By Su Zhu and Hasu We don’t talk much about price in this blog, but we will make an exception today to show how to value bitcoin using a high-level approach. We’ll highlight three significant trends in the world and suggest how either one of them could lead to increased…

By Su Zhu and Hasu So far, dollar backed stablecoins like Tether’s USDT or Circle’s USDC don’t pay any interest to holders of their coin. We think that is about to change in 2019. As of today, the users of stablecoins are effectively giving their providers free loans in return…

When cash is gone, where will you turn to transact with a basic level of privacy? What money do you hold when negative interest rates start eating away at your bank account? — By Su Zhu and Hasu The rise of digital payments and the move towards a cashless society are often seen as the same, but there is an important difference between them. Digital payments like Paypal, Venmo, domestic-, and international bank transfers are convenient for people and businesses to transact with…

By Su Zhu and Hasu Monetary maximalism is the idea that in a free market for money one big winner will emerge and that the “soundest” money is in the best position to do so. In a previous post, I wrote that “every token competes in one massive power law…

A lesson in stablecoin arbitrage — By Su Zhu and Hasu The least understood thing about stablecoins is how they come into existence. Who creates the supply of Tether, USDC or Dai that you can buy on your favorite exchange? We will take a look at how professional arbitrageurs expand and contract the supply of a…

A framework for skeptics, part 3 — By Su Zhu and Hasu In the second part, we showed how Bitcoin is a novel social and economic institution. But the question remains: Who is going to use it? Is there a place for Bitcoin among other institutions, and if so, where is it? Is Bitcoin just a terribly…

A framework for skeptics — Bitcoin is a novel social and economic institution. It is so different from our existing institutions that we should be skeptical and ask as many hard, pressing questions as we can before trusting it with any economic value. Some answers will only reveal themselves with time (or Lindy, as the…

When Casa announced their plug-and-play Bitcoin and Lightning node, I immediately pre-ordered one for myself. It was an impulse buy — I certainly didn’t need a Bitcoin node nor would I call myself an avid early adopter or tinkerer. Motivation My prior experience with running a Bitcoin full node had been…

By Su Zhu and Hasu — Bitcoin SV pumped 66% today while being the 6th most traded crypto asset in terms of volume. Impressive for a coin that isn’t even widely listed yet? On further inspection, the real reason might be an irresponsible business decision by the largest altcoin exchange. Deposits disabled Over the last days, BSV made…