Bitcoin, crypto currency and block chain...

[JohnRoberts]

The strategy for me that is working so far (zero losses) is to just not buy any. 

Of course if my time machine was working I'd go back in time and pick some up cheap, then time travel into the future to figure out when to sell it.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Nor is it a fake meat company with no barriers to competition valued higher than many established, profitable companies. 
;D

I can't pass up an opportunity for such a neat internal analogy.

Just like we have the very real blockchain technology, and the highly valued iconic bitcoin.  Vegetable based meat substitute is indeed a very real future trend, while the one high flying stock supposed to represent this, is less of a sure thing (IMO).

As the world gets wealthier, and many millions get raised out of poverty, the world's appetite for meat will exceed practical supply. Plant based meat substitutes could satisfy a major fraction of that increasing demand using a more economical and planet friendly technology.

JR

PS: arby's is offering fake vegetables made out of meat.  ;D ;D

 

[iomegaman]

My son runs a batch lab for Dupont scientist who want to experiment/develop new product...they already have made chicken breast meat from plant cultures, this was about 5 years ago...because he has learned to think outside the box he has made several important suggestions to the PHD's who get rather linear in their thinking and saved Dupont 100's of hours and $ in making cultures do what the science guys ask...in one recent culture the scientist wanted a yeast culture to produce a certain enzyme but needed it to be saturated by its own nitrogen which takes about 24 hours...he suggested "Why don't you just inject nitrogen halfway through the cycle instead of waiting the culture to develop its own?"...the scientist were baffled as to why they did not think about it...very easy to do, cut production time in half and was easier to control...

But fake meat out of a test tube is here already...

 

[JohnRoberts]

My son runs a batch lab for Dupont scientist who want to experiment/develop new product...they already have made chicken breast meat from plant cultures, this was about 5 years ago...because he has learned to think outside the box he has made several important suggestions to the PHD's who get rather linear in their thinking and saved Dupont 100's of hours and $ in making cultures do what the science guys ask...in one recent culture the scientist wanted a yeast culture to produce a certain enzyme but needed it to be saturated by its own nitrogen which takes about 24 hours...he suggested "Why don't you just inject nitrogen halfway through the cycle instead of waiting the culture to develop its own?"...the scientist were baffled as to why they did not think about it...very easy to do, cut production time in half and was easier to control...

But fake meat out of a test tube is here already...

"Vegeburgers" were marketed since the 1980s but references to the concept go back decades before that (1948 mention in a radio program).

It is remarkable how people think this is a brand new concept, while perhaps the new generation do a better job mimicking real meat. Don't read the ingredient list too closely, the implied lie is that these are more healthy for you.

JR

PS: I have some real meat out in my smoker, right now.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I have long been an advocate for blockchain technology, not crypto currency.

Speaking of crypto currency, the IRS recently reiterated that capital gains from trading crypto are taxable just like any other asset transaction.

====
Todays post is about applying block chain to water mark and register verified images.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/truepic-blochain-image-verification/

This is not a recent article, but it seems the concept is increasingly important in this age of fake news, with a major election campaign heating up.


JR

 

[Script]

... the IRS recently reiterated that capital gains from trading crypto are taxable just like any other asset transaction.

Common sense.

 

[Script]

Bitcoins are soaring, and so is gold. Obviously both virus driven.

 

[Tubetec]

Criminal Assets Bureau in Ireland just seized 52 million in bit coin which they were able to show was the proceeds of crime . It will remain with CAB for now but after a certain period of time elapses it comes back to the state .

 

[JohnRoberts]

Criminal Assets Bureau in Ireland just seized 52 million in bit coin which they were able to show was the proceeds of crime . It will remain with CAB for now but after a certain period of time elapses it comes back to the state .

A few weeks ago US  marshals auctioned off 3,800 bitcoins from asset forfeitures. They required something like a $200k deposit to bid. I suspect some large crypto player(s) won that auction.

