'Twas the night before Christmas, and try though they may
Not a token was mooning, not even AAVE
Market buys getting sent by the apes without care
In hopes that new all-time highs soon would be there

Our traders were summoned post-haste from their beds
While visions of making bank danced in their heads
SBF in his sweatshirt, and I in my tee
Had just downed something we're gonna label "coffee"

And amongst all the chaos, amongst disarray
Amongst the red numbers borne out of the fray
From all of the carnage arose one big loser
A coin with a regulatory accuser

For days, XRP has been in the gutter
Because of the claims from Jay Clayton the FUDder
U.S. folks had to spew their positions before
The exchanges could manage to shutter the door

Exchanges like Coinbase -- they threw up their hands
What to do when your government comes with the bans?
To delist or restrict? Or just pause for a while?
It was clear they'd react -- that's Coinbase's style

I usually stay away from price predictions, but this time I couldn't help it. Just published "10 reasons why bitcoin will hit $100.000 in 2021".

Share it with a normie friend, maybe he/she will understand the value proposition of

Reason no. 1: during its 12 year-old existence, Bitcoin has performed a lot better as a store of value than gold.

Reason no. 2: Bitcoin is easier and less expensive to transfer than gold. This one is pretty self-explanatory, as gold is heavy and expensive to secure.

However, I believe that we should look up to gold a lot more often & look down to USD less

Reason no. 3: Bitcoins can be carried across borders a lot easier than gold and cash.

It's simple, really. With only a general-purpose electronic device (phone, laptop), piece of paper, or even 12 words that you memorize, you can move your wealth in a different country.

Reason no. 4: Bitcoin transactions cannot be censored.

In a world where PayPal and Visa can dictate your policy as a business and can shut you up from expressing political opinions, Bitcoin has a lot of value.

We had a really good year at
@BitsikaAfrica
so I'm very happy to share with you. Our numbers from 1st January 2020 to 1st January 2021.

1. Volumes. We processed a total of $39,953,115 in 2020. This total came from an addition of $18,872,474 (in deposits)...

+ $17,890,807 (in payouts) + $3,189,834 (internal peer-to-peer transfers). These volumes are from self-determined, autonomous [successful] transactions that users initiated and performed themselves. We did NOT count system transactions that users did not initiate.

Compare that to the $974,864 we processed in 2019.

2. Transactions. We processed a total of 268,430 individual [successful] transactions. These numbers are from self-determined, autonomous transactions that users initiated and performed themselves. We did NOT count system transactions that users did not initiate.

Of the said successful transactions, 21,418 were internal peer-to-peer [successful] transactions. The rest are a combination of deposit and payout transactions. Compare that to the 4,832 [successful] transactions we did in 2019.

This is the argument for a 5% allocation to Bitcoin.

It’s a summary of Wences Casares’ blog post written nearly two years ago (with direct quotes copy pasted).

Part one: Why Bitcoin could hit $1 million

Part two: Why you should buy Bitcoin

Here we go! 👇👇👇

0/ First, if you don't know Wences, you should.

He founded Xapo, a Bitcoin custodian in 2014.

He's also a board member at Libra, PayPal, and Kiva.

But most importantly, he's responsible for bringing thousands of people into Bitcoin.

I'd recommend his podcast with @laurashin

1/ PART ONE

Bitcoin right now is similar to the Internet in 1994.

You don't need to know how the Internet works to understand it.

You don't need to know how Bitcoin works to understand it.

Investors who understand this will have an advantage over investors who don't.

2/ Up until Bitcoin, all computer platforms belonged to a person, company, or government.

Those platforms had to obey the will of their owners and the rules of the jurisdiction where they resided.

Bitcoin takes control away from the owners.

3/ A sovereign only obeys its own rules, no one can impose rules on a sovereign.

Kings and Queens used to be sovereign.

Then nation states became sovereign.

