Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 8th, 2022

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• The War in Ukraine, As Seen on Russian TV. (NYT)
• Mapped: The World's Population Density by Latitude. (VisualCapitalist)
• Where Lawns are Outlawed (And Dug Up, and Carted Away). (NYT)
• Tesla's 9-Word Rule Every Employee Has to Follow is Simply Brilliant. (Inc)
• Elon Musk Says Expectations of Twitter Employees Will Be Extreme Following Takeover. (Deadline)

 

Trading Links:

• Buying Wordle Brought Tens of Millions of New Users' to the New York Times. (TheVerge)
• The Party's Ending: Silicon Valley Braces for a New Era of Financial and Political Upheaval. (NBCNews)
• Pity the Billionaire – A Profile of Marc Andreesen. (NYMag)
• Jim Bianco: The Fed Will Crush Inflation and With It, the Stock Market. (AdvisorPerspectives)
• Warren Buffett: I Wouldn't Buy All Bitcoin In the World For $25, It Has No Value. (FinBold)

Happy Mother's Day

 To those of you with young children, here's a peek into your future.

After years of hard work and your best efforts (OK, mostly your best efforts) ... I predict that your adorable bundles of joy will someday wish they could send you this card.

So, take a moment to think about your Mom ... and remember that she was very young when she did those things to you ...

... and what you make them mean is up to you.

Here's a funny clip from SNL in honor of Mother's Day.

 

via SNL

Hope you celebrated all the important mothers in your life. And, to the mothers, I hope the people around you recognize how much you sacrificed for them. 

Happy Mother's Day. 

Exposure To The Blockchain

A few months ago, I mentioned that the level of discussion around cryptocurrency and blockchain was developing. People are beginning to think about secondary and tertiary value propositions. The elevated conversations even made me think about repurposing some of our underutilized hardware in our server room for some crypto-related purposes.

While I'm still skeptical about any given currency, I believe strongly in the blockchain. Trust has been eroded. We've lost trust in our media, in big tech, and in the banks.  As a result, the blockchain economy will become more ubiquitous.

Blockchain is radically changing the future of transaction-based industries. Industry leaders are fervently evaluating and exploring blockchain to determine its potential for disruption and to create a long-term strategic advantage over their competitors.  

Blockchain is disruptive because of its ability to digitize, decentralize, and secure the validation of "transactions."  Everywhere there's a hand-off of information or goods, blockchain has the opportunity to improve that process. To not only make it safer but more efficient. 

Imagine being able to see the entire history of a property ... and know it's accurate. Not just for the property, but the land, the air rights, land rights, and more. Imagine being able to track individual shipments globally through your supply chain with ease. Imagine being able to enter/exit countries without the elongated passport check-ins or the need for a new currency.

The list goes on … Aviation, Big Pharma, Manufacturing, Finance, SaaS … In the same way that artificial intelligence is transforming what's done by humans and what's done by machines, the blockchain is transforming security and how we transfer data. If data is the new currency, blockchain is the banking system. 

Blockchain enables transparency and accountability on a radically bigger scale. 

Here are two charts that talk about the evolution of crypto and blockchain ... and various ways you can get involved. 

The first is a new graphic put together by MSCI on the rising Blockchain economy.

MSCI via visualcapitalist

It talks about the rise in crypto volume, the new trends coming to Bitcoin, and more. 

The second is a very simple chart that I first shared in 2018. It shows the non-financial uses of Blockchain. 

NewCoShift via Crowd Companies

 

I've said this before, but it's worth echoing …  Some of what was once Impossible becomes Possible.  Some of what became Possible becomes Probable. And, and some of what became Probable becomes Inevitable.

Blockchain is happening.  Technological shifts,  like this, require you to think about your industry and your potential opportunity differently.

Change is happening faster (and creating bigger edges) than ever before. 

What a great time to be an entrepreneur!

Seize the Edge!

Onwards.

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 1st, 2022

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• What is Web 3.0? Here's What the Internet Will Look Like In the Future. (LaptopMag)
• Amazing Video Shows a Tiny Jumping Robot Like Nothing You've Ever Seen. (BGR)
• 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known. (Kevin Kelly’s Technium)
• Does (Hand) Size Matter? Inside the NFL Draft's Fear of Tiny-Handed QBs. (GQ)
• This $2 Billion Personal Submarine is So Huge that It Can Dwarf a MegaYacht. the Vessel is Almost Three Times Longer Than a Football Field, It Has Lavish VIP Suites, a Helipad and Even an Open Deck Swimming Pool. (LL)

 

Trading Links:

• Bored Ape Metaverse Frenzy Raises Millions, Disrupts Ethereum. (Bloomberg)
• Can Capitalism Survive? 80 Years After Schumpeter's Answer. (AIER)
• Americans are Showing Inflation Fatigue, and Some Companies See a Breaking Point. (FoxBusiness)
• Foreclosure Filings are Up 132% From a Year Prior. Here's What that Means for the Housing Market (And It's Not What You Might Think). (MarketWatch)
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Called Out Stock-Market Gamblers, Dismissed Bitcoin as Worthless, and Underlined the Risks of Inflation. Here are Their 12 Best Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Meeting. (Markets)

How Tech Giants Make Their Money

In 2021, the Big Five – Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft - generated over $1.4 trillion in revenue.

How did they generate that revenue? We know they sell products ... but we also know that we're often the product they sell. 

Google and Facebook each make a lot of money selling you (or data about you) to advertisers. 

The image below shows how Alphabet generated its revenue.   The full infographic shows that breakdown for each of the Big Five.

Click to view the other companies via visualcapitalist

Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, primarily sell products (like more traditional businesses). On the other hand, almost 98% of Meta's revenue (and 81% of Google's revenue) comes from advertising. 

Unsurprisingly, all five companies saw significant growth during the pandemic. 

Though the economy shrank in the past two years, societal changes continued to push demand for big tech's products and services. 

Will growth continue or slow down? 

I'm curious what you think.