tl;dr: By continually increasing the supply of money and making inflation a core part of our economic systems, central banks contribute to climate change. Here’s how.

I don’t remember exactly how it all came together for me as I was listening to Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy, but it was a moment of epiphany.

As we know, the measure of economic success and growth, GDP, and how we measure the standard of living, “consumer price index,” are some of the fundamental units of post-WWII notion that “American consumerism”.

That model has become pervasive globally as the standard for success of a country. And we see where that is getting us.

The very term “consumer price index” has the concept of “consumption” in it.

After all, it’s not the “reduce, reuse, recycle” index. It’s not the “saver index.”

We get what you measure. We get consumption because we measure it.

But it gets worse than that.

Because we have to have these measures of growth move in the right direction at all costs, central banks have been on a program of ‘quantitative easing’ (better known as ‘creating money out of thin air’) for more than a decade.

This creates an unintended and undesirable consequence.

As the amount of money in the economy increases, there are more dollars chasing fewer goods.

The result is that products are sold (which is the GDP metric that banks want), however, it creates the impression of growing demand for those same goods.

Firms, because they are profit-driven, are therefore motivated to increase output.

This leads to an increase in production, which means…

• more plastic
• more logging of forests
• more oil
• more carbon created
• more depletion of natural resources

all because there is more money in the economy, creating incentives to abuse the earth.

And we just thought inflation was an erosion of purchasing power.

Turns out inflation actually erodes the earth as well.

How Central Banks are Driving Climate Change was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post How Central Banks are Driving Climate Change appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

tl;dr: when Google promises that a product “works with Nest” and then changes their mind a few years later, customers and companies are left holding the bag. A lesson in ‘platform-risk.’

One of the key talking points for crypto believers is that a decentralized network removes “platform risk.”

20 Digital Marketing Trends & Techniques to watch out for in 2019 | Data Driven Investor

A good example of platform risk comes in this article: Google is a bald-faced IoT liar and its Nest pants are on fire.

Many people bought smart devices for their homes with the idea that they could control all of them via one app. More importantly, many companies built devices to sell on the promise of “Works With Nest.”

Many others do this with the “Works With Alexa” model.

You can easily see the problem.

Now that Google has decided to cancel the program, many consumers are left with a mish-mash of smart home devices that require multiple apps.

Worse, many companies that have invested millions of dollars and employ thousands of people have now lost a part of their value proposition to customers.

The author of the article is right to complain about this from the consumer perspective, but his conclusion is horrifically wrong.

The subtitle reads: “Internet of walled gardens? Go single vendor with your IoT, or else.”

This is exactly what Google wants people to do.

By cutting off the “Works with Nest” program, they are not only stifling competition, but they are also driving consumers to default to Google Nest products alone.

This serves to grow the size of the monopoly, reduce the incentives for innovation, and increase the total amount of data that Google has about each person.

Crypto solves this problem because once a dApp is deployed to a blockchain, no single actor can decide that it may no longer benefit from the resources of that network.

The platform (Google) has risk because one company can change the rules and increase its powers. The platform (crypto) has less risk because one actor cannot change the rules.

I’m becoming ever more convinced that blockchains are not just nice-to-have and cool-t0-have, but must-haves.

The alternative world is actually more frightening.

https://medium.com/media/0707f5c806284d01a4a13c7b13a91ce3/href

Google Shows Us What ‘Platform-Risk” is All About was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Google Shows Us What ‘Platform-Risk” is All About appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

tl;dr: how might a city become a blockchain innovation hub? Some thoughts in preparation for a meeting with the Deputy Mayor of Washington, DC.

I was invited to participate in a technology roundtable discussion led by the Deputy Mayor of Washington, DC on the topic of blockchain and innovation.

The group is the Washington, DC Economic Partnership.

I am not giving a presentation as it’s just an open discussion, but I thought it might be helpful (for me) to put some thought into what message I would like to give to the deputy mayor.

Here are a few that I came up with.

