U.S. Markets: Quantified Regulation

Innovation Metrics

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

— Arthur C. Clarke

“… the traditional definition of a security …has worked well for a long time.”” — Chairman of the U.S. SEC, Jay Clayton

“ … we set ourselves up as the gatekeepers of innovation. Securities regulators are ill-equipped to fill this particular role…” — Commissioner of the U.S. SEC Hester Peirce

The facts:

1. >90% of commerce in the USA relies on the internet in one form or another (citation; my estimation)
2. The internet is the most important public utility in the history of planet earth
3. The largest internet enterprises are: Amazon + Google + Apple + Facebook
4. Their aggregate market capitalization = ~$4.5 Trillion USD
5. Their total employees = ~5 million humans
6. $4.5 Trillion USD is > 99% of any single country’s GDP (only USA, China are higher, Japan is about equal)
7. USA GDP is ~$20 trillion, and consists of 330 million people
8. These four companies market capitalization value is approximately 25% of USA GDP, but only 1.5% of the population
9. These four companies control the internet, have all of our information
10. They all trade on SEC licensed exchanges
11. And are they trying to cure cancer, free oppressed humans from communist states? No, they are trying to use your data to sell you more stuff, like a Nissan Altima, woo!!! (Citation: The Four, by NYU Professor Scott Galloway) FN: https://www.autoblog.com/buy/2018-Nissan-Altima/safety-ratings/
12. Generally speaking, only accredited investors can invest in early internet enterprise and reap the profits.
13. < 5% of USA population are accredited investors (net worth of ~$1 mm excluding home or annual salary of $200k per year) (source: https://qz.com/431198/this-is-not-a-typo-only-3-of-americans-are-legally-allowed-to-invest-in-start-ups/ ). There are many computer scientists (notice this: its not my parents wanted doctors, lawyers…but computer/data scientists of all types, which may also include doctors, lawyers, professionals) and other experts in society fields which may be called to testify before a court, but not “sophisticated” enough to invest b/c they are not accredited investors, hmmm…
14. This < 5% determines what is worthy of innovation — and to be funded
15. Generally, unaccredited investors only option to earn returns is the stock market (1–10% per year), bonds or playing the lottery — $80 billion is spent on lottery tickets per year, mostly by you guessed it, unaccredited investors (Source : Vox). The odds of winning the lottery are ~1/14,000,000. The odds of picking investment into a successful startup are ~1/100.

Quantitative Easing: 2009 — Present

According to MIT, ~90% of scientific innovation never receives proper funding and remains isolated in university labs (source: Andrew Lo, PhD, MIT Professor Financial Engineering)

Shark Tank has aired on national tv for approximately 10 years.

Cryptocurrencies have a total market capitalization of $200 billion

Bitcoin is the greatest performing asset in the history of humanity.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

< 5% of the U.S. population controls innovation, which significantly limits magic.

What magic are we missing out on?

Final Thought: economically incentivized, global scientific collaboration [∞]…

The sky is the limit. We’re close. Stay tuned ;)

Written by Gregory J. Rigano, Esq., attorney at law, free speech maximalist, founder of the Blockchain and Law Meetup NYC. Educational purposes only. Do your own research. Stay safe.

Feel free to reach out if you have any comments, questions or if you believe there is anything inaccurate: gregor@iku.network or on Twitter: @RiganoESQ