For the first time in my life, I have been following US politics closely, not because I am interested in politics itself, but because Bitcoin was on the agenda for the first time.

I was elated to hear that Trump won, not because I thought he would be a great president, but because he was pushing a pro-Bitcoin narrative. While it’s obvious that he understands little about Bitcoin, it is a major shift to have a pro-Bitcoin president, and the rapid price appreciation of bitcoin reflects that shift.

This elation quickly turned to disappointment when I heard that he was pro-crypto, taking advice from a16z (a scammy crypto VC firm) and launching his own shitcoin/memecoin: $TRUMP.

Any serious Bitcoiner should find this very concerning, given the dubious nature of the crypto industry & the guilt by association that rubs off on Bitcoin and stunts its adoption.

Why the launch of $TRUMP is bad for Bitcoin

The launch of Trump’s memecoin is a bad omen for Bitcoin adoption. The president-elect creating and rug-pulling gullible fans, while loudly proclaiming the benefits of Bitcoin, will result in the layman conflating Bitcoin with scams.

This has long been an issue for Bitcoin, as grifters have used the brand to peddle pump & dump coins, resulting in a general scepticism about Bitcoin, and a lack of interest in doing the research required to understand the value proposition Bitcoin provides, and what sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies.

Unlike the broader crypto industry, often plagued by scams and pump-and-dump schemes, Bitcoin is the only truly decentralized, censorship-resistant system with real-world utility.

If you want to learn more about what sets Bitcoin apart, I highly recommend watching this video:

Why the launch of $TRUMP is bad for Trump himself

Many of you may believe that the launch of $TRUMP is all upside for the Trump administration. After all, they will get quick, easy money. This view is naive and shortsighted. While the administration will gain in the short term monetarily, they will lose out in the long run.

First, any monetary gains from the launch will be reversed with future litigation, as the people who get rug pulled will want compensation for their losses.

Second, Trump’s reputation as president will be permanently tarnished by the scammy nature of his memecoin. Any monetary gain he gets from this launch will be peanuts compared to the damage to his reputation as president.

Third, he stunts the growth of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that provides value to the world via censorship resistance, borderlessness, store of value and decentralisation. By promoting Bitcoin, Trump can not only see gains via appreciation in his Bitcoin holdings, but he also gets to enhance his reputation instead of tarnishing it.

For these three reasons, it is in Trump’s best interest to drop $TRUMP and go all in on Bitcoin.

Conclusion

The launch of $TRUMP is a wake-up call for Bitcoiners and Trump supporters alike. To protect Bitcoin’s reputation and Trump’s legacy, it’s crucial to educate the administration on Bitcoin’s unique value — and the risks of associating with the broader crypto industry.

What do you think about the launch of $TRUMP and its implication on Bitcoin? Leave your comment below.

Despite all of this scepticism about the actual value the industry is bringing, the future is still bright, and I know this because of the two killer use cases in crypto. These two killer use cases are a store of value and stablecoins.

In this article, I will discuss these two use cases, why they matter, and which coin will likely accrue the most value.

Store of value

Few assets can preserve your purchasing power today. Holding fiat currencies is a sure way to lose your purchasing power over time, as even the best fiat currencies, like the Swiss Franc and US dollar, are losing value dramatically.

You can preserve your purchasing power by buying real estate or stocks, but even that is tricky. Investing in stocks requires much knowledge about the companies you invest in and keeping up with the latest trends. Stocks that are promising today may fall out of favour tomorrow. Real estate is subject to the whim of government, is immobile, and requires constant maintenance and vigilance.

Gold has historically been a superior store of value, but it is fundamentally incompatible with modern times. Sending physical gold across borders is expensive and risky; digitized gold carries counterparty risk. Gold does not have a fixed supply either, and the supply is constantly expanding.

Since all fiat currencies are being debased, assets like stocks, real estate, and gold have accrued a monetary premium over their intrinsic value as purchasers buy these assets to protect themselves against inflation.

