📔 Weekly Journal: Hardware is hard 🍎🛠️
[8min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news & treats as well as the eye-watering price on Apples imminent XR headset
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in digital assets, emerging technology, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 25 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: Crypto flat, NZ govt announced budget, and Eth network strong
🗞️ Interesting news: Peter Thiel backs Bitcoin startup, Apple announces its XR headset price, EU crypto regulation passes
👓 Read of the week: Thinkpiece making a fascinating case that Bitcoin is the largest insurance Company in the world.
🎥 Video of the week: 15 emerging technologies to get you excited about the future
🤖 This week’s AI showcase: Apple’s AI features coming in iOS 17
✅ Weekly poll: Help chose the emerging tech topic for Wedensday’s showcase
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market update 📈
🥝 The NZ government anticipates a tax revenue increase of $7.6 billion in the 2023/24 fiscal year, with households expected to bear the majority of this burden.
Taxes on individuals, including income taxes and goods and services tax (GST), constitute over half of the total revenue.
Pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) taxes are projected to rise by 6.0%, and GST is expected to increase by 9.2% within the year.
These changes represent an additional $4.7 billion in tax revenue, equivalent to 1.1% of the country's GDP.
🔷 In the lead-up to Ethereum's Shapella upgrades, there were debates about the impact of activating staked Ether withdrawals. However, one month after the upgrade, the results show that daily staking deposits have increased by 500%. The net impact on the network has been minimal, with 19.3 million ETH on the Beacon Chain. Centralized exchanges account for the majority of staked ETH withdrawal requests, but most of the withdrawn ETH is used for internal operations.
7-day Crypto Heatmap below shows a pretty flat week (size of the blocks are market share, colour & % show the change over the last week)
🎭 Sentiment levels are still (just) in the fear zone:
Interesting news
🇪🇺 The European Union has approved comprehensive rules to regulate cryptoassets, putting pressure on countries like the UK and the US to catch up. The rules, expected to be implemented from 2024, aim to protect investors and prevent money laundering. Firms in the EU will need a license to issue, trade, and safeguard cryptoassets. The EU also took steps to combat tax evasion and money laundering by making transactions more traceable. Crypto firms seek regulatory certainty, urging other countries to follow the EU's lead. The UK has outlined a phased approach, while the US is still deciding on its regulatory approach.
💸 Bitcoin financial services company River has raised $35 million in a Series B funding round with participation from heavyweight Peter Thiel. River offers various bitcoin-related services, including zero-fee dollar-cost averaging, mining, custody, and Lightning Network support. CEO Alex Leishman highlighted Bitcoin's importance in creating a fair and transparent global economy. The funding round signifies River's dedication to providing an accessible way for individuals to invest in Bitcoin.
🍎 Apple has put a price on their iminant VR/AR headset, around $3,000. While the device is expected to have impressive hardware and mixed reality capabilities, its high price raises concerns. Hardware is hard, especially when trying to scale new technology. The software ecosystem and competition from other VR headsets will play a crucial role in determining its success. The headset may be revealed at the Worldwide Developers Conference, and its release timeline and level of polish remain uncertain.
🦅 Elon Musk confirmed Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter, focusing on business operations while Musk remains involved in product design and new technology. Yaccarino, with a background in advertising, could play a crucial role in attracting advertisers to Twitter. Musk's tenure at Twitter has been tumultuous, with significant changes to the platform and community in his masterplan to make “X - the app for everything”. Yaccarino's challenge will be regaining advertisers' trust and stabilizing the platform while gaining Musk's support on the product side. Some have raised concerns about Yaccarino's affiliations and political leanings.
👓Read of the Week
In “Is Bitcoin The Largest Insurance Company In The World?” Pomp makes the case that Bitcoin is the world's largest insurance policy:
It serves as insurance against various risks such as currency debasement, sovereign default, undisciplined monetary and fiscal policy, seizure, and economic censorship.
Bitcoin functions differently from traditional insurance policies, as holders pay a one-time premium and its value increases when the legacy financial system experiences crises.
Bitcoin's decentralized nature, programmable digital product, and ability to be audited by anyone make it a reliable alternative.
This concept introduces a new type of insurance that covers events previously uninsured, offering protection against economic risks.
A fresh take, what do you think?
Video of the week 🎥
Something to get you all excited about the future, I enjoyed this video on 15 emerging technologies. My top 5 were:
Sticker solar panels
6G networks
Disease-fighting nanorobots
Quantum computing
The metaverse 😎
Let me know what you think in the comments!
This week’s AI showcase🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
Each week I showcase something amazing generated by an AI-based tool. AI is disruptive, challenging industries and driving innovation. My vision of the emerging Metaverse predicts the use of many AI tools to enhance how we work, learn, play and socialise.
Emerging tech ceases to be emerging when it is ubiquitous. AI is still very much emerging and growing but Apple’s announcement integrating AI features into iOS 17 is a big deal. Here are the key things to know:
Apple has unveiled upcoming accessibility features in iOS 17 aimed at assisting users with speech, vision, and cognitive disabilities.
These features include typing for nonspeaking individuals that translate into synthesized speech, creating personalized synthesized voices, and redesigning apps like Photos, Camera, or Music to reduce cognitive load.
Other features include focusing on visual media for communication and a "Point and Speak" mode within Magnifier for users with poor vision.
Apple's commitment to accessibility is reflected in its efforts to make technology products more inclusive, and other companies like Google, Microsoft, and Sony are also prioritizing accessibility features in their products.
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. An investor can buy more of the asset when prices are low and fewer when prices are high, which averages out the overall cost of investment (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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