Is it too soon to talk about Crypto yet?

[MinnesotaEric]

Rumor control has XRP and Dogecoin ETF approvals are coming sooner rather than later.

Wanchain announced Solana is now bridged with Cardano (since the Strategic Reserve announcement on Sunday, wow, good timing!) giving Cardano the liquidity from the Solana market and Solana the reliability, decentralization, and speed of the Cardano market.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1896940530938044592

HBAR and Cardano are rumored to be working on the biggest stable coin yet that generated yield and trading desks are interested in the decentralization aspect because it would keep their trading strategies hidden from competitors (regulators would have access).

https://x.com/MinswapIntern/status/1897218875906727936

Blackrock points out that every millionaire in the USA can no longer buy one bitcoin because of inelastic demand.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1896979579857985972

The rumor is that at the Crypto Summit this coming Friday the new Administration is going to announce no capital gains on certain cryptos, further working toward making the USA the Crypto Capital of the world and attracting crypto innovators from around the world to relocate to the USA.

Saylor is expected to sell the audience on hyperbitcoinization which, if true, is expected to shift both game theory and Bitcoin adoption into a higher gear.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1897135331192828272

Meanwhile, the general crypto chatter has been centered on reasons to stop fading the crypto market and start buying it up and especially front-running those tokens that are going to be included in the Reserve.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1897210484228808927

And for those who are trying to keep track of what is what,

https://twitter.com/x/status/1897081499255742971

 

[riptides]

I worked wall street for many years and have not even thought of crypto.
It was bad enough with derivatives and computer timed trades.

I interviewed for one group whose sole purpose was to get trades in faster, shorter wider connections to beat the rest of the algorithms to market.
They spent a fortune to get a few microseconds.

The only reason this worked is the size of their trades (millions to billions)
I still think they made more money in the cash overnight than by decreasing time to trade.

Crypto started as a way to hide money trails, and that's why it took off so fast.
But the gov is getting involved, so these groups are looking for the next big way of bypassing gov scrutiny, which still might be bitcoin, but in different guises.

This stuff changes so often and so fast, is amazingly risky and has been the cause of billions lost and unrecoverable. But many have been made rich too.

LOL.

On time to market and speed.....

I introduced a customer to a faster network path. And everything that made that possible.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Been a dull week, but things are progressing.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1897807719437856956

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Paul Krugman has a timely column today:
"Trump Is Planning the Biggest Heist in History"

Trump Is Planning the Biggest Heist in History

The “strategic crypto reserve” will be a giant rug pull scam

paulkrugman.substack.com

Pull quotes:

It’s important to understand that although cryptocurrencies have been around for a while — Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 — no one has yet found significant legal uses other than pure speculation. As far as I can tell, actual transactions involving cryptocurrencies almost always involve criminal activity, such as money laundering or paying ransom to extortionists.

But back to the strategic crypto reserve: What would the U.S. government do with this reserve? Make payoffs to gangsters? Buy favors from rogue governments like North Korea? I guess it could, in a pinch, sell the stuff to raise money if people have lost trust in the U.S. government’s solvency, but surely it would be a better strategy to stay solvent — among other things by not borrowing to buy assets that will probably crash in value if and when America tries try to sell them.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Paul Krugman has a timely column today:
"Trump Is Planning the Biggest Heist in History"

Trump Is Planning the Biggest Heist in History

The “strategic crypto reserve” will be a giant rug pull scam

paulkrugman.substack.com

Pull quotes:

Can anybody build an argument WHEN Krugman has ever been right? I'll start.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Yeah, that Nobel committee just gives out prizes for anything.

Krugman will be the first to tell you that economics is not about making predictions, it's about doing analysis. Note that in the article he makes no predictions, just analysis.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Yeah, that Nobel committee just gives out prizes for anything.

Krugman will be the first to tell you that economics is not about making predictions, it's about doing analysis. Note that in the article he makes no predictions, just analysis.

Are we to surround ourselves with people who are wrong?

In business and investing our views change as fast as we receive new information. I’ll happily agree with Krugman when he says something correct and admit after the fact when he was correct and I was wrong. Meanwhile, since we now just discounted Krugman’s predictive abilities, why should we yield the floor to his opinion?

And especially so when we are very early in the innovation of digital assets and their use—especially so among this Administration’s stated goals is the make the USA the CRYPTO capital of the world which explains the policy announcements of a sovereign wealth fund, potential tax havens for digital assets, future welcoming regulation providing clarity for digital assets, and a strategic stockpile of particular digital assets.

Things are just starting to form and it is way too early to call it either up or down.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Do you dispute his contention that "no one has yet found significant legal uses other than pure speculation."? If so, what are those uses?

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Do you dispute his contention that "no one has yet found significant legal uses other than pure speculation."? If so, what are those uses?

On the very day that the Cardano Foundation announced that it is securing the Brazilian government on the blockchain? How could I ever suggest a real-world use of crypto?

