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How the EU could get out of its present pickle – and negative interest
If you have been following what is going on over the Channel, you will know that Macron and Merkel have underwritten some more money for the whole of the EU. As ever, they don’t differentiate between the wealthy northern nations and the bankrupt southern ones, and as a result as of now the one size fits all remains in place.
Bear in mind the German Constitutional Court has already blown a massive hole below the waterline of the ECB, which may yet mean that ALL that the ECB has done in the last 10 years is ultra vires. That would spell the end not only of the EU but would also the bankruptcy of the ECB, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal etc etc. It could not be stitched back together.
The one thing that is clear from the present pandemic is that the good old US Dollar remains the world’s reserve currency. That means that the Americans – as they have always done for more than the last 100 years – have stepped up to the plate when money was needed anywhere in the world. Their present trillions of extra dollars is already keeping some countries going and they have made clear they will create trillions more if needed.
The problem in the EU is acute however. To take one example, Italy simply cannot afford to take on board any more debt, and the ECB has finally reached the point where the purchase of any more Italian issued EU notes is effectively at an end.
What Italy needs is to get out of the Euro – leaving massive losses for all concerned but especially the Germans – and return to the Lira or something like it. If Italy could issue Lira bonds which were funded ( at a lower rate than the notional Lira/Euro rate of exchange back in the day) they could be free in one bound. Sadly, of course, the EU won’t allow them to do this.
But here’s the thing. Suppose they created the Liracoin , a digital currency which worked alongside the Euro. I can practically guarantee people in Italy would stop using Euros on a day to day basis and use Liracoin. You would suddenly have the same sort of situation as pertains in China, where there is an official currency for international transactions, very tightly controlled, and effectively a lesser currency which remains in China. The Euro would be the international currency for Italy but the Liracoin would be the internal currency. And this could be repeated across all countries in the Eurozone.
Interestingly, when Scotcoin was originally created, its creator had something very similar in mind, had the Referendum been won. And there is a distinct move to country digital coin as opposed to the international likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum and so on.
So maybe, just maybe, digital currency is coming of age.
STOP PRESS: The UK Debt Management Office has just sold debt that will COST the buyers to hold. In other words, lend £100, receive no interest and in two years time you will get back LESS than £99.50. Remember, digital currency doesn’t pay interest, BUT IT ALSO DOESN’T COST YOU TO HOLD IT.
Coronavirus Redux
There is no doubt the Coronavirus is having a severe effect both on world trade but also in travel patterns across the globe.
It is clear that China is actually suffering a severe drop in output (check the electricity figures if you don’t believe me) and it may well be that this drop will translate into drops in manufacturing in the rest of the world. JLR is very nearly out of parts. The Baltic Dry Index (remember – 90% of world trade travels by ship) has fallen over 80% since September 2019, which means that the re-supply cannot just be switched back on. It will take time to build up again.
If you remember 2008 and its aftermath (and who doesn’t) you will know that Central Banks and Governments essentially increased massively the world’s money supply. That prevented a severe recession (with all that would have implied for social cohesion) but it is also part of why assets have increased so much in value in the last 10 years or so. Arguably, that is not a good thing.
I cannot see that the authorities response, financially, is going to be any different this time round. The drops that have been experienced mirror quite closely what happened in 2008.
In short, the real economic danger of Coronavirus is not temporary supply chain disruption, which in itself is likely to substantially slow global economic growth in the first half of 2020. The concern should be that this crisis triggers a panic in consumer and business confidence and in doing so sets off a wider reassessment of asset valuations. The thought of people’s house valuations plunging as they did in 2008 because the earnings of their occupiers have been decimated by layoffs doesn’t even bear thinking about – nor do the potential food riots. You can forget governing by consensus – it would be governing by machine gun. Already jittery investors are scarpering from the riskiest corners of debt markets amid worries the coronavirus could trigger an avalanche of downgrades and defaults.
