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Jan 20 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The team of jailed Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption lawyer, Alexei Navalny, has used bitcoin for years to circumvent the fact that Putin's authorities often shut down their bank accounts and censor their transactions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Na…
This sort of use-case is why Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital cash system.

The majority of crypto assets are distractions and speculations. But at the core, the original use-case is to circumvent financial censorship and protect against debasement.
Russia now seeks to follow China in banning bitcoin and crypto. Citing financial stability and terrorist financing, what Russia really means is preventing capital flight and maintaining authoritarian control over political opposition.
Bitcoin isn't a problem for free countries, but it does pose a challenge to authoritarian regimes.

It's probably best to think about that, and understand the technology, before calling it useless or a waste of energy.
lynalden.com/archives/#digi…

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More from @LynAldenContact

Lyn Alden Profile picture
Jan 17
"ESG investing" in its current form is similar to people who take selfies of themselves in fancy locations to show they were there, while barely experiencing it for real.

Mostly theater, little substance.
For example, we pollute, but buy offsets to make it someone else's problem.

We outsource our manufacturing base to another country to reduce headline energy consumption, but then buy products they make while blaming them for polluting.

This is deflection, not reform.
Software companies that build a business around addicting teens to their platform with regular dopamine hits & abuse user data sit atop the ESG investment indices, while fossil fuel producers that keep billions of people alive and comfortable are often excluded as a whole sector.
Read 18 tweets
Lyn Alden Profile picture
Jan 13
For a while now, China rather than the United States has had the world's largest GDP in terms of purchasing power parity, even though the US still has the highest nominal GDP. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c…
Some people think PPP is less accurate than nominal GDP, but for example, China has way more electricity consumption, 3x as many skyscrapers, more commodity imports, and more industrial capacity, than the US. Makes sense, given how big their population is.
China also surpassed the US a long time ago as being the largest trading partner for majority of countries in the world.
Read 5 tweets
Lyn Alden Profile picture
Jan 11
December CPI comes out tomorrow and has a decent shot at reaching 7%+ year-over-year.

But then unless monthly inflation accelerates from here, the year-over-year figure will likely peak within Q1 2022.
House prices and apartment rents have topped in many markets for now. However, the components of CPI that measure these are on a multi-month lag, and so they haven't topped yet.
Used car prices likely haven't topped yet either, according to industry estimates. When they do top (as semiconductors get released, freeing up manufacturer inventory), this will be a disinflationary impulse. Just not yet.
publish.manheim.com/en/services/co…
Read 4 tweets
Lyn Alden Profile picture
Jan 3
Bitcoin is 13 years old today, the anniversary of the genesis block. It's an angsty teenager now, I suppose, which actually kind of fits.

The US dollar in its current fiat form is 50 years old, born in 1971.

Bitcoin is now more than 1/4th as old as the current US dollar. Image
Next year, Bitcoin will become half as old as "the Internet" as we know it. It seems to have some staying power, having lasted as long as it did thus far:
The foundations of the Internet were made in the 1970s and 1980s, the consumer browser was invented in the early 1990s, proof-of-work was invented in the 1990s, and SHA-2 encryption was published in 2001. Bitcoin itself was published in 2008 and released in 2009.
Read 5 tweets
Lyn Alden Profile picture
Dec 28, 2021
People with demanding jobs spend their time in a few key ways:

-Advance at work in the tactical sense.

-Research and have random conversations and insights that boost your tactical work more dramatically.

-Recharge your batteries, refill your spirit, amplify your passion, etc.
All three (and more) are necessary.

Long-term productive people seem to be aware of all three, encourage tactical achievements, but also allow for subjective and longer-term insights, while acknowledging passions and family time.
In other words, work is important, but it has various components (completing TPS reports vs finding new insights), and is recharged by passion (family, hobbies, nature, life, etc).

To dominate at work requires a passion that exists outside of work, for one reason or another.
Read 4 tweets
Lyn Alden Profile picture
Dec 28, 2021
Stablecoins will become increasingly regulated, only allowed to hold nominally risk-free assets, if they want to connect to regulated, legal institutions.

This includes cash and Treasuries. As such, stablecoins are a way to monetize Treasuries.
In other words, if stablecoins are backed in part by Treasuries, and the stablecoin market cap continues to grow, this is a new source of demand for US government debt.

Cash and Treasuries of various durations get mixed together in a basket, blurring the line between them.
USDC, GUSD, and USDP have already gone this route.

USDT is the one that holds other types of assets as well, which are not backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.

Entities that don't conform to regulations are basically eurodollars- offshore dollars.
Read 9 tweets

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