Metacoin

Covering Bitcoin, the Blockchain, Altcoins, and Fintech

David Van de Walle

Creators Gotta Create (and Announcing Our New Collection)

We saw a maxim somewhere on the internet and decided to share it: “Be brave enough to suck at something new.” If the web3 explosion has taught us anything, it’s that there are completely new ways of making a buck — and creators (like you, perhaps?) are learning new and interesting tactics along the way.

And some of us — maybe some of you — weren’t very good at it to start. We get better: the more you write, the more often you write, the better you become at writing. The more you make music, the more often you make music, the better a musician you become. We could go on…

We Are Onto Our 4th NFT Collection

A year ago, we started sucking at something new here: our first collection of NFTs. (The first one is here, created on March 14, 2021.) Called the “Obvious Statement Collection,” the goal was to come up with a few pieces — we’ve created 25 of them so far — that told you something that was, well, obvious. (And maybe semi-controversial, like the statement below.)

Collection two, “One Hundred NFTs,” was perhaps a little better but, as art goes, it ain’t great. Three, though, we’re especially proud of: #Sketches2021 is its name (see below about the giveaway!) and here’s a link to all 256 of them: Sketches 2021.

So it’s time for our fourth collection. We’ve entitled it “Collezione” and the plan is 256 pieces (again; that’s a nice number that is definitely attainable.) 26 of them have been created so far. And we’re pretty pleased with how they’ve turned out.

w123 in the Collezione series

We’re Giving Two NFTs Away!

So here’s what’s up with the giveaways*: All you have to do is follow the instructions below by March 31. We’ll pick two at random and one will get a piece from Sketches2021 and one will get a piece from Collezione. Those instructions…

  • Follow @teammetacoin on Twitter or Instagram. (You can do both to increase your chances!)
  • Like at least one of our posts from between March 20 and March 24.

On April 2, 2022, we’ll select one Twitter follower and one Instagram follower at random (* here’s where the asterisk comes in, as this is not a sweepstakes or contest or the like, all decisions final and it’s a gift and there’s no cash value) and we’ll send them a DM and they’ll respond with their ETH address and enjoy their new artwork.

Good luck! Now go create something.

Inflation.

18 months ago, right before the Presidential election, we wrote a two-part series that got a little bit of attention. In it, we discussed a strategy for when things get pretty bad.

Part One (go here for more: SHTF Part One) is probably more endemic to today’s news of an inflation rate that has the risk of spiraling out of control than Part Two.

But, to be honest, we didn’t think, even back then, that we’d see 7.9 percent year-over-year inflation. In the United States.

(Thanks to tradingeconomics.com for the chart; month-by-month figures going back to Jan. 2017.)

The U.S. Dollar Is…Get This…An Inflationary Asset!

To paraphrase George Costanza’s risk management tapes from the show Seinfeld, “in order to understand ‘inflation’ we must first define ‘inflation.'”

When you print way too much money, you get inflation. “Inflation is, always and everywhere, a monetary problem,” according to Milton Friedman. You can throw blame at whichever President or Congress you’d like (they’re all guilty, as we learn in this balanced piece from the website The Balance), or whichever crisis you’d like (though, to be fair, the Federal Government printed a metric crapton during COVID).

Don’t Believe The (Putin) Hype

Listen to Chuck D.

Don’t listen to Joe B.

The seeds were sown ages ago — like, probably three or four Fed Governors and Presidential Budget Directors ago — and the reality is that Vladimir Putin is a mere scapegoat. Gas prices are rising, but they’re not totally his fault; and the rise in food prices to come will be due, in part, to Putin’s war.

But you could get into a host of academic arguments and ask who bears the most responsibility and it won’t solve the problem.

‘Bitcoin Solves This!’

Yes, and no. And maybe.

As Putin’s War Machine and his “Evil Cronies” are learning, if you can’t use the global financial system that exists — if you’re shut out of traditional banking — you have to make do. In Putin’s case, that means calling China. In your case, that means…well, that means a few things.

