Metacoin

Covering Bitcoin, the Blockchain, Altcoins, and Fintech

David Van de Walle

Theatre of the Absurd: Crypto Edition

We seem to be on the precipice of something. Whether it’s a Chaka Khan (featuring Rufus) “Tell Me Something Good” moment — I’m more of a “Feel for You” guy, but you do you — or the complete collapse of the economy as we know it remains to be seen. But it is rather absurd. Everywhere. How absurd? Let us count the ways.

‘Bitcoin Fixes This’ Unless Your Poster Child Goes to the Big House for Fraud

Any time there’s something…anything…remotely goofy happening out there in financial circles, there’s always that rallying cry: “Bitcoin Fixes This.”

Which is all well and good except when you create a poster child/Muppet character who creates $26 Billion of personal wealth through a combination of fraud, abuse, malfeasance, and puppetry. Note that the Sam Bankman-Fried fraud, abuse, malfeasance, and puppetry case took about 3 hours for the jury to reach a unanimous guilty verdict. Which likely means he did a lot wrong while taking FTX to stratospheric heights and then watching it almost as quickly go down in a ball of flames due, again, to his fraud, abuse, malfeasance, and puppetry.

We feel for you, Sam. But we do not think we love you.

The most absurd thing about L’Affaire FTX is how much of an open book everything was. The founder wanted to change the world — as only he or that Drop of Blood Lady could do — and could not keep his big mouth shut about each and every violation of law (and cultural norms) he made.

Responding to Twitter DMs about what he was doing? Check. Donating to every Liberal political campaign under the sun with the hopes of influencing policy? Check. And so on, and so forth.

‘AI Fixes This,’ But The Words and Images Are Kinda Off

The above images are part of my own Bing AI Image Generator experiment. They’re semi-amusing at best — it has been said that your AI content is only as good as the prompt you type — and a little scary at worst.

For instance, the prompt for this group of images was:

“Panhandler on the streets of a large South American city with a sign that reads ‘Bitcoin Accepted Here.'”

Okay, it’s sorta niche content.

But the absurd imagery gets eclipsed by the even more absurd article I created on Bard, Google’s AI tool.

The prompt was glorious, IMHO, as it really amounted to one of those Mad Libs-style inspiration blog posts that are way too popular. “What [INSERT CURRENT EVENT] can teach you about [MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA, PUBLIC RELATIONS, LIFE].” Or, in this case:

“Create a 1000-word article that discusses why permanent Daylight Saving Time in the USA would be good for alternative investments like Bitcoin, Gold and Silver, and Land.“

The bulk of the article was gag-worthy, so we’ll spare you the entire thing. But here’s a snippet that should lead most people to throw up a little in their mouths:

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that is not subject to government or financial institution control. It is often seen as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty.

Permanent DST could lead to increased demand for Bitcoin, as more people would have more daylight hours to spend on recreational activities and online shopping. Additionally, the longer days could make it more convenient for people to mine Bitcoin, as they would have more sunlight to power their solar panels.

The Lesson? Embrace The Absurdity

How are we possibly weaving together Bitcoin Panhandlers, SBF, Artificial Intelligence, and Daylight Saving Time? Well, we’re not, except to say we’re living in the most absurd times ever.

Embrace it.

Crypto Isn’t Dead; It Isn’t Even on Life Support

We originally wanted to call this post “Night of the Living Crypto.” And that may have made sense given the fact that this is October 1 and we are entering Halloween season and the industry is a little sorta kinda zombie-esque.

To wit, here’s the YTD 2023 performance of the assets in our hypothetical “Growth Portfolio,” which took $10,000 and put it equally on 1/1/23 into 10 different crypto assets:

To paraphrase a former colleague, “That’s not too freaking bad.” (Of course — and I’m paraphrasing another former colleague — “It’s not bad, but it’s not good.”)

BUT…it’s not…DEAD.

We wrote about the Growth Portfolio here earlier this year; who would have thought that, in these modern times, somehow you’d be only down a little more than one percent entering the 4th quarter of the year?

