THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF BITCOIN, CRYPTOCURRENCY AND NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS

Some of us put money in a bank and try to maximize the interest rate.  According to Michael Saylor, the conventional monetary supply devalues the dollar by 15%/year, if you are so unconscious as to do this.  Then there are others who conservatively dabble in the stock or bond market.  Have you thought of, like Elon Musk, investing in Bitcoin?  The March 29/April 5, 2021 issue of Time featured this whole new world of cryptocurrency.

Let me start with, What is a cryptocurrency?  It is digital money in the form of virtual tokens or coins.   While you were economically snoozing, just during this past decade, the financial world was inundated with more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies.  Bitcoin was the first (2009) and is by far the most prominent, but there is Ethereum (2015), which does something slightly different.

• 
  Bitcoin is what you're most familiar with, and the story reads like a fable, or mystery novel:
• If you had invested $100 in October of 2010, this is now worth $58.2 million.
• Bitcoin jumped a factor of 4 in 2020 and has doubled in 2021.

• 
  Only 21 million bitcoin can ever exist.
• Thus known as digital gold because there is a limited supply.
• Has a current market cap of $1.1 trillion, about half its market.

• 
  I've had several postings on bitcoin, dating back to 2013.  I said someone or group named Satoshi Nakamoto originated the concept in 2008, except no one can determine who he is, although I could immediately eliminate Zorro and Uncle Sam:

To simplify the whole thing, a bitcoin allows anything to be sold anonymously on the internet.  Nothing can be traced.  Thus, drugs, weapons, sensitive porn...anything, can be bought and sold, and you receive your product through the U.S. Post Office or some form of express mail.  You avoid bank and credit card fees.

• 
  Here is one from 2017 where Satoshi Nakamoto was still missing.
• On 5 May 2020 Forbes said:  John McAfee Thinks He's Solved Bitcoin's Greatest Mystery--Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?  Of course, McAfee himself is a con man dealing with possible murder and fraud, having run last year as the Libertarian candidate for the U.S. presidency.  He essentially said he knows, but won't tell, hinting that Satoshi Nakamoto is probably a group.
• The best article I've ever read about the status of Satoshi Nakamoto was written in July 2020.

• Then in November of 2020, Seavangelist Joe Quirk alerted me that the MS Satoshi would be activated as a crypto cruise vessel to safely deal with bitcoins.
• Alas, Ocean Builders from Panama on 2 March 2021 could not gain the cooperation of insurance companies and the ship was sent to India for possible scrapping.

It is with considerable trepidation then that I deal with this subject, quoting various bullets provided by the latest issue of TIME.  I've been subscribing to this magazine for around 60 years, and every so often they make adjustments.  The title on the cover (see first graphic above) for one, is almost transparent.  The changes continue inside the pages.  So about this whole new world of cryptocurrency:

• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that can serve as a commodity, like a piece of art.
• 
  But how can you sell something like digital art which anyone can steal just by plucking it out of the ethersphere?  Doesn't matter, it is still owned by a person or entity.  It exists on something called a blockchain, a tamper-resistant digital public ledger.
• 
  Can you believe that American Mike Winklemann, also known as Beeple, sold his EVERYDAYS:  THE FIRST FIVE THOUSAND DAYS for $69 million?  
• Make that $69,346,250, as purchased by Metakovan, founder of Metapurse, a crypto fund.  Said to be the third most valuable artwork ever sold by a living artist.  The highest price is Leonardo da Vinci's Salvador Mundi at $450.3 million, and #20 is Jean-Michel Basquiat's $110.5 Untitled.  MetaKovan said he thinks it is worth a billion dollars because this work represents 13 years of daily work and is the most valuable piece of art for this generation.  Above to the right is just one of the 5000 digital images within EVERYDAYS, The First Emoji.
• 
  He can list it on a blockchain like Ethereum, which charges him anywhere from $40 to $200, and this platform can then auction this piece, similar to eBay.
• By the way, who is MetaKovan?  Ah, another mystery:
• One theory is Vignesh Sundaresan, CEO of Singapore-based Portly Technologies, 
• It is not Justin Sun of blockchain founder TRON because he said he bid $70 million 30 seconds before a technical glitch stalled his attempt.
• Yesterday, the buyers were revealed, Twobadour, who are Anand Venkateswaran originally from Chennai, and Vignesh Sundaresan (on right).  So no mystery here now.