And that’s why Crypto currencies are becoming more and more important, despite what the market prices are telling us. The inflation that should have been unleashed by the floods of money created 2008 onwards simply hasn’t happened because the classic demand push/pull of economics hasn’t been able to take hold. The credit that drained out of the system simply could not be replaced fast enough. If the governmental printing presses become red hot again, then inflation simply won’t be curtailed (And yes, I know that isn’t how money is created but it’s the usual image people relate to). But think on. Central Banks around the world are already dropping interest rates and increasing liquidity. Don’t think for one minute the Fed will stand aside just because it’s an election year, their traditional stance. There is already talk of WORLD economic activity dropping from 2.9% growth last year to a contraction of a similar amount in 2020. That would be disruptive in the extreme.
So think seriously about having some Crypto tucked away. For a start it won’t inflate away to nothing, so that pint of milk which was 50p and becomes £2.50 will still be 25 Scotcoin or .00006 Bitcoin.
BREAKING NEWS: The Fed just cut interest rates (You read it here first)
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
I’ve had a number of interesting meetings with random people over the last couple of weeks. They were all related to different business aspects, but the one thing that came across quite clearly was the growing realisation that blockchain – and by extension, cryptocurrency – was going to be THE future.
At least two of the people I was talking to had had virtually no knowledge of blockchain until very recently, and one of them only started to look at it when I arranged to meet him a couple of days ago. If anything he was the most evangelical about it.
One of the most important aspects is how people are perceiving digital currency. I have already argued that it is now another asset class alongside stocks and shares, art, fine wine, bonds, gold, commodities and so on, and this idea is already taking hold. I had a very interesting conversation with a Polish lady who had never even heard of blockchain, but knew of Bitcoin. As soon as I explained about the asset class ( ok maybe you should only have 1% of your wealth in it) she rushed off to talk to her business manager, and splurged on a basket of cryptos. I’m not sure she has all the right ones, but hey, that’s her business. As an aside she’s already made money on them.
It remains true that if you had that 1% just in Bitcoin 5 years ago, your total portfolio would have out-performed nearly all others. Far be it from me to say it but if you had included Scotcoin in that same portfolio, you would have outperformed ALL others.
The countries, ecosystems and companies that embrace the possibilities of blockchain and crypto now are those that will inherit the future.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
It is a misconception that Mark Twain said that (along with lots of other things he said)
Mark Twain did NOT say that.
The quote belongs to H. Jackson Brown’s mother. See page 13 in Brown’s 1991 book: P.S. I Love You: When Mom Wrote, She Always Saved the Best for Last.
But Twain DID say “Denial is not just a river in Egypt”
Have a great future.
What Is A Ponzi Scheme & Why Bitcoin Is Not One
” The arrest of principals of Bitclub Network, accused of operating a Ponzi scheme, underlines again the wild west nature of the digital space. Here’s an article from our e-book – Blockchain, Bitcoin and what the difference means to you – which neatly points out the differences between a Ponzi scheme and genuine blockchain based cryptocurrencies.”| Temple Melville CEO of The Scotcoin Project
By:Sudhir Khatwani In:Bitcoin Last Updated:13/10/2018
One of the biggest myths regarding Bitcoin is that many consider it as a fraudulent, Ponzi scheme. But very few actually understand what a Ponzi scheme is.
It is not wise for people to draw conclusions without a proper understanding of any topic whatsoever. And that is what people are doing when it comes to Bitcoins. They just term Bitcoins and other cryptos as scams.
Therefore, being a reputed blog in this space, we at CoinSutra think it is very important for us to clarify this point and spread more awareness, which is also our motivation to write today. I will explain in detail why Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme, but before that let’s understood and examine what a Ponzi scheme actually means.
What Is A Ponzi Scheme?
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator generates returns for older investors through revenue paid by new investors, rather than from legitimate business activities or profit of financial trading.
Operators of Ponzi schemes can be either individuals or corporations and grab the attention of new investors by offering short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.