Bitcoin, while new, is the perfect asset for solving the store of value problem. It cannot be arbitrarily debased or forged; it is permissionless, borderless, mobile, censorship-resistant and unceasable. No other asset class provides these unique properties, meaning Bitcoin is in the perfect position to capture the lion's share of the monetary premium from other assets.

I am highly sceptical that other crypto assets like Ethereum, Solana or Tron can capture this use case, as their monetary policy is constantly changing, and their decentralization is questionable.

While the store-of-value use case can seem insignificant or uninteresting, it is one of the most valuable use cases in the world. Money makes up 50% of all trades, and a store of value is one of the main properties of money. For this reason alone, Bitcoin will become an asset with a market cap in the tens or hundreds of trillions.

Stablecoins

The only other use case I see solving a problem in the space are stablecoins. Stablecoins are crypto assets pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar.

Stablecoins allow users to hold dollars without a bank account, interact with other crypto applications without friction, make accepting payment for services from foreign clients easy, and enable more straightforward accounting, especially for tax purposes.

Stablecoins have seen widespread adoption in countries with high inflation, such as Argentina and Turkey. They allow residents of these currencies to protect themselves against debasement in their local currencies and hold US dollars without a bank account. This is especially crucial as residents in these countries can have their US dollars forcibly converted into their local currencies by government decree, which has happened before in Argentina.

While this use case delivers much value in the short and medium term, it will become less relevant with time as the dollar loses value and Bitcoin accrues value. Residents of these countries will shift their preferences away from dollars and into Bitcoin.

While stablecoins initially saw mass adoption on Ethereum's mainnet, many other blockchains, such as Solana and EVM forks, support them. This means that no blockchain exclusively captures the value of stablecoins.

While both use cases provide value, the store-of-value use case will accrue the most value over time. For that reason, my outlook veers towards Bitcoin maximalism.

Do you agree or disagree with my analysis? Leave your comments below.

But what if Apple or Google built a native wallet for iOS and Android that would be just as secure as a hardware wallet and easier to recover if you lose your keys? If this is even possible, how could it look? In this article, I will describe how I would build a native wallet for iOS and Android that would be integrated directly into Apple and Google Pay.

Secure element — support for secp256k1 is required

Every iOS and Android device contains a piece of hardware called a secure enclave. A secure enclave allows a user to store private keys safely, and these keys never leave the device. Since these keys never leave the device, they cannot be exported.

For an iOS or Android device to support the ideal Bitcoin wallet, it must support secp256k1, the type of signature scheme used on the Bitcoin network. As of this writing, few devices support this scheme, and users must own a compatible device. I believe that secp256k1 support will become ubiquitous in future.

Compatible devices can securely create a private key and use it to sign transactions, much like how hardware wallets work today.

Adding multiple devices

Users may wish to spend funds from multiple devices, but the secure enclave prevents the export of its keys. How would you enable multiple devices to spend the same funds? Multisig!

The Bitcoin protocol natively supports m-of-n multisig, meaning multiple keys can spend the same UTXOs.

Adding a device would generate a multisig wallet where any eligible key can spend the funds.

OP_IF <numWallets> <publicKey1> <publicKey2> … <publicKeyN> <numWallets> OP_CHECKMULTISIG

It’s important to note that adding or removing a trusted device would require migrating all existing funds to a new multisig. Apple or Google could provide a simple step-by-step process for this.

Having multiple devices would also provide some redundancy, such that if you lose one device, you can still spend the funds using your other devices.

Seed phrase free backups

Since the secure enclave prevents exporting keys, users cannot write down a seed phrase and back up their wallets if they lose their device(s). This would be a disaster! I hear you saying, but fear not. Users could securely recover their funds from Apple or Google if they lose their devices.

The Bitcoin protocol supports CSV (CheckSequenceVerify). CSV is an opcode that can be included in a Bitcoin script, allowing a key to spend funds after a certain timestamp has been reached. This key cannot spend the funds before the timelock, giving users full control of their funds before the timestamp. The user can also reset the timelock by sending their funds to a new multisig with an updated timestamp. In this case, Apple or Google would be the trusted custodian of the key, and they can recover the funds after the timelock is reached. If users lose access to their keys, they must contact support and have Apple or Google move the funds once the timelock has lapsed. This process would require authentication and potentially a fee.

