Dr. Violet Howard covers the week's crypto news: the Pineapple Fund gave $55 million in Bitcoin to nonprofits, Warren Buffett called Bitcoin "probably rat poison squared," and Facebook, which made $40 billion in ads in 2017, is exploring blockchain.
$55 million
"Probably rat poison squared."
$40 billion
May 13, 2018
Quick question. What attracted you to crypto in the first place?
What attracted me was cryptocurrency's fundamental anonymity that shields private transactions from the peering green eyes of the all knowing governmental overlords. Does that answer your question?
Yes, Guilfoyle, it certainly does. The Pineapple Fund guy has accomplished his ultimate mission and donated $55 million in Bitcoin and to various non profit organizations. He said farewell on Reddit, then presumably disappeared into the digital sunset. Here is your overview of the week. A self professed disciple of investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, Chamath Palahapitiya fired back at the legendary investors after they piled on Bitcoin in a joint interview with Bill Gates. At one point, Buffett called Bitcoin rat poison squared.
Bitcoin? Today it's 9,000. Is it still rat poison?
Well, it's probably rat poison squared.
Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital, said they were completely wrong about crypto, even using Buffett's own advice against him. You define a circle of competence and you stay within it. Palapitiya pointed out that technology is not in his circle of competence. In regards to Munger, Palihapitiya said that I think it's really unfair to not understand something and then to disparage it. Although he does have a lot of respect for the billionaire investors, I think they're all exceptional at what they do. Facebook is one of the world's largest advertising companies, making 40 billion in ad revenue in 2017. But wait, an advertising company? It's a place to meet friends, build communities, man.
Fine.
Afraid not brother. They harvest data for money. Your data. You are the product. Anyway, having previously banned ads for ICOs, Facebook are now exploring blockchain. The team will be led by former head of Facebook messenger and ex Paypal president David Marcus, who also sits on a board of Coinbase. Marcus bid farewell to messenger in a Facebook post. After nearly four unbelievably rewarding years leading Messenger, I've decided it was time for me to take on a new challenge. I'm setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage blockchain across Facebook. Starting from scratch. Facebook, however, haven't given specifics on their blockchain plans. Mark Zuckerberg said in January he wanted to explore crypto for its potential to empower individuals. Wow Mark, that sounds positively utopian. Imagine a system where some Harvard educated overlord can't sell personal information to third parties. A system where users could even monetize their own data. Zuckerberg has said he's studying crypto to understand how to best use it in Facebook. Mark wants on the blockchain, but the question is, who do we want him there? Fun fact 10 billion worth of Bitcoin, or 7% of the world's bitcoin, is held in bunkers around the world. The vaults belong to Xappo, possibly the coolest wallet in the world. More big fish in the crypto pond. We are going to need a bigger boat. The owner of the New York Stock Exchange is thinking about allowing customers to buy and HODL bitcoin. Days after Goldman Sachs pretty much confirmed they would debut bitcoin futures, the New York Stock Exchange's owner, Intercontinental Exchange, or ice, is planning to offer traders swap contracts that eventually result in customers owning the cryptocurrency. NASDAQ also announced that it would be open to setting up a cryptocurrency trading platform in the future. This rat poison is proving to be quite the investment, is it not Mr. Buffett? Home improvements at the Buterin household There is now an improvement Code Casper for the Ethereum Network A new version of Casper, a code upgrade for the Ethereum network that aims to improve the economic consensus protocol, was released this week on GitHub. The Casper code combines proof of work with proof of stake, with the eventual goal for Ethereum to switch entirely to positive. Proof of stake is being hailed as a more environmentally friendly alternative to proof of work because it demands less computational power. On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions. Anticipating the collapse of the deal, Iran began looking into crypto to get around sanctions and avoid economic devastation. Following steps taken by North Korea and Venezuela will are also under sanctions from the US after the Iranian rial crashed and the currency exchanges were closed, bitcoin became pretty much the only way to send money out of Iran, prompting ordinary Iranians to send about $2.5 billion in bitcoin out of the country. Earlier this year, Iran announced development of a local cryptocurrency despite a nationwide crypto ban. The project is apparently ready and awaiting approval. Trump banned the trade of Venezuela's petro within the US with such powerful forces working against these sanctioned coins, is there any realistic hope of success? Thanks for watching. Share this Video if you're the Pineapple fun guy if you're just a fun guy with pineapple like subscribe and Hodl.
