LETTER
DDI — Weekly Selection November 4, 2019
Hi DDI-ers,
Hundreds of stories with great ideas, knowledge and insights are being shared each week by our community members on DDI Medium Publication and Main site. Finding the ones that you are personally interested in can be quite time-consuming so we have done the job for you!
Read one of the great stories we handpicked for you below!
The Quality Minus Junk Quant Thesis in Crypto-Assets
By Jesus Rodriguez
Creating models that evaluate the real market value of crypto-assets is one of the pivotal challenges of the space. While the valuation methodologies for crypto-assets are still in its infancy, we can draw inspiration from many ideas from the quantitative investing world.
As a completely digital asset, quant models are likely to be dominant in the crypto space but there is still a wide gap between both schools of thought. Adapting quant ideas to crypto-assets is not only intellectually fascinating but, arguably, one of the most effective mechanisms to develop valuation models for this new asset class. Today, I would like to explore one of my favorite new quant theories in the context of crypto assets: the quality minus junk(QMJ) factor. [read more]
Three Reasons Why The SpaceX Starship Is a Bad Investment
By Dave Rauschenfels
The development price of the Falcon 9 rocket was a billion dollars. We could assume that each flight with a new booster costs $62 million and that SpaceX earns a 40% profit margin. Their net return would then be $24.8 million per flight. We could also assume (not realized) that each booster has flown 15 times before it is expended. Then using conservative estimates the company could recoup the investment in 5.5 years with a dozen flights per year.
But analyzing the potential return on investment for the Starship is more tricky. There is no private company in history that has ever ventured to build a launch vehicle of this scale. The real question is, is there a market for the booster? [read more]
Decentralized Finance: Future or Farce?
By Merle van den Akker
Decentralized Finance, often referred to as DeFi if you’re really short on letters, is a form of finance that doesn’t rely on a central regulatory system such as banks. It has become increasingly famous throughout the 21st century, but a lot of people don’t seem to understand what exactly DeFi is.
The most famous example of DeFi so far has been the Bitcoin. A cryptocurrency which came into existence in 2009 (version 0.1) and has since skyrocketed in value, giving rise to multiple crypto-millionaires. But Bitcoin is neither the only cryptocurrency, nor the only form of DeFi out there. It’s time we dive into this new movement and find out whether this is what the future holds for us. [read more]
The God of Small Things
By Aditya Balakrishnan
It’s been a long time since we’ve bandied around the devastating statistics that indicate the nature of global poverty today. Billions in destitution, countless others barely surviving, and most importantly, a hopelessness and mental trauma that makes the problem generational, and thus never-ending.
Let’s throw in some more numbers. Around 8.5% of the global population live on less than $1.90 a day, comprising almost 800 million people. There’s no doubt that there has been a steady decrease over the years, but poverty alleviation is nowhere near the level we expect it to be.
However, the solution to these issues may be that there isn’t one sole solution. We need to think from a grassroots level. [read more]
Blockchain Start-Ups In New York City Are The Secret You Never Read About
By Robert Anzalone
I think blockchain has gotten a bad reputation in the NYC financial community. It is a mistake.
I have worked on Wall Street for over 20 years, but I cover crypto and blockchain start-ups as a writer. I have managed two large blockchain proofs-of-concept projects.
When the term carried weight and hype, everyone wanted to get in on the action. It was sexy. People liked the sound; they called themselves blockchain thought-leaders, crypto-enthusiasts, and change-the-world leaders. Remember when old companies, e.g., Kodak, used blockchain as a media boost? Very few people understood the technology, and fewer understood the industries they were trying to reform. There was a flood of people who wanted to work for blockchain projects [read more]

