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MikeOn Music NFTs
During a postprandial conversation last Christmas, one of my nieces brought up Taylor Swift’s drama with Carlyle over the sale of her back catalog. I had recently minted my first music NFT on Sound (Daniel Allan’s “Too Close”), and the potential for crypto to disintermediate industry incumbents and empower artists was top of mind. Somewhat embarrassingly, in retrospect, I grabbed an unused dessert plate, retrieved a dry-erase marker, and began to diagram two stylistic visions of the world on ...
MikeThinking on a tokenized investment vehicle
At the beginning of the year, I participated in Wharton's course on the Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets. The capstone project entailed brainstorming up an idea for a digital asset. In the spirit of building in public, I thought I'd share where my head was back in February. If this sounds interesting to you and you'd like to build it — or if you (or someone you know) is building an equity vehicle like this already — then please send me an e-mail here. This tokenized i...
MikeCrypto v. College
In Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” (cue snark), the builders and independent thinkers escape to Galt’s Gulch whilst a constellation of communists and conformists grind society to a halt. It’s been a minute since I read the book, but over the last couple of years the notion of Galt’s Gulch has popped up in my conversations with friends — particularly when discussing higher education for our children. Most of my friends are operating under the assumption that a conventional university education is ...
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Gary Gorton (Yale) and Jeffery Zhang (Federal Reserve) recently wrote a fascinating paper on the systemic risks of ‘stablecoins’ and the prospects for a central bank digital currency (‘CBDC’).
I believe a U.S. CBDC is inevitable.
The questions that follow are:
Does the CBDC take the form of (i) a token, or (ii) a citizen’s deposit account at the Federal Reserve?
How do you protect privacy?
On question 1, the deposit account could enable new, powerful tools for the Fed to achieve macroeconomic objectives (e.g., helicopter money), but at the risk of totalitarian-level control over who can spend how much on what, and where and when they may do so.
Not ideal!
On question 2, you could imagine a spectrum from the digital yuan (where the state sees all) to a cryptographically secured, anonymous digital cash. The key unlock for the latter is the advance of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs.
If you’re keen to learn more, you should read this piece by Aleo co-founder Howard Wu, and Ben Laurie’s paper Selective Disclosure.
—————
Originally published 12 August 2021 at porticoadvisers.com.
Gary Gorton (Yale) and Jeffery Zhang (Federal Reserve) recently wrote a fascinating paper on the systemic risks of ‘stablecoins’ and the prospects for a central bank digital currency (‘CBDC’).
I believe a U.S. CBDC is inevitable.
The questions that follow are:
Does the CBDC take the form of (i) a token, or (ii) a citizen’s deposit account at the Federal Reserve?
How do you protect privacy?
On question 1, the deposit account could enable new, powerful tools for the Fed to achieve macroeconomic objectives (e.g., helicopter money), but at the risk of totalitarian-level control over who can spend how much on what, and where and when they may do so.
Not ideal!
On question 2, you could imagine a spectrum from the digital yuan (where the state sees all) to a cryptographically secured, anonymous digital cash. The key unlock for the latter is the advance of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs.
If you’re keen to learn more, you should read this piece by Aleo co-founder Howard Wu, and Ben Laurie’s paper Selective Disclosure.
—————
Originally published 12 August 2021 at porticoadvisers.com.
MikeOn Music NFTs
During a postprandial conversation last Christmas, one of my nieces brought up Taylor Swift’s drama with Carlyle over the sale of her back catalog. I had recently minted my first music NFT on Sound (Daniel Allan’s “Too Close”), and the potential for crypto to disintermediate industry incumbents and empower artists was top of mind. Somewhat embarrassingly, in retrospect, I grabbed an unused dessert plate, retrieved a dry-erase marker, and began to diagram two stylistic visions of the world on ...
MikeThinking on a tokenized investment vehicle
At the beginning of the year, I participated in Wharton's course on the Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets. The capstone project entailed brainstorming up an idea for a digital asset. In the spirit of building in public, I thought I'd share where my head was back in February. If this sounds interesting to you and you'd like to build it — or if you (or someone you know) is building an equity vehicle like this already — then please send me an e-mail here. This tokenized i...
MikeCrypto v. College
In Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” (cue snark), the builders and independent thinkers escape to Galt’s Gulch whilst a constellation of communists and conformists grind society to a halt. It’s been a minute since I read the book, but over the last couple of years the notion of Galt’s Gulch has popped up in my conversations with friends — particularly when discussing higher education for our children. Most of my friends are operating under the assumption that a conventional university education is ...
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