📔 Weekly Journal: Disney releases NFTs 🐭🌐💸
[6 min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news as well as Disney's NFT platform tapping into the brand equity of one very famous mouse.
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in emerging technology, digital assets, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 52 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
Ryan
Here’s what you’re getting today:
📈 Market update: Bitcoin's price surges past $38,000, MicroStrategy bolsters its Bitcoin holdings with a $600 million purchase of 16,130 BTC 🤯
🗞️ Interesting news: Disney’s new NFT collectibles platform, Sony exploring blockchain's potential for copyright management.
👓 Read of the week: The Grayscale report on Bitcoin supply dynamics, predicting reduced liquidity in early 2024.
🎥 Video of the week: Expert Matthew Ball explains what the Metaverse is, what it isn’t, and why it matters.
🤖 AI: OpenAI’s controversial project Q*, rumoured to be early AGI (that’s the scary one)
✅ Weekly poll: Help choose the emerging tech topic for Wednesday’s showcase.
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market Update
Despite market expectations, Bitcoin's price surged past $38,000, indicating potential bullish momentum. MicroStrategy has bolstered its Bitcoin holdings to $6.5 billion with a $600 million purchase of 16,130 BTC.
MicroStrategy's consistent commitment to investing in Bitcoin has become a key aspect of its financial strategy, led by Chairman Michael Saylor. This strategic move aligns with the company's ongoing initiative, initiated in 2020, contributing significantly to its impressive year-to-date stock performance.
🔥🗺️ 7-day heatmap below shows another green week:
🎭 Crypto Fear and Greed Index is based on volatility, social media sentiments, surveys, market momentum, and a few other bits and pieces. Still in “greed” zone and creeping higher.
Interesting news from this week🗞️
Disney is set to enter the blockchain space with its NFT collectibles platform, Disney Pinnacle, developed in collaboration with Dapper Labs, creators of NBA Top Shot. Inspired by Disney's iconic theme park pins, the platform will mint pin-inspired digital collectibles as NFTs on the Flow blockchain.
The mobile-exclusive platform aims to cater to both everyday fans and high-end collectors, offering a unique digital collecting experience. Meanwhile, Sony is also embracing blockchain, partnering with Startale Labs to explore blockchain's transformative potential across various sectors, including copyright management. Both Disney and Sony's forays into blockchain signal a significant shift in the entertainment industry, showcasing the technology's potential to reshape various sectors beyond cryptocurrency speculation.
In less magical news, crypto corruption in Ukraine. Amid global concerns about accountability for the spending of (literally) billions on US aid funds, Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) seized $1.5 million in crypto assets, including 6.9 BTC, from ex-Special Communications Service chief Yury Shchigol. Shchigol and deputy Victor Zhor are accused of embezzling $1.8 million in government funds through a scheme involving overpriced software purchases made secretly. Zhor was arrested, revealing a pattern of Ukrainian officials using crypto, as seen in 2021 with civil servants reporting substantial bitcoin holdings.
👓Read of the Week
This weeks read is a research report “Demystifying Bitcoin's Ownership Landscape” by Grayscale which explores Bitcoin supply dynamics, predicting reduced liquidity in early 2024.
This coincides with the potential approval of US spot Bitcoin ETFs, enhancing the digital asset's value. Grayscale anticipates positive valuations due to tight Bitcoin supply and increased investor inflows. However, it highlights risks, including a 'hard landing' for the US economy, which could impede crypto recovery.
My favourite quote and chart from the report:
In contrast to other historically high-risk, high-return assets, like private equity and venture capital, that are only available to accredited investors, Bitcoin is accessible to a global retail audience (with access to the internet). As such, Bitcoin’s ownership structure reflects the decentralized, open-source nature of Bitcoin’s technology. In reality, only 2.3% of all Bitcoin owners own 1 BTC or more (worth around $35K per Bitcoin as of November 6th, 2023).
🎥 Watch of the week
Why should anyone care about the metaverse? Expert Matthew Ball explains what it is, what it isn’t, and why it matters.
AI 🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
OpenAI is reportedly working on a top-secret project named Q* that has sparked concerns among researchers due to its potential to solve complex problems using vast computing resources. There is conjecture that this was behind the recent firing and hiring back of CEO Sam Altman.
While details remain scarce, sources claim that the model, although currently performing at a grade-school level, has demonstrated promising results in solving mathematical problems. The project, led by Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's chief scientist, involves the use of "process supervision" to reduce errors made by large language models (LLMs).
Speculation suggests that Q* may utilize reinforcement learning and synthetic data to train LLMs for specific tasks, such as arithmetic. The secrecy surrounding Q* has led to concerns among researchers focused on AI safety, reminiscent of past controversies over OpenAI's GPT-2. The company has yet to comment on the project.
Weekly Poll ✅
Help choose what you would like to learn about on Wednesday for my weekly emerging tech showcase:
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market price. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. Motto = time IN the market beats trying to time the market
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
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