• Change the Economic Prospects of the Most Underprivileged Students in the City.
  Crypto affords students the chance to obtain valuable skills and earn compensation for them in a way that bypasses the traditional educational system. The education can be provided for a far lower cost and, given the anonymous nature of decentralized networks, inherent biases can be minimized. There’s already a program available in the South Bronx (which can be replicated) to help students get crypto-ready called the Crypto Community Project. It’s been sponsored by Zcash and the founder, Carlos, was already profiled in the Washington Post. (Disclosure: I’m an advisor to CCP and formerly to Zcash).
• For more, see here here and here. The best site is here.
• One of the graduates of the CCP program is working as an intern for me right now.
• Reduce Poverty by Creating Communal Ownership and Secured Property Rights
  Home ownership and private property have been a path out of poverty for millions of people around the world. Imagine a pilot test where residents of a public housing building were each given a share in the ownership of their building. Then, with that digital token as proof of the share, they could vote for/against proposals that could increase the value of the building. The tokens could also serve as collateral to secure loans for would-be entrepreneurs. Run it as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization.
• Who knows? It might be a more efficient way of delivering safe and secure housing.
• Crypto Opportunity Zones
  Every major city in America now has “opportunity zones” that are designed to attract investments from people who want to postpone the payment of capital gains taxes. DC is pushing theirs. What if DC offered crypto-entrepreneurs (particularly those who had made a fair amount of money) a way to invest their crypto in these areas and, simultaneously, reduce tax burdens?
• Or, perhaps, create a way for people to stake their coins where the interest on them (from Dharma or Compound) goes to help fund DC-based crypto-startups in opportunity zones…and where the interest is a tax write off?

I’m sure there are unintended consequences to all of these and there are many, many elements that I have not considered, but hopefully, this will get the ball rolling.

How can DC become a Blockchain Innovation Hub? was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post How can DC become a Blockchain Innovation Hub? appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

tl;dr: how a garden slug and meditation helped me contemplate a skill to become a better marketer…and a better person.

There is a wooden bench in my front yard.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been going outside at 5.30am and sitting on it for a meditation session.

It’s pretty quiet at that time of day. There’s a solitary light from a streetlamp and the real beauty is from the stars and the moon (when it is out).

There are only a few sounds. Chirping birds is the biggest one, but I’ve heard deer on my neighbors’ lawn across the street.

Occasionally, there is a car that drives by. There is a gentleman who walks by every morning wearing a backpack and holding his suit jacket. Sometimes I see him, sometimes I don’t, but that’s because my eyes may be closed, but I hear him. He has a distinctive walk and he’s consistent in his timing.

I once heard a sound that I later figured out what a branch falling off a tree in the park that is diagonal from my house. I concluded that, yes indeed, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, it does make a sound.

I have developed a habit of wearing shorts, a hoodie, and flip flops. Simple and really nothing else is needed.

The other day, in the middle of the session, I felt a strange sensation on my left foot. It was tingling.

My natural fear response kicked in. I opened my eyes to see a big slug on my foot.

Instinctively, I recoiled and kicked my foot so that the slug was flung off.

Accepting the Slug

I thought about the slug a few more times that day.

I thought about the concept of “interbeing.”

As I understand it, “interbeing” is the idea that every living thing is interconnected and part of a larger whole. Instead of viewing the slug as a pest or annoyance, and certainly instead of fear, I could have chosen to appreciate the role the slug was playing in the world, instead of selfishly feeling disgusted.

But more than that, I viewed the slug as an opportunity to practice “radical acceptance.”

One of the things you learn as you explore meditation and mindfulness is that it’s critical to learn to accept the world as it is. So much of our suffering, pain, and disappointment comes from our resistance to how things are.

It doesn’t mean we can’t do things to try and improve the situation, but failing to fully accept a situation causes pain and difficulty.

I started to view the slug as a challenge to overcome.

The next morning I went out and I was kind of hoping that I’d feel the slug again.

Only this time, I was determined to not open my eyes and not kick it away.

I figured that if I could continue the meditation no matter what, simply accepting the fact that there was a slug on my foot, that it would help me in developing my own ability to see reality as it is.

I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous and scared.

That was my emotional mind.

My rational mind, however, laughed at me. “It’s a slug and you’re a 175 pound human. What are you afraid of?”