Apple and Google can push notifications to users, reminding them that the timelock is near and should be reset. Users can then migrate the funds to a new multisig or go through the recovery process.

We can modify the script above so that a trusted third party (in this case, Apple or Google) can spend the funds if a certain timelock is reached. Users can still spend the funds if they have the private key and haven’t migrated to a new multisig with an updated timelock.

OP_IF
<numWallets> <publicKey1> <publicKey2> … <publicKeyN> <numWallets> OP_CHECKMULTISIG
OP_ELSE
<timelockValue> OP_CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY OP_DROP
<userPublicKey> <thirdPartyPublicKey> OP_2 OP_CHECKMULTISIG
OP_ENDIF

2FA Multisig

Another neat feature that Apple or Wallet could add would be a 2FA multisig, similar to Blockstream Green's. Funds would be sent to a n-of-m multisig, with the user holding one or multiple keys and Apple or Google holding another. Apple or Google would co-sign the transaction if the user provided a valid 2FA code, or the user could approve the transaction on another device with a key (this other wallet could co-sign instead of Apple or Google). Users could also choose either method, opting for the most convenient.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Of course, everything I say in this article is conjecture. I have no idea how Apple or Google would build a Bitcoin wallet. They will probably build something quite different and service other use cases, such as a business multisig or the lightning network.

What do you think of this idea? What would you change about it? Leave your comment below.

This article will explain a novel, far simpler method for remembering your seed phrases. I will also explain why self-custody is a problem that can be overcome, even if it never becomes easy.

I want to preface this article by stating that memorising your seed phrase should not be the only method you rely on. You should also have it written down on paper or engraved into metal. One cannot rely solely on memory. Please also ensure you do not recite your seed phrase aloud or enter the words into an online device. When handling the physical backup of your seed phrase, ensure that no cameras can capture it.

A simple method to memorise your seed phrase

After you have generated and written down your 12, 18, or 24-word seed phrase, you should separate it into 3-word chunks. I have included a sample 12-word seed phrase below.

tumble derive despair crystal long rhythm fat cradle arrest rebel hawk vast

Let’s take the first 3 words: tumble, derive & despair. You should add a fourth word that rhymes; in this case, I will choose the word repair.

tumble derive despair repair

Repeat this sequence in your head at least 10 times.

Now move on to the next 3 words in your phrase and add another rhyming word.

crystal long rhythm schism

Add on the first four words.

tumble derive despair repair crystal long rhythm schism

Repeat this sequence in your head at least 10 times.

Continue this process until you have used all the words in your seed phrase.

tumble derive despair repair crystal long rhythm schism fat cradle arrest detest rebel hawk vast last

Test yourself over the next few days and weeks. You will be surprised at how easy it is to remember them, even after a lot of time has passed.

Advantages to memorising your seed phrase

Memorising your seed phrase confers many advantages. For one, it is an additional backup method. Second, it gives you complete self-sovereignty, as your coins are available at any moment and place.

It also enables you to flee your country with your money without anyone being able to find it on your person or in your belongings.

Why I think self-custody will be overcome

An often-heard criticism of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that they will never be suitable for mass adoption so long as self-custody is challenging.

While it is true that self-custody is a challenge and a paradigm shift for most people, I strongly believe that this hurdle will be cleared because the use case of Bitcoin as a store of value and inflation hedge is so compelling that people will learn to adapt.

Think about cars. When cars came out, they were incredibly dangerous and required many hours of practice to operate properly. Even today, cars are still dangerous, especially if you do not know how to drive or are impaired. Did this prevent mainstream adoption of cars?

I believe the same will happen with Bitcoin. People will learn how to self-custody their funds, as the alternative is holding an ever-debasing currency or being at the mercy of a counterparty.

What do you think about this method? Do you memorise your seed phrases? Leave your comment below.

