Merge branch 'main' of github.com:life-itself/web3

claims/is-bitcoin-currency.md

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# Bitcoin cannot function as a currency
+# Is bitcoin a currency?
+**Bitcoin cannot function as a currency.** 
+
 Unlike the namesake of "cryptocurrency" might imply, [bitcoin](../concepts/bitcoin.md) is not a [currency](../concepts/currency.md). It does not fulfil the economic definition of [money](../concepts/money.md).  Instead bitcoin is best understood as a  [speculative](../concepts/speculation.md) [cryptoasset](../concepts/cryptoasset.md) or [gambling](../concepts/gambling.md) product.
 
 Since bitcoin is not issued by a sovereign state or [central-banks](../concepts/central-banks.md) there is no central party to manage the [deflationary](../concepts/deflationary.md) spirals that occur in the [price-formation](../concepts/price-formation.md) of the asset. Therefore it is subject to wild and uncontrollable volatility that makes it unsuitable as a *means of exchange*. No amount of technology can fix the volatility problem as it is a function of the economic design of the asset and its fixed supply. This arises out of the political imaginaries of the [neo-metallism](../notes/neo-metallism.md) school and [Austrian economics](../concepts/austrian-economics.md) that informed the design of the bitcoin to resemble the historical [gold-standard](../concepts/gold-standard.md) and the conception of heterodox ideas of [sound money](../concepts/sound-money.md). 

claims/is-bubble.md

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# Crypto assets are a bubble
+# Are crypto assets a bubble?
+**Crypto assets are a bubble.**
+
 Crypto assets have the characterstic price behaviour that resembles many other [bubbles](../concepts/bubble.md) and [market manias](../concepts/madness-crowds.md) throughout history.  Bitcoin has been characterised as a [speculative](../concepts/speculation.md) bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Prize in economics.
 
 * Paul Krugman

claims/is-digital-gold.md

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# Bitcoin is not the basis for a new gold standard
+# Is bitcoin the basis for a new gold standard?
+Bitcoin is not the basis for a new gold standard
+
 The neo-metallist claim is that bitcoin can operate as a new asset class which exhibits similar financial properties to [gold](../concepts/gold.md).  The strong version of this claim asserts that a new [gold standard](../concepts/gold-standard.md) can be built on top of bitcoin and that this can form the basis for a market economy.
 
 These claims do not stand up to scrutiny as bitcoin has no consistent track record of being a reliable store of value, it's price movements are extremely volatile and thus is not a reliable place to store value on long time scales. Bitcoin's price behavior is uncorrelated with gold and is largely correlated with the broader stock market making it an unreliable safe haven in times of market volatility since it is directly exposed to the price action of the Nasdaq.

claims/is-gambling.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-# Crypto assets are a form of gambling
+# Are crypto assets a form of gambling?
-Purchasing crypto assets is a form of gambling. Crypto assets have no [income](../concepts/income-cashflows.md) and [use value](../concepts/use-value.md) and are [zero-sum games](../concepts/zero-sum-game.md) and thus have no [fundamental value](../concepts/fundamental-value.md). Trying to time the market of crypto assets is equivalent to games of chance and [gambling](../concepts/gambling.md) with a negative [expected return](../concepts/expected-return.md). This is strictly worse behaviour than participating in [price-formation](../concepts/price-formation.md) in the [stock](../concepts/stock.md) and [commodity](../concepts/commodity.md) markets.
+**Crypto assets are a form of gambling**
+
+Crypto assets have no [income](../concepts/income-cashflows.md) and [use value](../concepts/use-value.md) and are [zero-sum games](../concepts/zero-sum-game.md) and thus have no [fundamental value](../concepts/fundamental-value.md). Trying to time the market of crypto assets is equivalent to games of chance and [gambling](../concepts/gambling.md) with a negative [expected return](../concepts/expected-return.md). 
 
