Trust

Trust is a fundamental value for any currency or money. We trust that the dollar/Euro/Pound/Yuan that we carry with us can be used for any purchase or financial transaction. All of us have grown up earning and spending money. We trust that the time we work to earn money is time well spent. We trust that the money we have earned will be accepted in any market place.

We all know that there is an issue of trust in these early days of cryptocurrencies due to the well documented scams used in 2016–2017 to raise tens of millions of dollars that simply disappeared or coins that became worthless. As all of us in the crypto space extol that this is the future, we have encountered all the push back from the negative press of a few bad actors. They have also created the swoop-down of government regulators.

We all have to earn the trust of the 98% of the population that have yet to get involved in or are even aware of cryptocurrencies. I personally am involved with people of the highest integrity at Kidcoin, where I am Chief Brand Officer and a member of the Board of Advisors. I have been asked to join other boards but choose to move slowly as my name, reputation and brand, built over a lifetime is highly trusted by clients around the world and I can ill afford to have it damaged by others.

A large part of what I do is deliver speeches about the future to business audiences that range in size from several thousand down to a ten-person board of directors. In the last three months, when speaking about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, I present why, in the 2020s when the Great Debt Reset occurs [topic of future columns] cryptocurrencies will be globally ascendant.

When the response is negative or there is pushback, I do an exercise with the audience that immediately changes/opens their minds.

I ask the audiences -so far in three countries- that if they trust their national government to please raise their hands. No one has! So, I simply say that if you don’t trust your government, how can you trust the fiat currencies they issue? Silence. What this exercise does is to make people begin to think that, when there are economic downturns — again a topic for future columns here- disruptions, defaults or collapses, they might not be able to trust their governments and, by extension the currencies they issue.

My next supposition is that members of a self-defined community — surfers, golfers, fans, artists, neighbors and, in the case of Kidcoin, children and their parents and extended families- have a higher level of trust with each other than all of us do with our governments.

This two-step process relative to trust has opened more minds and had more people become financially invested in cryptocurrencies than anything else I have done. The reason for this is that it makes them question the trustworthiness of the fiat currency they use. Something that most people have never done.

Ask a Venezuelan, suffering currently a 25,000% inflation rate whether they trust their government. As you probably know the Venezuelan government is issuing a crypto currency tied to the price of oil. The only problem there is that it is issued by the same government that issues the national currency. Huh?

Therefore, the concept of trust in one’s government is a good first step to open someone’s mind about considering owning some cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies will only succeed in changing the global monetary landscape if they can earn and keep a high level of trust with owners and users.

Trust was originally published in Kidcoin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Years ago during the heart of the 2013 European financial crisis many investors globally were expecting another catastrophe on par with the 2008–2009 crisis. At the time an intense debate raged — as it always does in crisis moments — between those advocating for investing in that perennial alternative currency, gold, and those who perennially argue that these “gold bugs” are fools for investing in an asset that has no intrinsic value. I considered this a specious argument, because in the modern era of fiat currencies there is also no underlying intrinsic asset, just the “full faith and credit of,” …a credit. To me that is weak backing, too.

It seemed to me what was missing was a willingness on the part of the “gold bug” detractors for understanding why so many people for millennia have considered gold a viable investment. So I decided to contemplate what criteria are necessary to constitute an alternative currency. The net result was that I developed two important alternative currency criteria.

First, a viable alternative currency needs a nearly universal demand curve. That is, the currency must be desirable to hold. If this first criterion is met then a holder can be sure that it serves as a legitimate means of exchange for other goods and services, including other currencies. Sans a nearly universal demand curve then a holder does not hold a currency, but instead, a speculative asset.

Second, among my criteria is that the supply of an alternative currency needs to be fixed in supply. This ensures that the price cannot be manipulated by third parties, such as central banks, governments, speculators, and so on, and for limited, and usually uniquely selfish ends.

Mind you, all of this was before cryptocurrencies had ever come into existence. Because of my work trying to understand the millennia-old interest in gold, I readily understood how cryptocurrencies had the potential to become alternative currencies. Yet, now I must add a third criteria to my initial two and based on my recent experience with that most famous of crypto-assets <and now I am whispering because of the extreme responses in readers it generates>, bitcoin.

My third criteria is that an alternative currency also needs a stable price if it hopes to be used as a medium of exchange. Given my above two initial criteria, it should be obvious that another way of saying this is that the demand for the asset needs to be stable.

So why am I involved in advising Kidcoin? A cynic would say “because cryptoassets are HOT, HOT, HOT!” I would respond that unlike almsot all other cryptoassets there is a nearly universal demand curve in Kidcoin’s domain; namely, education among the globe’s people. After all, it is education that turns hard work, not just into personal fruit, but into fruit trees bearing life-transforming wealth. In short, nearly everyone recognizes the need for education. This is strongly in accord with my own story, and my own values.