I am still even with bitcoin personally (still $0), but my (small) gold position is up 11% now as compared to being down 20-30% just a few years ago.  Advocates for bitcoin call it "digital gold". Probably not crazy for younger people than me to have a small position of bitcoin, just like my small position of gold, but I still prefer real gold (I'm old).

Central banks around the world are still pushing liquidity into the system, inflating hard assets. I expect this music to stop at some point, but for now it appears to be the new normal.  Bubbles generally do not reveal themselves until after they burst.

JR

 

[john12ax7]

Reviving this thread as the past year has had many developments.  India seems to be getting closer to a crypto ban.  What are the odds of this actually happening and will other countries follow suit? Burry was predicting this,  as governments would not easily give up being in control of currency.  No surprise India is working on a government issued digital currency.

In the US I see it as a race to who makes the biggest political donations.  If enough big corporations embrace crypto then surely their lobbyists will protect it.  If not then it's a more uncertain future.

 

[volker]

I haven't really looked into this, but what would a ban look like? It's all digital, servers can be placed wherever, a government can't keep you from trading online. Or are you talking about adoption as a means of payment? India also seems to be the origin of many crypto scams (worthless pump and dump coins), so maybe this is in relation to that.

There is a lot of interest in crypto currencies all across governments, industries, and celebrities and artists in NFTs. Just some random news:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-cloud-joins-hedera-hashgraph-150052071.html

Google has become a member of the governing body for distributed ledger startup Hedera Hashgraph, according to a Tuesday announcement.
...
Other members of the Governing Council include IBM, Deutsche Telekom, Boeing, Nomura and Tata Communications, among others.

https://cryptomoneyteam.co/2020/08/07/the-european-union-chooses-iota-as-key-innovator-in-funding-program/
Plenty more support from many sides for IOTA.

https://www.musictech.net/news/artists-selling-music-nft-making-millions/
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/nft-digital-art-boom/index.html

 

[john12ax7]

https://coinmarketcap.com/headlines/news/Indias-Proposed-Crypto-Ban-Leaves-Future-Uncertain-For-Traders/

The proposal could make  engaging in transactions and even owning, crypto illegal.  I suppose in practice it would be like other things.  People can't necessarily be stopped from doing the things before hand,  but those that are found out to have done them face penalties.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Reviving this thread as the past year has had many developments.  India seems to be getting closer to a crypto ban.  What are the odds of this actually happening and will other countries follow suit? Burry was predicting this,  as governments would not easily give up being in control of currency.  No surprise India is working on a government issued digital currency.

In the US I see it as a race to who makes the biggest political donations.  If enough big corporations embrace crypto then surely their lobbyists will protect it.  If not then it's a more uncertain future.

The central bankers are not going to sit by idle and watch their currencies get eroded.

I think It is interesting that China is trying to promote a crypto-yuan using the upcoming olympic games. They will give every attendee 500(?) yuan of the new crypto currency to spend during the games. They obviously want to establish their crypto currency as some new international exchange medium.

I am still even.....

JR

 

[boji]

The central bankers are not going to sit by idle and watch their currencies get eroded.

My guess is the smart ones are privately buying up crypto positions while publicly declaring it has no future.

Would someone mind explaining how the dollar's value is being protected from the unlimited creation of debt?

 

[JohnRoberts]

My guess is the smart ones are privately buying up crypto positions while publicly declaring it has no future.

smart central bankers?

Would someone mind explaining how the dollar's value is being protected from the unlimited creation of debt?

It isn't, this will surely get interesting as inflation heats up as expected.

JR 

 

[living sounds]

A ban would make it illegal to hold, trade in, mine, stake, etc.

It would still be possible to to do all these things, but it would be illegal. It won't be possible for governments to actually stop all activity, just like child pornography laws don't prevent the stuff from getting produced and traded (note: I am in no way equating these things in any way). But it would critically damage the value of the assets.