First up, you’re not Putin, planning on invading another country. But you don’t know if or when you will fall out of favor with the traditional banks. (See “Trudeau, Justin” for an example of just how that could happen to you.) You also don’t know exactly how bad this inflation stuff will get — and you could find yourself using the black market (WHAT???) before you know it.

Seriously.

Venezuelan Black Market Finance

If you live in Venezuela, you have been dealing with this sort of thing for a while. There’s an official exchange rate, then there’s an unofficial black market rate. And there’s always the risk of the government revaluing the currency.

Zimbabwe had to do this, too, creating a 100 Trillion Dollar Bill back in the day.

And on and on…

Upshot: Get In The Game

You don’t know when the time will come where you need some of that stuff in the post — Cash, Precious Metals, some BTC through Coinbase or Crypto.com, and some ETH too (THOSE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS OVER THERE, WE COULD BE COMPENSATED IF YOU SIGN UP THROUGH THEM) — and you don’t know when it might…hit the fan.

But standing on the sidelines, now, is not an option.

WWJDD? (What Would Jamie Dimon Do?)

He’s not there yet.

We’ve watched what seems like a continued stream of people, and brands, and influencers, and siblings of influential people who own brands (see below) add .eth to their online persona.

But we’ve yet to see Jamie Dimon do it. Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase. Dimon, the influential business guy. Dimon, the brand.

Dimon, of the “Bitcoin is a fraud” quotes.

Your question: did that actually happen? The answer: yes. Here’s CNBC’s report on the matter.

He has, however, changed his tune. A little: his bank is in the game (fits and starts, though, behind JPM Coin) and they’re supposedly in the metaverse buying and selling digital real estate.

The Next Step For Jamie?

Well, Metacoin to the rescue here: we’re auctioning off jamiedimon.eth.

Yes, that’s right. Cybersquatting? Read this article and let us know.

10 ETH is a fair price, we think. Maybe Jamie’s people will think so, too?

So the big question: What Would Jamie Dimon Do?

When the Growth Portfolio Doesn’t Grow

We’re on a mission with the 2022 Growth Portfolio. We’re just not yet sure what that mission is.

When we jumped into the fray with our own mix of ten tokens to potentially invest in — and of course you should DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH — the thought was as follows: get a basket of tokens and ride out the 2022 market with it.

Up? Down? Sideways? Stalwarts like Bitcoin and Ethereum? Up-and-comers in Web3 like $ENS and $MAGIC? Yes.

So maybe the mission depends on the markets; a basket like this can help you ride the ups and downs.

And, So Far This Year, Lots of ‘Downs’

Meh Performance.

So we’re taking one on the chin so far.

That, my friends, is an understatement. Bitcoin’s doing fine when compared to the others — but still down nearly 20 percent — and Ethereum has been down and then a little back up but still down in 2022. To wit:

The roller coaster that goes down first

No time to do any touchdown dances or victory laps: this is not good performance. What gives?

We Don’t Know Why. Time to Catch the Falling Knife?

This is the question I get pretty often: have we hit bottom, or is it time to catch the falling knife? And, from the school of “IDK, DYOR,” I can posit a guess or two but invite you to study this on your own.

Guess One: Global Unease Equals Meh Performance

If I see one more post about “this is the time for Bitcoin” using the context of global geopolitical events as proof that this is the time for Bitcoin, I’ll scream.

However, you *could* guess that people in places like Canada who have had their bank accounts frozen might see a little truth to that. If you can’t even get money out of your bank then, well, this may be the time for Bitcoin.

(Also, if governments don’t understand how these things work, they may only choose to regulate them further. Will that push any and all coins into an oblivion? Will that lead to a black market for all things? Will that drive everything higher?)

Guess Two: Is There TOO Much Crypto Noise?

Is it possible that the ads from Larry David and Lebron James have rendered some of us inured to the noise around the subject? I mean, not the OGs like you and me, natch, but the rest of the world.

Nobody really knows what constitutes a good deal these days, so the newbies jumping in might not care if Bitcoin is $35K or $25K. And so on: for assets without earnings seasons and dividend payments, you’re flying blind.

Celebrating Our Only Good Pick So Far…

“Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.”

