Previous Year: Everything wrong with Bitcoin in 2019

In this progress report, we revisit the issues highlighted in last year’s review of the Bitcoin ecosystem and see how things have improved, and also highlight completely new developments.

I’ve been studying bitcoin since its second year of existence, and treat it as a distinct asset class to highlight how it fits into a broader macroeconomic picture. …

Previous Year: Everything wrong with Bitcoin in 2019

In this progress report, we revisit the issues highlighted in last year’s review of the Bitcoin ecosystem and see how things have improved, and also highlight completely new developments.

I’ve been studying bitcoin since its second year of existence, and treat it as a distinct asset class to highlight how it fits into a broader macroeconomic picture. …

“A hedge fund system that removes volatility from crypto accounts” — INC. Magazine

“Helps Bitcoin not seem so volatile.” — Digital Trends Live

“The thing to finally put skeptical minds to rest about the viability of crypto assets” — The Block Talk

INTRODUCTION

The “Stablecoin Patent” I filed in 2014 and received in 2018 has been written about in a variety of publications and mentioned in several interviews and podcasts. As some aspects of it are esoteric, this will help breakdown what its purpose is and how it promotes the progress of science and useful arts.

This patent describes a two-account system that balances and adjusts the value of both/all the accounts so that the total value of both accounts remains the same. You can use the word portfolio to describe the collection of assets and accounts, but extend it outside of the investment context into a consumer retail application after the advances in infrastructure are put into place. …

“A hedge fund system that removes volatility from crypto accounts” — INC. Magazine

“Helps Bitcoin not seem so volatile.” — Digital Trends Live

“The thing to finally put skeptical minds to rest about the viability of crypto assets” — The Block Talk

INTRODUCTION

The “Stablecoin Patent” I filed in 2014 and received in 2018 has been written about in a variety of publications and mentioned in several interviews and podcasts. As some aspects of it are esoteric, this will help breakdown what its purpose is and how it promotes the progress of science and useful arts.

This patent describes a two-account system that balances and adjusts the value of both/all the accounts so that the total value of both accounts remains the same. You can use the word portfolio to describe the collection of assets and accounts, but extend it outside of the investment context into a consumer retail application after the advances in infrastructure are put into place. …

(Originally drafted May 3rd, 2019)

There is a treasure trove of pre-made open source data visualizations using javascript frameworks such as D3.js and other vector rendering packages.

Many of these frameworks were made before their time, before browsers could consistently support what they offered as the standards they used weren’t ratified or implemented. There were rampant incompatibilities amongst popular browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and mobile devices.

Now that has all been solved, even mobile browsers have a consistent user experience which leverage the powerful hardware they come packaged with. Unfortunately, the prior problem has been replaced with a different problem: all the pre-made data visualizations are now made for out of date versions of their frameworks making them useless, and they are also incompatible with even more modern web technologies that you built your site with. …

I’ve formed companies of different types in several different jurisdictions over many years. I’ve listened to a lot of entrepreneurs, people with a passing interest in “business” and taxation, lawyers and others who all have weak incomplete arguments for what Delaware is good for.

Delaware is overrated and there are cheaper, faster and better places to put your company.

All it comes down to is that most people can’t read and the people that read for them are lazy.

“But Delaware has business-friendly laws”, this implies other places do not have business-friendly laws and the only way that’s true is if legislatures in 57 states and territories all sat on their hands for 30+ years and did not compete in this field whatsoever, and that is just within the United States. So would you really know? Would that person you respect actually know? …

The purpose of this state of the union is to criticize aspects of the Ethereum project and bring awareness to fixable issues while combating general ignorance of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency network which offers a new currency “Ether” to rival Bitcoin and national currencies like the US Dollar. Having the same blockchain-based roots as Bitcoin it functions the same as that family and requires differentiating qualities to stand out, and those differentiating qualities are very expansive and have single-handedly ushered in entirely new industries and work for governments.

Ethereum is the “world computer”, and is also the backbone of a new “decentralized finance” (“DeFi”) ecosystem. It is important to know that these things have very little to do with its native currency “Ether”. Many people wish to prosper from the success or proliferation of the Ethereum platform by purchasing Ether, hoping that more people want to use Ether and will buy Ether from them at a higher price. This is not the way to profit from — or voice an opinion about — the Ethereum platform. Ether is all but useless in the expanded feature set and merely needed to help keep the Ethereum network to be tamper-resistant, it can be ignored. Given the public interest in imagining that Ether’s demand is significantly affected by the use of the Ethereum network, we can revisit this next year to see if the dialogue has changed. …

The purpose of this state of the union is to criticize aspects of the Ethereum project and bring awareness to fixable issues while combating general ignorance of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.