Now, for the first time, a computer platform has the aspiration to be sovereign.

This is revolutionary.

This might take a few tweets to get out.
1/ The ICO boom in 2017 and the altszn in early 2018 were unique in that crypto was a largely unregulated space where countless fools were getting lucky on the bad luck of greater fools. This was largely fueled by Ethereum and the ability

2/ to create tokens and contracts from thin air but it got thrust from the post halving BTC bull market and the unique phenomenon of 'crypto kitties' which were both like booster rockets and drew huge media attention to the entire crypto space

3/ Crypto wasn't new in 2017-18 but it was new to most of the people who were seeing it on the evening news, CNBC, etc. Seeing construction workers buying new trucks with crypto riches and idiotic crypto-rich in lambos and moving to Puerto Rico -

4/ - these images captivated lots of people and inspired the idea of 'I missed out before, I don't want to miss out this time' in relation to stocks, internet, tech, real estate, and more. The important ingredient was 'If those people can do it, I can do it'

5/ The inclusion of a character like John McAfee and the entire ICO industry created a greedy free for all where for every good project there were fifty worthless ones - but sometimes, a diamond emerged from the shit

$DEBASE - A Composable/Modular Algorithmic Stable Coin Protocol

https://t.co/v3383S9VsP
https://t.co/mAul2JSyWE

A guest post, written by the Debase community.

2/

Algorithmic stable coin protocols & in particular elastic supply tokens (e.g. AMPL, Base) have emerged as contenders for decentralized price-stable assets. The premise of such tokens is to convert price-volatility into supply-volatility, in search of a price peg (e.g. 1 USD)

3/

The idea is that at sufficiently large market capitalisations supply-volatility will taper off and you are left with a price-stable asset. So far this has not been the case

4/

Projects like Ampleforth continue to experience sustained price and supply volatility even as market capitalisation has ballooned. Subsequent iterations have tried to improve on this model by modifying one or more of the static parameters; BASE, RMPL etc., come to mind

5/

While the subsequent iterations modified a fixed set of ‘flexible’ parameters, the fundamental mechanism of elastic supply tokens remains static. Debase is the first elastic supply token to introduce completely dynamic parameters (16+).

1/21 The pros and cons of cryptocurrencies with an immutable, decentralized, public blockchain, why banks aren't going away, and what that means for XRP.

A thread. 👇

2/21 When I got into crypto, one of the first things I learned was that the blockchain is immutable. Once something is stored on it, it can't be changed. Once you decide to make a transaction, nobody can reverse your decision, not even the State. This gives you real power.

3/21 The blockchain is also public. Anyone with the right software can view every transaction on it. This keeps people honest and builds trust b/c everyone knows everyone else can audit the blockchain and ensure everything is on the up-and-up.

4/21 A good blockchain is also decentralized. No individual, company or State can exert control over it independently. Without consensus, things cant't change, and that kind of monetary stability is exactly what we need to stop the current brrrrr of inflationary money printing.

5/21 Crypto also offers you the ability to "be your own bank". You don't have to pay high fees or keep your money in inflationary fiat that's losing value every year. Want to send money to another country? Open an app and make it happen. Fast, cheap, no bank required.

1/21 Don't fear it, secure it.

A thread on creating a secure #Bitcoin backup with the Hodlr Disks from @hodlrswiss.

If you value permissionless money & the ability to transact without being censored then self-custody & get your bitcoin out of third party control.

2/21 This thread is the short version of a more detailed article which can be found on my

3/21 Covered here is unboxing, setting up, & torching the Hodlr Disks made by @hodlrswiss. In Nov. Hodlr Swiss reached out to see if I would be interested trying their new stainless steel backup. It looked really cool so I said "hell

Bitcoin recently hit $34,000 yesterday when as recent as October 10th, it was $11,000

Here’s some unsolicited advice: If you feel you have “bad luck” with investing; i.e. you feel that “if you buy Bitcoin today, the price of Bitcoin will drop”; don’t buy in.

