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Crypto Week: The Use Cases For Cryptocurrency

HOSTS Alec Renehan & Bryce Leske|28 March, 2021

Sponsored by Bamboo

This week, it’s a little bit different at Equity Mates… we’re celebrating Crypto Week! It’s a whole week of crypto content, from the basics, to interviews with experts… and we promise to be the only crypto content on the internet that doesn’t ever mention the price. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about this world of blockchain technology.

In today’s episode, we think ask whether crypto useful or is it just price speculation, we look at a handful of the 4, 000 plus cryptocurrencies available, and consider whether it’s time for a EM coin to enter the market.

There’s a lot of noise out there, but we’ve partnered with two companies that we believe in when it comes to the crypto space.

Bamboo.io

Take the emotion out of investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gold and Silver with micro-investing app, Bamboo. Use EQUITY MATES for $10 when you sign-up

Swyftx

Get $15 of Bitcoin, using one of our favourite crypto-currency exchanges, Swyftx

If you want to let Alec or Bryce know what you think of an episode, contact them here

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Bryce Leske: [00:00:56] Welcome to another episode of Equity Markets, a podcast that follows our journey of investing, whether you're an absolute beginner or approaching Warren Buffett status, our aim is to help break down your investing journey from beginning to dividend. My name is Price and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy Ren. How are you going? [00:01:12][15.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:01:12] I'm good. We often say, well, I often say I'm excited for this episode, but I'm not only excited for this episode, I'm excited for this week because we have a listener survey out at the moment. People can still fill it in a couple of days to go. But one of the big requests that we got was more krypto content. It's hot right now. And so we don't want to, you know, we want to in equities podcast. But we do you know, we are interested in crypto a crypto curious, you could say. So we're going to do a week. We're going to do a bunch of content in the week. We've got today's episode. We've got two interviews on equity mates. Later this week, we're going to do an episode on and get started investing with the very basics and we're going to try and smash it all out in a week. [00:02:02][50.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:03] Yes. And then that's it. Well, no more crypto. [00:02:06][2.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:02:06] Well yeah. We'll say, well [00:02:08][1.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:09] we are going to remain holy. We might [00:02:10][1.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:02:11] like equities. No, we're not going to make that promise because there may there may be a corner of the episodes ongoing. [00:02:18][7.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:19] We're not going to do invest sorry. We study billionaires and kick one of the hosts off. [00:02:24][5.3]

Alec Renehan: [00:02:24] No, no, no, no. We're not going to split up and do separate shows on the same field. [00:02:28][3.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:28] No. So, yes, this is crypto week. We're going to do our best to go from A to Z when it comes to crypto as there is a lot to unpack. Before we do, though, keep your eyes peeled. We are incredibly excited to announce that in late April we are going to be doing a live show which we are super excited about, and that is going to be the first live show we've done since covid hit. [00:02:54][25.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:02:55] Yeah, in a while. [00:02:56][1.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:57] It also will be live streamed. So don't stress if you can't make it, it will be hosted in Sydney this time around. However, we do have plans to get around Australia at some point during the remainder of this year. Keep your eyes peeled for tickets on our Sociales. We can't reveal too much detail just yet, but this is just a call out to Penso in late April. Just, I would suggest, [00:03:18][20.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:03:18] get excited just back all of April, just [00:03:22][3.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:03:22] around the twenty-ninth of April. So we will keep you posted. But that is coming live event here in Sydney with a focus on the alcoholic beverages industry. [00:03:32][9.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:03:32] Yeah, yeah. Bruce just wants an excuse to drink, [00:03:34][1.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:03:35] not [00:03:35][0.0]

