#17 - Hacks, self-driving cars and the end of 2020
Free masterclass in economic calculation. Bitcoin is in a supply and liquidity crisis - and MicroStrategy just bought another $650m worth of bitcoin.
This is my last letter this year and I would like to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021
Markets
The end of 2020 is finally here, it has been a very challenging year for many and it appears that the health crisis will have an impact for some time, although I am confident that we will beat this thing.
Here is a summary of some of the major financial events of 2020 that I made a note of (in no particular order):
Health
Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but in 2020, scientists embarked on a race to produce safe and effective coronavirus vaccines in record time. Researchers are currently testing 64 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and 18 have reached the final stages of testing.
You can follow the development here:
Security
Have you ever wondered how people manage to hack online accounts and SIM cards in particular? In most cases it is done by simple social engineering tactics - check out these rather disturbing examples below and then think about how you can secure yourself.
To make matters worse, this video is 3 years old, a lot has happened since then…
Carrying on from the above topic, the Ledger cryptocurrency hardware wallet database hack affected some 300,000 people who have either purchased a hardware wallet from the company, joined Ledger's mailing list, or otherwise had contact with the company.
In the below video, it is discussed how to keep your bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies secure, even if your data has been published. They also talk about how to prevent your data from appearing on these sorts of databases in the future.
… and then there are the all the big corporates that you have to worry about, specially when they change their “terms of service”:
Technology
Elon Musk talks about Tesla Full Self driving software remotely at a Chinese AI conference. Elon predicts that Tesla will achieve level 5 autonomy soon and sooner than people can imagine.
In other news, Apple Inc is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology. Apple has been working for years around the autonomous vision and a potential strategic partnership with an established EV player such as Tesla or Volkswagen would be a "golden partnership" for the next decade tapping into the EV opportunity.
Bitcoin
If you only want to pick one podcast this week, listen to this Masterclass in Economic Calculation where billionaire Michael Saylor goes into detail on how he conducts economic calculation during a time where central bankers are printing in an accelerative manner.
The crypto investment firm and hedge fund, Pantera Capital, says new numbers indicate PayPal is now buying 100% of all new bitcoin entering the market.
“Bitcoin is in a supply and liquidity crisis. This is extremely bullish! And highly underrated. I believe we will see this significantly reflected in Bitcoin’s price in the upcoming months.”
- Rafael Schultze-Kraft, On-chain analyst and CTO at Glassnode
Anthony Scaramucci’s hedge fund SkyBridge Capital filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday for what appears to be its first bitcoin fund.
As the year is coming to a close it is time to explore why you should NOT buy bitcoin. This discussion walks you through some of the uncertainties related to bitcoin including centralisation, quantum computing, politics and much more.
As always; Do your own research.
Headlines this week:
Grayscale has $16.4B in crypto, up from $13B a week ago ($14.1b is btc )
Elsewhere in crypto
SEC charges Ripple and two executives with conducting $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering
- and the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse’s message to employees.
A selection of bitcoin related tweets this week:
… last but not least: Please stop doing this!
This newsletter is for informational purposes only. Individuals and entities should not construe any such information as legal, tax, investment, financial, accounting or other advice. Nothing contained in this newsletter constitutes a recommendation or endorsement by the author to buy or sell bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, music rights or other financial instruments. #DYOR
Don’t trust. Verify.
À Bientôt