Companies/schemes that engage in Ponzi schemes focus all of their energy into attracting new clients to make investments. Ponzi schemes rely on a constant flow of new investments to continue to provide returns to older investors. When this flow runs out, the scheme falls apart. [Source Wiki]
Ponzi schemes are sometimes also referred as pyramid schemes and the characteristics of both the schemes are higher returns than the average market by recruiting new members under the scheme and taking money from them in some form or other.
Characteristics of Ponzi or Pyramid Schemes:-
- They promise high and unusual returns.
- They promise regular or monthly returns usually.
- They require you to add new investors/members into the scheme to increase your return rate.
- Founders usually run away with a big chunk of money.
These are the main characteristics of a typical fraudulent scheme whether it is in the crypto space or otherwise.
Now that you know these characteristics you can easily do away with such schemes by doing a quick litmus test.
What You Can Do To Not Fall For Such Schemes: Litmus Test
You can quickly do a litmus test to avoid such schemes or projects by following two simple bits of advice given by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, a renowned Bitcoin speaker, and proponent.
Does
it promise regular returns that exceed average market returns?
It’s
a Ponzi
Does it focus more on recruiting new people than any
product?
It’s a pyramid scheme#litmustests
This litmus test is so powerful and apt that you can apply it within the crypto space. You can also use it to judge other schemes outside of this market.
Bitcoin Is Not A Ponzi Scheme
In the light of the above explanations, I can say that people who say Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme don’t really understand what a Ponzi scheme is.
If you call Bitcoin a ponzi scheme, you know nothing about Bitcoin, and you know nothing about ponzi schemes. $BTC #Bitcoin
- Bitcoin never asked anyone to put money
Bitcoin whitepaper, if you have read it, doesn’t speak a thing about buying/selling bitcoins and neither lure investors to put their money. It is an 8-page document explaining a solution for making a censorship-resistant digital money.
- Bitcoin founder never ran away with a big chunk of money
Bitcoin founder, Satoshi Nakamoto never ran away with a chunk of Bitcoins. One might now argue that he held millions of bitcoins but that he never stole from anybody or just created out of thin air despite being Bitcoin’s founder.
Instead, he also had to run a full node and mine Bitcoin blocks to receive the block rewards to get new bitcoins, which is a legal way that anyone can follow even today.
Also, note that the Bitcoins he mined at that time and kept to himself were worthless then. It was his sheer will to believe in the potential of the project that motivated him to keep those funds with him.
- Bitcoin never asked you to recruit new people/investors under it
Neither Satoshi or his whitepaper or even early Bitcoin holders went to recruit new people/investors for Bitcoin.
In initial days, mostly geeks used to mine and play with Bitcoin and most of them used to spend it on gambling or pizzas or just used to giveaway in meetups. I have not seen such Ponzi scheme yet that give away their products in such a manner.
- Bitcoin doesn’t promise or gives monthly/regular returns
Bitcoin whitepaper or it’s working model till date doesn’t promise any returns or regular returns either. Yeah, of course, that’s another thing that people have made money due to insane rise in the price of Bitcoin over the years but that’s simply the law of demand and supply acting in a free market.
On the flip side, Bitcoin prices also fall rapidly and many people get burned due to their such speculative investment!
- Bitcoin has no head/person controlling it
Bitcoin is based on the decentralized and censorship-resistant tech of blockchain and proof of work which makes sure that no one, in particular, is ‘in-charge’.
Clearly, with no one at the helm of Bitcoin, no one can run away or take over other people’s money or Bitcoin.
Conclusion: Crypto-Scams
Everything said and done, I understand that there are a lot of cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes going on but that doesn’t mean Bitcoin or the other currencies are fraudulent.
On the flip side, cryptocurrency market has been, is, and will be prone to such schemes because it is based on the decentralized technology of blockchain. Something which is based on decentralized tech and is hard to stop or regulate will give birth to Ponzi schemes but that doesn’t mean that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme.
Instead, use the parameters that I have discussed at the start of this article to educate and examine yourself whenever you encounter such Ponzi schemes and simply opt out of it.