It is also a bit of a paradoxical country. On the one hand, you have a highly repressed culture where everybody is incredibly clean, conservative, respectful, shy and polite. On the other, you have a deprived and overt sexual culture, one in which brazen sexual assault is common, even in public places.

Japan also treats infidelity as a misdemeanour, with many claiming that it doesn’t count so long as it was with a sex worker and no feelings were involved. Cheating is so ubiquitous that there are special hotels that cater for it. These special hotels are called love hotels. While not everyone who frequents a love hotel will be using it for infidelity, many are.

A look inside a typical love hotel

One of the fascinating things about love hotels is how professional they are. They take comfort, anonymity, novelty and convenience to another level.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you enter a love hotel is the privacy-centric approach.

When you enter the hotel, nobody will greet you; instead, you will be presented with a screen that lets you browse through the catalogue of available rooms. Most guests prefer not to see each other, so you are expected to wait until everybody has left the lobby before entering.

If you need help, someone will assist you, but they will do so behind a curtain or blinds and will be wearing a mask.

Everything you need for your secret affair is available

Forgot your toothbrush? No worries, there is one included in the room. Need a condom? Just check the bedside cabinet. Need a toy? There’s probably one right by the bed. Want to dress up? Just browse the catalog and order it, someone will drop it off at your door. Need some visual stimulation? There are plenty of films available on each television. Are you afraid that your wife or girlfriend will be able to identify your car? Borrow one of their number plate covers.

Even checkout is as flexible as can be. You can simply leave whenever you feel like it and only pay for the time you use.

Themed rooms

While browsing the room catalogue on the screen, you will notice they have many different types of rooms, each with a different price and amenities.

Most will come with a large bathtub, while the more fancy ones include a steam room or sauna.

Some rooms will be more traditional, while others will be more unique, like a camping-themed room.

Most rooms are windowless, include fancy lighting, and come with music to emulate being in nature.

Conclusion

I hope this article has been interesting and has given you some insight into the world of love hotels in Japan.

What do you think about love hotels? Do you have anything like it in your country? Would you go to one? Leave your comment below.

When I landed at San Salvador airport, I was unsure what to expect. Being naturally suspicious of strangers in a foreign country, I was relieved to find that no scam taxis were loitering outside the terminal. I grabbed a taxi from the terminal as ride-sharing apps are prohibited at the airport.

On the drive from the airport to my hotel, I peppered the driver with questions. Has El Salvador gotten better? What do you think of the president? Is El Salvador really safe? Do you use Bitcoin? What was El Salvador like before Bukele? I will answer these questions below.

Impressions of the safety of the country

Initially, I was sceptical about the country's safety; what if everything I heard was embellished or propaganda? My doubts were immediately extinguished on arrival to San Salvador. For the entire 3 day trip, I never once felt unsafe, despite not being able to blend in with the locals. Police patrol the entire city, and I could freely wander the streets without issue. This is in stark contrast to how I felt when I arrived in Medellin, Colombia.

Despite being one of the most dangerous countries in the world less than a decade ago, it seemed like a distant memory, one that had been expunged but not forgotten.

Impressions of the crackdown

One thing that surprised me about El Salvador was the difference in opinion about the gang crackdown in San Salvador and El Zonte.

In San Salvador, every local I asked favoured the crackdown, noting the vast increase in personal safety. They mentioned being terrorised by gangs, shops having to close early for safety reasons and the brazen corruption of previous governments. The locals of San Salvador seemed to have a great sense of optimism, as if their country was finally moving in the right direction. I was told that there were some innocents in jail, but the vast majority were gang members or, at the very least, aided and abetted the gangs. An Uber driver told me that to join a gang, you must murder at least one person, and while many gang members had evidence of their crimes tattooed on their bodies, much of the top brass have no tattoos and are more challenging to catch. All in all, they seemed very pleased with the crackdown, even if they didn’t fully agree with the new president.

