What happens when you combine a mostly hibernating memecoin with the world’s most powerful (and controversial) meme platform, and throw in a new generation of daytraders that have become convinced that they can drive the price of anything up?
The great TikTok Doge pump of 2020, of course.
In this episode, NLW breaks down:
The history of Dogecoin
How TikTok became one of the most popular, influential, and controversial apps in the world
Why the r/WallStreetBets, Davey Day Trader Global Global, and Robinhood Rally day trader movement perfectly set up this pump
How #TikTokDogecoinChallenge began to trend
What has happened to Dogecoin since the trend started
Our main discussion is with Daniel Lacalle. Daniel is chief economist at Tressis and is the author of numerous books including “Life in the Financial Markets,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap” and his most recent, “Freedom or Equality.” He has been named one of the 100 most influential economists in the world by Richtopia.
In this conversation, he and NLW discuss:
Why the recovery will likely be “L” shaped and uneven, not “V” shaped
Why the “bailout of everything” undermines capitalism and promotes zombie companies that can’t service their debts
Why zombie companies crowd out space for startups and small businesses
How government programs can incentivize relationships with government over strong business practices
How the current economic crisis could become a banking crisis
In this audio interview, CoinDesk’s Leigh Cuen and Blockade Games co-founder Marguerite deCourcelle talk about bitcoin’s impact on artistic careers. From collecting unique, interactive pieces to designing video games, Cuen and deCourcelle explore how crypto could redefine modern art.
Bitcoin is money but blockchain technology can also be used in a wide variety of art projects.
Perhaps the best known variety of blockchain-based visual art is non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
For example, Blockade Games co-founder Marguerite deCourcelle said her startup sold $160,000 worth of crypto assets, like NFTs, with most of the profits from two editions of their first game Neon District.
“Blockade has minted over 850,000 assets to blockchain game players,” eCourcelle said.
She initially broke onto the scene with paintings that included clues to hidden bitcoin prizes, then started creating interactive, digital art coupled with written roleplaying folklore as well.
“Instead of the idea of running through the digital treasure hunt and possibly getting bitcoin at the end, the design is now that you start at the beginning, there’s no barriers to you can just start playing,” she said, describing her video games. “Earning tokens in the background and you’re notified once you’ve created something that’s unique.”
In short, the artist can now co-create with the audience in a way that scales individual experiences. Although DeCourcelle still paints, she’s become fascinated with the creative and artistic potential of blockchain technology.
Since the first wave of so-called decentralized applications (dapps) in 2017, non-fungible tokens (NFTS) have earned gamers more than $20 million through trading and startups roughly $13.6 million for selling the digital assets, according to blockchain analytics firm Flipside Crypto. Most of that traction was in 2017, when the collectibles game CryptoKitties was the season’s hottest trend and briefly surged to more than 14,000 users.
Yet Flipside Crypto CEO David Balter said observers should not dismiss blockchains like Celo and the CryptoKitties creators’ upcoming Flow. Other gaming dapps like Gods Unchained and My Crypto Heroes garnered $4.2 million and $1.5 million, respectively, selling digital assets.
“There are a number of chains that are working to establish dapps that are participants on the chain. Celo, for example, is doing a good job,” Balter said, listing the above-mentioned gaming projects as well. “We’re talking about customer acquisition costs and lifetime value...these are real businesses.”
Flipside Crypto data scientist Angela Minster added most of these games so far see a surge during the first year then struggle to retain users. In 2020, she expects to see improvement in that department.
In addition to niche gaming fans, investors’ interest in NFTs hasn’t wavered yet. The “Bitcoin Billionaire '' twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of the Gemini crypto, are also bullish on NFTs. They acquired the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway in 2019, which opened for business in March 2020 with digital pieces from artists like doodle-master Jon Burgerman and painter Kenny Scharf. A Nifty Gateway spokesperson said the platform has partnered with 16 brands and artists so far, with one Nifty selling for $1,500.
“Kenny Scharf sold out his collection around two and a half minutes,” the spokeswoman added.
Very early
Barely anybody uses crypto games these days and even Ethereum fans love to diss them, but some aficionados say a few startups show potential.
It’s a long shot, to be sure. Critics may argue these efforts are merely a small group of people trading software trinkets between friends. If so, that is also still true of the broader industry.
Balter estimated that by May 2020 roughly 2.13% of bitcoin wallets held 95% of bitcoin in circulation. This is still an industry with thousands of people holding most of the assets, betting broader demand from millions will drive value.
