What explains Bitcoin? Why does it exist and why is “nothing” worth $70,000 a piece? Moreover, there are millions of owners of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and yet few real transactions take place relatively speaking. How does this relate to the coming of a BRICs currency, the reserve status of the petrodollar, and the War on Cash?My real purpose here is to talk about Gresham’s Law, one of the most ancient and impactful principles of modern human society. It...
Read More »Review: Bitcoin: The Inverse of Clown World
Once you see a new world, you can’t unsee it.Unfolding across America and the world is a new, parallel economy—nay, even a parallel life. It started with the most promising solution to a broken money and headed downstream from there. Inflation, money printing, misallocation of resources, central bank bailouts, and interventions—many of us saw these for what they were and recognized how damaging their mishandling has become to economic affairs and the fabric of...
Read More »How Easy Money Fueled the FTX Crypto Collapse
The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX may prove to be a canary in the coal mine of the easy-money fueled crypto bubbles. FTX’s collapse has exposed just how little due diligence is actually taking place among investors who are apparently willing to put large amounts of cash in whatever place looks like the hottest new thing and promises—without convincing evidence—big-time returns. Indeed, FTX seems to be a textbook example of how many investors are easily...
Read More »Where Crypto Went Wrong
You want to fix the world with finance? Then fix this: wages’ share of a financialized, globalized, speculative-bubble dependent economy have been falling for decades. Fix this and you really will change the world. Anything less changes nothing. Let’s start by stipulating my perspective on cryptocurrencies is neither positive nor negative in the usual context of “to the moon” or “worthless,” nor does it track any of the conventional narratives (decentralized finance...
Read More »Switzerland key to rehabilitating tarnished crypto exchange
The BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange wants to reincorporate from its present location in the Seychelles. Keystone Troubled cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX is charting its revival in Switzerland after the platform and its three co-founders were prosecuted in the United States. When not covering fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, banks and trade, swissinfo.ch’s business correspondent can be found playing cricket on various grounds in Switzerland – including the...
Read More »Crypto Nation Switzerland defiant in face of bitcoin crash
The pursuit of decentralised digital systems continues despite a period of intense turbulence in the cryptocurrency markets. Keystone/ Valentin Flauraud The price of bitcoin has plummeted to a third of its peak value, an experimental cryptocurrency called Terra has crashed in spectacular fashion and several crypto companies have shed jobs or are faced with bankruptcy. Where does this leave the growing blockchain industry in Switzerland? “The market crash is going to...
Read More »From crypto stamp to crypto vaults: Swiss post office embraces bitcoin
The price of bitcoin has been in freefall in recent weeks, but that doesn’t seem to bother the most conservative of financial institutions – the banking arm of the Swiss post office. PostFinance is stepping up its drive to grant customers access to cryptocurrencies within the next couple of years. Postfinance already offers clients cryptocurrency exposure through its digital app YuhExternal link. This service draws heavily on a collaboration with Swissquote, which...
Read More »Crypto Nation Switzerland tackles workforce shortages
Students and expanding companies are demanding more blockchain courses at Swiss universities. © Keystone / Christian Beutler The rapidly expanding Swiss blockchain industry is facing growing pains: a limited supply of qualified workers to fill the expanding number of job vacancies. Universities are stepping up to meet the challenge by designing new courses around blockchain and decentralised finance. Blockchain is the digital system that powers bitcoin and other...
Read More »Students demand a bitcoin education
A few years ago, during a bitcoin price rally, a colleague relayed a story about her husband attending a university lecture. He noticed several students glued to their smartphones. Peering over a few shoulders he saw they were more focused on crypto profits than the lecture. Roll on five years and bitcoin has now become the central subject of lectures in several Swiss universities. A study by blockchain start-up incubation company CV VC and PwC has identified 20...
Read More »Blockchain heavyweights leverage Swiss start-ups for growth
Switzerland is anchoring the European and Middle East expansion of one of the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges. The Bermuda-based FTX group is building its regional headquarters on the foundations of a small, yet successful, Swiss company that was established just two years ago. Like many projects I encounter in “Crypto Nation” SwitzerlandExternal link, Digital Assets came together in rapid time, surfing on the rising value of bitcoin. From the...
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