Sunday Essentials 🪥 by JAD (5/5/24)
Your weekly reminder to brush and floss every day - and more!
Gm gm everyone~
Been a short while since my last post (a little over 2 months!) - and a lot has happened since!
Exciting times as BTC hit a new ATH at ~$73k and ETH touched $4k.
This was swiftly followed by a bit of turbulence in the market, the celebration of the 4th Bitcoin halving, and more scares as BTC hit as low as ~$56k earlier this past week.
Who’s to say where we go from here?
Me? I’m continuing my strategy.
Enjoy~ ☕️
The 4th Bitcoin halving was a success! 🎉
Every 210k blocks of BTC, a halving takes place. This reduces the supply of BTC that is issued to the miner by half. It takes roughly 4 years for this to occur.
It just so happens that each BTC halving coincides with US election years and the Olympics - a wild year indeed 😂
As we know, BTC has a finite supply of 21M, which will fully be mined by the year ~2140.
After Bitcoin’s latest halving, each block now produces 3.125 BTC.
The overall halving mechanism is an intelligent way to safeguard against inflation, as the rate of circulation of new BTC is progressively reduced.
Psychologically, this creates an increased sense of scarcity.
And as the world becomes more accepting of BTC with each passing year, this increased sense of scarcity + the finite supply of 21M BTC may result in something incredible.
The complexities of the BTC halving is nothing short of genius 🧠
The Ethereum Dencun Upgrade was a success! 🎉
It feels like a millennia ago that the Dencun upgrade took place. Even still, it’s amazing to see the outcome.
Transaction fees in general have been significantly reduced throughout the ETH ecosystem.
I mean…when was the last time you’ve seen GWEI <10 for prolonged periods of time?!
All that to say…could it signal doom and gloom for the ETH ecosystem, as attention is pulled towards other chains?
Only time (and more lawsuits from the SEC) will tell.
Sony filed a patent for “super fungible tokens”, or SFTs 🎮
These “SFTs” will be used for in-game assets.
This may finally be the start of NFTs being used in widespread gaming.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to put the entire US national budget on the blockchain 👀
This will allow for transparency for how taxpayer’s dollars are being utilized. That sounds pretty good to me 💯
The NYSE is considering 24/7 trading 🤔
Similar to the crypto market, right?
Stripe announced that they will be enabling crypto payments via stablecoins on both the ETH and SOL networks ✅
This Tweet by John Collison (co-founder of Stripe) goes into more details.
The big thing?
You can pay with crypto, and the recipient will receive USD.
All without even knowing that crypto was being used.
Now vendors can bypass credit card fees through payments via crypto.
This is a game-changer 🤯
🇺🇸 Wyoming signed a new law to help DAOs become legal entities
🇬🇧 The London Stock Exhange will reportedly be offering “exchange-traded notes" (ETNs) for both BTC and ETH starting in May 2024
🇸🇻 El Salvador will be/has been purchasing 1 BTC a day
🇹🇭 Thailand’s SEC will allow “wealthy investors” to buy crypto ETFs
🇯🇵 Japan’s Pension Investment Fund, with a portfolio of $1.54T, is exploring investing into BTC
In other news, the Japanese Yen has fallen to a 34-year low against the US Dollar.
🇭🇰 Hong Kong’s BTC and ETH ETFs went live last week
🇨🇭 Switzerland’s National Bank (SNB) may add BTC to its balance sheets if the referendum is approved
My thoughts: Switzerland is known as the most independent and pro-freedom country in Western Europe, while respecting private property rights and self-sovereignty through direct democracy. Adding BTC to the SNB’s reserves will only further Switzerland’s political neutrality, self-sovereignty, and economic freedom from the EU. In other words, a match made in a heaven.
Will Switzerland become “Europe’s El Salvador” by adopting BTC? 🤔
🇨🇦 Canada is proposing a 66% capital gains tax to investors who make >CA$250k annually
🇳🇿 New Zealand’s CBDC has entered a 101-day period for public consultation
“The longer I live on this planet, the more I understand why roosters start their day screaming.”
What I’m Reading / Re-Reading
The Imperfectionist: You can’t hoard life
This short article beautifully paints the poignancy of the human experience.
As someone with more possessions than I’d like to admit, you can’t hoard life.
What I’m Watching
Physical 100 Season 2
Wow, this season was great. Highly recommend to those who need extra motivation in reaching their fitness goals.
And the cliffhangers were crazy this time around 😅
Stoic Passage
Quality of Life Improvement
Gone are the days of going to the kiosks at the train station in Japan, struggling to find out where you want to go.
Apple Maps + Suica on Apple Pay lets you do everything seamlessly.
Saves you time and stress on your trip 💯
Miscellaneous
This was shared with me by a dear friend, bringing laughter and levity to the internet’s hatred towards Comic Sans.
No lie, I’m a fan 😂
Art of the Week
watching the game by Dana ate Oatmeal
Stay safe out there and be happy~
Best,
Philip
Disclaimer:
All thoughts and opinions are my own; please DYOR (do your own research) and remember that this is NFA (not financial advice). After all, I’m just another dentist.