Money is central to our never-ending search for a free lunch because it is a proxy for our most precious resources – time and energy.
If you asked the average person in the street what two things they would want more of, the likely answer would be time and money. Joe Public is working harder for less and increasingly living day-to-day. Economists might explain it through changes in time preference. But what is time preference, and why is it changing? Find out via a four-paragraph history of civilisation, an episode of Atlanta and Bitcoin.
If there was ever a product that promised the Holy Grail of a free lunch, then crypto’s new breed of No Loss Lottery certainly sounds like it fits the bill. Can products like PoolTogether live up to their name or is this a very familiar approach served up in a fancy new wrapper?
Hodling is a meme describing the commitment needed to hold Bitcoin, but the unique characteristics of this new internet money present hodlers with a unique dilemma.
Everyone knows of Frankenstein, the story of an experiment to cobble together a super-human from remnant parts of corpses, that goes horribly wrong. Governments are trying something similar right now with money – called CBDCs – and the results could be just as ugly and out of control as Frankenstein’s monster.
Money is changing. Governments are waging wars on cash and crypto, citing issues around anonymity and crime, but is there a more sinister reason?
Is Dogecoin the ultimate illustration of the crassness of crypto, or is there a more meaningful side to the Shibu meme-coin?
If money works for you, why would you question it? Contactless payment in store; frictionless payment online; loans, credit cards, savings. For most Westerners there is little reason to question how those things happen, the only challenge is how much money you have, not how it works. But that isn’t the experience for everyone.
The universe functions such that for every action there is a reaction, and conversely, nothing happens without some force or energy being applied. QED – This should also apply to money. But we live in times where logic seems to be breaking down, the biggest demonstration of which are negative interest rates.