In El Zonte, also known as “Bitcoin Beach”, I got a more nuanced view. My waitress informed me that the coastal areas of El Salvador have always been safer than the cities and that the crackdowns were viewed as an infringement on civil liberties. Many of the locals in the coastal areas feared being incorrectly labelled as criminals and being taken away. According to her, having a tattoo on your body put you at risk of being arrested, even if you were innocent and the tattoo was unrelated to gang membership. While she acknowledged that the new government has had a positive effect on the country, especially the capital, she did not believe the crackdown was unambiguously positive.

Why El Salvador is the ideal country to adopt a Bitcoin standard

El Salvador’s small size and lack of a national currency makes it the ideal place to not only adopt Bitcoin, but implement policy changes that would be very difficult to enact in larger countries with oversized bureaucracies.

The fact that El Salvador has no currency of its own means that they have very little to lose by adopting a Bitcoin standard, as they don’t have their own currency to manipulate for the benefit of the state.

Much like Singapore, El Salvador can leverage its geographic and demographic advantages. Much like Lee Kuan Yew, Bukele is carving out a name for himself as a benevolent dictator who can guide his country to a brighter future.

Adoption of Bitcoin in the country

I was pleased to find that basically every large retailer in San Salvador and a large share of stores in El Zonte accept Bitcoin, with some adopting the Lightning Network. While I expected the UX to be cumbersome, I was relieved to find it very smooth, especially at McDonald’s.

Adoption on an individual or small retailer scale in San Salvador remained limited, with most locals preferring cash. Most individuals that I talked to did not personally hold any bitcoin, but I was still able to tip an Uber driver via Lightning to his Chivo wallet. Despite the driver being an enthusiastic hodler, he had no idea the difference between lightning and on-chain transactions.

Naturally, the residents of El Zonte are more savvy, as my waitress was pleased that I wanted to pay via lightning instead of on chain.

Conclusion

While it is impossible to predict the future of any nation, I believe that El Salvador has a shot at carving a name for itself in the world. With tourism on the rise, a more friendly business environment, a vast reduction in crime and an increase in expats, I hope El Salvador can rise out of poverty and inspire the rest of the world.

I believe that El Salvador is the first country of many to formally adopt a Bitcoin standard. As fiat money debases itself more and more, we are bound to see more adoption going forward, with El Salvador showing the world how it’s done.

In this article, I do not want to pick sides. I am not arguing whether climate change is real or not, nor am I suggesting that it is not a threat to humanity. I want to point out that such topics frequently lead to errors of misjudgement, as people often take an emotional rather than well-reasoned argument on the matter.

Instead, I want to talk about how overhyping the risks could lead to catastrophic, man-made disasters such as famine or major economic calamities.

A little red tale

In 1958, Mao Zedong announced the Great Leap Forward, an initiative to bring about rapid industrialisation and socialism with Chinese characteristics. While the campaign only lasted four years, it resulted in the preventable deaths of 15–55 million people and brought China back to the dark ages.

Many party members thought such lofty goals justified the sacrifices; after all, they were building a utopian society, one that would improve the lives of the Chinese people and put China on the map.

Like many centrally planned ideas, it failed miserably and resulted in needless destruction of the country, and while never officially acknowledged as a failure, it most certainly was.

Such faulty logic and the idea that reaching an ideal could justify whatever cost demonstrates the danger of such black-and-white thinking. We also saw this to a lesser extent with COVID-19, especially in Australia.

Parallels to the Green New Deal and other dangerous proposals

With the above example, I want to draw some analogies to the current dialogue around climate change and how it could lead to disastrous consequences.

In 2019, AOC published the Green New Deal, a drastic and ill-thought-out proposal to tackle climate change, employ workers and save humanity from destruction. She is not the only one in this regard; the Netherlands and Sri Lanka also proposed drastic legislation that would severely hamper agricultural production and led to protests in both countries.

These issues are still ongoing and demonstrate the dangers of prematurely ditching fossil fuels for lofty goals set by bureaucrats in air-conditioned offices.

As of today and for the foreseeable future, we still lack sufficient substitutes for fossil fuels and imposing harsh restrictions will result in man-made deaths, especially in poorer countries like Sri Lanka.

