Up early again this morning. Today’s weird thoughts. I don’t think it’s “brain fog” from the 2nd vaccine shot 😉
I’ve been doing some reading on Bitcoin and related crypto technologies. You see a lot of stories in the news about BTC. Hey, it’s computer algorithms and I am always interested in computer software…
Ran into a list of links [below] from @balajis. He’s a silicon valley “guru”, one of the “smartest men in silicon valley” per a lot of other smart people.
Aside: I noticed when doing this year’s taxes that Revenue Canada (& Quebec) have added questions about crypto to the tax forms. Not sure what the implications about that are.
Per https://coinmarketcap.com, there’s 1.7 trillion dollars (US) in crypto coins (40% is Bitcoin), with 100 billion dollars trading every day. Insane!
I have no idea whether this is entirely another “Tulip Bubble” scam or if it is the early days of all future money/investing/finance.
Related to this, I’ve been reading about the history of money. And how new money is created today by the governments of the world. Weirdest thing I’m seeing here is that new money is not created by the government “printing presses”. It’s mostly created by bank lending activity! Makes me think that all “Fiat Currencies” (Canadian dollar, US dollar, etc.) and “Precious Metals” (Gold, Silver, etc.) are also “Bubbles”.
I’m also seeing a lot of stories about inflation taking off. (The news reported year-over-year ~4% in April, ~5% in May. Some pundits say it’s more like 8% in 2021). That sort of inflation hasn’t been seen since the 80’s… And it looks like a possible bubble-popping risk.
My current bottom line: No way do I want to put any money in Bitcoin/crypto.
Reading list from Balaji Srinivasan…
1) https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook…
2) https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook…
3) https://a16z.com/2020/04/30/explaining-crypto-from-a16z/…
4) https://a16z.com/crypto-startup-school/…
5) https://danromero.org/crypto-reading/
8) http://btc.com – block explorer for BTC
9) http://etherscan.io – block explorer for ETH
10) http://defipulse.com – defi stats
11) http://cryptofees.info – protocol fees
12) http://open-orgs.info – DAO list
Links stolen from Dan Romero:
2008
- Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System — the original Bitcoin whitepaper published pseudonymously by Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s succinct and surprisingly accessible to a nonexpert.
2011
- Bitcoin — by Fred Wilson
2013
- Coinbase — by Chris Dixon
- Why I’m interested in Bitcoin — by Chris Dixon
2014
- Why Bitcoin Matters — by Marc Andreessen
2016
- Ethereum is the Forefront of Digital Currency — by Fred Ehrsam
- Fat Protocols — by Joel Monegro
2017
- Value of the Token Model — by Fred Ehrsam
- A beginner’s guide to Ethereum — by Linda Xie
- The Meaning of Decentralization — by Vitalik Buterin
- Thoughts on Tokens — by Balaji Srinivasan
- Crypto Tokens: A Breakthrough in Open Network Design — by Chris Dixon
- Analyzing Token Sale Models — by Vitalik Buterin
- Cryptocurrency’s Netscape Moment — by Elad Gil
- Permissionless — by Alok Vasudev
- The Slow Death of the Firm — by Nick Tomaino
- Big Banks And Blockchain — by Elad Gil
2018
- Why decentralization matters — by Chris Dixon
- And What Has the Blockchain Ever Done for Us? — by Balaji Srinivasan
- Stablecoins: designing a price-stable cryptocurrency — by Haseeb Qureshi
2019
- Yes, You May Need a Blockchain — by Balaji Srinivasan
- The future of decentralized finance — by Linda Xie
2020
- A Beginner’s Guide to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) — by Sid Coelho-Prabhu
- Bitcoin for the Open-Minded Skeptic — by Matt Huang
- What explains the rise of AMMs? — by Haseeb Qureshi
Update 2021-06-27: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (the Black Swan guy) has been in a Twitter ‘fight’ about Bitcoin. He is negative about Bitcoin. He’s written a paper laying out his argument: https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/BTC-QF.pdf (“Bitcoin, Currencies, and Bubbles” Draft).