I've been meaning to write a blog post for a long time about the very muddied discussion that's happening right now with digital currencies.

Thanks to @rohangrey's testimony today, I decided to write it. I see things much the same way as him. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
@rohangrey My main theory is that the reason there's so much talk these days about CBDCs is because crypto is hot, and central bankers want in on the action.

But beyond that, there's a big difference between a digital bearer dollar (like cash) and just a public option for banking.
And as @rohangrey points out, the two things may in some way be complementary. But they're not at all the same thing. And yet they've become fused in the public discussion.
@rohangrey Also the conversation often gets fused into yet a third thing, which is that somehow if people had public accounts, then the Fed could just do fiscal stimulus independently. But ultimately that's a discussion about politics, as opposed to technology or infrastructure.
Anyway, definitely read @rohangrey testimony here financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Joe Weisenthal

Joe Weisenthal Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @TheStalwart

15 Jun
NOW WE PAY THE PRICE FOR NOT DOING ENOUGH ON INFRASTRUCTURE

In today's @markets newsletter, I talked about inflation, and how the situation at our ports and waterways is a perfect example of how the discussion of "paying for it" is totally backwards.

bloomberg.com/account/newsle…
@markets It's just amazing, we continue to have these hazy, theoretical conversations about how "the children" are one day going to have to pay for government spending. Meanwhile we have rising prices right now that can be connected to underinvestment in logistical infrastructure.
@markets Full transcript is here. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 5 tweets
14 Jun
THE GLOBAL SHIPPING SITUATION IS STILL GETTING WORSE

New Odd Lots is out. We spoke with @AntonPosner and Margo Brock of @MercuryResourc

Earlier this year, @tracyalloway tried shipping a teddy bear out of Hong Kong. Today she wouldn't even be able to try

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
@AntonPosner @MercuryResourc @tracyalloway If you enjoyed our past episode with Ryan Peterson of @flexport, this one goes even deeper into the nitty gritty of global freight. And why, after all these months, things aren't getting easier. Certain jobs that would have been tough back in January are now impossible.
@AntonPosner @MercuryResourc @tracyalloway @flexport The episode also pairs nicely with this chart from @fed_speak showing that at least on this one measure, prices for shipping goods continue to rise strongly.
Read 5 tweets
10 Jun
HOT:

CPI (YOY) rises 5.0% vs. 4.7% expected.

Core CPI (YOY) up 3.8% vs. 3.5% expected.

S&P futures slipping a little on the news

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
On a sequential basis, core CPI rose 0.7% from last month.
Five year yields ticking higher
Read 8 tweets
28 May
TRANSCRIPT: The latest Odd Lots with @BrianVenturo where we talk about how hard it is to get semiconductors these days is up. So many great insights about what the chips market looks like these days. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
@BrianVenturo One of the important takeaways is that a few years ago, crypto mining (Ethereum) was mostly impacting the availability of GPUs.

But now other newer coins is making the market tight everywhere in the hardware space.

Filecoin is a big contributor this. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
@BrianVenturo And now the launch of Chia is making things even worse. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 4 tweets
27 May
NEW SEMICONDUCTOR EPISODE:

The new Odd Lots is at the intersection of basically everything that's happening right now.

I spoke to CoreWeave CTO @BrianVenturo on how datacenters, gamers, and crypto miners are all battling for increasingly scarce chips.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
@BrianVenturo Everyone knows that gamers have seen the prices of $NVDA chips soar due to their mining capabilities. But now it's spreading beyond GPUs to other areas, like hard drives.

Chia's network is growing at an absolutely insane pace right now. HT: @jim_b4_the_rugs
Read 5 tweets
27 May
I think you could make an argument that for crypto to have a real economic impact it's going to require much more surveillance/less privacy.

Valuing and collateralizing off-chain assets may require an expanding network of invasive oracles, monitoring the condition of the assets
Say I post my car as collateral to get instant liquidity for it. That token representing the car must also know the condition of the car. How does it know the condition of the car? Either a network of humans (at which point you've reinvented banks) or surveillance. @balajis
@balajis As @ldrogen pointed out yesterday, you can think of China's social credit system as a model for how a theoretical crypto-economy works
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(