So say you are a struggling artist, how do you sell your NFT (remember, in this media, your painting is a Non-Fungible Token).  It is unique and irreplaceable.  Which could mean just about anything.  And, by the way, do you know what fungible means?

Fungibility is the ability of a good or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Fungible assets simplify the exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between the assets.

But this NFT CryptoKitty above sold for $170,000.  So moving on:

• 
  Get a Digital Wallet like MetaMask, Ledger, Nano X and Coinbase Wallet:  think of this as your checking account.
• Load your wallet:  that is, pay the transaction fee to create your account.
• Connect Your Wallet with an NFT Platform like Nifty Gateway, OpenSea and SuperRare:  some are invitational only.
• Upload and Sign Your Art:  these can be images, audio files, whatever.

• 
  Mint Your NFT:  pay a fee to upload your file.  This is that $200-$400 fee earlier mentioned.
• Set Up Your Terms:  can be anything from a standard contract to one more customized.  You can choose to be paid every time your work is resold, like royalties.
• Wait for the offers to roll in.

Do I even attempt to talk about "meme stocks" like GameStop?  Sure, but only the basics:

• A meme stock (MS) is one that has gone viral online.
• Increase in sales volume has nothing to do with company performance.
• Activity hyped by social media and online forums like Reddit, 
• All of them when they peak are overvalued.
• There is always a crash.
• Some MSs are 
• GameStop:  increased in value by hundreds of dollars in days.
• AMC:  jumped tenfold 
• BlackBerry:  tripled.
• 
  Here is what happens:
• A handful of investors buy a cheap stock in large quantities.
• Price increase is noticed by others,
• Social media picks comes into play through the phenomenon known as FOMO, or fear of missing out.

• 
  Stock peaks, and early adopters begin to cash out.
• This becomes a waterfall, and only those who went in early make out.
• You might say this is sort of like a Ponzi scheme.

Here is how GameStop went:

GameStop lagged under 5/share for years, with daily volumes in the low millions.  Then:

• A jump in September of 2020 to 10, with 35 million shares traded on September 22.
• Up to 20/share in December.
• In a month to 40/share.
• Then:
• January 19     39  144 million shares
• January 22     65  197 million 
• January 25     77  178 million
• January 26    148  179 million 
• January 27    348  93 million
• February 4      54  62 million
• February 23    45    8 million
• F             24    92   83 million
• F             25   109 150 million
• March 10       265  71 million
• March 24       120  24 million
• April 1           191    9 million
• April 8           170   10 million

But 170 when it is worth, maybe 5 or 17???  Oh, with one hour to go, the 170 dropped so far today to 158.  Most fearful of all, if GameStop is actually not performing that well, and will someday go the way of Blockbuster, won't this current still inflated price sink?  Of course.  But when?  And it still, for reasons that confound me, can again jump up.

From Motley Fool:

In recent months, Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) and GameStop (NYSE:GME) have both been hot topics in the investing world. That's not surprising, considering both have generated incredible returns in a very short period of time: In the last 12 months, Bitcoin's value is up 700% and shares of GameStop have surged over 5,000%.

Finally, you want a conspiracy theory?  One only wonders if much of this meme stock nonsense began years ago, and there are numerous stocks just waiting to be activated to deceive the public.  These miscreants will make the most money, but if you consider GameStop, they also helped the long-term investor who stuck around.  Is this legal?  Don't be caught in the next frenzy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average his another all-time high, ending today at 33,801.

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