We have never been more adept at preventing climate-related deaths

Modern civilisation is incredibly good at controlling nature. Fewer people die nowadays from extreme heat or extreme cold, in large part due to fossil fuels.

The heaters that prevent us from dying in the winter and the air conditioning units that prevent us from dying in the summer are, in large part, powered by the fossil fuels we dig up. Prematurely and strictly restricting access to hydrocarbons will result in more deaths than climate change is capable of, and while we do not know precisely what the future holds, we can be confident of this.

An old saying goes, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” The bird we do have in our hand is fossil fuels, and the savings from drastic climate reform is both unknown and unlikely to be worse than forgoing their use.

Conclusion

I hope that this article helps calm down the hysteria around climate change. While I believe finding alternative sources of energy is a great thing, I hope that we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Finding alternative, renewable sources of energy that do not pollute as much will be a good thing, and I hope we can continue to see innovation in the field.

What do you think about climate policy? Leave your comments below…

This article is written from someone who experienced it first hand, both in Sydney (2020) and later, the most crazy of all: Melbourne (2021).

While covid is of course a real illness and one that has killed millions of already ill people, we as a nation completely discarded all logical thinking and went down a destructive path, one that we are still paying for today.

Introduction

When Covid first started ripping through Australia in 2020, we immediately saw panic break out. The border was quickly shut off and people began hoarding basic supplies, such as toilet paper.

This wasn’t helped by the constant fear mongering of major news outlets in the country, suggesting that this new novel virus was going to kill many people, even the young and healthy.

Today, almost all restrictions and mandates have been dropped. Few people live in fear of the virus and we have all sort of collectively forgotten about the crazy stuff we did in the name of protecting people from the virus.

Below I will detail some of the crazy policies we enacted and reflect the mass hysteria that intoxicated too many.

Banning citizens and other residents from entry the country

Throughout 2020 and much of 2021, the Australian government restricted and in many cases barred people from entering the country. Entry into the country was restricted to permanent residents and citizens.

While anyone who held citizenship or PR could enter the country on paper, many were in fact denied by the high ticket cost and entry quotas. The country only allowed a certain number of people in per day and many who held tickets were turned away at the last minute, as the quota had been filled.

This same group of people were also explicitly banned from leaving the country and required permission from the authorities to leave.

Masked required at all times

Another poorly thought out rule were the mask rules, Melbourne residents were required to wear masks at all times when not at their home. This included the outdoors and sparsely populated areas.

I remember walking by myself, outside, with hardly anyone around me and being threatened by police with a fine for not wearing a mask. The irony was not lost on these cops, as they approached me as a group, thereby violating social distancing.

9pm curfew

For much of 2020 and 2021, Melbourne made going outside of your house illegal after 9pm. This dubious measure was ostensibly put in place to prevent the spread of the disease, but instead added unnecessary strain to an already stressed population.

Even people wanting to go for a night walk alone could be threatened with an excessive fine and it no doubt prevented many from getting much needed exercise.

When questioned about the logic of this policy, Dan Andrews, the premier of Victoria could provide very little reasoning behind his decision.

5km rule

Melbourne residents were not only not allowed to travel around the state or country, but were also limited to a 5km radius from their homes. You were also forbidden from leaving your home without a “valid excuse” for doing so.

Anybody with half a brain knows that this policy made little sense, but it was kept anyway.

Longest lockdown in the world

Melbourne was awarded the prize for longest lockdown in the world. Far from taking shame in this, many residents held this dunce hat with pride. To read more about some of the crazy restrictions in place and their lack of oversight, click here.

Vaccine mandates

Throughout 2021, Australia pushed vaccine mandates that prevent people from working their jobs without the jab.

This idiotic policy was taken even further as there was a time that one could not even dine at a restaurant or other “non essential service” without showing proof of vaccination.

This resulted in the separation of society between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. If you were vaccinated you could enjoy a few of the pre-covid freedoms but the unvaccinated were relegated to second class citizen status and were unable to partake in many activities, including group exercise outside…

Thankfully these mandates were later removed, but very little accountability has been provided by the authorities for their blatant disregard for human rights.

