This week’s recap reflects the intense regulatory and government scrutiny lavished on crypto in recent days. US lawmakers exhibited a wide-range of stances from recognition of BTC as ‘an unstoppable force ‘ to repeated calls to hit it with the ban hammer. This is just the beginning of a multi-year (decade?) debate on blockchain and cryptos. There are going to be many missteps and anyone hoping for a smooth transition to a post-legacy finance era is surely going be bitterly disappointed. Strap-in, be realistic and prepare for volatility – destination unknown.

Picks of the Week

Why BTC? – this article makes a convincing case. Ray Dalio has made a wildly successful career out of being ahead of the economic curve – his article on a pending paradigm shift in the global economy is fascinating.

Twitter

A reality check on the ‘myth’ (in most cases) of early adopters of BTC:
https://twitter.com/zhusu/status/1149575395529781252

Volatility argued as a positive for BTC:
https://twitter.com/danheld/status/1150766969253031936

Centralizing chain-tokens to achieve speed/lower costs comes with other consequences:
https://twitter.com/matt_odell/status/959146749091749888

Now you can track EOS 1.8 upgrade progress:
https://twitter.com/EOSauthority/status/1150734034605084672

Thoughts on EOS, community, BPs, voting incentives etc:
https://twitter.com/tokenstate/status/1151555321438957568

Secretary Mnuchin talked crypto but was anything new really said?:
https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1150837275917508608

Nic Carter’s take on ‘Bitcoin is based on ‘thin air’:
https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1150955296283602945

Is the establishment beginning to catch on to the existential threat BTC poses?:
https://twitter.com/real_vijay/status/938139480531255296

Trading support and resistance levels:
https://twitter.com/krugermacro/status/1024791983309680640

A rebuttal of quantum computers as a pending issue for crypto:
https://twitter.com/jimmysong/status/1150621392674664448

Articles

Why BTC – an accessible discussion of money – security/privacy and freedom (highly recommended):
https://medium.com/@wiz/why-bitcoin-359ada12629e

Trying to please everyone has its costs:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/libra-is-so-screwed-should-have-used-bitcoin-says-samson-mow

Libra hearing partial transcript:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/key-comments-from-libra-hearing-at-us-house-of-representatives

Blockchain has a lot to offer charitable organizations:
https://hackernoon.com/blockchain-projects-are-helping-to-bring-trust-back-to-charity-xc9ze38ty

Trouble ahead for the global economy? – Ray Dalio certainly thinks so (highly recommended):
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/paradigm-shifts-ray-dalio/

Beware those who pander to your prejudices (non-crypto):
https://old.trybe.one/archives/demagoguery-masterclass/#comment-93453

Podcast

Discussing Bitcoin’s energy profile (recommended):

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/michel-rauchs-on-bitcoin-electricity-consumption-index/id1317356120?i=1000444601823

YouTube

Bitcoin as a New Wealth Paradigm – inspired by Ray Dalio’s endorsement of gold (timestamp 3:08):

Crypto is weird this being yet another case in point (recommended):

Digital Identity – a concise explanation:

Infographic

Recent months have been very kind to BTC buyers (a pullback might be viewed in that context): expectation:

Website / Utility

A very handy tool for assessing the staking rewards offered by different cryptos:

https://stakingrewards.com/asset/neo

A high stakes week with many more to come. The establishment is just beginning to sniff the existential danger crypto poses to the status quo – let the games begin!

Note on Sources:

Twitter & Reddit (cryptos current meta-brains) / Medium / Trybe / Hackernoon / Whaleshares / TIMM and so on/ YouTube / various podcasts and whatever else I stumble upon. The aim is a useful weekly aggregator of ideas rather than news. Though I try to keep the sources current – I’ll reference these articles and podcasts etc. as I encounter them – they may have been published just a couple of days ago or in some cases quite a bit earlier.