The premise of so many forms of meditation is that it is possible for the mind to control the emotions. That was my intention.

Over the next few days, I felt all kinds of things (some real, some imagined) on my feet.

Now, I notice them, but I don’t flinch and I don’t obsess. I notice, accept, and move on, staying with the practice.

What the Slug Taught Me About Marketing

It may seem like a stretch to connect a slug and meditation with being a good marketer, but for me, it seemed obvious.

A large part of our challenge as marketers (and we’re all in marketing, it’s just that some of us know it), is that we refuse to accept the reality of the market.

We may not have product-market fit. Our campaign may not be working. Our leadership style may not be effective.

Yet, we persist and resist, creating tension internally and reducing our effectiveness.

Instead, we can choose to accept the market reality, just like we can choose to simply accept the fact that there’s a slug on our feet.

We don’t have to let it stay there forever.

But we do have to first learn how to fully accept that it is there.

Instead of letting our emotional instincts override our rational brain, like kicking the slug off, we can choose to fully recognize what the situation is. We can remain calm. We can think about it.

Then, at a time and place of our choosing, with a proper amount of thought, attention, and care, we can alter the situation.

I’m not an expert on radical acceptance or anything for that matter, but there’s a reason why meditation is called a “practice.”

We are practicing how to accept the present moment with all of its intricacies and resist the urge to label it “bad,” “good,” or “icky and disgusting.”

Those judgments cloud our thinking and prevent us from seeing opportunities and options in the marketplace and in our front yards.

What I Learned From a Garden Slug was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post What I Learned From a Garden Slug appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

tl;dr: An exploration of the idea of strategy, some frameworks, and the lessons of the Peloponnesian War.

Like everyone else, I take pride in my efforts to think and act “strategically.”

But, over the past few months, I’ve started to ask myself the question of: “what is strategy, really?”

and, more importantly, am I really strategic?

Fundamentals of Understanding Strategy

My baseline for “thinking strategically” was how strategy fit into a framework. For me, I always liked Ben McConnell’s OGST (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Tactics) to understand the role of strategy-in connecting tactics (what we are going to do) with objectives/goals (the things we want to achieve.) This one I learned about 13 years ago and it was a good start.

But that didn’t really answer the question for me. At a high level, sure, but it didn’t explain what the essence of a good strategy was.

Another piece of the puzzle came in an HBR article from 2008 that I have cited and shared hundreds of times, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” That one showed a bit more about how to develop a strategy (in a very HBR-type of way), but the big takeaway for me was that “if your team doesn’t understand your strategy, you are going to have challenges.”

On a practical level, this was reinforced for me recently when I heard an Israeli general talk about his experiences. (For more, see: Lessons in Strategy and Leadership from an IDF General.)

Advanced Strategy Tools

While I had read the “classics” in terms of strategy (The Art of War and On War) and will probably do so again, there were two pieces of knowledge I discovered recently that really helped me a lot.

The first was the concept of a Wardley Map. The creator, Simon Wardley, uses a very simple approach to explaining the role of the strategist. He actually combines the lessons from The Art of War and On War (though he uses the OODA loop of John Boyd) to show a few things.

One of them was to help recognize that strategy involves visuals, not just text. It is critical to help people SEE the landscape in which they are operating and SEE the dependencies on which they are making decisions.

His maps were unlike anything I had encountered before and did wonders to helping me understand the layers of abstraction required to become a good strategist.

However, it was the book On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis that really accelerated my understanding of strategy as the alignment of vision with capabilities.

As a student of history, the examples he used resonated with me reinforced his point, which is something I covered in Days that World History Pivoted.

Interestingly enough, the example that Wardley used and one of the earliest that Gaddis used were the same, the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

Learning Strategy from Ancient Greece

I spent a week in Greece this summer exploring the birthplace of democracy so the rivalry between Athens and Sparta was on my mind. That led my friend, Anand Thaker (he’s the co-founder of the MarTech Landscape that NSM copied for the blockchain space) to send me a tremendous gift, Pericles Of Athens And The Birth Of Democracy.

Pericles had many roles, one of which was strategos, which is the Greek term for “general” and which means “to lead that which is spread out.”

