May 3, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

• Jack Dorsey, Michael Saylor, Fidelity, and others wrote a letter of rebuttal to House Democrats, whom Bitcoiners believe misconstrued certain facts about proof-of-work mining in a recent analysis.

• An attack on Near’s Rainbow bridge was successfullyrefuted.

• Fidelity’s digital asset lead Christine Sandler (a previous guest on Unchained) has left the company to join a crypto investment firm.

• ApeCoin fell double-digit percentage points yesterday in the wake of the Otherdeed NFT drop.

• Crypto.com’s token CRO dropped 11% yesterday after credit card rewards were slashed. (Disclosure: Crypto.comis a sponsor of my podcasts.)

• OpenSea saw its highest amount of daily volume yesterday.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

• The PGA Tour has partnered with Sorare and Autograph to launch golf NFTs.

• The Philippines will pilot a CBDC this year.

• VanEck is dropping an NFT collection.

• Argentina’s largest private bank will now allow users to buy BTC, ETH, USDC, and XRP.

The $$$ Corner…

• Slow news day!

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Buffet Isn’t a Fan of BTC

Berkshire Hathaway hosted its annual shareholder meeting in Omaha this weekend. Amid a five-hour Q&A session covering a broad range of topics with Berkshire Hathaway’s renowned leaders, chairman Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger, Bitcoin was brought up quite a few times (as covered by CNBC).

Unsurprisingly, Buffett and Munger spoke of Bitcoin in a negative light. Based on their words from the Q&A, they are reluctant to accept Bitcoin as either a form of money or an investment opportunity.

“Assets, to have value, have to deliver something to somebody. And there’s only one currency that’s accepted. You can come up with all kinds of things. We can put up Berkshire coins, put up Berkshire money but in the end, this is money,” Buffet said, holding up a $20 bill. “And there’s no reason in the world why the United States government … is going to let Berkshire money replace theirs.”

Buffet continued, explaining that he is skeptical of Bitcoin compared to things like real estate.

 “[If] you offer me 1% of all the apartment houses in the country and you want another $25 billion, I’ll write you a check, it’s very simple. Now if you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything. The apartments are going to produce rent and the farms are going to produce food.”

Munger joined in, taking a shot at Fidelity’s recent announcement that they would support BTC in 401(k) accounts:

 “When you have your own retirement account, and your friendly adviser suggests you put all the money into bitcoin, just say no,” he said. The words coming out of Berkshire Hathaway come in juxtaposition to Tesla. In a recent SEC filing, the electric vehicle company expressed excitement for the future of digital assets as an alternative to fiat. “We believe in the long-term potential of digital assets both as an investment and also as a liquid alternative to cash,” wrote Tesla in its latest 10-K.

Recommended Reads

1. Preston Byrne on creating a decentralized Twitter:

2. Variant Fund on recent trends in token distribution:

3. @Route2FI on crypto and DeFi:

On The Pod…

RAC and David Greenstein on Why Music NFTs Are Better Than Spotify

André Allen Anjos, who is better known as the crypto-friendly artist RAC, and David Greenstein, co-founder of Sound.xyz, a web3 music platform, analyze the current state of the web3 music scene and discuss how artists can leverage web3 tools to get paid at fair market value for their art. Show highlights:

• RAC’s experience in the traditional music industry

• why David believes music is the most undervalued sector in the world – and how Sound and crypto can help value it correctly

• the different types of NFTs with which musicians like RAC are experimenting

• what Sound.xyz is and how it is helping artists unlock their fanbase and community

• why David is so passionate about creating a social experience when it comes to music NFTs

• Sound.xyz’s decision to allow artists to deploy their own smart contracts

• what RAC has made in NFT drops compared to Spotify streams

• why Sound.xyz was built with “editions” as the most common format for NFTs sold on the platform

• what makes blockchain technology well-suited for the music industry

• RAC’s crypto adventures: $TAPE, $RAC, and more …

• how the famous “Amen Break” sample would work as an NFT

• what artists will be measured by in the NFT world

Book Update

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians