More news about US inflation getting out of control. Seems like it’s the same way pretty much everywhere?
Some think inflation’s good for crypto. I’m skeptical. If you’re struggling to buy groceries and pay your rent because prices keep going up higher than your income does, it’s going to be hard for you to justify putting money into crypto.
That will change once prices go up long enough for people to think they’ll keep going up. At that point, more people will buy into the “inflation hedge” narrative.
Whether it’s true or not? We’ll see.
Also, that assumes inflation will continue. What happens when prices stabilize? Interesting times.
From what I can tell, crypto’s still fighting against institutional flight and profit-taking from whales who bought this summer.
Until those groups finish selling, we just need to let the market do its thing. Eventually, they’ll run out of crypto to sell.
Meanwhile, we see accumulation, growth, and strong positive behaviors on many levels. It’s been this way for many weeks. If that changes, I’ll let you know. Unless that changes, I can’t be bearish on this market.
In any event, I stick to my plan.
Catch my two updates from earlier this week:
Read below for three articles you might enjoy. I’ll have a poll in the next rundown.
If you appreciate my work, please vote for me in any of the Hacker Noon award categories I’m nominated in:
What if we fund artists the way we fund startups?
I saw an interesting piece from Elle Griffin in her newsletter, The Novelist, raising a *novel* idea:
What if artists raised funds the same way businesses do—solicit from a few large, early backers, then open subsequent rounds to fans, supporters, and “retail” investors?
She proposes an angel investment fund that will directly fund artists, providing a minimum salary so that they can quit their day jobs and create art, but with the caveat that those artists also have to also produce a salary on their own from contributing to the creator economy. The investors will earn a share of those profits depending on what percentage they own of the artist’s art.
With technology like NFTs or branded tokens, creators can instantly monetize everything they create. At the same time, supporters get the benefits of their investments in those assets, potentially royalties, rights, perks, and gains from the future appreciation of those assets.
As developers and entrepreneurs build more DAOs, smart contracts, and marketplaces to support the exchange of these assets, you can expect a lot of different funding strategies will pop up. Elle’s article walks through a few approaches.
Iran to Permit Use of Cryptocurrencies in International Settlements, Reports Reveal
Bottom line: within weeks, Iran’s government will let businesses use crypto to settle transactions with foreign merchants.
My take: I’m sure the US government is not very happy about this. Iran already lets people use locally-mined crypto to get around sanctions. Now, its businesses can get into that act, too. We have enough anti-crypto people in my country, we don’t need to give them another talking point.
Why we care: some celebrate Iran’s use of crypto and its larger effort to build a legal framework for the technology. Let’s hope the geopolitical ramifications don’t come back to hurt us.
Bitcoin hash rate jumps to ATH as Jack Dorsey confirms Block’s mining system
Bottom line: bitcoin’s hash rate reached a new all-time high, signaling massive participation in mining bitcoin.
My take: I don’t see how Jack Dorsey has anything to do with the hash rate, but it’s cool to see the resilience of bitcoin’s network. Can’t keep a good coin down. People want to mine bitcoin and invest in the equipment and skills necessary to do that. Let’s just hope those miners don’t start dumping their rewards on the market!
Why we care: hash rate has no correlation to bitcoin’s price or market conditions, but it’s tough to buy into narratives of crypto winter, bear market, failing network, etc when the world is putting so much effort into competing for block rewards.
Relax and enjoy the ride!
Weekly Rundown - January 16, 2022