Lastly, I would say, I am yet to see a Ponzi scheme like Bitcoin which does this:
Show me a ponzi scheme where the early investors donated $86 Million to charity and I’ll give you all my #bitcoins. https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7jj0oa/im_donating_5057_btc_to_charitable_causes/?utm_content=title&utm_medium=hot&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=Bitcoin …
I’m donating 5057 BTC to charitable causes! Introducing The…
Authored By SUDHIR KHATWANI
Hey there! I am Sudhir Khatwani, an IT bank professional turned into a cryptocurrency and blockchain proponent from Pune, India. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain will change human life in inconceivable ways and I am here to empower people to understand this new ecosystem so that they can use it for their benefit. You will find me reading about cryptonomics and eating if I am not doing anything else.
Blockchain Will Force Us To Put Our Big Boy / Big Girl Pants On
Author: Danette Wallace
When we transition to digital currencies and blockchain applications we will need to collectively grow up.
In western culture, we are accustomed to depending on external organizations to take care of our assets. Banks take care of our money, trusts take care of our properties, stock brokers take care of our investments. If we have an issue with any of these areas, there is a backup system in place. These external organizations are responsible for backing up our information because essentially we don’t own the data, they do.
The irony is that there is a sense of freedom that comes when your information is captured (much like there is a sense of freedom for children who don’t have to worry about paying for rent or food because their parents take care of it). As a society, we’re like children. We’re free of the worry of being 100% responsible for our information because centralized organizations take care of it, problem is, they also own it. With blockchain, all of that will change.
A SHIFT OF RESPONSIBILITY
With the move to digital currencies and blockchain applications, the safety of our assets and our sensitive information will become our individual responsibility. Currently, this is not the case. If we lose a valuable document, we can recover it from the organization that is responsible for keeping a record of it. There is often a record of what we own somewhere in the bureaucratic universe.
Because of this backup system, our minds tend to think of digital assets as “copies” of something that exists in the cloud somewhere. With decentralized blockchains, however, the original data exists on individual nodes only. In other words, the original data will often exist only in our phones. That’s what makes blockchain so different from other technologies. It allows for the digital asset to be the “original,” just like cash. But also like cash, if you lose it, you lose it.
TIME TO GROW UP
This may be a difficult transition for some. We all have that friend who seems to misplace their keys every other week or the family member who can’t find their eyeglasses even when the glasses are sitting on top of their head. These are the individuals who may have the hardest time with this new responsibility.
A number of people have lost millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin from being careless with their personal passwords to their Bitcoin accounts. Since the password doesn’t exist on a central database, if the person loses their password, there’s no way to recover it and the Bitcoin sits on the blockchain with no way to access it. As of July, 2018, a total of $44 billion worth of Bitcoin (6M Bitcoin) are left inaccessible and permanently lost on the Bitcoin blockchain. If you don’t want to lose access to your cryptocurrency, do whatever you can to keep your passwords safe.
Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the foremost Bitcoin experts, prints out his passwords and key phrases and puts the paper copies in bank safety deposit boxes. This is ironic given that Antonopoulos thinks banks will go by the wayside when cryptocurrency enters mainstream. I tend to agree with him. I have always said that banks should consider transitioning from monetary banks to information banks. That way they will continue to remain relevant.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK, KNOW WHO/WHAT TO TRUST
With the transition to blockchain, we will need to shift our trust from the banking system and government organizations to trusting the blockchain protocol. Blockchain is a unique technology because it’s able to hold records of people’s assets in a decentralized framework. Blockchain is often referred to as a trust-less system which means, with blockchain, we don’t need to trust people or institutions. The trust resides in the technology itself.
For some, trusting blockchain protocols may be difficult at first. This is often due to their misunderstanding of where to appropriately place their trust. The trust-less aspect of blockchain comes into play when the technology is used as it was intended…as a decentralized consensus platform. Trust should not be placed in centralized databases, even if they say they are using a blockchain. If they are using a centralized blockchain, then they are not using blockchain as it was intended. The user should be mature in their pursuit of knowledge and in their decision making and they should know who to trust.