Alec Renehan: [00:03:36] juice. Insisted the venue have poker machines. [00:03:38][2.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:03:39] That's also not true. All right. Well, look, we're going to start the crypto week by discussing key resources that we think are going to be important for our community as well as that we both use and that we think are worthwhile talking about because there's a lot going on. [00:03:59][19.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:03:59] Yeah, there's a lot going on in the space. And I guess one of the advantages of the equity rates being to getting to where it is that every man and his dog who's starting up you know, a startup wants to get in front of the equity audience because the equity market audience are awesome. And we've been hit up by a lot of crypto players recently. And we're kind of sick of it, to be honest. But there's two that we both personally use and that we both personally like. And so we've sort of decided to partner with the two of them and then really not talk about not take other advertising deals from crypto. We've all seen the bloody light rail stops and bus stops covered with crypto advertising. That's not going to be equity mate. We've decided just to go with these two brands or these two platforms and then not take other crypto sponsorship just because it's a confusing space. And, you know, there's stories of brokerage going down and stuff like that. So we just, you know, we only want to partner with two brands that we like. So that's not run up. What are the two brands? [00:05:11][72.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:05:12] The first one is a brand or a startup called Bamboo. And Bamboo is like, I guess, effortless investing when it comes to cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin and Ethereum. [00:05:28][15.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:05:28] Yeah. As well as gold and silver coins. [00:05:31][2.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:05:31] Yes. Now we often talk about the show, the value of a starting small, if it is the beginning of your investing journey, both in equities and particularly in crypto, [00:05:41][9.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:05:42] particularly small, start [00:05:44][2.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:05:45] small and also the value of dollar cost averaging. Yes. And putting in money at a consistent cadence over a long. Period of time. Now, the good thing is that bamboo allows you to do both of those things. It's a micro investing app that just like every other micro, investing out rounds, up dollars and cents. And then once it hits, I think about 50 dollars, it'll invest that into the portfolio of your choice, which is can be a mix of or one of Bitcoin, Ethereum gold and silver. [00:06:13][28.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:06:14] It's the rise of crypto. It's micro investing. It's round ups. It's all that stuff that you know, if you're in Australia that you like with rise, if you're in the US, that you like with icons. But for crypto. [00:06:27][12.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:06:27] Yeah. So they make it super easy. Ren and I both use its dollar cost averaging. Well, you're a bit of bitcoin and Ethereum. I'm going into, I'm a bit of bitcoin and look it's really simple to use and we certainly think that it is a great way to dip your toe into the, you know, into the depths of the [00:06:49][22.0]

Alec Renehan: [00:06:50] ocean, into the deep crypto [00:06:51][1.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:06:51] sand. And look, if you don't want to do Bitcoin in the theorem, you can do gold and silver as well. So, look, we recommend checking at Bambu now to do so. You obviously need to download it and install it onto your phone or whatever. They do have an offer that is used to code equity mates and they'll give you 10 bucks into whatever those four assets you like. Yeah. So that is equity mates. Bambu is the name, their website is Get Bambu Io, but you will need to download the app to use the promo code. [00:07:27][35.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:07:28] Yeah. Now we don't want to take too long but we should touch on the second. [00:07:32][4.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:07:32] Yeah that. Sure the second is swift x. Now we know that Coinbase is one of the big cryptocurrency platforms out there, but we have chosen to go with swift equity meit's uses swift x we personally use swift X. Yeah. And this is a full-service crypto broker here in Australia, an Australian Company. And you know they have very competitive rates and we have chosen these guys well purely because we use them. We think the experience is great. [00:08:02][30.1]

Alec Renehan: [00:08:03] So the safe that it's secure, all of the things that you want in a crypto broker especially. Yeah, yeah. And they have all the client. Well, I assume they have all the coins. I haven't looked down long list of coins, but if Bambu is where you want to start and you want to just get access and dip your toe in the crypto water, you know, get some bitcoin, get some Ethereum Swift X is where you dove headfirst off the three, made a diving board [00:08:27][24.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:08:28] and buy Ren in the credit [00:08:28][0.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:08:29] card and you get access to all of the coins. Yes. And so for us, it's you know, we think these two complementary in some ways and it really depends on what stage of the investing journey you're at. Similar to Bambu, we've partnered with Swift X. If you go to Swift, X.com, Doddy, you slash equity meit's you'll get it's a 15 percent but 15 bucks in bitcoin. Yeah. Should have remembered that. So between the two you can end up with twenty five bucks in Bitcoin if you sign up to Bambu and Swift Ex using the equity code with Bambu or slash equity mate with Swift. [00:09:10][40.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:09:10] Yeah. Now look, there's plenty of other options out there and I'm sure you might have your favorite. But as I said, we have been privy to a lot of them that are out there and we've chosen that these are our preferred two. If you want to get on board, that is great. But let's move on. We'll get all of that in the show notes if you would like to use those cards and get started on your crypto-curious journey. [00:09:32][21.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:09:32] Yeah. Now, that's enough preamble. So crypto week. Here we go. We're doing a week now. Let's just quickly run through what we're doing this week. So today, Monday episode, just the two of us on equity mates. We're going to talk about the use case for crypto. And I do your own research, always do your own research. But I'm going to say this will be the only piece of crypto content on the Internet that doesn't mention the price [00:09:57][25.0]

Bryce Leske: [00:09:58] other than our other content this week. [00:10:00][2.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:10:00] Well, that's not on the Internet. Yeah, this is being in this goes live. The other episodes won't be long shot. But I think in all seriousness, honestly, I'm going to I'm going to put that aside because we're just going through the week. So today we're going to talk about the use case for crypto on Tuesday and get started investing. We're going to go over the basics of crypto and the idea being it's going to be enough to have a chat about it at the pub or at Family Christmas or, you know, with your partner, like the high-level basics of crypto, if you have no idea what to start in this space. So head over to get started investing and listen to that tomorrow. Back here on the equity markets, feed on Wednesday will be interviewing Blake Cassidy, who's the CEO of Bamboo. He's got an interesting story. And we'll unpack bamboo a little bit more. And then on Thursday, we're speaking to Alex Saunders, who. Is the founder of Nugget's News, and for those in the crypto space in Australia and probably globally, you'd be familiar with him. If you're not, he's a well known commentator for Crypto [00:11:04][64.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:11:05] X pharmacist, now crypto news provider. Yeah. [00:11:10][5.3]

