The Week To Be In Crypto [10/15/2018]
Market Overview
the 4th week of right around 1% change in the BTC price is a bit misleading, we got right around yearly lows earlier in the week just to rebound in the last 24 hours. The rebound was led mostly by continuing solvency concerns around the most widely used stable coin (USDT Tether). That led to big money trying to move out of that asset into bitcoin and driving the tether price. Not a good look for something that is supposed to be backed 100% by USD reserves. It really doesnt matter if it is or not, it just matters if people think they can get their dollars out. Right now folks really only think theres about a 92% chance they can trade their USDT directly for dollars. I think everyone agrees that tether has SOME USD in reserve so as demand goes down and they take some out of circulation I see it stabilizing, building back up, and then we do this again.
Had a conversation with a friend recently on stable coins and I think I have settled on a vision for how I think it will play out. In the future we will all have wallets with an array of assets from loyalty points to outstanding loans to stocks and derivatives, houses/cars, promises of future cash flows, application tokens, securities and collectibles, anything. Then when you want to purchase something a smart wallet chooses the best asset to spend or exchange for that transaction. Fiat currencies arent going anywhere for a while but I dont think we will move to these new electronic central banks where we pool a bunch of fiat in the caymans and some central entity creates the tokens.
- All volatile and non-fiat assets listed above
- A connection to my bank account that can on demand mint a token pegged to my local fiat (but MY fiat)
- A world stable asset
Looks like USDC from circle is kinda doing #2 and there will be others, thats a lot more comfortable than trusting tether. #3 is up for grabs, if i had to bet I would say bitcoin takes this spot but WE HAVE OPTIONS
In other recent news……..
I think the biggest impact of this will be with making crypto less scary to newcomers if fidelity is vouching for it with resources and attention. As far as pushing the space forward or driving more people to care about financial sovereignty I dont think it really moves the needle. It may help make my magical internet moneys be worth more old boring moneys sooner but will there be any way to buy BTC or any other crypto asset through fidelity and then move it to a DEX or another crypto platform? I doubt it, they are professional middlemen, the very thing crypto is trying to dis-intermediate. Smart on their part to try and wedge themselves in before its too late.
What I’m Buying
Tax preparation services, I bought a lot of tax preparation services this week.
Here’s some more info on my baby REN
Recommended Media
Read
Listen
From the Slack
A collection of content from The Bitcoin Podcast slack group the past week
https://blockstream.com/2018/10/10/liquid-launch.html
Follow Me
twitter: https://twitter.com/Tompkins_Jon
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathantompkins
steemit: https://steemit.com/@j-o-n-t
telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/FqrpRUo8CKHV8gGKRuNNNQ(nothing really here yet but will start engaging if a few more folks join)
