THE CRYPTO REVOLUTION

Is this the beginning of the next pandemic surge?  From the New York Times this morning.

• You've read about Philadelphia's return to indoor masks.  
• But what about the other regions?  
• Remember when the Alpha variant hit Michigan and Minnesota about a year ago...then fizzled?  
• So sure predictions are difficult. 
• Of course, most new cases are being caused by the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, the most contagious virus yet, but the combination of vaccinations, high number of previous asymptomatic cases, home tests (which are generally not reported) and mildness of the resultant symptoms is not affecting the hospitalization rate, with a continuing decline of death rates.  
• We are now in the mode of uncertainty tinged with optimism.

The crypto world is erupting.  It's possible that this could become a revolution.  However, anything relatively new remains perilous, and this financing option could just as easily blow up into obscurity, for the system is vulnerable to too many risks, especially suspicious regulators and hesitant countries.  

On 16 November 2013 my posting was WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BITCOINS?  Here is a current history of the price.

Since then I have had several articles on this mysterious financing subject, including on 22 September 2017 WHAT IS THE LATEST ON BITCOIN?  

• 
  I indicated that the bitcoin began to be traded in 2009 at $0.0008, but jumped to $0.08 by the end of the first month.   
• In 2013 the price leaped to $450.  So in four years, one bitcoin jumped in value by a factor of 562,500!!!
• There have nevertheless been some scary days as in 2017 the price was at $3634.98, but that was a drop from being above $5000 when China decided to ban this currency.  

• 
  The problem is China more than the concept, for the country has banned cryptocurrencies perhaps 18 times.
• If you have heart trouble, you shouldn't be investing in bitcoins.
• Just about a year ago I published THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF BITCOIN, CRYPTOCURRENCY AND NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS.  Bitcoin prices subsequently went berserk.

• 
  The peak reached $68,649 on 10 November 2021.
• A recent low of $35,070 occurred in January, with price moving up to $47,000, but is today a shade under $40,000.
• Mind you, you almost can't appreciate the daily vacillation, unless you enjoy roller coaster rides, as for example, on April 10 it was at 43,357, only to drop to 39,713 on the 11th, almost 10%.

Of course, bitcoin is only one of a myriad crypto characters.  The New York Times had a recent summary of the field, and what once was a risky curiosity has become mainstream:

• 
  Matt Damon and Larry David are starring in crypto-ads.
• Remember Staples Center in Los Angeles?  Now called Crypto.com Arena.

• 
  The American Airlines Arena of the Miami Heat NBA team is now the FTX Arena.
• Major League Baseball signed a long-term partnership with FTX.
• At least three mayors, Eric Adams of New York City, Francis Suarez of Miami and Scott Conger of Jackson (Tennessee) are gaining fame as crypto-politicians.
• World leaders from Narendra Modi to Vladimir Putin to Olaf Scholz are debating this subject.

• 
  Earlier I reported that El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele is launching bitcoin backed bonds.
• Seen Pepsi's Mic Drop genesis NFTs (non fungible tokens)?

You need need to know a few new terms to get a crypto-feel of the coming reality.  Kevin Roose of the New York Times has become the crypto-savant.  Some of the following came from him.

• What is crypto?  The entire universe of technologies that involve blockchains.
• What is a blockchain?  They are shared databases that store and verify information in a secure way.
  
• The chain is decentralized.  This is one reason why so much computer capability is required.
  
• There is no referee in decision-making, there is a consensus mechanism.
• Thus it is impossible to take down a blockchain.  That is, the culprit would need to break into a bunch of computers at the same time.  There are 70,000 computers in the network.
• Anyone can inspect a public blockchain's code or see any transaction.
• Data cannot be deleted or changed.
• 
  Can also store and execute Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs.
• What are Non-Fungible Tokens?  Assets that carry a unique digital identity, and can be traded between users on a blockchain.  Examples of NFTs include artwork, trading cards, comic books, sports collectible, games, etc.

• 
  How are blockchains related to cryptocurrencies?  I'll simplify this:  bitcoin uses a blockchain to keep track of transactions, allowing people to send and receive money over the internet without a central authority, such as a bank or PayPal.

• 
  How many cryptocurrencies are in existence?  Roughly 10,000.  Bitcoin is the best known cryptocurrency.
• As cryptocurrencies have been around for 13 years, why can't I use it in daily transactions?  You can, and some companies are Microsoft, Home Depot, Starbucks, Tesla, Whole Foods, KFC Canada, some Subways (and the first such transfer occurred in Moscow, Russia in 2013), Burger Kings in certain countries, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Dolphins, Expedia and Amazon through Bitrefill.  Wikipedia accepts Bitcoin donations.