Here’s why I say so

I try to never categorically give financial advice because I’d rather show people how I’d make decisions if I were in their shoes and I like (prefer) people to think for themselves and consciously make decisions they feel is best for them or decisions they can live with and not

just go off what some random person on the internet says BUT I’ll make an exception this time and tell you this, if you think you have bad luck with investing, don’t buy in. Here’s why:

People that feel they have bad luck with investing often have 3 things in common:

1. Fear:

This fear might be informed from bad experiences they’ve had in the past or it might be some irrational fear but they have high fear of losing. If you feel like you have bad luck with investing, anything (good/bad) that happens to your investment is going to feed into that fear.

In fact, you could go as far as looking for anything that would confirm your fear that you’ve made a bad decision. You’ll suddenly start seeing news articles saying that asset will drop, you’ll watch the charts and any small drop in price would confirm that fear.

2. Because of

The #STABLEAct is a confused attempt at regulating perceived harms that are not actually caused by the technology, but are, ironically, inherent in the existing financial system that cryptocurrencies are designed to replace

👇🏽

Stablecoins, by their nature, can only INCREASE access to financial services. Unlike the existing system, they do not require the use of a bank account

The existence of stablecoins does not prevent consumers from using any other traditional payment, savings or credit offerings

In contrast, people can and do lose access to financial services when banks freeze or close their accounts

This happens when banks make arbitrary and opaque risk decisions that are in turn based on cumbersome regulations which deputize banks to do the government’s job

According to the press release

1. Stablecoin issuers could take advantage of low income consumers
2. Stablecoins are an ‘outsourced issuance’ of US dollars
3. Stablecoins pose market, liquidity, and credit risk

But all of these concerns are

The press release compares stablecoins to ‘shadow banks’ e.g mortgage & payday lenders, that lend on a fractional reserve basis, and often take advantage of consumers

This is the opposite of stablecoins like USDC, which are fully collateralized and don't charge interest or fees

I've received many questions from people considering to set up a #Bitcoin multisig wallet but confused about the backup process, what should be backed up, and why.

🧵So here's a thread on backing up multisig wallets - what, why, and how.

The main caveat in a multisig wallet is that, while you need only a threshold of devices (ie. 2 of 3, 3 of 5, etc.) to sign a transaction, losing access to even a single device could potentially prevent you from being able to spend the funds - if you don't back up properly!

The reason is that (usually) in order to make a Bitcoin transaction, it is not enough to be able to sign it, but you also need to provide the "terms for spending", that is, the Script (code) that is used to lock the coins.

That's because the full script is usually not stored directly on the blockchain, but only as a hash (a unique identifier of it).
Then on spending, you need to provide both the original script code which matches that hash, and satisfy any condition that the script may include.

In a single key wallet, this is trivial.

The script is composed of the public key of your wallet and a few standard commands - and satisfying it requires the signature for that key, so both the script and signature can be constructed by having access to that one private key.

The brilliance of the one and only private algorithmic stable coin in crypto..... A thread. 1/ $XHV $xUSD

There has never been a private algorithmic stable coin before.

The idea that you can store money in crypto, privately, without volatility, is a new concept. $XHV $xUSD 2/

Previously, if you wanted to hide money in crypto, you were subject to the volatility of bitcoin, and you might wake up in the morning to find you're down 45%. Any stable coin option, has never been private, so stable coins have been limited. $XHV $xUSD 3/

All that changed the moment the Haven Protocol introduce their algorithmic stable coin $xUSD backed by their $XHV coin. It gives people a way of storing money outside the volatility of the crypto market, while remaining completely private. 4/

$xUSD is created by a brilliant mint and burn of $XHV, inside its own wallet, without needing an active market to trade on for liquidity. Just owning XHV, provides you the liquidity needed to jump into xUSD. XHV becomes the door way to and from xUSD anytime you need it. /5

I started learning about Bitcoin in February. Ten months later, I’ve changed more than I could ever imagine changing in a year. Let’s review.

