This week our experts brought you the following insights based on their experience as investors, entrepreneurs & executives.
Monday Ilias Hatzis our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur (Founder & CEO at Kryptonio a “keyless” non-custodial bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet, that lets users manage bitcoin and crypto, without private keys or passwords and Weekly Columnist at Daily Fintech) @iliashatzis wrote How China lost its way to trade and tech dominance
Bitcoin has been taking the hits. It started in May when Elon Musk announce that Tesla would not accept bitcoin anymore, because of its environmental impact, followed by China which broadened its crackdown on Chinese mining farms. Chinese miners represent more than half of the global hash rate, but recently the Chinese government became very aggressive, banning more than 90% of all bitcoin miners in the country, forcing them to shut down. Authorities in the province of Sichuan ordered the closure of 26 miners last week. Miners can wait and see what happens, whether regulators will let them resume operations or just bite the bullet and relocate elsewhere. As you can imagine this has caused the price of bitcoin to tumble, with some making predictions that it could drop as low as $24k. Looking back at the last fifteen months, bitcoin rose from $5,000 in March 2020 to nearly $64,000 by April 2021, with its price hovering around a little over $33,000 as i write this. Two things are certain. Bitcoin will come back much stronger, just like it has in the past, and China is a made a monumental mistake. The move by the Chinese government to pass up on an open monetary system is a big failure. A famous quote by Sun Tzu says: “The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” China just put the United States back in the driver’s seat in the fight for trade and tech global domination.
Editor note: China may have made a strategic error in the trade war, ceding the wealth creation in the Blockchain Economy to America. As Ilias says “China is bullish on crypto, but only if it can control it.” How can you control a decentralized permission less network?
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Tuesday Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: Part 4 is it possible to create investable assets that are low cost AND active?
The short answer is yes, with the help (of course) of new technology.
People investing for the long term (eg parents on behalf of new born babies or people who are decades away from retirement) need decisions that are Simple, Sensible, Set & Forget & Cheap and lead to Good Performance.
Editor note: Spoiler alert for the last of this 4-parter on democratising Wall Street – the answer is yes but it is not easy and is not being done yet.
Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote:Happy 7th Birthday Daily Fintech
7th Birthday is a big deal for a startup, because the data says it takes 7-10 years for startups to build real value. That data is from VC funded startups and as Daily Fintech is bootstrapped/self funded, it may take a bit longer; fortunately being bootstrapped means I own 100% of Daily Fintech so I can be patient, without outside shareholders forcing a timeline.
From the first post in 2014, one thing that has been consistent is how we deliver content that is both High Quality AND Low Cost.
Editor note: A peak behind the curtain about running a niche B2B media business.
Wednesday Alan Scott Managing Director EMEA at 24 Exchange @Alan_SmartMoney wrote his weekly roundup of Stablecoin news.
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Thursday
Rintu Patnaik, an Insurtech expert based in India, wrote: As European Insurtech Surges, Learnings from a Maturing First Wave
In first half of 2021, European insurtech start-ups surpassed the 2020 total capital invested by more than a billion dollars, nearing $1.9 billion at end of May. The continent saw a few mega-deals, such as health insurer Alan’s €185 million Series D and fraud-detection software provider Shift Technology’s $220 million round. Other insurtechs to enter unicorn territory were pet insurer Bought by Many and gig economy focused London-based Zego. In June, Tractable announced $60m Series D making it the fifth European insurtech to hit unicorn status. Tractable sells its AI platform to carriers, harnessing computer vision to rapidly assess photos of car damage, thereby speeding claims processes that took days requiring a human appraiser to verify the claim.
Editor note: Will European Insurtech ventures follow US Insurtech ventures in going public?
Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: Please Welcome Dhirendra Singh becoming a full partner in Daily Fintech and Robot Equity Analyst.
Daily Fintech is going to the next stage in our journey as we welcome Dhirendra Singh becoming a full partner in Daily Fintech and Robot Equity Analyst, running business day to day.
Robot Equity Analyst is a Fintech data spinoff that we are incubating within Daily Fintech.
Editor note: Another peak behind the curtain about running a niche B2B media business.
Christian Dreyer @x3er, the Swiss based CFA who focusses on how XBRL changes our world wrote his weekly roundup of XBRL news.
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Friday Howard Tolman, a well-known banker, technologist and entrepreneur in London, wrote his weekly roundup of Alt Lending news.
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