Privacy is irrelevant, sign in now!

Another crazy policy of the time was forced sign ins. People were required to report all the places that they visited by scanning a QR code.

Not only was this a large security and privacy breach, but the data was nefariously used by police to track down certain individuals.

Destruction of the economy

Another obvious consequence of these measures was the destruction of local businesses. This was obvious to anyone walking the streets of Melbourne in 2020–22. Naturally, the politicians were shielded from their policy decisions and still received full pay.

On top of all the business closures, the government handed out billions in an ill thought out job keeper program. You can read more about it here.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, covid was a huge mess and our reaction to it was massively overblown. Covid exposed our own lack of critical thinking and I hope that we can learn from our mistakes.

The local currency, the Argentine peso is the quintessential example of what happens when inflation gets out of control. With inflation in the double and sometimes triple digits and with various currency controls in place, the locals have learned to use two kinds of money: the good (USD and Bitcoin) and the bad (pesos).

These two types of money serve different purposes. The bad is used for everyday purchases of items, such as food and other essentials. The good type is used for savings and big ticket purchases. The typical Argentine will earn in pesos, buy their essentials with pesos and whatever is left will be quickly converted into good money. Big ticket items such as houses or cars are often priced in US dollars and the locals are adept at valuing such items in their heads as dollars.

Much of the reason for this preference comes down to the fact that inflation is high and the currency controls in place make it difficult to convert large sums of pesos into hard currency. It is also difficult to use pesos to buy foreign goods, as few foreign vendors will accept it due to the inflation and difficulty converting it into their local currency. If you want to see this in real life, cross the border into Uruguay and try to buy something with pesos. The locals will either refuse or charge you a massive premium.

Argentines want to minimise the time they hold pesos and spend them immediately, rather than hold on to them and see the value drop. As Gresham’s law states:

bad money drives out good

How Argentina gives us a glimpse into the future of money

You might be thinking, sure this is the case in Argentina, but not countries like the US, and to an extent you are right, at least for now.

While the US and other first world countries are no where near as bad as Argentina, we are on the same trajectory and it’s only a matter of time til we see a similar dynamic between fiat and bitcoin. In fact, the entire HODL movement is somewhat inspired by this idea, as HODLERs want to hold and never sell their good money for bad.

With inflation hitting new highs, the general trend of fiat heading towards zero and the rise of digital currencies; it’s only a matter of time til we will see both compete.

We will earn in dollars and spend in dollars, but save in Bitcoin. Bitcoin will become a secondary type of money, one that we hold for savings and large purchases as we battle with inflation in fiat money.

Bitcoin will become the next reserve currency

In 1944 the Bretton Woods agreement set into motion the switch from the pound to the US dollar as the reserve currency; as the power dynamic shifted from the UK to the US. This is not the first time this has happened in history, before the pound we had the dutch gilder. With the US dollar as the reserve currency today, we see many countries not only accepting dollars, but many actually prefer it to their local currency.

However the US dollar, like every other fiat currency, is being debased on a constant basis and many have wondered what could replace it. Many have suggested that the Chinese Yuan or Euro could be a good candidate, but these suggestions are totally dubious. The Chinese Yuan is heavily controlled by the CCP, is not freely convertible and is barely ever used in cross border settlement. The Euro is freely convertible but is dwarfed by the US dollar in global trade and importance. The reality is that the US is still the sole superpower and no other fiat currency is able to replace it.

In my opinion the next reserve currency will not be a fiat currency, instead we will formally or informally recognise Bitcoin as the next reserve currency.

Bitcoin is permission-less, censorship resistant, programmable and has a predictable monetary policy. As its market cap and use increase globally, it will be able to take over as world money and be used for cross border commerce on a large scale (with adoption of layer 2 solutions such as lightning). It will be the first time that we have a truely free, open and decentralised monetary base for worldwide commerce and I welcome the change.

