Finance writer Jon Turek argues that between Federal Reserve swap lines, Europe stabilization and a few other factors, the strong dollar problem may be (temporarily) solved.
Adjustment to bank profits in anticipation of growing debt delinquency
The lowest decrease in jobless claims since March
A boost in retail spending
Today’s main discussion: The Great Twitter Hack, feat. Dr. Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic
Wednesday, at around 2:15 p.m. EDT, prominent Crypto Twitter accounts started sharing a similar message about a bitcoin giveaway. A couple of hours later, Elon Musk and Bill Gates were saying they were feeling generous and wanting to give bitcoin away. A couple more hours and every verified blue check mark account on Twitter was taken down.
It was an attack with massive implications, if not much monetary gain.
On this episode NLW breaks down:
What happened
Which accounts were impacted
How much BTC was transferred
The narrative battle of “bitcoin scam” vs. “Twitter hack”
Why it might have been a state-sponsored attack
Why the real intention might have been to discredit Twitter
Why the (supposed) revelations about Twitter’s administrative tools could end up in a congressional inquiry
Expert commentary provided by Dr. Tom Robinson. Find our guest online:
A day after President Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act enabling sanctions on those that threaten the autonomy of China (and the companies that do business with them) and the UK worked to ban Huawei 5G infrastructure, this episode of the Breakdown looks at the key faultlines and issues that have that relationship in a dangerous downward spiral:
Our main conversation: What the hell is going on with $TSLA?
Elon Musk is now richer than Warren Buffett. A year ago, Tesla wasn’t as valuable as Ford or GM. Now it’s more than 25% of the value of the auto market as a whole.
In this episode, NLW looks at a set of possible explanations:
Elon as a Golden God/the cult of personality
Tesla as an innovative tech company
Better-than-expected vehicle delivery
The mother of all short squeezes
Robinhood effect
Mr. FEDerico
Narrative Market Machine
In the end, NLW argues that in a world where 1) the new retail base is willing to engage in narrative and meme warfare and 2) where the Federal Reserve distorts prices, the narrative market machine becomes more of a driver of prices than ever before.
As a cofounder of the Israeli Women in Mathematics Association, Shikhelman has been researching complex math problems for nearly a decade. But she said bitcoin offers especially interesting puzzles to solve because this technology may have the potential to change the world. She’s one of many young researchers who identify with the cypherpunk movement.
“There are a lot of people like me, their main thing is academic,” Shikhelman said. “They are not the classic cypherpunk people, but …[t]hey believe in privacy, in political change.”
Until recently, most people associated with the cypherpunk movement were technologists in the 1980s and 1990s who circulated mailing lists about encryption and other privacy tech topics. The term was created by feminist hackitvist Judith Milhon, although it is widely associated with software engineers such as bitcoin veteran Adam Back. Many of the original cypherpunks are still active in the cryptocurrency space today. However, they’ve also inspired a new generation of self-identified cypherpunks with different skills now also exploring the subculture’s proverb that “cypherpunks build things.”
In Shikhelman’s case, she’s focused on mathematical research to make bitcoin’s Lightning Network reliable. Like her predecessors, she shares a love of cypherpunk literature, such as novels by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson. These fantasy worlds help her think outside the box and apply math to ideas with cypherpunk potential, meaning the potential to use privacy tech to promote social change. Such solutions-oriented research is a fundamental part of building technology, just as valuable as adding open source code to a Github repo.
Lightning-fast cypherpunks
“Let’s talk big. Let’s think huge. Let’s talk about thousands of years in the future, changing humanity,” Shikhelman said.
In order to build privacy into the bitcoin ecosystem, technologists first must understand the mathematical aspects of the system. Just as safety equipment works best when it fits the person (an oversized helmet can be more dangerous than none at all), software works best when designed with both the details and holistic value flow in mind.
“Lightning will need more than just onion routing for good privacy guarantees going forward,” said cypherpunk journalist Janine Roemer, who writes a newsletter about bitcoin privacy tech. “Lightning is one of many adaptations that will expand Bitcoin's ability to carry larger and larger portions of the global economy.”
Similar to Shikhelman, Roemer is a researcher who views herself as part of the broader cypherpunk movement.
“A lowercase ‘c’ cypherpunk,” she joked, acknowledging she was never involved with the movement’s founding fathers.
This social movement is not preoccupied with overthrowing or altering governments, in stark contrast with Bitcoin Twitter’s anarchist undertones. Instead, Roemer said, rather than seizing power the movement is focused on “working to make things un-take-over-able." In short, unseizable assets, self-sovereign data and other types of independence in a digital world.
“I prefer the term ‘informational self-determination,’ which is used in the German constitution,” Roemer said.
As for bitcoin, Shikhelman described Bitcoin Core as “pretty much stable and running,” meaning her focus has now turned to privacy-centric usability for the Lightning Network. With regards to bitcoin’s reliability so far, Roemer agreed.
“I hope bitcoin will become/keep being something that survives under adversity, and gives the people who use it at least enough privacy that they can escape from whatever preys on them. Whether that's the state, banks, corporations, abusive family or partners,” Roemer concluded.
Our main conversation is with Liberty Blitzkrieg creator and editor Michael Krieger. Michael announced just before recording that he is done publishing on the LB site. He and NLW discuss:
How Michael became disaffected while working on Wall Street during the Great Financial Crisis
How Zero Hedge amplified Liberty Blitzkrieg and sent Michael on a decade-long writing path
How Michael discovered bitcoin and the bitcoin community in 2012
Why social media platforms need to be regulated with the principles of the First Amendment
How all political parties use division to stay in power
How outrage culture has become endemic, commodified and co-opted by existing power
Why the only option to fight outrage culture is to opt out