For example, those that have done their homework know that the Bitcoin protocol has proven its trustworthiness. In the nine years that Bitcoin has been around, there has not been a successful theft from the protocol yet. This does not mean that people don’t try. Hackers are constantly trying to hack into Bitcoin. The reason they’re unsuccessful is because of the decentralized nature of the protocol. To successfully compromise the system, a hacker would need to gain consensus from the community to implement their changes but hackers are never able to gain that consensus. This is why a decentralized blockchain is safer than a centralized one. Regulations and laws do not prevent hackers from hacking into Bitcoin, the decentralized community does.
When data is kept in a centralized exchange, it’s more susceptible to theft and corruption. This is why it’s important to 1) know the difference between a centralized blockchain and a decentralized blockchain and 2) put our trust in the appropriate decentralized blockchains.
For proof of the safety of decentralized frameworks, all you have to do is look at the evidence.
- Amount of Bitcoin stolen from the decentralized Bitcoin protocol — $0
- Amount of Bitcoin stolen from centralized exchanges — $15 Billion
When there is a shift in trust from centralized organizations to decentralized blockchains and we gain an aptitude to know the difference, we will take on a new responsibility for the safety of our assets. That’s when we will collectively grow from blockchain infants to blockchain adolescents and have our big boy / big girl pants on.
“Blockchain Will Force Us To Put Our Big Boy / Big Girl Pants On”
Author: Danette Wallace
How Cryptocurrencies Already Help Sovereign Nations
Article by Scotcoin’s own Temple Melville published in City AM on 28/8/19
Cryptocurrencies are almost as old as money itself. Indeed, crypto simply means concealed or secret. So the first man (or woman) who tried to exchange some rocks for a sheep could be said to have been using a crypto currency. Up to that point a sheep had been worth 15 chickens. It’s simple, really. You attribute a symbolic sense to something you do not see.
Finance Houses and liquidity
Move on to the 1600s when after the Thirty Years War belief in what then passed for “money” was at a low. Something else had to be found, and it was, in the shape of strong finance houses with robust links to other similar houses. They issued their own currencies when the State currencies could no longer be trusted. Move on again to the American experience of the mid 1800s. There were over 8000 “currencies” – usually paper – being traded around the country with a big business in accepting and exchanging them. There had to be some form of currency to enable trade to take place as America expanded. These of course were seriously open to abuse and eventually the individuals and banks that had issued them had to bow to the Federal Government creating its own, reliable currency.
Liquidity created – WIR
In the 1930s there was to all intents and purposes no liquidity in any markets. Things were so bad that some of the good citizens of Zurich created their own currency to enable them to trade. This was called WIR and was, indeed, like those currencies before it, a crypto currency. Over the years it has prospered (perhaps one would expect a Swiss monetary instrument to do this) until today it is used by more than half a million people, over 70,000 businesses and transacts some CHF2.5billion annually – that’s around half a percent of Swiss GDP. By doing so, it illustrates exactly what “Money” is – a trusted medium of exchange that others will accept, and a stable store of value.
Crypto today
The present crop of crypto currencies rely on digital technology to give them credibility. You can’t have a run on the “Bank” for example – there isn’t one. Despite being relatively small in terms of value (only some 0.1% of total world assets) they already show what digital and crypto currencies can do to enhance people’s lives. As an example, if you want to send £1million to anywhere in the world, that will cost you between £20-30,000. Using a digital currency, it can be done for 50p. In fact, the Philippines is looking to create a Bitcoin transfer system for its overseas citizens. Using this system would save their economy over USD1.5 Billion a year – a significant sum in a poor country.
The three cryptos no one talks about
There are three interbank tools that are in effect digital currencies and have been for years. These are:
1. Target2 – the ECB system, the old Bundesbank system which is currently so politically in focus in respect of Italy
2. IMF SDRs – Special Drawing rights
3. The highly secret interbank settlement system at the BIS in Basle.
These three were absolutely crucial in getting the world through the 2007 crisis.