Similarly, there is also a nearly universal recognition that empowering education is expensive and requires decided, disciplined saving in order to attain. Further, it is also universally recognized that monetary incentives do, in fact, work. For those of you familiar with Kidcoin you recognize that its design neatly addresses and facilitates the ‘universal demand’ attributes I just described.

You also are familiar with the fact that Kidcoin, like almost all crypto-assets, is limited in supply. Now whether or not it proves to have a nearly universal demand within education, and whether or not it proves to have a stable demand curve remains to be seen. However, that is the point of a startup, is it not? And isn’t that also the point of an advisory board (of which I am proud to be a part)?

I sincerely hope that you recognize the transformative value of Kidcoin and become involved in some way. :)

___________________________________________________________________

Jason A. Voss, CFA is Content Director for CFA Institute’s 150,000+ investment professionals in over 140 countries. He is the retired co-Portfolio Manager of the Davis Appreciation and Income Fund which bested the S&P 500 by 49.1% during his tenure, was a Lipper #1 and Morningstar 5-star rated fund, and one of the first ten mutual funds awarded Stewardship Grade “A” by Morningstar.

Jason is the author of six books, including the hedge fund community favorite, The Intuitive Investor. In addition to Kidcoin, he serves as an advisor to two other startups, one in predictive analytics and the other in healthcare. Furthermore, Jason advises the board of the International Integrated Reporting Council, a new global business reporting standard ready-fit for investors. He is a frequent speaker globally discussing the future state of the investment profession, creativity, overcoming behavioral biases, improving investment returns, and meditation.

Cryptocurrencies — Why I am involved in Kidcoin was originally published in Kidcoin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As Chief Brand Officer and member of the Board of Advisors of Kidcoin, I have been doing a deep dive into the reality of crypto currencies in 2018. Attending Crypto and Block Chain conferences in Dubai, London and Dallas, and having spoken at the latter two conferences has been part of this vertical learning curve. In addition, as have most people in the space, I have been reading voraciously about block chain and crypto, along with all the other subjects I consistently research such as AI/Machine Learning, the coming energy, transportation, medical transformations and ever accelerating technological connectivity.

Taking this broad look into the future gives me a different perspective that most currently in the crypto space do not have, as they are deep into programming and execution. As a futurist, I see multiple trends, economic forces, business dynamics and technological disruptions happening all at the same time in the next 10 years and how crypto currencies may well play a significant part in all sectors. It is these topics I will explore in this space.

A bit of background first. One of the reasons I became a futurist is that I have always done things that people said wouldn’t work. I left being a top sales exec at CBS to join the small but growing executive team that created and launched MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, and CNN Headline News when cable was in only 10% of US households and there were less than 50 music videos in the world and no one thought a 24-hour cable network would work. Then I was a Managing Director of a 90s dotcom that created on-line courses, again something people said wouldn’t work.

The Cryptocurrency space feels like the early days of cable and the early days of the Internet. Successes and failures are ahead. Stay tuned for more in this space.

David Houle

A Futurist Look at Cryptocurrencies was originally published in Kidcoin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Kidcoin is a blockchain-based digital wallet that teaches kids how to value and manage money, while offering incentives for them to earn rewards for their achievements and good deeds.

Our vision is to raise the next generation of kids to be more fiscally responsible citizens, by managing their money proactively, minimizing debt wherever possible, and practicing healthy financial habits such as budgeting, goal-setting and reconciling their accounts periodically. All the while, it is essential to protect kids from cyber threats and time and money sucking negative influences while they’re online and using mobile apps — which is nearly all day long.

By engaging parents, family members and communities in the process, Kidcoin embraces an interactive, open architecture model, that is security and education focused, conducive to collaboration and in line with the saying — “It takes a village to raise a [financially savvy] child.”

Modern banks and financial institutions have failed us. Their singular focus on collecting assets and generating fees has left 99% of the world feeling dismissed and unsupported. How can we get youth on board with financial literacy when adults are struggling to stay out of debt and find their own footing?

It’s time for a new generation of financial companies to enter the market, and offer alternative ways of managing money — from investing to spending, borrowing to donating. Companies that truly care, and that partner with customers, while protecting their sensitive data rather than reselling it to 3rd parties. The decentralized, cryptocurrency space has opened these doors. As the first blockchain company in the family finances arena, Kidcoin will hopefully be joined by others — brands, sponsors, politicians, traditional banks, crypto companies and service providers — in building new financially savvy villages all over the world.

Financial Literacy…It Takes a Village was originally published in Kidcoin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.