Keith Asmussen, Joshua Ebedes, Preston Sledge
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Market Summary
Dotted lines represent non-trading days (weekends, holidays, etc.)
Top Stories
U.S. Postal Service Counters Trump Attacks On Mail-In Voting With A New Blockchain Patent
Following the recent ridicule from the President, US Postal Service is appearing to consider the use of a blockchain technology to secure mailed ballots. The process defined by the USPS’ patent is delineated as, “A registered voter receives a computer readable code in the mail and confirms identity and confirms correct ballot information in an election. The system separates voter identification and votes to ensure vote anonymity, and stores votes on a distributed ledger in a blockchain.”
MicroStrategy Adopts Bitcoin as Primary Treasury Reserve Asset
MicroStrategy, the world’s largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence company, announced their new capital allocation strategy highlighting an acquisition of 21,454 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $250 million. MicroStrategy stated their belief that Bitcoin is a “dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash.” The decision to make Bitcoin their principal holding is reported as the optimal decision to confront the uncertainty in a “confluence of macro factors affecting the economic and business landscape.”
Winklevoss Twins Tell Bar Stool’s Dave Portnoy To Pick Bitcoin Over Gold Due To Elon Musk’s ‘Space Mining’
Earlier this week, Twitter was blessed with an interview between Barstool Sports’ founder, Dave Portnoy, and Gemini founders, Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss. Assigned with the task of explaining Bitcoin to Portnoy, the twins focused on scarcity by sharing their beliefs that Elon Musk will destroy the gold market with the emergence of asteroid mining. Elon responded to the interview with a link to a FOX News article describing NASA’s interests in mining gold in asteroids.
Chart of the Week
Transaction Fees by Crypto Currency.
This chart comes courtesy of Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) on twitter. Transaction fees are paid to miners when transactions occur on the blockchain. There are only a limited amount of transactions that can take place per block ( Block Size varies by crypto currency), this causes prices to be bid up when there is more usage of a crypto currency. This chart and others like it have been popular recently and are followed by the argument that there are only two players in the crypto game. They argue that because 3rd place on the list has weekly fees over a thousand times smaller than Bitcoin, owners of the currencies aren't transacting as much and aren’t willing to pay as much to transact in the currency.
Top Tweets
@Grayscale has been running a massive ad campaign across all major tv networks. Grayscale is the creator and manager of the Bitcoin trust $GBTC. Grayscale reported over 4.6 billion dollars in bitcoin under their management as of August 7th. This amount has only risen with their purchase of over 100 million dollars worth of bitcoin in the past week.
@jimmysong. The banks can literally spin money out of thin air as there are currently no reserve requirements. An economy driven by spending and not saving is inherently fragile.
Thanks @ Nic Carter for this weeks juicy meme. This distribution reminds by of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
@CryptoCharles__ throws modern and historical philosophies tenants back in its face.
Video of the Week
What Bitcoin Did: Episode #250
All Things Bitcoin with Andrew Poelstra, Giacomo Zucco, Jack Mallers, Matt Odell, and Nic Carter. This almost 2 hour long podcast tackles the subjects of on chain privacy, taproot implementation, the lightning network, and the Bitcoin bull market. The podcast carries a very relaxed mood and the diversity of thought represented in the large guest pool creates for a very interesting listen.
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Texas Blockchain’s ‘State of the Market’ is a student-led editorial. None of the views expressed by the authors should be taken as the view of the University of Texas at Austin or the Texas Blockchain organization. Furthermore, none of the views expressed should be taken as financial advice in any circumstance.