The author of the book, Donald Kagan, is a well-known historian. He’s thorough and articulate and when I read the following paragraph, it was like something magical clicked.

Brackets are mine.

“The emergence of a strong and independent Argos hostile to Sparta [note: change in Landscape] offered the Athenians a way to overcome the military inferiority that threatened the safety of Athens and seemed to prevent the victory of a naval power over Greece’s dominant power on lands [note: this is the goal]. By making alliances with Sparta’s Peloponnesian enemies, the Athenians could in effect fight the war in Sparta’s home territory [note: this is the strategy], keeping Athens safe [this is the objective].” (p.74)

and a few pages later, he introduces Pericles’ doctrine, something von Clausewitz would have appreciated (and probably did) as it provides guidelines for behaving in the “fog of war.”

“This expedition was characteristic of others Pericles would lead and plan: it was seaborne, without avoiding specific missions on land; it had limited goals and duration; and it was carried out with great regard for the safety of the men involved. [this is doctrine] ” (p. 83)

All of this is not meant to show that I am some kind of strategic genius. Far from it. What I think I am doing now is going back to look at moments of history and trying to deduce the strategy of those who were responsible for devising it.

By studying their thinking and using a framework and series of tools that can help, I hope that I can actually be as strategic as I like to think that I am.

I’m open to other book suggestions or ways to think about it if anyone has any.

A Student of Strategy was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post A Student of Strategy appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

tl;dr: Increasing automation and AI will change work as we know it. Instead of bemoaning that, we have an opportunity to consciously and intentionally create Flow states in our lives. Here’s a bit of what I’m doing

Out of all of the work experiences I’ve had over the past year or so, one of the most rewarding was the project I did with the team at Dapper Labs.

This is a team with a strong and impressive record in many industries, but they are legends in the crypto space as they are the inventors of the most significant blockchain application after Bitcoin, Crypto Kitties.

I enjoyed working with them and I learned a ton about the technical aspects of decentralized systems, but that wasn’t the thing that I enjoyed the most.

What really made an impact was how they worked.

I found myself, more often than in other situations, in a state of Flow.

For me, at least, the environment, the way the team operated with each other (5 minute daily stand-ups, for example), and the culture put me in a position to do my best work.

Not surprising given that the parent company is named Axiom Zen.

Flow States

I first became aware of the concept of flow as many people did through the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience which I read soon after it came out.

However, I didn’t really do much with the information other than, on occasion, recognize that I had been in one (say when writing one of my e-books).

Over the past year or so, since I had the experience with the Dapper team, I’ve been exploring the concept of Flow.

Machine Learning vs. AI, Important Differences Between Them

I’ve been studying the inputs that increase the likelihood of Flow. I’ve read a lot about the brain and the mind (reading list below).

I’ve also spent time measuring the impact on myself to see how I can intentionally -and with a higher degree of probability (possibly predictability)- set myself up for Flow.

Recently, I rewrote my Life OGST and for strategy, I wrote down:

“Optimize for flow through atomic habits.”

Conscious Benefits of Flow

There are many tangible, practical reasons why optimizing for flow makes sense.

In a world of increasing automation and AI, the value that humans can provide in an equation increasingly comes from contributing creative and innovative thoughts and problem-solving to a situation.

Those don’t happen just by following a script. They happen by providing your mind with the right internal and external environment to do what it does best.

The world in which we all increasingly live in (and part of the reason why there’s increasing income inequality) is because “it’s not about time, it’s about value.” This is why someone can charge a client $30 million dollars for 11 minutes of work.

But it’s more than the money.

It’s the feeling that comes from being fully engaged in a project, being immersed, being focused– “dialed in,” as some would say.

Optimizing for Flow

Over the last few weeks, I undertook a renovation project on my home office.

The purpose was to create an environment that would increase the likelihood of a Flow state for me.

I studied Hemingway’s studio in Key West and reflected on what it was about the Dapper experience that-physically- impacted me in a positive way.