Read about it:

Zug, Switzerland, 6 March, 2025 – Cardano Foundation, an independent, Swiss-based not-for-profit organization tasked with advancing the public digital infrastructure Cardano, today announced a landmark partnership with SERPRO (Serviço Federal de Processamento de Dados), the world's largest state-owned Information Technology company and Brazil's premier provider of government technology solutions.

• As Brazil’s leading government technology provider, SERPRO processes 33 billion transactions annually and manages more than 30.4 petabytes of data across various cloud platforms
• SERPRO's workforce of over 5,000 specialized technology professionals, including 2,000 dedicated developers, powers the digital solutions serving 90% of Brazil's federal administration Cardano Foundation Announces Partnership with SERPRO

How do you suppose that our voting and treasury expenses are going to be tracked in the future? Why do you suppose that banks are deeply interested in crypto and blockchain decentralization? Why do you think both Google and Apple are talking about the integration of secure digital wallets on their mobile devices?

If I and a great many other people are right, over the next few years you're going to see the ground shift right under your feet.

We're just beginning to deploy the technology and pushback right now is likened to saying back in 1998 that online store thingy will never work because too many people like to touch and feel the things they're going to buy in their local brick-and-mortar stores!

Krugman got it wrong in 1998 because he didn't imagine the commercial innovation that was burgeoning right before him. He thought the internet would remain more or less like this text forum and collection of websites like the now defunct Hamster Dance website now preserved in a YouTube video or the Strongbad comic series!

Crypto IS web3. An overview I just had an A.I. generate (emphasis, mine):

Web3, also known as Web 3.0, is a vision for the next generation of the internet. It's based on decentralized technologies that give users more control over their data and online interactions. [1, 2, 3, 4]
How does Web3 work? [2, 4, 5]

• Blockchain technology: Underpins Web3, enabling decentralized data storage and peer-to-peer transactions [2, 4, 5]
• Cryptocurrencies: Used in Web3, including Bitcoin and Ethereum [2, 3, 5]
• Decentralized computing networks: Facilitate community-driven projects and peer-to-peer transactions [1, 6]

What are the benefits of Web3? [1, 3]

• More user control: Users have more control over their data and how it's used [1, 3]
• More privacy: Users have more control over their personal data and privacy [2, 3, 4]
• More security: Decentralized technologies make the internet more secure and private [1, 5]
• More democratization: Web3 could democratize financial systems and remove geographic borders [5]

Who is behind Web3? [3]

• Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, introduced the term in 2014 [3]
• The Web3 Foundation (W3F) is a non-profit organization that supports Web3 [7]

Generative AI is experimental.
[1] What is Web3? - Web3 Explained - AWS
[2] Web 3.0 Explained: A Comprehensive Guide | Simplilearn
[3] What Is Web3? (+ How Does It Work?)
[4] Demystifying web3: What does web3 mean for your business?
[5] Britannica Money
[6] What is Web3? | Chainlink
[7] https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/what-is-web-3-0

 

[rumwrks]

As Brazil’s leading government technology provider, SERPRO processes 33 billion transactions annually and manages more than 30.4 petabytes of data across various cloud platforms

Well they sure ain't putting that on any of the extant blockchains lol.

How do you suppose that our voting and treasury expenses are going to be tracked in the future?

Not on blockchain.. Because it doesn't scale. Also putting voting records on there is a terrible idea, PUBLIC ledger.. no thanks (and yes even the "less than public ones" have a lot of .. interesting.. features in that regard).

Why do you suppose that banks are deeply interested in crypto and blockchain decentralization?

Why have no banks actually launched a crypto then? "deeply interested" in soaking some suckers I'm sure.. in crypto itself.. IDK.. gonna need a little more support for that one (and not from the "we're already heavily invested in money laundering" crowd... an extension of one criminal enterprise into another does not a "banks are deeply interested" make).

Why do you think both Google and Apple are talking about the integration of secure digital wallets on their mobile devices?

Which are not blockchain based. But the why is mostly because they want a cut of the CC fees (this isn't.. complicated.. although the digital wallet tech kinda is.. and also isn't super.. what I'd call.. safe yet..).

enabling decentralized data storage and peer-to-peer transactions

"decentralized storage" LOL LMAO ROFL even. Are you trying to bring back NFT's? Yes dozens of QPS globally.. super enabling...

An overview I just had an A.I. generate

This is what happens when you outsource your thinking I guess.

But back to the whole "reserve" thing.. so far it's just "crypto the government has seized" which a) isn't very exciting (as witnessed by the failure to moon..) and b) says a lot about the whole "secure from governments" theory. Personally I'm a bit sad they're not just dumping it mostly because watching the market meltdown would have been fun as there's so very much not enough liquidity to absorb it.

There were however a few "mysteriously well timed" transactions around the whole "strategic reserve" announcements... Tell me again how it's not all just insiders soaking retail hard. Seriously who does a 50x long position.. hah.