You probably have dozens of apps on your smartphone. Chances are they are collecting your personal information en masse, and either selling it to third parties or keeping it for themselves. Most likely both. You have read here about the widening surveillance state I'm calling the virtual panopticon. The efforts by the government to surveil Americans are expanding quickly as technologies make it easy to watch every part of your life. But how much surveillance are you inviting right into your home? Apps on your phone are collecting massive amounts of information about you every day. Some … [Read more...]
Bitcoin: When a Store of Value Is Manipulated
What happens when a store of value is manipulated? It no longer becomes a store of value. You know how this story will end. From Andy Kessler in The Wall Street Journal: Meanwhile, lo and behold, around the same time as that letter, Tether temporarily stopped creating any more currency. That might explain bitcoin’s quick mid-January price drop from $42,000 to under $30,000. If fraud is uncovered, look out below. Normally I wouldn’t care. Bitcoin is nothing, it’s vapor, a concept of an idea. Transactions using bitcoin are few and far between. It’s not a store of value—anything that drops … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google
Update 3.25/2020: In February 2020, George Gilder gave a a speech to the CoinGeek conference in London. CoinGeek wrote "In his keynote presentation, George Gilder tackled two of the problems that the world economy faces: the collapse of internet security and the scandal of money." Originally posted July 18, 2018. My appreciation for Andy Kessler’s way of thinking began with Wall Street Meat and Running Money. A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a Cato 200 gathering in Laguna Beach, CA. I continue to keep up with him through his commentary at the WSJ where, in … [Read more...]
Is Google Hostage to its Radical Employees?
Aside from labor negotiations, no one expects employees at big firms like General Motors or Coca-Cola to make much of a fuss. But at tech firms like Facebook and Google, it seems employees are embracing new political causes every other day, and dragging their companies into their activism whether executives approve or not. In the wake of President Trump's ban on travelers from some countries, Googlers, including leadership, became actively involved in the fight against the president's actions. Natisha Tiku details at WIRED the moment when Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin spoke to Googlers … [Read more...]
What Facebook’s Libra Means to You
Facebook’s entry into crypto-currencies with Libra is a shot across the bow for banks. Over time you will be the winner with lower transactions fees or friction, but will it gain traction? At the heart of Libra is trust. Do you trust Facebook? Do you trust Facebook to take care of your personal financial information? What’s different about Libra compared to Bitcoin for example is that you still need to have trust. Facebook will use blockchain technology to track your exchange of dollars, euros, or yen, for example, into Libra. But the ledger will be private. It will be controlled by … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google: Is Tether No Longer Credible?
What happens when the core promises of a crypto-currency no longer hold true? Frances Coppola, a Senior Contributor at Forbes explains that Tether, a so-called "stablecoin," that is supposedly pegged to the U.S. dollar may not be as linked to the fiat currency as has been advertised. She writes: USDT is the foremost stablecoin in the crypto world. Pegged one for one to the U.S. dollar, it is widely used as a vehicle for getting dollars in and out of crypto exchanges. Crypto enthusiasts will tell you that holding USDT (“Tethers”) is the same as holding dollars. But now, Tether, the issuer of … [Read more...]
Will the Dow’s Mega-Companies Use Blockchain to Change the World?
You may still not have recovered consciousness after the 19% drop from October 3 through Christmas Eve. So, I wouldn’t blame you for not noticing the Dow’s rapid 16% rise over the past nine weeks. One question I receive quite often is, “what are your thoughts on technology?” My quick response—I love technology. But when it comes to investing, the company better pay a dividend. I want to be—and I want you to be—paid for investing in stocks. One area in tech I’ve been writing to you about is blockchain. It’s the backbone behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. And as I’ve told … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google Part IV
You’re witnessing what happens when markets dry-up as shown here with bitcoin (see chart below). I've been warning readers about what George Gilder calls the "cryptocosm." (Read Parts I, II and III). If you have been hitching your wagon to cryptocurrencies, you might have been enduring a rude awakening this week. Steven Russolillo, writing at The Wall Street Journal, calls it bitcoin's "Week from Hell." He explains Now, another worry has emerged: Cryptocurrency miners, the outfits that solve complex equations to generate new digital coins, seem to be losing interest. The amount of … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google Part III
You instinctively know something evil is going on when a company’s motto is “Don’t be Evil.” As we learned in parts I and II when Google offers you “free” services (Gmail for example)—you’re the product. Will Google be able to compete against a cryptocosm several orders of magnitude larger than it could ever become? At the heart of the matter is big data. Googlers feel big data has all the answers—but big data is no match for human touch and emotional intelligence. Would you trust software to drive your family today? At the heart of self-driving cars is a battle of software (Google) vs. … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google Part II
What we learned in Part I is there will be Life After Google as explained in futurist George Gilder’s book by the same name. Because when we use Google’s products for free, you and I give them a free pass to do what they will with our data. Who are we to complain if Google mishandles security of our data? “You fools it was free,” they counter. But what if there’s a universe, a cryptocosm, that provides search on a much larger scale where we own our data through a blockchain? Imagine musicians, artists, and other creators whose work has been essentially stolen by the “everything is free” … [Read more...]