

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The digital money, bitcoin, is a financial tool with less than two decades of history.

The US Marine Corps is a flexible warfighting organization with more than two centuries of history.

But the question for each is the same: what will their value be in the future? Will each retain and build their value in future years or will their value decline?

Four years ago, a small group of Marines started an experiment inside the Marine Corps. With the best of intentions they decided that what the Marine Corps needed was to abruptly change its focus,

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-- from offense to defense,

-- from global to regional,

-- from combined arms to missile units

-- from fire and maneuver to sense and target.

-- from 9-1-1 crisis response to static island defense.

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Although the experiment with distributed island missile units was intended to increase the value of the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps has lost capabilities, lost global reach, and lost value.

In the four years of the island missile unit experiment, not one operational Marine missile unit has been deployed off China's coast.

Instead, Marine combined arms capabilities have been badly damaged and degraded. The Marine Corps has lost some or all of infantry battalions, artillery, air, armor, combat engineers, amphibious ships, and prepositioning ships.

In a world threatened by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and many others, the US needs many more 9-1-1 crisis response Marine Air Ground Task Forces patrolling the seas on Navy amphibious ships ready to arrive off any troubled shore to deter, assist, and fight.

As new leaders take office this month – some with bitcoin accounts -- the new leaders will be looking for military assets with value. The United States has invested in the Marine Corps for more than two centuries -- not out of sentiment nor tradition -- but because the Marine Corps provides reliable value. It will take additional funding and wise leaderships to restore, enhance, and rebuild the Marine Corps 9-1-1 crisis response force that has served the Nation so well for so long.

Facing a worldwide roster of dangerous adversaries and with unknown crises around the corner, US policy makers need the reliable, adaptable, combined arms, 9-1-1 crisis response Marines on constant worldwide patrol.

US Marines will respond heroically in the next crisis; that will be just one more thing to commemorate.

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Investopedia - 12/05/2024

What is Bitcoin? How to buy, mine, and use it.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp

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United States Mint

U.S. Marine Corps 250th Anniversary 2025 Uncirculated Half Dollar

https://www.usmint.gov/us-marine-corps-250th-anniversary-2025-uncirculated-half-dollar-25CF.html