And, also, without the dead weight at the bottom of that list, you would have — theoretically, since you would have had to time the market exactly on 1/1/23 — done really well.

The Big…Three? Two? Five?

We’re gonna go with the Big Two. Tether is an asset that is supposed to mirror the US Dollar in that it trades 99% of the time at $1.00. Binance has had its issues (read more about those here: The Street Binance Story) and XRP has just re-emerged as something you can trade in the US (Learn more about that here: Investopedia XRP).

First up, Bitcoin. BTC is…A-OK.

It does help that 1/1/23 was the bottom. Note to self: always buy at the bottom.

But what about Ethereum? ETH is, also, A-OK.

So it’s the Big Two. Had you invested your $10,000 stack into just those two coins, BTC and ETH, you’d have a tidy $15,313.50.

What Next? Who Knows, But…

First of all, that bottom three? Yikes.

That’s not incredibly bad — not down 99% like some defunct coins — but it’s not great.

Maybe the names are the ones that are gonna survive long-term? Or maybe having access to some of these $JEWEL or $SUSHI coins will give you access to potential 10-baggers?

However, what we *are* seeing here is that it’s really really REALLY tough to call the bottom; you would have been right predicting that 1/1 was the bottom for $BTC and $ETH and dead wrong for the bottom three.

In any event, the Big Two are doing just fine this year.

And Crypto Isn’t Dead.

The Return of the Meme Coin

Time to have a little fun with a combination of finance, gambling, AI, the Oxford comma, and meme coins.

If I had a dollar for every meme coin I’ve seen, heard about, been pitched, been presented a scammy airdrop tweet for, or lost my shirt on, I’d have probably one trillion meme coins.

(And if you count up all the meme coins stuck in my MetaMask account and maybe sitting on my phone, you’re well on your way to the first trillion.)

So we thought we’d start with Bard, the AI tool from Google, and see what it/he/they think(s) about the current state of Meme Coins.

The prompt:

Suggest five crypto meme coins that could be potential ten-baggers — that is, could go up in price 10x — based on current conditions and past results.

Bard’s Response

Here are five crypto meme coins that could be potential ten-baggers:

  • Dogecoin (DOGE): Dogecoin is the original meme coin, and it has a large and passionate community of supporters. It is also one of the most well-known cryptocurrencies, which gives it a lot of potential for growth.
  • Shiba Inu (SHIB): Shiba Inu is another popular meme coin that has seen a lot of growth in recent months. It is similar to Dogecoin in that it is based on the Shiba Inu dog breed, but it has its own unique features and community.
  • Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE): Baby Doge Coin is a newer meme coin that is based on Dogecoin. It has quickly gained popularity, and it has the potential to reach even greater heights than its predecessor.
  • Floki Inu (FLOKI): Floki Inu is another newer meme coin that is based on the Shiba Inu dog breed. It has a strong community of supporters, and it is quickly gaining momentum.
  • SafeMoon (SAFEMOON): SafeMoon is a meme coin that has a unique tokenomics system that rewards holders for holding their tokens. This has helped to create a strong community of supporters, and it has the potential to reach even greater heights.

It is important to note that these are just a few of the many potential ten-baggers in the crypto meme space. There are many other promising projects out there, and it is important to do your own research before investing in any cryptocurrency.

It is also important to remember that meme coins are a high-risk investment. The prices of these coins can be very volatile, and they can lose value quickly. If you are considering investing in a meme coin, be sure to only invest what you can afford to lose.

Let’s Go to the Videotape…

Dave here again. And we’re not exactly going to the videotape, but we are going to compare and contrast the thoughts from the Bard machine with some thoughts of our own. (Folks, THIS is how AI and ChatGPT and Bard and all are supposed to work. Want more thoughts on how your life might change? Check out this post, complete with a Jordan Peterson Meme.) Let’s start with DOGE.

BEFORE WE DO THAT…First of all, this is not investment advice. Note above that Bard told you as much, and said you should “be sure to only invest what you can afford to lose.” Wise old Bard.

