Topic: Cryptocurrency

smartcontracts

Smart Contracts Are All Around You

– May 7, 2019

You should be able to take advantage of smart contracts in many ways, and in many situations, if you just understand smart contracts are a way of managing contingencies.

READ MORE
electronic-payments-2109610_1280

The Case for Prepaid Debit Cards

– March 21, 2019

Financial privacy and autonomy are important. But cash and cryptocurrencies are not the only means to those ends.

READ MORE
cryptocurrency-3409655_1280

Cryptocurrencies Are Here to Stay

– March 15, 2019

It is not hard to find commentary on the internet indicating that Bitcoin is bound to fail. But there is no reason to think that cryptocurrencies will disappear.

READ MORE
jpmcoin

Why JPM Coin Makes Perfect Sense

– February 16, 2019

Using an encrypted digital ledger – one that substitutes hashes for trust – eliminates vast numbers of layers and time. Time and trust equal counterparty risk. Automating this with blockchain drops the costs to a small fraction while increasing certainty.

READ MORE
MG_0216

JPM Coin Shows Why History Matters for Blockchain Technology

– February 16, 2019

Financial intermediaries that might not stand a chance against blockchain technology were it allowed to develop in a vacuum instead might be strengthened by it.

READ MORE
blockchain-3212312_1280

Will Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Bring Back the Promise of Electronic Cash?

– February 12, 2019

Ten years have passed since Bitcoin was introduced, and it still isn’t used much in online commerce. Will the Lightning Network get it back on track?  

READ MORE
mmtsea

Why MMT (Ultimately) Doesn’t Matter

– February 6, 2019

MMT is an academically-garbed attempt to overcome the unwelcome fact that governments are as bound by economic limits as firms and individuals are. Yet liberty always triumphs.

READ MORE
bitcoin-2643159_1280

The History of Money and the Future of Cryptocurrency

– January 30, 2019

In a recent NBER working paper, Barry Eichengreen argues “there is no straight line from commodity money to fiat money and from there to crypto.”

READ MORE
MG_0118

The Blockchain Movement Is Dead, Long Live the Blockchain Industry

– January 18, 2019

With perfect hindsight, we construct narratives about how technology changes the world. The internet flattened the world. Cars replaced horses. But what we miss, the often-catastrophic messiness during those transitions, is so much more interesting.

READ MORE
hacking-2903156_1280

Bitcoin and Illegal Activity

– January 17, 2019

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have a bad reputation. But they can be used to avoid high inflation and the effects of pernicious capital controls.

READ MORE
faceboomoney

Why Facebook’s Stablecoin is Good News for Crypto

– January 11, 2019

Technology rarely does what we hope or predict it will do. In a year of falling exchange rates and failed ICOs, Facebook’s co-option of blockchain technology might be the best news for the industry of 2018.

READ MORE
blockchain-3448529_1280

Blockchain Basics

– January 7, 2019

The blockchain technology is essential when trust is sufficiently weak, monitoring is sufficiently costly, privacy is sufficiently important, or security is of sufficient concern.

READ MORE