 Crypto assets are not gambling if one participates in a [cartel](../concepts/cartel.md) which does [pump and dump schemes](../concepts/pump-and-dump.md)  or other forms of [market manipulation](../concepts/market-manipulation.md) which uses [asymmetric information](../concepts/asymmetric-information.md) to defraud other market participants. Pump and dump schemes result in a net wealth transfer from the larger [market](../concepts/market.md) to a small set of insiders.
 

claims/is-predatory.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-# Crypto assets are predatory investments
+# Are crypto assets predatory investments?
-Crypto assets are a form of predatory financial product. Crypto asset [market making](../concepts/market-maker.md) is subject to extreme forms of [market manipulation](../concepts/market-manipulation.md) not found in other regulated markets. The [price formation](../concepts/price-formation.md) of crypto assets is untethered to any [fundamental value](../concepts/fundamental-value.md) and instead depends purely on the [greater fool theory](../concepts/greater-fool-theory.md). 
+Crypto assets are a form of predatory financial product. 
+
+Crypto asset [market making](../concepts/market-maker.md) is subject to extreme forms of [market manipulation](../concepts/market-manipulation.md) not found in other regulated markets. The [price formation](../concepts/price-formation.md) of crypto assets is untethered to any [fundamental value](../concepts/fundamental-value.md) and instead depends purely on the [greater fool theory](../concepts/greater-fool-theory.md). 
 
 The price setting by crypto exchanges and [order book](../concepts/order-book.md) design admits extreme forms of [asymmetric information](../concepts/asymmetric-information.md) which privileges an [economic cartel](../concepts/cartel.md) who can manipulate crypto assets to extract wealth from public from unfair market making.
 

claims/is-private-money.md

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-# Private money is not desirable
+# Is private money desirable?
+**Private money is not desirable**
 
 The aspirations of some [cryptoasset](../concepts/cryptoasset.md) is to reinvent historical ideas of private money issuance, effectively shifting the control of an alleged currency from the democratically elected officials to the unaccountable individuals in the private sector. Unless one subscribes to extreme forms of [libertarianism](../concepts/libertarianism.md) or [anarchocapitalism](../concepts/anarchocapitalism.md) this is not a desirable state and the historical precedence on private money is one of repeated disasters compared to the normal issuance of money.
 

claims/is-systemic-risk.md

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-# Crypto assets may pose systemic risk to the larger economy
+# Do crypto assets pose systemic risk to the larger economy?
+**Crypto assets may pose systemic risk to the larger economy.**
 
 Crypto assets do not currently pose a [systemic risk](../concepts/systemic-risk.md) to the United States economy, but may in the future if their growth is left unchecked. Allegedly the [paper wealth](paper-wealth.md) locked up into crypto tokens is allegedly only on the order of the $1 trillion which is inconsequential next to the amount of capital allocated in both the US equities and bond markets. Crypto is still a relatively tiny asset class and a sudden crash in the market, while devastating to individual retail investors, would likely not bring amount much damage to financial institutions or markets as a whole. 
 

claims/is-threat-dollar.md

@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
-# Bitcoin does not threaten the US dollar as reserve currency
+# Does bitcoin threaten the US dollar as reserve currency?
+
+**Bitcoin does not threaten the US dollar as reserve currency**
 
 Crypto assets, such as bitcoin, do not threaten the US dollar as an international [reserve currency](../concepts/reserve-currency.md) currency because they [cannot function as a currency](is-bitcoin-currency.md). To quote financial historian Adam Tooze:
 
 > [The dollar] is backed by "nothing" other than the trifling matter of tens of trillions of dollars in private credit, the rule of law and the power of the state, itself inserted into a state system. In other words, the entire structure of global macrofinance.
 
-Since bitcoin cannot be used to issue debt products, denominate contracts or scale to act as a medium of exchange for commerce it lacks *any* of the properties of [money](../concepts/money.md) that a reserve currency would have to fulfil. Bitcoin cannot upend the entire structure of global macrofinance any more than beanie babies or tulip bulbs could.
+Since bitcoin cannot be used to issue debt products, denominate contracts or scale to act as a medium of exchange for commerce it lacks *any* of the properties of [money](../concepts/money.md) that a reserve currency would have to fulfil. Bitcoin cannot upend the entire structure of global macrofinance any more than tulip bulbs could.
 
