Great article at the right times. Anonymous and faithless will be two words we will miss going into the new AI revolution and BTC and ETH will be the only thing to beat Gresham’s debasement Law.
Superb, sober article, right on time. Thank you Isaiah! It seems no coincidence that those who most criticize BTC have achieved their huge success in the traditional economy and continue to depend on it. Remember the week in June 2020 when Yellen, Munger, Gates and Dimon heavily criticized it? Were the coordinated timing not so obvious, they might have been heard, but still not right. Nothing different now.
You are correct that BTC depends on the “full faith and credit” accorded it by its users, just like gold and the US Dollar, or any other currency. And BTC buyers / holders understand that it is deflationary (the opposite of the dollar), immune to manipulation and infinitely divisible and transferable. In a couple words: the perfect currency.
And yet it is so much more than that. Together with its smart contract cousin, Ethereum and BTC create certainty, efficiency and innovation. Once BTC has achieved universal adoption (and we are close) consumers and businesses worldwide will benefit in their decision process by the certainty of its value and validity.
Smart contracts will eliminate the finance middleman, making transactions more efficient and less expensive. Imagine that I deposit in escrow (a smart contract) 30% of my purchase from a Malaysian supplier on order, 30% on delivery of parts to the factory, and the remaining 40% once the goods cross the container vessel’s transom. This entire transaction can happen through a blockchain smart contract (including insurance and shipping fees) without the cost, time and man hours consumed by middlemen. This will do to finance what Amazon did to retail. No wonder the finance world is scared!
Finally and perhaps most interestingly are the innovation opportunities generated by the blockchain. Decentralized currencies and contracts are just the start. Imagine that NFTs aren’t used solely for art and music, already giving revolutionary rights to the artists, but also for proof of identification, of ownership. You can have ownership and provenance of a house, a car, a painting, etc. right on your phone. Should blockchain based identification replace passports, drivers licenses, voter ID cards, event tickets? These have already been done. And how about new financial instruments and opportunities for individuals to participate in the most lucrative creation of wealth? Defi proved this viability in 2021 and time will shake out the charlatans and Ponzi schemes, as happened to Terra /Luna earlier this year.
Yes, people can get hurt in crypto. Buyer / early adopter beware. Invest only money you can afford to lose. But if invested in BTC / ETH as you suggest Isaiah, buyers are likely to profit by appreciation and opportunity.
No wonder big business also fears the blockchain. A new decentralization revolution in tech, finance, communication and society “web3” is happening right now. It’s not to late to get in. I bought early and am still buying. I am also starting a business in the traditional economy using blockchain technology. So are thousands of others - perhaps we should call it the entrepreneurship revolution!
Great article at the right times. Anonymous and faithless will be two words we will miss going into the new AI revolution and BTC and ETH will be the only thing to beat Gresham’s debasement Law.
Thanks Geoffrey have a great Fourth!
It is the usefullness of the Blockchain and the data that it carries with
I am thinking of my best allowance and investing a few dollars a week from it as i
Superb, sober article, right on time. Thank you Isaiah! It seems no coincidence that those who most criticize BTC have achieved their huge success in the traditional economy and continue to depend on it. Remember the week in June 2020 when Yellen, Munger, Gates and Dimon heavily criticized it? Were the coordinated timing not so obvious, they might have been heard, but still not right. Nothing different now.
You are correct that BTC depends on the “full faith and credit” accorded it by its users, just like gold and the US Dollar, or any other currency. And BTC buyers / holders understand that it is deflationary (the opposite of the dollar), immune to manipulation and infinitely divisible and transferable. In a couple words: the perfect currency.
And yet it is so much more than that. Together with its smart contract cousin, Ethereum and BTC create certainty, efficiency and innovation. Once BTC has achieved universal adoption (and we are close) consumers and businesses worldwide will benefit in their decision process by the certainty of its value and validity.
Smart contracts will eliminate the finance middleman, making transactions more efficient and less expensive. Imagine that I deposit in escrow (a smart contract) 30% of my purchase from a Malaysian supplier on order, 30% on delivery of parts to the factory, and the remaining 40% once the goods cross the container vessel’s transom. This entire transaction can happen through a blockchain smart contract (including insurance and shipping fees) without the cost, time and man hours consumed by middlemen. This will do to finance what Amazon did to retail. No wonder the finance world is scared!
Finally and perhaps most interestingly are the innovation opportunities generated by the blockchain. Decentralized currencies and contracts are just the start. Imagine that NFTs aren’t used solely for art and music, already giving revolutionary rights to the artists, but also for proof of identification, of ownership. You can have ownership and provenance of a house, a car, a painting, etc. right on your phone. Should blockchain based identification replace passports, drivers licenses, voter ID cards, event tickets? These have already been done. And how about new financial instruments and opportunities for individuals to participate in the most lucrative creation of wealth? Defi proved this viability in 2021 and time will shake out the charlatans and Ponzi schemes, as happened to Terra /Luna earlier this year.
Yes, people can get hurt in crypto. Buyer / early adopter beware. Invest only money you can afford to lose. But if invested in BTC / ETH as you suggest Isaiah, buyers are likely to profit by appreciation and opportunity.
No wonder big business also fears the blockchain. A new decentralization revolution in tech, finance, communication and society “web3” is happening right now. It’s not to late to get in. I bought early and am still buying. I am also starting a business in the traditional economy using blockchain technology. So are thousands of others - perhaps we should call it the entrepreneurship revolution!
Nah, Bitcoin is not dead... it will recover, just wait and see. :)