AND…why not make this a CLEARLY MARKED SPONSORED POST? Sure. Here’s an AFFILIATE LINK from BINANCE. We can both benefit if you use that link to sign up. Now, let’s get to DOGE…

Elon Musk Was Right

(Thanks to CoinGecko for the stats)

Elon said something once about “to the Moon” and I think he was talking about DOGE because if he had said “to Mars” he’d be talking about SpaceX. Alas, he was right…if you look at the growth of the coin from its all time low 8 years ago. But who HODLed DOGE? Nobody, that’s who.

Is it a safe bet? Eh…

Here’s one way of looking at it: Market Cap. If DOGE is an $11B coin (well, just short, but let’s round up), could it become…a $20B coin? $100B? OR $1B?

From the “Up Only” perspective, yeah, it might be at its peak.

On a 1-10 scale with 10 being the likelihood of a “ten-bagger,” and 1 being “you might be better off rolling your window down while driving on the highway and throwing a bunch of twenties out of your car,” we give this a 3.

SHIB. Or…SHIV.

Here’s the thing about SHIB. You had to get in super early or else…you are probably better off trying other options.

This SHIB thing is the 15th-largest crypto by market cap. And it — like the other meme coins — serves no utility. Market cap of $6B. Nah, it gets a score of 2 on the 10-point scale.

We’ll go with SHIV, who gets a 10.

There’s a Baby Doge?

Okay. But, this one is confusing because there are multiple Baby Doges AND this coin is also on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) but has expanded to Ethereum, too. It’s the ultimate in DYOR BUT, with a market cap of $333M, yeah, it has room to grow. Plus the confusion and the desire to get in on something that *could be* the next DOGE means…We give it a score of 6.

FLOKI Is Pretty Much the Same, Right?

A cursory glance at the numbers tells us that FLOKI and BABY DOGE are pretty much the same coin. Both come in at roughly the same market cap, so it might come down to gut feel.

We’re going to give a slightly higher score to FLOKI thanks to its not having “DOGE” in its name. We give it a 7.

What Is SAFEMOON and Why No Dog?

SAFEMOON does not appear to be affiliated with a dog meme. This is a plus.

It’s over on the BSC chain, so there needs to be some BNB to take advantage of it. (How do you get BNB? You use the CLEARLY MARKED BINANCE AFFILIATE LINK.)

Market cap is lowest among the five coins on our list, so it probably gets the highest score. Nice stats here:

We give it an 8.

Final Thoughts on AL, or AI

We have a couple final thoughts here.

First of all, as evidenced by the image at the top of this post, the move to sans-serif fonts has meant that you’re not totally sure if people are talking about Artificial Intelligence or guys named Al.

That being said, the list created by Bard was fine. It served its purpose: quite a bit more than a Google search, but not quite enough to give you the full feel for what’s going on.

Finally, you’re best off — AND THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE — ensuring that you have the basics taken care of and are ready for (surprise) the SHTF stuff we’ve talked about before venturing into the meme coin game.

The 2023 SHTF Financial Survivalist Megapost

UPDATED: April 1, 2023. Because why not share doom and gloom on April Fool’s Day?

Hello, fellow insomniacs, doomsayers, crazy people, and other ne’er-do-wells! It’s that time…again…where we look around at EVERYTHING and we wonder what in the name of Sam Hill is going on. In other words…

We thought we’d pull together a few links and posts and whatnot to help you plan.

If you’re seeing a bit of a shift on this page from general crypto stuff to how/when/where/if crypto fits into the grand scheme, that is by design. It’s that goofy out there.

Here goes.

First Up: Our SHTF Posts From Back in the Day*

The answer to the asterisk is that these two posts — SHTF Vol 1 and SHTF Vol 2 — are from… OCTOBER of 2020. Oh how we’ve grown.

What Would Glenn Beck Do?

It’s actually a really good question, since Glenn is known to plan and think through things like the current economic whatnot.

Here’s a YouTube link from the week of March 13, 2023.

Who Is This Mario Guy?

We’ve loved following Maneco64 on YouTube. He’s been at it for a few years and he’s consistent as heck: “Your home for alternative economics and contrarian views.”

On March 20, he’s chatting here about the whole Swiss/Credit Suisse info, and what the Fed is doing.