Hyun Song Shin of the BIS argued last year that cryptos (and he was specifically talking about Bitcoin) had issues with scalability and finality. At that time he was right as you would expect, but he was talking about first generation blockchain. We have since had second generation in Hyperledger, and now third generation called Permissioned Decentralised Blockchain. Facebook’s Libra will largely use this system and there can be no doubt this will revolutionise the use of digital and crypto currencies world-wide. We’ve gone from around 35 million wallets to a potential 2.7 BILLION. But Shin’s central thesis holds good – you need people to USE these new currencies to make them both trusted and useful, and having exchanged goods for the currency, the person TAKING the currency needs to find someone else to take it as well.
Cash declining
The use of cash has been declining for years in most western countries, and the Central Banks have realised that it will have to be replaced with something. To this end both Sweden and Uruguay have run full scale crypto trials which have largely been successful, though not set for full implementation anytime soon.
The use of crypto currencies can and should mean social inclusion. Whilst Central Banks’ attitude remains “Bitcoin is not a good idea,” the idea behind it continues to fire imaginations all around the world.
The Brixton Pound
This remains a very positive initiative which is making a real difference within Brixton. Arguably it’s as old as Bitcoin. People are prepared to use it and pass it on – and the money stays in Brixton. That is different from the likes of Bitcoin which is world-wide, but it doesn’t detract from the social inclusiveness of it. We look to history for lessons on the nature of money and the role of central banks in building trust in the use of money in society. The issue of trust has again come to the fore in debates on the durability of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and how far private money can supplant central bank money as a medium of exchange.
Future payment needs
In the future, physical cash or even bank transfers as we currently know them are unlikely to be the main answer. Central banks are already working on systems and digital currencies that will be trusted and used. Existing crypto-assets have exhibited a high degree of volatility and are considered an immature asset class given the lack of standardisation and constant evolution. They present a number of risks for banks, including liquidity risk; credit risk; market risk; operational risk (including fraud and cyber risks); money laundering and terrorist financing risk; and legal and reputation risks. But new know your customer and anti-money laundering rules will mitigate much of this.
In many ways, the African sub-Saharan region has become a leader in mobile money resulting in a radical change in the delivery of financial services and significant gains in financial inclusion. Where there is a lack of payment infrastructure, the use of crypto currencies immediately enhances trade and social inclusion. You only have to think of Eastern Europe which hardly had a fixed line telephone system before 1989, and suddenly every man and his dog had a mobile phone, leapfrogging to a new world.
Christine Lagarde in an excellent speech to the November 2018 Singapore Fintech Conference, has posed the question – should central banks issue a new digital form of money?
Arguably they already have. As such, it can only be seen as a force for good.
Welcoming Better Regulation
For the past 2 years, Scotcoin has performed KYC checks on all purchasers via the official exchange. We wholeheartedly welcome better regulation – and are leading the way!
Bitcoin and other digital currencies are a “Wild West industry” and need to be regulated to protect investors, a committee of MPs has urged. | BBC News
‘Wild West’ Bitcoin ‘should be regulated’ – FULL ARTICLE
Scotcoin – Scotland’s Own Digital Currency, a World Coin With a Scottish Ethos
– A speech by Temple Melville to Scottish Fintech on Wednesday 19th September 2018
“Good afternoon! I represent Scotcoin, Scotland’s own digital currency, a World Coin with a Scottish Ethos.
I have just three things to tell you about today, all of them important. One is potentially profitable for you, one will benefit all the people of Scotland and one will target individuals and groups in need.
But before I do that, does everyone here know what blockchain is? And do you know that blockchain is an enabling technology, that it can exist without Bitcoin or any other coin, but that Bitcoin could not exist without the blockchain? Scotcoin is on a blockchain – more a little later.
So number one, how will what I have said be profitable be for you?
A little history. Scotcoin began in 2013 and is now one of the longest-lived country crypto currencies. We presently sit on the Counterparty Protocol which makes use of the Bitcoin blockchain. The problem is this particular blockchain has several drawbacks. Not the least is that in the world of regulation that is coming to cryptos, there is no method for ensuring who is sending what to who. So we at Scotcoin decided a couple of years ago we had to do something different.
As you can see, Bitcoin can only do seven transactions per second. It takes 12 minutes to confirm a transaction, the cost per transaction when volumes are high is extremely volatile, and it uses more electricity than Denmark. None of that is very good.
Scotcoin, on the other hand, intends to move to its own permissioned blockchain shortly which will encompass KYC (know your customer) and AML (Anti-money laundering) to comply with all present and potential future regulations. We at Scotcoin are well ahead on this track – a committee of MPs has just published a paper daying that crypto currencies and Bitcoin in particular should be regulated.
You can see from the graphic which shows results from our testing that we should be able to do more than 50 transactions per second. We should also be able to confirm transactions in mere seconds, and the power usage should be infinitesimal in comparison to Bitcoin. If we can deploy our new blockchain with these parameters, Scotland will have another world beating industry.
We have several thousand holders of Scotcoin and have holders in more than 50 countries worldwide. On migration to our new blockchain, present holders of Scotcoin will be rewarded for their support by receiving a 4-for-1 bonus, an effective increase in value of up to 5 times.
Yes, you heard that right. I’ll repeat that. An effective increase in value of 5 times. That means if you have £10 of Scotcoin in its present form, in its NEW form you will have £50. So point one, that is how it will be profitable for you in the first instance, as long as you already have Scotcoin, or buy some very shortly.
In respect of point 2, we intend to occupy the social good works ecosystem and our plans are well advanced to do this. Scotcoin has been offered to the Scottish Government and discussions are ongoing. But in essence, the idea is that there will be established a commonweal fund that will be able to be used throughout Scotland to assist where the powers that be may not be able to step up to the mark. The point is that everyone in Scotland should benefit from this fund, and quite frankly this will be helping the Scottish economy to progress in the future.
And finally, point 3. I’m sure you’ve all heard of Social Bite and The Big issue. These organisations help people that have problems to get on their feet again. This is both our goal and our desire. I can think of no better future monument to Scotcoin than if people are able to say, Scotcoin eradicated homelessness in Scotland. And we are in good company here – Jeff Bezos has just announced a $2 billion fund to do exactly that.
So from all our perspectives, let’s pull together to make Scotcoin a World Coin, But with a Scottish Ethos.
And to be clear, what do we mean by a Scottish Ethos? Scotland has a long history of financial innovation and strong security for its money. We aim to keep to these traditions for Scotcoin. But the Scots also have a long and noble tradition of good works, charitable giving, of invention and forward looking. We aim to bring all these to bear by using Scotcoin in a way to enhance people’s lives right here in Scotland.”
Chocolate Bitcoins
If you are a chocoholic like me, you just might know that Belgium has been involved with the manufacture and sale of chocolate for nearly 400 years. Yes, 400 years. It has more than 2000 chocolate shops selling just – chocolate. They manufacture over 170,000 tons a year. It’s a big business. And it’s been growing for 400 years.
And that is actually the point here. It’s been growing for 400 years. What was it like after say…. 10 years? Around 1645……
Well, I’m not pretending I know exactly how much they produced, but I do know (from historical records) there were less than ten chocolate shops. So let’s just think what that means. In the last 373 years, the number of shops has grown from 10 to 2000. It represents an increase of just over 5 chocolate shops per year, every year, from then until now. That may not sound like much but look where it has ended up.
Now go back just say… 10 years from today. And hey, there’s this new thing called blockchain. And it does something called Bitcoin. And hey, usage, knowledge, and acceptance is growing.
My point is this blockchain business is absolutely in its infancy. It’s probably less accepted than chocolate was in Belgium after 10 years. From my point of view there is no contest between chocolate and the blockchain, but suppose blockchain grows as we all think it will.
All our present institutions and technology has had years to mature. Banks, as we know them, are 300 plus years old. The UK Parliament has been growing and evolving for more than 700 years.
So as regulators and central banks try to frame responses to where we are with blockchain and crypto currencies, let’s just reflect on how young this all is.
Let it grow. Let it evolve. Let it mature. And let it enrich – exactly has chocolate has done.