This is a race of crypto getting too big to fail. The further adoption is progressing, the less likely an outright ban will be. In democracies there are also legal/constitutional issues to consider. The Supreme Court of India has struck down a crypto ban before.

Also, legislators tend to be well-connected and much wealthier than the average citizen. They are increasingly likely to invest some of their own fortunes in cryptocurrencies and/or use crypto tools like DeFi. They will be accutely aware that they would damage their own portfolios.

Several people in the Biden administration, e.g. nominee for the SEC chairmanship Gary Gensler, are crypto-experts and optimists. If they do not destroy the market during the next four years it might be too big to fail already.

 

[JohnRoberts]

A ban would make it illegal to hold, trade in, mine, stake, etc.

It would still be possible to to do all these things, but it would be illegal. It won't be possible for governments to actually stop all activity, just like child pornography laws don't prevent the stuff from getting produced and traded (note: I am in no way equating these things in any way). But it would critically damage the value of the assets.

This is a race of crypto getting too big to fail. The further adoption is progressing, the less likely an outright ban will be. In democracies there are also legal/constitutional issues to consider. The Supreme Court of India has struck down a crypto ban before.

Also, legislators tend to be well-connected and much wealthier than the average citizen. They are increasingly likely to invest some of their own fortunes in cryptocurrencies and/or use crypto tools like DeFi. They will be accutely aware that they would damage their own portfolios.

Several people in the Biden administration, e.g. nominee for the SEC chairmanship Gary Gensler, are crypto-experts and optimists. If they do not destroy the market during the next four years it might be too big to fail already.

The more likely scenario is that it gets co-opted by a nation state (like China) who would love to unseat the dollar as the international reserve currency, while the excessive borrowing and spending in DC is already is rushing toward that ditch.

Venezuela tried to float their own crypto currency (the Petro) back in 2014 to get around US sanctions. Of course Venezuela doesn't have the economic muscle that a China does to be successful. China might be smart to provide some liquidity and security for BTC by linking it to their new crypto currency. Chinese criminal hackers are already using BTC for collecting ransoms.

JR

 

[living sounds]

China might be smart to provide some liquidity and security for BTC by linking it to their new crypto currency. Chinese criminal hackers are already using BTC for collecting ransoms.

JR

How much do you know about how blockchain financial technology and Bitcoin in particular works?

I read crypto news every day, this is the first time I have ever head of this idea... A link would be helpful.

And all kinds of hackers are using all kinds of digital stuff to try and collect ransom...

I think the narrative that BTC will become a stable (money supply is decreasing exponentially and going towards a fixed maximum) store of value and even the backbone of the global economy might possibly come true.

 

[volker]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/17/bitcoin-morgan-stanley-is-the-first-big-us-bank-to-offer-wealthy-clients-access-to-bitcoin-funds.html

Morgan Stanley is only allowing its wealthier clients access to the volatile asset: The bank considers it suitable for people with “an aggressive risk tolerance” who have at least $2 million in assets held by the firm. Investment firms need at least $5 million at the bank to qualify for the new stakes.

Wouldn't want to let everybody have access to an asset that outperforms every product they offer themselves.

 

[JohnRoberts]

How much do you know about how blockchain financial technology and Bitcoin in particular works?

I understand blockchain technology in general (robust ownership ledger embedded into it.). Bitcoin is different animal based on scarcity or finite supply with unlimited demand.

I read crypto news every day, this is the first time I have ever head of this idea... A link would be helpful.

A link to my personal thoughts? That link would be to my post in this thread.

That China is promoting a crypto yuan that they plan to distribute at the olympics was probably in a newspaper article (WSJ) that I read recently, on mentioned on financial news. Connecting the Chinese crypto currency to BTC was my own mental leap. 

JR

And all kinds of hackers are using all kinds of digital stuff to try and collect ransom...

I think the narrative that BTC will become a stable (money supply is decreasing exponentially and going towards a fixed maximum) store of value and even the backbone of the global economy might possibly come true.