Glossary:
NFT: An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a unique digital asset that is stored on a blockchain and represents ownership of a specific item or piece of content, such as art, music, or videos. Another phrase hopefully adopted for this type of asset, is ‘digital property rights’.
Bitcoin: A decentralized digital currency that uses encryption techniques to facilitate secure and verifiable transactions without the need for a central authority or intermediary.
The Halving: The halving cycle is the roughly four-year period in the Bitcoin network when the block reward that miners receive for mining a block is cut in half, reducing the rate at which new Bitcoins are created and increasing scarcity. This is relevant as some believe this is the catalyst for a big move up in price shortly following the event.
Ethereum: A decentralized blockchain platform that enables the creation and execution of smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps) using its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH).
Smart Contracts: Self-executing computer programs that are stored on a blockchain and automatically execute the terms of a contract when certain predetermined conditions are met, without the need for intermediaries or centralized control.
Blockchain: A decentralized and distributed digital ledger that records transactions on multiple computers in a secure and tamper-proof manner, using cryptographic techniques to ensure transparency and immutability of the data.
The SEC: Aka, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is a government agency responsible for regulating and enforcing securities laws and protecting investors in the United States.
Crypto Exchange: An online platform where people can buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies for other digital assets or fiat currencies, often with a fee or commission charged by the exchange. It’s important to note that when you have your assets on an exchange, you take custody risk.
Custody Risk: This refers to the risk that the assets held in custody by a third-party service provider, such as a crypto custodian, may be lost, stolen, or mismanaged, potentially leading to financial losses for the asset owner.
Tragedy of the Commons: A situation where individuals or groups exploit a shared resource to the point of depletion or destruction, as they act in their own self-interest and neglect the long-term sustainability of the resource, ultimately leading to a collective loss for all.
First they ignore you, then laugh at you, then fight you, then finally they join you. As painful as it is being early and helping others see the light so to speak, assuming it’s light that you see, being early allows you to spot things and make a move, before the opportunity moves on. While often you’ll hear it’s about time in and not timing, and that’s true by the way, for a small sliver of people a small sliver of the time, being an early adopter can have rewards.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few other assets I get – but the rest I’ve often felt were too far into a future space that hadn’t yet materialised – I’m changing my view on this now though, with the explosion of metaverse development as seen through the lens of AI. As an example, Over the weekend I played with this platform called #quillbot to turn a silly story I told my kids about cooking beans on a campfire into something that made a bit more sense. I pasted this text into platform called D-ID which fused the words from my story with regional African voice and animated an image of a cowboy I made using an open source program called #stablediffusion2.1. I learnt all of this by playing around on a sight called #huggingfaces. Sound like a foreign language? In about 6 months time or even less, you’re going to see all sorts of odd stuff appearing as there’s an open source avalanche of innovation currently underway.
The point of this story is that we’re still so early with crypto, and we’re massively early with AI – yet the speed is increasing fast – I can see these two spaces converging at some stage, and it feels like I can see the new world we’re building new wealth for, just a bit more clearly
My guest today is Janine Grainger and let me just say from the outset, we’re super fortunate to have this person in this space, at this present time. Janine has extensive experience in the private and public sectors, drawing on her education, training in finance, economics, and banking, and she has the right personality and foresight to forge a way forward where others often fear to tread. She heads up one of New Zealand’s most trusted crypto gateways, Easy Crypto.
In this episode we talk a little about what may be behind the latest run up in price of most large cap crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. We then dive into the type of regulation that needs to happen, and the type that ideally shouldn’t happen, if we the people really will be the winners.
Lastly before we start – investing in assets like crypto or any other digital asset can carry a significant amount of risk. Yes there are some outsized returns too, but please do carefully consider how you approach this in your own investment portfolio. Get some advice, ideally from advisers with an open mind in this space.