How Bitcoin fixes me: A thread from a class of 2020 pleb.

Bitcoin has opened up many rabbit holes to me. I’m learning more about money, economy, history, spirituality, religion and diet than I could ever have expected. It’s also personally changed me by lowering my time preference. Let’s go through this.

Money, 1/2
Ten months after starting this journey, I have more money than I could have ever imagined having as a poor student. I also have less of an urge to spend than I’ve ever had. Except for essentials, I’ve spent less during this year than I used to spend in a month.

Money, 2/2
This is partly NgU technology and partly a lack of spending. But it’s impacted me on more than the monetary front. I’ve become much less materialistic as a result. I used spend hours drooling over the stuff I could buy. I've never wanted to spend money less than now.

Economy 1/6
Ten months ago, I was an avid socialist. I just didn’t understand how anyone could vote right, except for selfish reasons. Mind you, this was after six years of both economics and management basics in the highest level of Dutch high school.

I often hear the argument: Bitcoin mining is wasting enormous amounts of energy.

Bitcoin mining uses about the same amount of energy as a small country and that is fine!

Time for a thread:

To start, energy consumption in general is not a bad thing. Without it, civilization as we know it would simply not be possible.

If we would monetize your manual labor by putting you on a rowing machine you would have produce approximately $0.30 of value per day.

Energy grids are in nature in efficient. It is impossible to tranport electrical energy over long distances. Because of this approximately 6% of the US energy production is wasted because of losses alone. Just about 3.5X the total energy consumption of the Bitcoin network!

Varying load, seasonal or daily, poses challenges to the grid and the producers. It is for example not always possible or easy to lower supply to match demand.

This brings the need for balancing the network. Without it, the grid will become unstable.

With the increase of renewable energy, the need for load balancing solutions will continue to grow:

Solar energy only creates energy when the sun shines. Wind energy only creates energy when the wind blows.

I've received many questions lately, but by far the most common question is “What's the best way to secure #Bittcoin?”

🧵So here’s a thread with my opinion on securing #Bitcoin

The first thing to understand is that there’s no "best way", but always a tradeoff.

You can always find ways to make it harder for someone to get your #Bitcoin, but if you over-complicate it, you could end up making it even too hard for yourself - many lost their funds this way.

Your goal should be to balance usability and security the way which works best for you.

This means very different things for different people, depending on your technical experience, understanding of Bitcoin, how much you are holding, etc.

For some, that means leaving Bitcoin on an exchange.

I strongly recommend at least learn to hold your own keys before buying, but if you can’t wait, it’s better to leave it there than holding yourself if that’d make you feel like you have no clue what’s going on.

If you feel ready to take self-custody, you could start with a hot wallet on mobile or desktop. That’s a good step forward, as it means you’re holding your own keys. But this introduces some more new concepts you should get familiar with.

Scathing comments on Crypto from Mr Rabi Shankar - Deputy Governor, RBI.

1) On crypto being treated as a currency:
"Currency always has an issuer, usually a trusted entity like the sovereign. Even when gold is used as a currency, the gold coins had to be issued by a sovereign.

Secondly, historically, a currency has always been either a commodity with intrinsic value or a debt instrument. Cryptocurrencies do not conform
to this understanding as they do not have an issuer, they are not an instrument of debt/commodities nor do have any intrinsic value.

Currency needs trust, not everything that can be trusted is a currency. So even if technology (as
in a blockchain) provides the trust for cryptocurrencies, they can at best perform the role of a currency within the private and closed environment of that cryptocurrency.

They do not, and should not, automatically become a currency for the larger society "

2) On crypto being treated as a financial asset : "This is also problematic because all financial assets have underlying cash flows and need to be some person’s liability.