“This is actually the lowest concentration of [bitcoin] wealth since March 2016,” Balter said, as a crypto optimist himself. “Developer behavior rating is superb, over the past year the [diversity and contributions] rating has been trending up.”
According to a survey of 15,000 crypto fans by the startup Crypto.com, 73% of users believe cryptocurrency needs to be used as a currency to qualify for “mass adoption,” which 92% of respondents said could happen in the next 5 years. To some, this may seem as optimistic as betting on artistic crypto collectibles. Companies like Nifty Gateway are exploring how users might display them IRL, while video game creators like deCourcelle focus on interactive features.
“We try to keep a heavy focus on art and [the] story,” she said, speaking to how her characters can involve many interchangeable, tokenized parts. “When you compose them all into this one character, it’s a pretty unique item you’ve created, both in its story and legacy and also in terms of what it can do in the game application itself.”
She said she’s excited to explore what it means for a bitcoiner to develop her career as an artist, using software as a medium. If bitcoin is significant, and we accept its slow growing usage after a decade, then perhaps the fact the CryptoKitties trend of 2017 now has less than 100 daily users isn’t enough to dismiss all NFT experiments. Flipside Crypto’s analytics showed the top CryptoKitties user earned $698,887 and the median user earnings hovered around $53. Earning pocket money through relatively short gameplay, compared to Minecraft or Animal Crossing, may be an attractive factor for some avid gamers.
Balter said it’s “still very early.” If a niche app needs around 500,000 daily users to be successful, then there’s still a long way to go before anyone can claim crypto games are a significant niche within the gaming sector.
“You will see glimmers of better models and outcomes in 2020,” Balter said. “The more that the user is able to monetize, the more the company will succeed.”
To decrease wealth inequality, one passionate financial adviser argues why financial education needs different content, from different voices, delivered through different channels.
Financial education and financial literacy are at crisis levels in this country. Financial advisers spend billions on advertising but a fraction of that on education. The resources that are available tend to be inaccessible and not designed for the people who need them most. Financial media remains a boring, exclusionary acronym game.
The net result of all of this is a population of Americans who don’t have the mental tools to understand, make sense of and make good decisions around their finances.
In this passionate conversation with NLW, financial adviser Tyrone Ross argues that all hope is not lost. According to Tyrone:
Financial literacy is a cross-cutting crisis not limited to any one demographic
Even the resources that do exist aren’t designed for the way their intended targets consume media
Despite all the bad things happening, this moment is also providing an inflection point where change is possible
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, Reddit’s WallStreetBets channel was featured on the cover of Bloomberg BusinessWeek as an emerging market force.
Since then, between the surge in signups for Robinhood and the wave of followers of Davey Day Trader Global Global, these day traders have taken an even bigger place in the conversation about the stock market.
While many finance professionals (and, most certainly, traditional financial media) have treated the movement with skepticism, paternalism or outright derision, Slow Ventures’ Jill Carlson has a very different view.
To Jill, this group represents a new wave of investors who are unwilling to wait for permission to play a game that has been largely closed off to most.
In this conversation, Jill talks about why the Robinhood revolution is very, very real, and what opportunities for entrepreneurship and investing she sees in terms of financial education, new exchange tools and more.
There is a constant free market competition to define the Bitcoin narrative, and Kraken’s Dan Held argues this is part of what makes the protocol so strong.
Satoshi Nakamoto is often recognized for his technical genius in solving the double-spending problem. He is also widely revered for his willingness to walk away from the protocol to make it stronger, something no other entrepreneur who has created anything on the scale of Bitcoin has ever done.
What people discuss less often is Satoshi’s marketing instincts. In this illuminating conversation, serial bitcoin entrepreneur Dan Held argues:
Satoshi had strong instincts about how price would drive bitcoin adoption
The bitcoin white paper document was a marketing pitch aimed specifically at the cypherpunks
The competition between bitcoin narratives is something that gives the protocol strength
The competition to shape bitcoin's narrative is truly free and open to all
What would you do if you were approaching your 40s, burned out and realizing the type of financial success you had been pursuing wasn’t actually serving your true goal of freedom?
If you were George Gammon, the answer would be to change everything and start globetrotting in search of new opportunities.
George Gammon is the host of the rapidly growing George Gammon YouTube channel and Rebel Capitalist podcast. He is rapidly building one of the most rapid macro and investing fanbases around.
In this Free Ideas Festival conversation, he and NLW discuss:
The pursuit of personal freedom
Producing a home-flipping TV show in Colombia
Why inflation is at the heart of people’s economic discontent
How crony capitalism is driving young people to Communism
Building a rapidly growing podcast and YouTube empire