Agree or disagree with this article? Leave your comments below…

This article is a cautionary tale about a good friend of mine (let’s call him Bob), who had his crypto stolen (and bank cards drained) on a night out on the town in London. With this article I hope to draw more attention to this attack and remind everyone that even banks can fail to make you whole.

Some context

I am a crypto enthusiast and software engineer in the field. Bob works a non tech job and I helped him purchase and store the bitcoin that he held on his phone.

Since he had only purchased a few thousand dollars worth of Bitcoin, I figured that an iOS crypto wallet would be secure enough for his needs. We made sure to secure his seed phrase with pen and paper, and I never anticipated an attack in person like this, instead I believed it far more likely that he would lose his seed phrase.

What happened

Bob went on a holiday with his friends to Europe. One of the places on his list was London (a surprisingly risky city) and he went out for drinks with his mates.

While at the club, he was scouted out by a group of criminals. Bob had had a few drinks and was noticeably intoxicated. Despite having FaceId enabled, he remembers keying in his pin code.

Bob and his mates were later approached by these group of criminals when they left the club. They seemed like friendly lads who enjoyed a bit of banter. While walking, they encouraged them to have some nangs with them (nitrous oxide). Initially reluctant, Bob and his mates agreed to have some, figuring they were decent enough blokes.

As soon as they were dazed by the nangs, Bob immediately noticed that something was amiss and he began to feel suspicious. While under the influence, he noticed the group suddenly walk off at a frisk pace. Checking his pocket, he noticed that his iPhone had gone missing…

Bob initially thought that he had only lost his iPhone, but he was quickly disabused of this notion. Checking his accounts on another device, he released that his credit card had been maxed out and his passwords changed.

All the Bitcoin and other coins held in his mobile wallet had also disappeared and while he never revealed this ownership to the thieves, they knew where to look. The thieves also changed his binance password, but thankfully he did not have any crypto in there.

While the attackers did not have the means to unlock his FaceId, they were able to successfully snoop on him keying in his passcode.

Bob was quick to inform the police and his bank, but neither party was particularly useful. I will delve deeper in this below…

What the UK police did to help Bob

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The battle with the bank

What is particularly interesting about this unfortunate event is what happened afterwards with Bob’s bank.

Bob’s credit card had been completely drained via Apple Pay to illegitimate merchants and the thieves were only able to stop spending the funds once the card had been completely maxed out.

The bank was unable to recognise these transactions as suspicious, despite the fact that such banks routinely block their users legitimate transactions on the suspicion that they were not authorised.

Bob immediately informed the bank of what had happened and had to wait many hours on hold to get through to a representative.

Despite all this, the bank on numerous occasions sent emails to Bob stating that his case was rejected, on the count that the transactions were authorised by him, as they had come from his unlocked device.

Frustrated, Bob lodged numerous complaints and eventually got hold of a manager from the bank. This manager tried to pressure him into receiving a fraction of the stolen funds back in “good faith”.

It was not until Bob engaged the services of a tribunal that the bank agreed to give back the majority (but not all) of the funds. The bank also threatened to withdraw their “good faith” offer upon escalation of the case with the tribunal.

We in the crypto world have always known that transactions are irreversible and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Traditional financial services, like banks, were always viewed as a place where you could get recourse and be made whole. This story has shown that even the banks are not as reliable or honest as we have been led to believe.

What you should take from this article

It is my hope that this article has informed you about some of the offline risks that you take with crypto. While it is more likely that you will lose your seed phrase or be subject to an online attack, you must ensure that you are also secure in the offline world.

While my friend only lost a few thousand dollars worth of crypto, it is a worrying tale, one that should alert us to the fact that we really ought to keep the majority of our crypto holdings off devices that are connected to the internet and/or frequently on our person.

Some tips to keep you safe

• Only store small amounts of crypto on your mobile device
• Limit the amount of funds available on your credit cards
• Never let strangers near your devices, even if they are locked
• Don’t assume that you will only lose your phone if it is stolen, that’s the best case scenario
• Look up the reputation of your bank
• Some banks allow you to lock up your credit card, but that lock might not apply to Apple/Google pay

So what do you think about this situation? Leave your comments below…