We got lucky with $MAGIC. Somehow, at treasure.lol — that’s the web address! — they’re building a pretty cool…ah…uh…whatever they’re building. But trust us, it’s at the intersection of NFTs and gaming and crypto writ large, so we’re there for it.

We had mentioned it a couple times before on these pages, most recently in this post: How to Spend $1000. And we’ll ride this for as long as is feasible.

Today’s Takeaway…

We have mentioned this is not investment advice, right? And that you should do your own research?

Yes, that. Also you may or may not be better off being lucky than being good.

NGMI: Why You Should Sell It All And Become A Monk

You don’t really think we’re gonna make it, do you?

Internet sub-cultures are a wonderful thing. Sometime last year, a combination of NFT purveyors and OG crypto traders started to adopt the phrase “gm” as a means of wishing each other “Good Morning.” It’s really a fine line here. Do it right — simply use the two letters, don’t use capitals, don’t repurpose the General Motors logo — and you’re part of the crowd. You’re Shiv and Tom in the screenshot below. Happy. Complete. Enjoying a good time. Celebrating life.

Do it wrong and you’re Kendall Roy, the punch line of the joke everyone but you is in on. (Watch the video. Cringe with us.)

Shoehorning a Succession reference into a blog post notwithstanding, “gm” evolved and “WGMI” was added shortly thereafter — at least by my measurement of the timeline, which could be off a hair, don’t hold me to it, DYOR and all that — to underscore the optimism that the crypto and NFT communities bring to the world. We’re Gonna Make It.

OR “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” as both McFadden and Whitehead reminded us sometime around 1979*.

We’re Gonna Make It! The optimist is on board: crypto is the future! NFTs are adding value to the economy and giving artists new life!

The pessimist reads the asterisk below.

* IIRC, the song was adopted by the 1979 Baltimore Orioles as their answer to the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates’ choice of “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge. The Pirates came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Orioles in the 1979 World Series; I won 50 cents off my Dad.

Which Brings Us to Our Point: NGMI

Shortly after either learning about the WGMI acronym or reading about the untimely demise of Messrs McFadden and Whitehead, new lingo was created: NGMI. Not Gonna Make It.

How Bout That Portfolio?

Egads! That kinda stinks, right? We launched the Growth Portfolio a couple weeks back on this here site and our goal was to give you, Gentle Reader, a basket of those coins that can give you the best opportunity for potential success. Big coins, mid-sized coins, up-and-comers that are taking advantage of the NFT-based web3 economy: it’s all there!

And it’s getting pummeled, as is everything else.

The Biggest Dogs

BTC is below $40,000, ETH has dropped below $3000. The end is nigh!

This Blog Post’s Title Is Tongue-in-Cheek

We really don’t know how to make sense of this market the past couple weeks. Our own holdings are down nearly a third since the beginning of the year. We won’t even begin to call a bottom, or else we’ll look like this guy.

Or we could guess that this guy (below, Fed chair Jerome Powell) will bring new people to crypto writ large through the Fed’s (possible) creation of something called “digital cash:” this is one of those “CBDCs” being bandied about in other countries.

We also *could* start talking about new NFT developments — seems like everyone is getting in on the action, right? — and see that the challenges to OpenSea from Crypto.com and Coinbase probably say we’ve only just begun.

Our Point: Don’t Give Up Just Yet. Or Do Give Up.

In any event, here are a couple concepts to embrace:

  • Do Your Own Research. “DYOR” is one of the acronyms we use often around here. Don’t rely on us to tell you what to do. Sniff out a few other folks, check into CT (“Crypto Twitter”) and find out what people are talking about.
  • Experiment. We’ve gotten in early on a couple coins. We’ve also blown it on a couple, too. (Our stake in this one, for instance, was purchased when the price was about 80 cents each.) And we’ve created a series or two (or three) of NFTs, with limited success. But, again, we’re not afraid of experimentation.
  • Enjoy the Ride. The main reason yours truly is involved in this space is because he finds it bloody fascinating. Not every project is going to be eye-catching to you, not every token launch is going to make sense, and not every bit of lingo is going to be clever. If it’s not fun, then maybe it’s not for you?

gm

Keep at it. Or become a monk.

We’ll be here either way.