Hi Jim and Chris. Your conversations about bitcoin and cypto currency are interesting. You always qualify it by saying that you don't see the investment value of them. It seems to be something that everyone has heard about but probably cannot definitively explain what they are or mean. If you have a spare couple of hours then this is a video that is well worth a watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=6s - by Dan Olsen.
Just a point on Universalism. It can be bad and good like anything. €100 euro for electricity is very bad. However, look what free education, free(ish) healthcare, does for a society. It can lift people out of poor opportunities. Targeted benefits can and do force people into lower standards of living and opportunities because they can't afford to lose their targeted benefits. Therefore they stay in the system. If those benefits were universal, they wouldn't lose out by going back to education, taking employment etc. because they have the cushion of the universal benefits. It is counter-intuitive but universalism imo is a better policy to reduce poverty and bring more people into the working/contributing society.
Interesting Brendan. I feel a much more nuanced approach is required than we currently have. I look at the future fiscal challenges from demographics, corporate tax pressures and the high level of debt and become more convinced we need a greater focus on getting better value from scarce fiscal resources. I think child benefit for example should become part of one's taxable income as it appears impossible to means test it. I think reform of the tax system is essential. A significant lifting (€10k) of the threshold at which one enters the top rate of tax or the introduction of a third rate could address some of the negative incentive effects in the the system. Thanks for comments. Much appreciated feedback.
I listen to your podcast and follow your discussions on crypto.
I've had an interest in Blockchain for quite a few years, at least 8 or 9. I've always found the un-corruptible public ledger of the Blockchain interesting and potentially quite useful. That is especially of interest when it comes to Ethereum and it's ability have programmable smart contracts.
Enough about it's benefits. Because that's about it. I totally agree with you on the crypto inherent value issue. If I can't buy a coffee with it, then how can it be worth anything?
There are two other areas that you haven't focused on. Well, I can remember you talking about it.
First is the amount of power used while performing transactions, slow transactions by the way.
Below I've listed a site that studied this issue.
Essentially each transaction uses around 1200kwh of electricity, and that's just Bitcoin, although it is far greater than the others.
In today's current global warming situation, this is far from ideal.
The second issue is the decentralisation myth. The whole idea of web 3.0, that decentralised web services utilising Blockchain will return control of the internet back over to "the people".
The two links I provide get a bit technical but they explain it better then I could in a few sentences.
In short, big central locations that act as brokers for Blockchain are doing exactly the opposite of what the "crypto heads" claim is going to save us from the likes of Facebook and Google.
Two service, Infura and Alchemy, are pretty much the only NFT brokers, in a similar way, Coinbase is massive broker for crypto currency. Most people never directly interact with any Blockchain. If that's not centralised monopoly, I don't know what is.
And when you look at actual crypto ownership, it looks more like a scene from Davos than Burning Man.
So, using crypto from an environmental perspective is essentially immoral and is massively adding to carbon output. Using it because you believe it's somehow going to re-democratise the internet is just false. Finally, using to buy things with, well, that just doesn't happen.
Hi Jim and Chris. Your conversations about bitcoin and cypto currency are interesting. You always qualify it by saying that you don't see the investment value of them. It seems to be something that everyone has heard about but probably cannot definitively explain what they are or mean. If you have a spare couple of hours then this is a video that is well worth a watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=6s - by Dan Olsen.
Just a point on Universalism. It can be bad and good like anything. €100 euro for electricity is very bad. However, look what free education, free(ish) healthcare, does for a society. It can lift people out of poor opportunities. Targeted benefits can and do force people into lower standards of living and opportunities because they can't afford to lose their targeted benefits. Therefore they stay in the system. If those benefits were universal, they wouldn't lose out by going back to education, taking employment etc. because they have the cushion of the universal benefits. It is counter-intuitive but universalism imo is a better policy to reduce poverty and bring more people into the working/contributing society.
Interesting Brendan. I feel a much more nuanced approach is required than we currently have. I look at the future fiscal challenges from demographics, corporate tax pressures and the high level of debt and become more convinced we need a greater focus on getting better value from scarce fiscal resources. I think child benefit for example should become part of one's taxable income as it appears impossible to means test it. I think reform of the tax system is essential. A significant lifting (€10k) of the threshold at which one enters the top rate of tax or the introduction of a third rate could address some of the negative incentive effects in the the system. Thanks for comments. Much appreciated feedback.
Crypto Myths
I listen to your podcast and follow your discussions on crypto.
I've had an interest in Blockchain for quite a few years, at least 8 or 9. I've always found the un-corruptible public ledger of the Blockchain interesting and potentially quite useful. That is especially of interest when it comes to Ethereum and it's ability have programmable smart contracts.
Enough about it's benefits. Because that's about it. I totally agree with you on the crypto inherent value issue. If I can't buy a coffee with it, then how can it be worth anything?
There are two other areas that you haven't focused on. Well, I can remember you talking about it.
First is the amount of power used while performing transactions, slow transactions by the way.
Below I've listed a site that studied this issue.
Essentially each transaction uses around 1200kwh of electricity, and that's just Bitcoin, although it is far greater than the others.
In today's current global warming situation, this is far from ideal.
https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/features/crypto-energy-consumption/
The second issue is the decentralisation myth. The whole idea of web 3.0, that decentralised web services utilising Blockchain will return control of the internet back over to "the people".
The two links I provide get a bit technical but they explain it better then I could in a few sentences.
In short, big central locations that act as brokers for Blockchain are doing exactly the opposite of what the "crypto heads" claim is going to save us from the likes of Facebook and Google.
Two service, Infura and Alchemy, are pretty much the only NFT brokers, in a similar way, Coinbase is massive broker for crypto currency. Most people never directly interact with any Blockchain. If that's not centralised monopoly, I don't know what is.
And when you look at actual crypto ownership, it looks more like a scene from Davos than Burning Man.
https://www.profgalloway.com/web3/
https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
So, using crypto from an environmental perspective is essentially immoral and is massively adding to carbon output. Using it because you believe it's somehow going to re-democratise the internet is just false. Finally, using to buy things with, well, that just doesn't happen.
Thanks for that Michael. Very interesting and pretty compelling.