How ‘Bout A Clearly Marked Affiliate Link

Binance.Us has one for ya here: Binance Affiliate Link. As with all these, you can potentially get some crypto, and so can we, with a qualifying purchase. Now back to the post.

But…How Much Crypto SHOULD I Have?

This is the question. We don’t have the answer. In fact, our answer in the above seminal SHTF posts kinda sorta thinks that maybe you should have some, but shouldn’t put all your eggs in the crypto basket.

An approach we’ve discussed earlier this year is a “Growth Portfolio,” and the 2023 edition is doing quite well. In fact, here are two straight photos of just how well it’s doing. The first from March 5, the second from this morning, March 20. (Ignore all the sixes, it’s not an omen.)

What About the Pundits?

Two years ago (!), yours truly sat down with the legendary Jim Rogers and I asked him about Bitcoin. Of course, this is before all the topsy-turvy Bitcoin craziness of the past couple years.

Funny enough, at the time of that interview, February 18 of 2021, BTC was $46,000. It’s now just over $28,000.

(Note to self: check in on Jim. See how he’s doing. See if he wants to sit down again.)

ChatGPT Isn’t Very Good at This…Yet

We talked in past posts about the limitations of ChatGPT. How it won’t take your job. How you still have creativity and editorial judgement and the ability to think and write and create and add the human touch.

We asked it to write a piece — which we posted here yesterday — and, it’s…fine. We still believe what we said in the above post about your job being safe…for now. But look around. Pay attention. This stuff moves fast.

Another Clearly Marked Affiliate Link

This Affiliate Link is for Crypto.com and they still have their name on the top of an arena. You can get some free crypto with a qualifying purchase and we’d get some, too.

April Update Piece #1

Here’s a link to our “Too Big To Fail?” post from earlier this week.

ChatGPT Tackles the World of NFTs and We Rate Their Writing

After the success of our blog post from three weeks ago — here’s a link: ChatGPT Isn’t Taking Your Job — we thought we’d experiment with the tool once again, but this time with the goal of kickstarting our own NFT collection.

So yeah, it’s self-serving as heck. (AND we’ll give you a couple disclaimers: do your own research. Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose. Also, since we created the art here at Metacoin HQ, of course we profit from any sales of the art. That’s capitalism for ya.)

But, as with everything these days, these NFTs are an experiment. Crypto is an experiment. ChatGPT is an experiment. And we put all these experiments together, and watch as it tackles the world of NFTs. How do we rate their writing? Read on…

First, the Background

The collection we asked about was the third we launched on OpenSea, which, to date, has been the leader in the NFT universe. While there have been a few competitors, OpenSea seems to be the leade rin the clubhouse.

Our collection is called “Collezione22” and the 176 pieces were created by us. (More accurately, me. At my computer.) Launched (of course) in 2022, only a few have sold — reminding me of a really off-color and rather sacrilegious Bible-related article from The Onion that I refuse to link to because reasons — so I thought “why not ask ChatGPT to create a post so I can sell more of these [expletive] NFTs?”

So I Went to ChatGPT and Asked…

“Write a 1000 word blog post as a potential investor in NFT art pieces, such as the ones at https://opensea.io/collection/collezione22 and compare their value to those that are focused on pfp or profile photos like cryptopunks and bored apes.”

Before I share the post in its entirety, a caveat: I went in and added links on any of the text where a link is appropriate. ChatGPT isn’t really great at that these days. It will get better and SEO professionals will need to ask what to do next.

Here, then, is the post:

As the world continues to embrace digitalization, the art industry is not left behind. The advent of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has revolutionized the way art is created, sold, and collected. NFTs provide a unique opportunity for artists to create digital art that is unique and exclusive to the buyer. As an investor, NFTs have caught my attention, and I am particularly interested in art pieces such as the ones found in the collezione22 collection on OpenSea. In this blog post, I will explain why I think investing in NFT art pieces is a wise decision and compare their value to those focused on PFP or profile photos like Cryptopunks and Bored Apes.

