This tech could help keep the internet open and free⦠[RiskHedge Report] [Stephen McBride]
Thank you for taking my warning seriously… Here’s part 2 By Stephen McBride - RiskHedge Two ways the RESTRICT Act could limit your personal freedoms⦠This common tool could make you a criminal⦠Big tech is under threat⦠Hereâs the solution... - Iâve received lots of emails from RiskHedge readers about the warning I issued this month⦠If you missed this important message, go [here]( to catch up. In short: The US government is trying to pass a bill that would take away your right to privacy in your own home⦠Itâs called the RESTRICT Act. And itâs already under review in Congress. Politicians are promoting this bill as a way to prevent China and other foreign adversaries from spying on you through apps like TikTok. In reality, it will grant the government the right to monitor what you do in your own home at all times. As you can imagine, this is a hot-button issue for many Americans. And readers have been asking exactly how the US government could use the RESTRICT Act to spy on everyday people. I know a couple of you even wrote to your local senators opposing the idea. As I told you, I donât see this bill passing anytime soonâat least, not while the US government is so divided. But that doesnât mean the RESTRICT Act shouldnât be taken seriously. Unfortunately, all it would take is one good crisis for this bill to get passed. Politicians are masters at pouncing on opportunities to pass new laws when some new crisis scares large swaths of the population. Thatâs how the PATRIOT Act was pushed through after 9/11. I could see a major cyberattackâwhich knocks out power for millions of Americans or targets banksâbeing used to justify the equally bad RESTRICT Act. So today, Iâll dive further into this bill and share the effects it could have on us and the worldâs largest tech companies. Iâll also share the solution. - Your privacy isnât the only thing under attack⦠If passed, the RESTRICT Act would also allow the US government to censor the internet. Essentially, it would let the government target businesses that use certain plug-ins, which act like mini apps working in the background of websites. Plug-ins perform all kinds of functionsâlike tracking visitors, collecting emails, displaying daily weather reports, and powering video feeds. A small business website uses 20 to 30 plug-ins, on average. RiskHedge Publisher: "I used to struggle with investing. Now I make only 2 trades a month, on average, and enjoy returns that beat 98% of investors... including most professional money managers." [Click here to discover more.]( The problem is that companies selling plug-ins come from all over the world⦠including from countries the RESTRICT Act labels foreign adversaries, like China and Russia. So if a website used a plug-in from a ârestrictedâ part of the world, the government could ban access to it because it could be used for espionage. And thatâs not all⦠The same kind of ban would extend to hardware made by foreign adversaries. For example, if a company used a made-in-China router, laptop, or phone to manage its website, the government could shut that website down. Think of how much hardware and software a large corporation owns. Almost every website could be flagged as dangerous. - And donât even think about using this workaround... Donât like the government deciding what youâre allowed to see? You could use a virtual private network (VPN) to get around the censors. A VPN makes your internet location look like itâs from somewhere else in the world. Chinese people, for example, use VPNs all the time to access US-based websites like YouTube, Twitter, Netflix, and others the Chinese government has banned. Under the RESTRICT Act... the government can lock you in jail for 20 years for using a VPN. - The RESTRICT Act could also rattle the markets⦠The fates of some of the largest companies in the world depend on what happens with the RESTRICT Act. Imagine someone posts a controversial video on YouTube, and the government decides to take the website down. It would cost YouTubeâs parent company, Alphabet (GOOGL), hundreds of millions of dollars, even if the ban lasts just a few days. And itâs not just YouTube that could be in trouble⦠Amazon (AMZN) could publish a book the government doesnât like. A problematic political opponent could start gaining popularity on Facebook (META). Or maybe Netflix (NFLX) streams an anti-government documentary. All of these free-speech platforms would come under scrutiny with the RESTRICT Act in place. And because these companies are so huge... a resourceful bureaucrat could surely find evidence of wrongdoing. - So, whatâs the solution? Again, itâs a long shot the RESTRICT Act gets passed in its current formâespecially with the amount of scrutiny itâs received. However, President Biden has already said heâll sign the RESTRICT Act if it passes through Congress. And another two dozen elected US senators from both sides of the aisle already agree with him. All it would take is one unifying crisis for a law like the RESTRICT Act to be pushed through legislation. Thatâs why Iâm already looking into companies working hard to keep the internet free and open⦠as it should be. I believe the solution to this problem will come from blockchainâthe game-changing technology behind crypto. Longtime RiskHedge readers know blockchain is a completely new way of recordkeeping. It lets us securely know âwho owns whatâ without a central authority for the first time ever. Itâs also what makes cryptos censorship-resistant. Now, what if I told you the same tech that allows you to send and receive âmoneyâ without a middleman makes it possible to send messages without Facebook⦠and upload a video to the internet without YouTube? In other words, blockchain technology will soon offer censorship-resistant alternatives to big tech. My colleague Chris Wood and I recently highlighted one particular company helping to build this decentralized version of the internet. Disruption Investor members can catch up [right here]( if they missed this timely issue. Right now, itâs on our watchlist. But Disruption Investor members will be the first to get this recommendation when itâs officially time to pull the trigger. If youâre not a member and would like to discover more about a subscriptionâincluding another huge investing opportunity my colleague Chris says âcould bring the worldâs largest companies to their knees... and devastate everyday Americansâ lives with mass shortagesââ[go here now](. Stephen McBride
Chief Analyst, RiskHedge In the mailbag⦠Below, we hear from a reader who wrote in about our RiskHedge Report: â[Are you invested in 4D printing?](â Let me know whatâs on your mind and what other disruptive trends you want to learn more about at stephen@riskhedge.com. Insightful, as always. Additionally, GE has been using additive manufacturing processes with [its] GEnx engines for the past several years. The additive process allowed them to incorporate cooling passages around the fuel injection ports [â¦] preventing fuel cookingâsomething that was not possible with standard manufacturing processes. And while this doesnât factor heavily into an investment calculus on its own merit, another cool side note is that BMW is using additive manufacturing for producing the cylinder head in [its] top-of-the-line performance engine, the S58. The same concept from above applies here. The practical manufacturing benefits are equal to the performance benefits. Pretty fascinating stuff! Keep up the great work. Big fan here! âJordan Suggested Reading... [How to trade this leading cybersecurity stock](
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