Waking up from crypto sleep
Cloud life has been keeping me in a crypto sleep lately, so finally getting a chance to dig into what’s happening feels a lot like being Cryp Van Winkle. I can’t blame you if you stop reading right there and block me on Twitter.
The good news is, we got an episode of Sunset Crypto out yesterday with Rikesh Thapa from Blockparty and he was an awesome guest. Blockparty is doing some really cool blockchain stuff with ticketing and events and Rikesh was kind enough to put up with both our softball questions and some tougher ones. Give it a listen.
For those willing to stomach even more of my nonsense, let’s get into some happenings in the cryptosphere.
Well isn’t that something. Just what air travelers need — another reason to bitch about air travel! The bet here is that people might be a little upset if the equivalent of a $300 flight shot up to $500 while they were in the air. I guess the good news, depending on your point of view, is that TapJets is for people with “f*** you” money, so they probably won’t care if Ripple skyrockets and they lose a few measly decimals off their net worth between takeoff and landing.
That number seems both low and high, somehow. To tell you the truth, this doesn’t look like lazy fear-mongering about crypto, it seems like the Chinese government is really paying attention. Meanwhile, for those of you that don’t follow a One China Policy in terms of your crypto blog consumption, Taiwan is ramping up its blockchain game. Add Taiwan to the list of islands that want to be cryptopia while larger landmasses surrounded by less than 100% water waffle back and forth.
It’s going to be really interesting to see which countries are actually pulling the strings in the crypto world in 5–10 years. I don’t consider myself a maximalist that thinks crypto can exist independent of central governments while regulators scramble to recoup lost power. I think it’s much more likely that we see a blended future of decentralized movements and centralized actors fighting for supremacy in the world of crypto enablement. People who know way more about the intersection between blockchain and policy should, you know, write stuff about whether stringent anti-scam regulations or crypto-accelerating laws and postures do more to bring about the crypto future that we all dream about.
It’s high time we ask ourselves what the hell is going on with Verge. (Disclaimer: I have a very small XVG position). I don’t know about you, but when I think of privacy coins, I think of security, anonymity, and the ability to float around the Internet without worrying about whether my money will still be there when I finish aimlessly drifting.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be possible with Verge. This is the second major hack of its blockchain, and a coin that is supposed to keep people safe from those who might seek to exploit knowledge of their purchases and financial movements would do well to tighten its own screws. Furthermore, Verge’s PR operation has become extremely aggressive in recent months, which should concern any cryptoid who invests in coins based on the technology and vision.
Speaking of aggressive PR operations, Bitcoin Cash has entered some pretty bizarre territory. (Disclaimer: I would like to sell you my very small BCH position). Roger Ver is asking his Twitter followers (read: army of acolytes) to send BCH to a third party so that he can promote BCH. Basically, advertising is expensive, so would the followers of Roger Ver mind picking up the tab? Because I’ve already devoted too much time to that very compromised and very shady project, I’ll just stop here by saying: don’t f*cking do it.