 ## References
 1. Varoufakis, Yanis. 2021. ‘What Is Money, Really? And Why Bitcoin Is Not the Answer (Even If Blockchain Is Brilliant & Potentially Helpful in Democratising Money)’. Yanis Varoufakis (blog). 2 August 2021. https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2021/08/02/what-is-money/.

claims/is-type-of-asset.md

@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ While crypto assets are securities contracts, they are a pathological form of a
 
 ## References
 1. Krugman, Paul. 2018. ‘Bitcoin Is Basically a Ponzi Scheme’. The Seattle Times 30.
-1. ———. 2013. ‘Bitcoin Is Evil’. Paul Krugman Blog (blog). 28 December 2013. https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/bitcoin-is-evil/.
 1. ———. 2021a. ‘Technobabble, Libertarian Derp and Bitcoin’. The New York Times 21.
 1. ———. 2021b. ‘The Brutal Truth About Bitcoin’. The New York Times 21.
 1. Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. 2021. ‘Bitcoin, Currencies, and Fragility’. ArXiv:2106.14204 [Physics, q-Fin], July. http://arxiv.org/abs/2106.14204.

claims/is-valuation-model.md

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# Crypto assets do not have a verifiable valuation model
+# Do crypto assets have a verifiable valuation model?
+**Crypto assets do not have a verifiable valuation model**
+
 Crypto tokens have no reliable [valuation method](../concepts/valuation-model.md). It is not possible to develop a theoretical [value](../concepts/value.md) for a crypto token because there is no demand curve generated by a [use case](../concepts/use-value.md) or any [income or cashflows](../concepts/income-cashflows.md) associated with the [security](../concepts/security.md). Crypto tokens have a strictly zero [fundamental value](../concepts/fundamental-value.md) and a [present value](../concepts/present-value.md) of zero because they have zero income.
 
 Instead the price of a crypto asset swings about wildly depending on the whims of fluctuating demand, random sentiment and market mania of the larger crypto [bubble](../concepts/bubble.md). Crypto assets are a manifestation of the [greater fool theory](../concepts/greater-fool-theory.md) and the price of a crypto asset is defined simply by what people believe the next "fool" will pay for it.

notes/samer-hassan.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+title: Samer Hassan & Rufus Pollock on Decentralization, Platform Monopolies and Web3
+date: 2022-07-18
+created: 2022-07-18
+description: "In this episode of our Making Sense of Crypto and Web3 series, we talk with blockchain researcher and expert Samer Hassan. Samer is an academic at Harvard and Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain focused on decentralized collaboration. In this episode we talk about decentralization both pre and post blockchain, why platform monopolies like Facebook and Google are so ubiquitous and whether Web3 could help replace them with something fairer, freer and more participatory."
+image: /img/decentralization-monopolies-thumbnail.jpg
+youtube: https://youtu.be/aYrzK3_vEvU
+podcast: https://anchor.fm/life-itself/episodes/Samer-Hassan--Rufus-Pollock-on-Decentralization--Platform-Monopolies-and-Web3-e1lcl38
+featured: true
+aliases: notes/samer-hassan.md
+---
+
+***
+
+# About
+
+Samer Hassan is an activist, researcher and teacher, Faculty Associate at Harvard University‘s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and Associate Professor (“Profesor Titular“) at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain. 
+
+His focus is on decentralized collaboration and how to build free/open source privacy-aware decentralized systems (e.g. blockchain) that facilitate the sustainability of collaborative communities and social movements (from the Commons paradigm).
+
+He was awarded EU’s largest individual research grant, an ERC Grant of 1.5M€, to work on Blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) for bootstrapping a new type of Collaborative Economy. You can find out more at http://p2pmodels.eu 

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