November 2017

After my last post about Bitcoin, I got a lot of, “So… Bitcoin?”  No one has a concrete opinion on this thing except the evangelists, but everyone wants to discuss it.  Skeptics seem more concerned about staying in their lane than dragging down crypto – they don’t understand it, they don’t need it, and maybe it smells a bit fishy to them. I think crypto is an elegant solution in search of a problem and I am constantly reminded of the early internet.  We didn’t see the use of the internet at first, but today it’s a basic utility.  Here’s how I’m looking at Bitcoin right now. What is the Purpose? It’s a way to store wealth.  This is particularly handy if your centralized currency authority is devaluing/confiscating.  With fewer institutions between transacting parties (basically just the network), Bitcoin is a fast and cheap way to send money to someone…

I changed my mind on Bitcoin a few weeks ago.  A bunch of smart people had made public comments on it, generating buzz.  I was going to write up a short summary for our investment team with pros and cons, ultimately concluding that Bitcoin was garbage.  But then I did some research. I read this Letter to Jamie Dimon which is the best tutorial on crypto-currencies (maybe more accurately crypto-assets) out there. I got sucked in to Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s Hash Power podcast series and have listened to it twice now. I’m convinced that Bitcoin is a real thing that has value.  Is it worth $7,500?  I have no idea and neither does anyone else.  Crypto-assets are an uncharted territory, basically a new paradigm along the lines of the invention of the internet.  Like the internet’s early days, nobody knows where the value lies yet.  The hip thing to say now…