• 
  There are now crypto social clubs, crypto video games, crypto restaurants and crypto-to-powered networks.
• Isn't crypto similar to a Ponzi pyramid scheme?
• Well, there are some, like OneCoin, which stole $4 billion from investors from 2014 to 2019, and VirgilSigmaFund, essentially a 24-year old who ran a crypto hedge fund, got $90 million, and was arrested.
• An equivalence is whether the stock market is a Ponzi scheme.
• 
  Is crypto regulated?  Hardly.  The IRS hasn't yet figured out how to tax crypto profits.
• Will crypto replace the dollar?  No.
• Who invests in crypto?  There are publicity seekers, but the truth is that no one knows who really is doing any crypto-investing.

• 
  Is crypto for Whites?  In the U.S., much of what you see seems to be Caucasian actors and billionaires.  Turns out that Asian, Black and Latino adults are more likely to go into crypto.  Further, the fastest growing countries are Vietnam, India and Pakistan.
• Aren't criminals taking advantage of crypto?  Yes.  Big in illegal buy-sell and tax schemes. 

• 
  Is crypto bad for the environment and global warming?  Yes.  A lot of computer time and electricity are used.  Around the annual energy consumption of Thailand and carbon footprint of the Czech Republic.  Some companies are beginning to shift to renewable resources, while a counter-argument is that other forms of financing produce more carbon dioxide.
• 
  What is a crypto wallet?  It keeps your private keys, the passwords giving you access to your cryptocurrencies.  Examples are Ledger, which looks like a USB stick and a mobile app like Coinbase Wallet, which is like an online credit card.  You can also write you passwords on a piece of paper and store it in a safe place.  
• 
  However, there is the case of Stefan Thomas of San Francisco.  He has only two guesses left to access $320 million.  In 2021 Forbes estimated his worth at $500 million.  IronKey contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin.  He wrote the password on piece paper and lost it.  He had ten guesses before IronKey forever encrypts these contents forever.  At this time his best solution he thinks might be:

There is a way to take a scanning electron microscope and take apart the physical chip and literally go into the the silicon chip and take away layer by layer, like a few atoms thick, and then read out the actual memory cells. And then with that technique, you should be able to bypass that limit of 10 tries, and then you can have a supercomputer try, you know, billions of passwords per second.

• 
  Of the existing 18.5 million Bitcoin, apparently 20%, or $140 billion, appear to be lost or otherwise stranded.
• A company, Wallet Recovery Services gets 70 request/day from people wanting to recover their investment.

Did Satoshi Nakamoto create Bitcoin?  Read my posting of a few months ago.  Most authorities say he is 47 years old and from Japan.  Chances are that he is a they, who own around a million shares, which would have been worth nearly $7 billion at peak, and today is closer to $4 billion.  Until this mystery is solved, consider him to be symbolically represented by this statue in Budapest.

Now that you are a new convert to the crypto revolution, here are two more buzzwords worthy of your appreciation.

• 
  Web3 
• Can monitize data.
• A new kind of internet service built using decentralized blockchains.
• Will be used to play video games, sell/buy digital culture and a lot more.

• 
  To begin, there was Web1, the internet of the 1990s into early 2000s.
• Then came Web2 from 2005 characterized by social media.
• Web3 will replace these centralized and corporate platforms with a decentralized and community-run networks.
• A typical option would allow you to buy stakes in up-and-coming artists, and gain streaming royalties.
• Will become an essential part of the metaverse.
• 
  Which leads to, what is the metaverse?  
• In short an umbrella term encompassing augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies.  
• Or, from a 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson:  an all-encompassing digital world that exists parallel to the real world.  Pegged to become a nearly trillion dollar market by 2024.
• Or, a 3D version of the Internet and computing at large.
• A current equivalent would be the Apple App Store.

• 
  How to access the metaverse today?
• Perhaps a $10 Google Cardboard.
• Your smartphone.
• Or $300 Oculus 2 headset.
• Or $999 Valve Index VR.
• Someday, the metaverse will allow you to buy a virtual country.
• 
  DAO, which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, and has also something to do with blockchain technology.
• Is a crypto-coop.  Think financial flash mob.
• A group forms this partnership around something like a start-up or NFT subject usually using crypto tokens.

• 
  For example, ConstitutionDAO, consisting of thousands of crypto fans, raised more than $45 million to bid on a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution that was being auctioned by Sotheby's.  They lost and have not yet succeeded in returning the loot.  $1.2 million was earned by Ethereum for hosting this DAO.

• 
  Another is PleasrDAO, a team of dozens or crypto artists and investors which spent $4 million on the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.  Why?  Search me.
• In any case, DAOs are supposedly more democratic, transparent and nimble.
• There have of course been DAOs like DeFi which took $60 million and disappeared.
• 
  There are also social DAOs like Friends with Benefits.  This one costs $4000 to join, providing chat rooms on job leads, investment opportunities and the like.  Now, who would want to do this?  It has a membership of thousands.  The initial cost was quite low and zoomed up to $4000.

• 
  Who bothers with DAOs?  Those interested in speculative gambling, trend-chasing and utopian true belief, like fixing the original internet.  There is a new world out there being orchestrated by the crypto revolution.

I'll close with the following sent by Curtis Lee:

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