With the talk of PayPal issuing a stablecoin, the idea of cheapening cross-border payments is bound to come up again.  But it’s not really about crossing borders, it’s a little more complex than that.... The post Cross-Border Payments appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

If I am in a workspace in a virtual world and I want to get to another experience, why would I stand on a virtual train smelling a virtual armpit? The post Why Do We Need to Commute in the Metaverse? appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

Some people feel they are already living in the metaverse, given how much time they spend staring at screens and interacting with other humans via video conferences and chat groups. Others say we are way off the metaverse and the vision may never be realised. I wanted to document some initial assumptions and hypotheses. For … The post Metaverse Musings Part One appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

Having spoken with a number of industry participants, it’s clear to me that the large traders do not expect USDT to depeg.  They tend to believe Tether Inc has more than enough assets to cover its liabilities, though there may be a duration mismatch – ie some of Tether’s assets may not be readily convertible into cash (I’ll use … The post What if USDT Tether depegged? appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

Crypto-for-crypto is a normal part of a paradigm-changing shift, it's to be expected, and follows a natural path. The post The Island of Crypto appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

Throwing this up for discoverability: I enjoy the Uncommon Core podcast and this is a helpful episode for those looking to get a quick summary of the top coins by market cap as at December 2020, as discussed by prominent crypto trader Su Zhu of Three Arrows Capital and prominent researcher Hasu of Deribit. Errors … The post Top 20 Coins: Uncommon Core Podcast Episode 15 appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

This commentary is a respectful response to JP Koning's post "Programmable money isn't new, we've had it for ages". The post It ain’t just about programmability appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

I was just reading an excellent recent post on the New York Fed’s blog Liberty Street Economics, entitled “Token- or Account-Based? A Digital Currency Can Be Both” by Rod Garratt, Michael Lee, Brendan Malone, and Antoine Martin. The post is right, of course (except for a paragraph right at the end). The “tokens vs accounts” … The post Tokens vs Accounts: A love letter to the NY Fed (and a quibble) appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

I’ve been following along the CBDC narrative for a number of years. It has been fun watching how the talking points have rapidly evolved. CBDCs seem to be getting closer to reality, driven by central banks (rather than customer demand). But there are some harder questions that are still not (in my view) adequately explored. … The post CBDCs – Asking the Hard Questions appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more

Note: This article was first published on 19 Aug 2020 on the OpenNodes blog, republished here with permission. The greatest trick played on modern society is calling a whole bunch of different instruments with different credit ratings and characteristics “money”, and conflating them.  It is a neat trick, and very useful in some situations, for … The post Money, Programmable Money and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) appeared first on Bits on Blocks ..read more