Over the last few months, I’ve also increased my self-discipline as it related to my routines for

• wake-up time
• meditation practice
• cardio and strength exercise
• food intake (quality, quantity, and timing)
• prayer
• blogging and journaling
• reading
• practicing gratitude
• being charitable
• developing compassion
• bedtime and sleep discipline (very much a WIP on this one)

Another aid has been a recommitment to organization. Now, I have systems and locations for supporting materials, ranging from where I put my keys and computer bags every time to pens, notebooks, coffee supplies, hats, clothes, etc. The end result…less time looking for the things I need to support the things I want to focus on.

On the digital side, I’ve relentlessly unsubscribed from email lists that don’t have enough value, have been on a Facebook Fast for 8 weeks (and counting), haven’t visited CNN or ESPN in that time either, and have cut back on TV, increased reading. Plus, I’ve turned off all but the most essential notifications on all my devices.

I’ve also been exploring increased forms of self-measurement thanks to sites like Quantified Mind and Flow Genome Project.

And recently, thanks to Anand Thaker, I became connected with Carlos Hidalgo who introduced me to the idea of the Ultradian rhythm. It’s the cycle that regulates the time you need for work vs. rest.

As I understand it, it’s like a governor on a golf cart or clock speed on a computer.

I’ve already seen some of the benefits.

Nothing massive (and no multi-million dollar phone calls yet), but an increasing awareness that I’m able to hit Flow with slightly higher regularity. T

he tangible benefit is that I’m able to do higher-quality work in smaller time increments.

“It’s not about time, it’s about value.”

The intangible benefit is that I feel calmer, though my type-A, neurotic, old-school Jewish mentality has years of embedded DNA so that’s going to be a lifelong pursuit to unwind.

Ultimately, this is about living in harmony or as Lao Tzu might say “in accordance with the Tao.”

Of course, he also said,

“Those who know of the TAO do not speak of it.

Those who speak of the TAO, do not really know it,”

so feel free to ignore that last comment

Adapting to Technological-Driven Change

Back in the dot com era when I was selling e-commerce solutions for Snickelways, I remember thinking two thoughts really distinctly.

The first was that “the retail environment is going to change dramatically.”

The second was “call centers and factories are going overseas.”

The sad part was that even though I, and many others, saw this, we were unable to help our elected leaders understand the significance of the long-term impact of the technology on society.

We’re still dealing with the repercussions and will for a while.

The waves of technological-driven change have only grown larger since the Internet’s arrival.

AI, automation, blockchain, 3d printing, and many others will create similar upheavals in our lives and culture in the near future.

If there’s an alarm to sound, it may be “it’s time to help people optimize for their personal flow states.”

Bonus: It should come as no surprise that the team at Dapper just released a brand new blockchain, based on their experiences with Crypto Kitties and Ethereum.

The name? Flow.

We’ll see if they choose “Optimize for Flow” as their go-to-market messaging.

Mindfulness/Brain Reading List

• How to Create a Mind Ray Kurzweil
• Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work
• Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
• The Science of Mindfulness: A Research-Based Path to Well-Being
• Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI
• The Untethered Soul

How a Search for the Flow State Can Lead to Flow States was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post How a Search for the Flow State Can Lead to Flow States appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

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tl;dr: the long-term consequences of smart phone-driven digital addiction have not even begun to unfold. The growth of the Wellness industry is one response and the ‘altered states’ economy is expected to be $4 trillion.

We’re just over 10 years into the smartphone revolution.

Top 10 Blockchain Courses for 2019 | Data Driven Investor

We’ve all seen the charts of tremendous growth rates and adoption during that time. They are ubiquitous and almost all-consuming, as Black Mirror pointed out in Smithereens.

What we don’t know yet is what the long-term consequences will be on our evolution as humans.

Is it a life of Digital Addiction and Digital Serfdom?

Our brains evolved over millions of years and, in the last 10, we’ve been exposed to the digital equivalent of high fructose corn syrup.

It’s the era of digital obesity and whatever digital diabetes looks like, I’m sure many of us have it.

Many will never escape. It’s sad.

However, for others, I think there is a growing awareness of the actual costs in terms of personal data, privacy, loss of control, time and attention.

One indication of this is the growing Wellness industry.

I’ve started to see the headlines: Investors Bet on Wellness Tech: Startups Funded $2 Billion and Wellness Inc: 50+ US-Based Corporations Capitalizing On The Self-Care Trend.

In Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, the authors point out that the estimated size of the “altered states economy” which covers a wide range of industries will be $4 trillion.

I don’t think this is a fad.

I think it’s going to continue to grow for a few reasons.

First, the ongoing explosion of information and “fake news” combined with the loss of trust in larger institutions will make many people feel alone. Some will react in deeply negative ways (lone shooters) while others will look for a wellness community. This could be traditional religion and it could be some combination of beliefs (e.g. vegan).

Second, the ongoing march of robots and automation in our lives will continue to remove mechanical jobs. This could be a kiosk at McDonald’s or a Roomba in our home or anything in between. No matter what…more opportunity for leisure time. What people do with that time is TBD, but some will use it as a chance to dig into the meaning of life. After all, when the Rat Race is Over, there’s still a feeling of emptiness.

Third, AI. Not only mechanical tasks but intelligence tasks.

For example, I set up a meeting in New York recently and the constraints were;

“I am arriving at Penn Station at 12:15pm. I have a 2:30 pm meeting at Bryant Park. I need a place where I can sit and meet with 1 other person for a 45-minute coffee that isn’t too loud before the 2:30pm. Where should the meeting take place?”

Today, that question is crowdsourced, Google, and manual. In the future, I just tell my AI to do it. Enough of these at the margins and you find even more time.

Put it all together and many people will have more time to think about the deeper questions and what it means to live a life of wellness.

Carl Jung said that “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul.” It will be interesting to see the different reactions people have as the consequences of digital diabetes reaches crisis levels.

As for me, I’ve been on a 7 week “Facebook Fast” for starters.

I’m also planning a 3-day silent meditation retreat for my 50th birthday You’re welcome to join. Let me know if you’d like to be on the mailing list.

https://medium.com/media/0707f5c806284d01a4a13c7b13a91ce3/href

Digital Diabetes and the Growth of the Wellness Industry was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Digital Diabetes and the Growth of the Wellness Industry appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

tl;dr: It may be a stretch to say that the Wall St. Journal has an anti-crypto conspiratorial agenda, but there seems to be evidence to support it.

Right now, I’m kind of angry.

I’m a big fan of the Wall St. Journal.

I think the writing is excellent and I tend to agree with its free market position.

However, when I read The Coming Currency War: Digital Money vs. the Dollar by By Dave Michaels and Paul Vigna, I found myself aghast, wondering if there was some kind of conspiracy.

I do agree with a major premise of the piece, that US dollar supremacy is not a given,

However, I am troubled by a few aspects to the article which do readers a tremendous disservice.

Vigna and Michaels Chose Misleading Words

First off, Vigna, who should know better and who made a pretty weak defense to me on Twitter, opened up the article with a potentially very misleading statement.

“The future of money might be a digital version of the cash that’s already in people’s wallets — potentially upending the currency system that the world has known for many decades.

Such a future, of course, might be a disappointment to many libertarians and tech-savvy investors who are pinning their hopes (and in some cases their money) on private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”

Calling Bitcoin “private” and fiat “public” implies the exact opposite of what the reality is.

Vigna claims that “public money” means “government-backed” and “private” refers to “any money not issued by a government.”

However, with 7 definitions of the word “public”, they left a lot of room for ambiguity.

After all, “private” can mean “limited access” or “under the control of a few” as in “private club” or a “private collection.”

Ironically, it is the US dollar that is “under the control of a few,” namely the Federal Reserve and Bitcoin which is “public,” because literally anyone can access it and own it.

Misleading Charts Biases Readers

In the middle of the massive 2-page spread, sits a chart entitled “Currency Comparison.”

On the surface, it looks like Bitcoin is a paltry, meaningless gnat of financial insignificance when compared to the total M1 money supply.

And this would be true.

However, there is a key point missing here.

Let’s look at the relative change in supply of each currency.

From 2009 until today, the total number of Bitcoin created has been about 18,000,000. We know that there will only be another 3,000,000 minted and we know EXACTLY when those Bitcoin will be minted.(source blockchain.com)

Alternatively, let’s look at the number of dollars in M1 circulation in 2009.