Firstly, NFTs provide a unique way to invest in art. Unlike traditional art pieces, NFTs are digital assets that exist on a blockchain. This means that they are unique and cannot be replicated or duplicated. When you buy an NFT, you own the original piece, and you can prove ownership using the blockchain. This is a significant advantage compared to traditional art pieces, which can be easily replicated, and it can be challenging to prove ownership.

NFTs also have a significant advantage in terms of liquidity. Unlike traditional art pieces, which may take time to sell, NFTs can be sold instantly on various online platforms such as OpenSea, Rarible, and Nifty Gateway. This means that if you need to cash out your investment quickly, you can do so easily without having to wait for a buyer.

Another advantage of investing in NFTs is the potential for high returns on investment. In recent months, we have seen some NFTs sell for millions of dollars. For example, the Beeple NFT sold for a record-breaking $69 million at Christie’s auction house. Although not all NFTs sell for millions, some can still provide significant returns on investment. The value of NFTs is driven by various factors, such as the rarity, the artist behind it, and the demand for the piece.

When it comes to NFT art pieces, the collezione22 collection on OpenSea is an excellent place to start. This collection features various digital art pieces from different artists, each with a unique style and theme. The art pieces in this collection range from abstract to realistic, and they are all visually appealing. This collection also provides an opportunity to invest in emerging artists who may become well-known in the future.

While NFT art pieces are an excellent investment opportunity, they are not the only type of NFTs available. Profile photos or PFPs have also become popular in the NFT world. PFPs are digital images that serve as a user’s profile picture on social media platforms. Some examples of PFPs that have gained significant popularity include Cryptopunks and Bored Apes.

Cryptopunks were one of the first NFT projects to gain significant attention. They feature 10,000 unique 8-bit characters that were randomly generated and sold for a fraction of an ether in 2017. Since then, their value has skyrocketed, with some selling for millions of dollars. Bored Apes, on the other hand, feature 10,000 unique digital apes that come with various accessories such as hats, glasses, and jewelry. Bored Apes have also gained significant popularity, with some selling for over $1 million.

While PFPs have gained significant attention, they have a few disadvantages compared to NFT art pieces. Firstly, PFPs lack the uniqueness and exclusivity that NFT art pieces provide. While each PFP may be unique, they do not provide the same level of creativity and originality that NFT art pieces offer. Secondly, PFPs may not have the

Wait, What?

Time to grade this piece. All 594 words of it.

Accuracy: B+

That was actually a pretty good piece in the grand scheme, as it talks about a few of the likely suspects — e.g. OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, Rarible — and whether it makes sense to invest in PFPs (where each is a different character) or artistic NFTs (such as the ones we created) that aren’t unique characters.

It falls short of an “A” rating, though, because it really doesn’t accurately talk about the collection I have on OpenSea. They’re all mine. I guess if someone reached out and said “I have some art!” then we’d talk.

Prose: C

It’s well-written but not too much better than what I could create myself. If I had the time.

So if “average” writing is your thing, then…that’s fine.

Following the Instructions: D-

I asked for 1000 words. I got 594. But this is passable writing, so I can’t give it an “F” grade.

Overall Grade: C

However, let’s think about this holistically. I went to a FREE website and typed in a question and got a response. And it’s good enough to put on the blog. And it might put *some* writers out of business.

But…didn’t you say that ChatGPT isn’t taking my job? What’s a writer to do?

Read My Last Post on the Topic…

Above is image #165 in the series. Art is subjective: you may find that to be a cool image, you may think it’s kinda just there. In the case of ChatGPT, it appears it didn’t think about the image at all.

The next image is #164, the original piece upon which #165 is based. 165 was created by digitally manipulating the original just enough so that it’s different, but still follows the same general color scheme and uses the original flow.

There’s very little room for nuance on ChatGPT, it appears. It does a casual glance based on the text it can find, but you’re not going to get a critique of the artwork.

So where does that leave us?

As we told you before, Google allowed us to outsource our thinking in some respects, and ChatGPT is doing the same. Does that free you up to create? Does it free you up to do a deeper dive on a subject that just cannot be explained by the chatbots?

Yeah, that’s what we think.