LC

I find the transactional improvement argument a more attractive investment thesis compared to the "store of value" argument. Question then is, what is the most direct investment vehicle to express that thesis? I would guess ethereum?

Thanks Cubs - appreciate the commentary.

Quite a sensationalized title and only if you extrapolate November 2017's monthly 25% energy growth rate over 3 years (as that part of the article mentions). The full analysis is found here: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption Which estimates that today, the bitcoin network uses about as much energy as Chile. On a per-transaction basis, each bitcoin transaction uses 741 kWH of energy as of 2020, up from 686 kWH in 2019. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/881541/bitcoin-energy-consumption-transaction-comparison-visa/) By comparison, 741 kWH would power approximately 497,000 transactions on Visa's network. Some further figures: Bitcoin uses ~78 terawatt hours of energy as its current run-rate. JP Morgan used 2 terawatt hours of energy in 2019.

A tech question: At capacity, does incremental "mining" become more difficult? E.g. would the fee paid to the miner in your above scenario need to increase as each subsequent transaction costs slightly more resources to execute over the blockchain?

Well, who is being disingenuous now? :D The finance industry does a lot more than clear transactions. I am curious on your thoughts on whether you think eventual concentration of crypto-mining resources is a potential risk.

This is a great question and one I never thought of - and I would be curious to hear the responses. It's not just computing resources either. Electricity (and the heat it generates), not to mention the high performance processors required (already putting a strain on the GPU market) and the requirements needed to build those. Then you need space for datacenters, engineers to link and manage the operation. At some point market forces would take over and specialized groups will emerge to manage this. So now while the ledger itself may be decentralized, the group or groups with all the expertise and processing power will be centralized. This creates a new slew of problems. All this to replicate what bookies have been doing for millennia (based on an aforementioned system of trust - and enforced by some metaphorical broken knees) seems like a bit of a stretch.

More BABA - $239 They are certainly under some scrutiny. Jack Ma's pseudo fall-from-grace, the regulatory probe, Ant's shelved listing, etc. Is the thesis here a generic mean reversion? E.g. Competition is overblown, the underlying business can continue to generate meaningful profits, the regulatory/news-driven "cloud" will one day lift, etc.?

Looks OK but still not as nice as their previous offering. I migrated to Yahoo Finance for casual market information, I like that I can add select fields to the table view of a customized portfolio.

Gotta push your luck, Sanjeev! Thanks for sharing. If I really wanted to stir the pot, I'd compare Charlie and Tiger. Both can afford drivers, eh? ;D ;D

Perhaps based on his inaction 1 year ago and the general impression he left on me was that he overestimated the effect of the pandemic. Hey may have been kicking himself (gently) for missing an opportunity and/or misjudging the situation, and is therefore a bit humble on the topic? Just one of many potential explanations.

Outside of the blockchain transaction technology, how is cryptocurrency different from something like gold? Why not just remove the t+2 settlement timing and trade fractional positions in GLD futures?

I don’t agree with quite a bit of CMs beliefs, but in some senses I prefer him over WB because of his tremendous and often blunt transparency.

Do we have demographic information on this group? A theory that is worth investigating in my opinion is an aging population that was working longer into their lifetime, who "finally decided to retire" in response to an extreme stimulus (COVID).

COBF/Kitten themed red headbands? Yes.

Preach.

I read this and thought, wow, this guy is a hero! And then I thought, no I was wrong, this man is a LEGEND! ;D

all true enough. plus JPM can out with an analysis (cant find link) that we can all take our masks off in four months if vac rate continues as is Fauci seems to agree saying April is when vaccines will be regularly available. However I am hesitant to see how we get to 25% earnings growth in the S&P500 without inflation or continued consumer stimulus.

https://www.securitiesfinancetimes.com/securitieslendingnews/industryarticle.php?article_id=224548&navigationaction=home&page=1&newssection=industry

BTC quite possible. As 6 hour download of a BTC node replaces each banking function through out world. It may not be longer before Oracle of Omaha and venerated Charlie Munger change their mind on it. PS: Interesting one from today is BNY Mellon news. All old players on street joins; ultimately Oracle joins. This may be only start up investment where general public had open market ledger and cap table (fully visible) access for 12 years or so before Traditional finance make their mind about it. As WEB says: "If history is guide to riches ; librarians would be richest in the world." Digital Scarcity is the trail on which World embarks. World abundant with Central bank currencies; a new trail leading to Digital Scarcity has begun. Every banking function? How does BTC assess credit risk, market risk, IRR, etc? How does BTC perform collections and fraud functions? How does BTC perform hedging? Risk appetite assessments? I am not well versed in Bitcoin or block chains but I have not seen anything related to these functions discussed in conjunction with Bitcoin.

The health reason is not COVID related (not sure if that is better or worse) but yes, let's hope he recovers.

averaged down on Qualys. Small position but isn't it great seeing a stock drop 15% the day after you buy? ::) ::) ::)

Good point. Thanks for the feedback.

I don’t know when it will happen but I have a pretty large cash balance waiting to be invested. Maybe this year, maybe next year, I don’t know, but most valuations seem pretty rich.

https://www.horizonsetfs.com/etf/psyk Thoughts?

Similar story for a while now. Feels like a perpetual Berkshire discount and WB not too keen on repurchasing.