BREAKING: Bitcoin tops $66,000, sets a record as crypto goes mainstream! What a delight! This public service announcement will serve us well to FOMO (fear of missing out) onto the crypto train. Get ready for departure as the Casino Royale Crypto Express is about to take you on an exciting adventure.
My guess is that a lot of people will be wanting to invest their hard-earned cash into Bitcoin and maybe some other altcoins here and there with the hope of making some life (and/or wife) changing wealth! Fantastico! Nothing wrong with that. I myself got excited and bought some Alien Worlds tokens ($TLM). Not sure what this project exactly does but Alien Worlds sounded cool. What can go wrong?
The problem with this story is that it sounds very familiar to that of the previous bull runs that we had encountered in 2017 and 2013. People zealously speculate in and out of the market and in some cases leverage themselves up to the balls just to get surprised by the mighty bear that is lurking around the corner. A lot of people will be burned and as a natural consequence a whole lot of people will be losing money and faith in the aforementioned Casino Royale Crypto Express.
Plan B is a popular figure in the bitcoin world as the pseudo-anonymous analyst is well known for his stock-to-flow (S2F) price model. In basic terms, the model quantifies the commodity’s (Bitcoin) scarcity and then divides it by yearly issuance (the flow). Please read up on him if you are not familiar with his work. So far the model has been fairly accurate. This means that we are riding the wave all the way to $100K by Christmas. Of that I am sure — you can bank on that (pun intended). Good news — sell your house immediately.
What the STF model also tells us that the crypto bear is also gearing up. Ladies and gentlemen — caveat emptor for what goes up must come down and the price of Bitcoin will dip significantly. In fairness, some people argue that we will experience a supercycle but this is beside the point.
My advice is enjoy the view from the Casino Royale Crypto Express but don’t get stuck on the price. Indeed Mark Yusko considers the price to be a liar for all intends and purposes. Ideally dollar cost averaging regardless of price. Don’t jump in and of the market and do not leverage!
Michael Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners which focuses on cryptocurrency investments such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, rightly notes that crypto is a technology play. It’s not a speculative play anymore! If so we must act accordingly i.e. we must not speculate and above all we must start educating ourselves. It’s as simple as that!
Here is an amazing discussion by Michael Novogratz at the Digital Assets & the Future of Financial Innovation hosted by Salt. His insights are pure gold — his commentary will blow your socks off. It is a paradigm shift!
So our mantra is simple: Keep calm and study hard. In line with that I would like to introduce a few learning platforms that I have found to be very useful in order to understand this space. If crypto is indeed a technology play, which I believe it is, then we MUST learn about DLT, consensus mechanisms, scalability trilemma, Proof of Stake vs. Proof of Work, etc.
Blockchain is here to stay. It is imperative to educate yourself on blockchain in order to make smart investment decisions. I repeat: Don’t speculate and let price or even worse moonboy YouTubers guide your portfolio allocation choices. Enough said!
When reading or listening about crypto you will be confronted with numerous disciplines including computer science, finance, economics, etc. Some of it will be hard and some of it will be boring. Don’t despair! My advice is to dive in head first. Your learning journey doesn’t need to be a linear one. You don’t need to start with 101 stuff. Just dive in wherever you want and go from there.
So let’s get started and look at some of the best learning platforms that relate to the cryptoverse.
Real Vision Finance
Link: www.realvision.com
Description: One of my favorite channels bar none! Real Vision Crypto is a free cryptocurrency media company. Once you sign up you will also get access to all episodes of the Real Vision Crypto. Host Ash Bennington is a super smart guy and I guarantee that any video with Real Vision CEO, Raoul Pal, will blow your socks off. Coincidentally, Raoul was pumping his channel on Twitter today.
If you are not familiar with Raoul Pal then you are missing out. I pretty much mention him all the time. He is just that good. No freebees or to the moon stock picks whatever. Just facts and learning. Any video of him on YouTube or Real Vision is highly recommended. Here is one of my all time favorite videos:
This is Raoul Pal’s Introduction to the Exponential Age. This one is a pure gem. I have personally watched it many times over.
Here is another free platform that is useful when learning about the crypto sphere.
edX
Link: www.edx.org
Description: edX is an American massive open online course provider created by Harvard and MIT. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge.
This is very important now. To understand this space and to understand the nuanced discussions on Real Vision you need to get to grips with blockchain technology! There is no other way. My recommendation is to sign up to edX and sign up for a free Blockchain course.
Be part of the conversation! You need to be able to understand the different consensus mechanisms, or the issues related to Proof of Stake vs. Proof of Work. Only then will you be able to make informed investment decisions.
Some other noteworthy learning platforms are:
MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials (free)
Below is good blockchain course taught by Gary Gensler (current Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission).
Coursera and Udemy also offer course for a small fee. Well worth the investment!
In conclusion, blockchain is here to stay. It is a technology play folks. If you want to be a part of the conversation then our mantra is simple: Keep calm and study hard.
Happy learning ya’ll.
Frei Bier / Twitter: @FreiBIER13
