Only took google to hand them a sweetheart deal for their data and jacking up their organic presence in search x10 to get there
They've also been the fastest to cut rates in Europe, so even these numbers aren't without an attempt to juice it, along with the usual massaging of numbers which shows how deep this really goes
Looks like they're calling a local top, hmmm dumping 7% of your stash wonder what its for? Expand operations, generate some runway in expectation of vol head or unrelated government operations?
Will be interesting to see how they deploy this capital
Just a bunch of half baked ideas and click bait videos to get the tech enthusiasts excited, theres way too many people thinking that you can bend the laws of physics if you throw enough money at a problem/solution
Thunderfoot critiques this guys vids on the regular and it's hilarious
Lol isn't it meant to be a spectrum? Mstdn and bluesky are federated so technically more decentralised than current social, nostr is just way way out there with its relay network and list of clients
Lol reminds me of idiocracy intro, but yeah smart people overthink it, the rest of us just pucker up and suck face, and not worry about that cold sore if it comes or not
Trust in government from the average tax-payer is pretty low, but from the other side which are unemployed/students/tenderpreneurs still pretty high since they're just waiting for the next handout
I'd say gold and stuff like Kruggarrand aren't that popular anymore, people who actively invest are in offshore capital markets like FTSE or S&P500 through various wrapper products while some try to acquire and trade local stocks (currently simliar size to Bitcoins market cap 1.35 T USD) let's say that's around 20+%, we have our own versions of Robinhood that deal with local markets and give people access to some international products
I'd say 10% of people have some exposure to Bitcoin and shitcoins in some way shape or form but it's growing however, very little self-custody, mostly speculation and trying to turn themselves into a large tax liability via capital gains
The largest portion of people who are investing/saving are in some sort of passive vehicle through retirement annuities, preservation funds or some unit trust, REIT that was sold to them either via their company or some broker. They couldn't be arsed to know what's in it, just that they need to contribute to it
Then there's the majority sitting in cash getting rekt by inflation but avoid a lot of taxes in the grey economy so the trade-off works for them.
While a small portio continue to pump up the real estate market in Cape Town which is the only area that continues to see growth
I feel you on a spiritual level I'm in South Africa and the Rand is not doing anyone any favours, people are still so reliant on this flawed accounting system and refuse to take a deep look at the issue staring them right in the face, because the alternative is the perceived vol of bitcoin and a steep learning curve and at the end personal responsiblity
As a self employed person, I know its always been on me to perform and generating capital I now I only have so many hours I can monetise, and if I didnt have this superior asset all that work and delayed gratification I did would be worth less and less trending towards nothing
Lol self employed here and I live on the terms of my clients I am but a vessel that converts labour into sats and hope it all works out
Lol looking forward to how they explain the cut in hours, people working more part time jobs, people not able to get into work because costs are so high so the most unskilled are relegated to unemployment as the semi skilled fight for any job left oh and then the taxes eroding that so called gain in wages ensuring they're not even walking home with that much
That's the beauty of hodling you can opt-out at any time and enjoy short-term pleasures and live with the regret later lol
Normies don't want a solution to their problems, they just want to complain, many of us started out as normies but were motivated to take action and accountability, put in the time and effort and we're now willing to walk the walk
Personally hodling doesn't suck as much as what I was doing before buying index funds, stonks and trying to save that sucks balls
Lol and that kids is how you get inflation double whammy, more money driving down the need to work, the need to work drives down the production of goods and services and the doom loop continues
But yeah lets do more tests, MOAR!!! Our little Potemkin village isn't a good enough sample, make it bigger, throw more money at it lol
Great summary and I agree that KYG is going to become important if FEDI is to take off, yes now you're trusting the main fedi but if this rolls out into different parts of the world having a physical relationship with atleast one of the custodians makes sense, this could be a friend or local community group, company etc
My concern here is while this model does work, we have it here in South Africa, its called a stokvel there are times when the custodians rug, what seems to reduce rugging is the abliity to generate an income
So many times groups elect to use the capital to give out loans to members who pay back at an interest and then that capital is added back into the pot and paid back to members
Again risk involved and if you're not happy with it leave the mint, but I think it will be interesting to see how the pooled capital is used to create business models with incentives to act above board
It sounds like a cool product, basically the tether trade, but you're giving up a few BIPs, if you are the type to buy on an exchange, and you're leaving funds to DCA and you collect interest in BTC on the cash balance that's an advantage
But what's the friction on this product as a US citizen versus the DIY option
Couldn't you just put your cash deposits in a money market fund or buy 3 month paper yourself and sweep the funds into Bitcoin?
Someones gotta pay the bills right?
To me it's interesting to see the price points and how this drives users, for some $21 per month to keep your stash safe and have access to UC is such a tiny marginal cost compared to their stack and the growth of their portfolio, to others its an incentive to DIY or worse go custodial
If you're using the ETF for example and you're paying 0.5% to 2% annually I still think this fee is competitive, if you've got a 50 million sats - 1 BTC holding