I’m just eye-balling the chart, but I’m calling it 1,400,000,000 (that’s 1.4 trillion).

In the same ten year period, another 2.4 trillion have been minted and there’s no predictability (given last week’s $250 billion overnight minting) or guaranteed end in sight.

The team at Pantera Capital points this out even more sharply

SOURCE: PANTERA CAPITAL

And the end result, over time,

SOURCE: PANTERA CAPITAL

As John Maynard Keynes said

“By this means [increase of money supply] the government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.”

― John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace

The conclusion from the Bitcoin is that it “still lags behind the total value of US Dollars in circulation.”

Well, of course, it will.

Every time there is a new dollar printed, it increases the total value of dollars in circulation.

An example…

If there were $100 yesterday in circulation and the Fed prints another $100 overnight, the total value of US dollars in circulation doubled.

Now, let’s say that yesterday, there were 10 Bitcoin in circulation. Overnight, let’s say 1 was mined.

Now, there are $200 in circulation and 11 Bitcoin. Yesterday, Bitcoin was 1/10th of the total USD market (10%). Today, since it didn’t double overnight, Bitcoin will be even less of a percentage of total dollars in circulation…only 5.5%.

Maybe a better way to do it would be the “Bitcoin Price Index.”

As everyone knows, in 2010, someone bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin.

That means a pepperoni pizza in 2010 cost 5,000 Bitcoin. Today, however, you can buy that same pizza for 0.001 Bitcoin. That’s a 50,000% increase in purchasing power of the same asset.

(using $10k BTC price and $10 pizza cost per Dominos, assuming tax/tip)1

I couldn’t seem to find a cost for a pepperoni pizza in 2010, but I think it is fair to assume that it wasn’t $0.000002.

In other words, the VALUE of Bitcoin over 10 years in terms of pizza purchasing power dwarfs the purchasing power of a dollar.

They Understate the Dangers of Central Bank-Controlled Digital Currencies

They talk about the appeal of central banks issuing currencies in terms of speed and cost benefits. All of these are true statements. Far superior.

They also highlight how China is most likely going to be the first central bank-issued currency.

But they fail to point out a few key things.

One…just because it is digital doesn’t mean that the same inflationary activities can’t or won’t be taken. Going full digital doesn’t change the nature of the central banks as tools of politicians (as we are seeing in the US). Quantitative easing in a full digital cash environment is still inflation with no checks on it.

Two…and this is minimized by putting it as the 2nd to the last paragraph.

“What you end up with is a situation where the government has potentially perfect surveillance into all the financial flows in the entire economy,” says Travis Scher, vice president of investments at Digital Currency Group, owner of the digital-currency trading firm Genesis Trading.

“In a world where a country like China issues its own digital currency and tries to move the entire economy onto that, it actually will increase demand for cryptocurrencies and digital currencies that are more private and create the potential for more autonomy.”

With a fully digital money, every single transaction in which you engage will be known to the government. In China, it’s accepted and known, but I don’t think most Westerners would want to live in that environment, given the choice.

Disappointed in Vigna and Wall Street Journal

Paul Vigna has been around crypto for a long time. I don’t care that he’s skeptical or even a hater, if he is. What I do care about is the lack of care and attention to a thoughtful presentation of the issues.

I expect more from the WSJ brand and I think they did their readers a huge disservice.

As a subscriber, I’m disappointed.

And as someone who wants people to be informed about how the value of their assets and savings is slowly getting eroded so they can proactively protect their interests (with Bitcoin or otherwise), I am angry.

The Wall Street Journal Does a Disservice to Bitcoin and Crypto was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post The Wall Street Journal Does a Disservice to Bitcoin and Crypto appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.

Many people have seen this already, but my mom hasn’t yet, so this one is for her.

I am more sympathetic to Hamilton than the video portrays.

He did what was right…at the time.

Still, he does represent strong central banking, so it works.

https://medium.com/media/d363443c0063bcc845a1630990bfe1fc/href

Hamilton vs. Satoshi was originally published in Data Driven Investor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Hamilton vs. Satoshi appeared first on Crypto Investing Insider.