A surprisingly good meeting this week in the UK Parliament with Lords, MPs and many industry people. Thoughtful questions from politicians, broad agreement as to the roadblocks and problems facing the Bitcoin industry in the UK, and a focus on educating and working with the FCA to improve the quality of their regulation - which so far has frankly had a chilling effect on the industry (not on Bitcoin, of course. Bitcoin doesn't care).

And isn't that Visitor Pass colour a good omen?

GM

Popularized by Michael Saylor, “Bitcoin torque” refers to the extra value generated per dollar invested in Bitcoin.

Torque = current value of Bitcoin holdings ÷ total dollars spent

It applies equally to mining capex, convertible bonds, or spot purchases. Every dollar in counts the same.

By this measure, Tesla and Block stand out as top performers thanks to their early buy-in and stack retention.

no comment

Have you seen the recent Financial Times film about Saylor and Strategy?

I would cautiously describe it as a neutral piece..

We know that legacy (financial) media has been criticizing Bitcoin ever since. In my perception, it has improved slightly, perhaps due to the bull market phenomenon. This includes the FT.

Still, they admit that they have no idea about Bitcoin (Cudos!) and think that it has no obvious use case and is therefore an inherently speculative bet.

They don't understand the scarcity aspect of Bitcoin. They cannot see why Bitcoin won't forever "go up" in fiat terms.

Unless they can separate Bitcoin from "crypto," I have little hope that they will realize the key innovations brought forth with Bitcoin.

They will surely come around at some point, as some individual commentators already have.

As for MSTR, they still describe it as a meme stock. I'm not sure one can fully understand Saylor's financial engineering without having a solid understanding of Bitcoin.

Time will tell how MSTR and its other financial products will hold up during upcoming bear markets, and it remains to be seen how other companies will implement this playbook.

This is where I see the risk arising. Bandwagoners jumping on something they don't understand or cannot make work.

The FT would be best advised to finally study Bitcoin in depth. Can't wait for them to announce their Bitcoin Strategy.

Highly profitable operating businesses that roll profits into bitcoin is way more exciting than pure play bitcoin treasury companies.

There has never been a better time to start a business that finds PMF and cash flows quickly with 2-3 people.

Bitcoin + AI will be the most powerful combined force of this decade. If you’re not leveraging both in your business you’re making a big mistake.

Part of a deck I have been using to present to local and regional banks for the last couple of months. May as well start marinating TradFi in the future sooner than later. Also been sharing it with local high equity homeowners and real estate investors. Teaching how to front-run big players by bulk-buying bitcoin with equity that isn’t already working hard for them.

Okay but actually the remote control app for an AC unit does not need an AI chatbot button.

There are some amazing wallets in the space that we have great respect for, but long-term our eyes are on PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp.

That’s the bar we have to clear.

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You’ll never be able to spin altcoins around in a particle accelerator and create Bitcoin.

In Europe we will be the last to understand it. The last to arrive and the first to take it in the ass. Obviously in Europe I also include England

This thing can buy 13 Bitcoin.

This week, I attended the FT Digital Assets Summit, and while the focus was largely on 'crypto', Bitcoin kept finding its way back into the conversation.

Economic Secretary Emma Reynolds ruled out the idea of a UK national Bitcoin reserve during the Summit in London, stating it's "not appropriate for our market." She added, “We understand that’s what the U.S. is going for, but that’s not the plan for us.”

A disappointing (if predictable) stance, especially as more forward-thinking jurisdictions begin to explore the benefits of holding Bitcoin at a national level.

I was on the "Building Trust – Risk Management and Compliance Strategies" panel, which turned out to be far more engaging than the title suggests. Some of the panellists claimed regulators were listening to companies and doing a good job, which was jaw dropping to say the least.

Richard Byworth from Syz Capital nailed it on his panel about institutional adoption. He kept steering the conversation back to Bitcoin and summed it up perfectly when he said:

"Regulators are not doing their job".

Despite the out-of-touch comments from the Economic Secretary and some questionable optimism from industry, there were some encouraging moments. Lord Chris Holmes, who has previously leaned hard into CBDCS and digital ID, commented positively about Bitcoin. A sign that there are some in the House of Lords beginning to grasp its economic potential.

The summit may not have been Bitcoin focused, but Bitcoin had a presence, and momentum is building, even if the policymakers lag behind and companies leave in their droves.

⚡️🇪🇺 NEW - The European Union plans to ban anonymized cryptocurrencies and privacy-focused tokens by 2027, as part of new anti-money laundering rules.

The idea of Tokenizing Fine Wine is clever. But it only makes sense in a world distorted by fiat money.

Platforms like Bacchus and VinoVest let people buy fractional shares of rare bottles as an alternative investment. The demand for this product is coming from people looking for new ways to protect or grow their wealth as the value of fiat erodes. This is the same force driving crypto speculation, meme stocks, the explosion of sports betting and the rise of the S&P 500. When saving doesn’t work, you're forced further out on the risk curve.

Vintage wine is a great candidate for financialization. It is more scarce than Bitcoin. Once a vintage is gone, it’s gone and unlike bitcoin, its consumable. The best bottles can increase in value for decades. But ultimately, wine is not forever. It peaks, then fades and the fleeting goal of collectors is to time the peak...by drinking it. The highest purpose of wine is to be opened and enjoyed. That purpose disappears when a bottle becomes a line item in your brokerage app.

Tokenizing wine solves problems that only exist in the fiat world. It is a way to turn enjoyment into speculation, but it kills wine's fundamental value prop. YOU DON'T GET TO TASTE YOUR FRACTION. No one is going to mail you a sip of wine. You just have to hope someone else wants it more later. That logic treats wine less like culture and more like collateral.

In a world where money works, where saving in Bitcoin preserves your time and energy, you don’t need to chase exposure to an obscure asset class that you probably don't understand.. You don’t need a token for everything. These platforms aren’t bad ideas. They are just ideas for a broken system.

Fix the money, fix the incentives.

Make Wine Wine Again.

If you enjoyed this, I'd massively appreciate a reNost.

I'll have more like this coming.🍷

Hi friends I'm about to start the afternoon shift at the steel mill 🏭 I'm on duty until 9 tonight. Let's hope it's a light day. Enjoy this Wednesday. It's been 5 days in a row that I started running again after 1 year that I was stopped. I feel better. Running is a natural medicine. Also this morning I ran 40 minutes. Goal to get back in shape for the summer. Lose at least 5kg. I'm going to the ward now. Hello everyone if I have time I will connect here on nostr.

💜🧡🏴‍☠️💪✌️

#work #steelmill #running #happywednesday

Carry cash you idiots.

(Context: there's a massive blackout in Spain and Portugal that has taken down card networks, among many other things)