Alec Renehan: [00:11:11] Trusted voice in the crystalize the equity markets of crypto. Yes. The Ren of crypto. So that's what we're doing this week. And look, really, by the end of it, we hope that you've got enough information to decide if crypto is something that's of interest to you. For a lot of people, I'm going to assume that crypto will remain in the too hard or not interested basket. But even for those people, we think it's we're going to have some interesting conversations, like I've learned a lot making these episodes. And then for those who are interested in crypto, you know, hopefully this is a starting point. Bamber Swift, our preferred platforms obviously make your own choice, but we think they're the right ones in our minds and they've been the right ones for us. So I put a pin in Iran. Should I get back into it? I guess so. In today's episode, we want to talk about the use cases of crypto. And so for me, so much of crypto content online is about the price of cryptocurrency, the price of Bitcoin hitting all time highs, the price of Ethereum hitting all time highs, the price of Dogecoin being pumped by Elon Musk. And it's just like for me, I feel it does a disservice for people's understanding because it's a lot of it is speculation. And there are some use cases that are starting to emerge or in theory will emerge, but you don't really have a decent conversation about them because it's just all about price. And so we wanted to do this episode to actually talk about what are the use cases and like, will there be practical uses of block trading cryptocurrency that emerge in the coming years, or is it just all speculation and or is it just a hot asset? And the price is purely supply and demand [00:13:02][111.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:13:03] is a store of value to use. [00:13:05][1.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:13:05] Case store value is definitely a case [00:13:07][2.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:13:07] where you see it as a failure of cryptos, only a store of value. [00:13:10][2.6]

Alec Renehan: [00:13:11] I think it would be a failure of its ambitions. Yeah, yeah. [00:13:16][4.9]

Bryce Leske: [00:13:16] So Ren, there are over 4000 crypto currencies out there at the moment, many of which, as you said, are hype. And we're going to go through a few of them that actually have some clear, clear use cases, not of four thousand, not Autechre. That would take a very long time, [00:13:37][20.3]

Alec Renehan: [00:13:37] honestly, if not all four thousand have good, you know. [00:13:39][2.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:13:40] Well, that is because, look, the number is growing that every day it seems like a new one is popping up. It's never been easier to start a cryptocurrency. [00:13:48][7.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:13:50] So where are you going with this? [00:13:51][1.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:13:52] Welcome to the AM cryptocurrency. No, no, no. Let's so let's firstly start at the top end, I guess. Have a look at where we are in the adoption phase or the. Yeah. I guess the adoption phase of cryptocurrency, because it's important to understand before we actually take a look at the use cases. [00:14:13][21.1]

Alec Renehan: [00:14:13] Yeah. So to start this episode, I wanted to take a step back and talk about a theory that has really stuck with me and I guess is has really shaped my thinking around Crypto. And Carlota Perez wrote a book, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages. And she basically went through five major technological innovations and how they played out in financial markets. And the long and the short of it is for many of these sort of new technologies. There's installation period that's characterized by a lot of hype, a lot of promise, a lot of belief in this being a transformational technology. A lot of new companies starting that. All that expectation, all that speculation or that hype leads to a financial bubble. That bubble will crash. But then what emerges from that bubble is a deployment period. And in that deployment period, you really see the technology being applied and like really meaningful companies coming out. And then what happens is the financial capital sort of rides that wave, then moves on to the next technology in the next bubble forms and so on and so forth. And I think the best example of this, the clearest example of this is the Internet. And, you know, in the late 1990s, like all of the hype and all the speculation around the Internet was was so it was so hot and there was so much money flowing into the sector, so many new companies starting and it turned into a frenzy and there was a financial bubble. The bubble popped in 2001. But then what emerged out of that was this deployment period where, you know, a lot of businesses were shaken out, but some really meaningful businesses emerged and we lived through the deployment period of the Internet. And if you think about that sort of two step process, I mean, she breaks it into four phases, but like overall the installation period and then the deployment period, that's really shaped my thinking about cryptocurrency because we can sort of see that similar pattern play out that, you know, there was a new technology created. More and more people realized it's sort of disruptive potential, I guess. In twenty seventeen, we definitely had a market frenzy, the amount of new initial coin offerings and all of that stuff that were coming out, there was a bubble. The bubble popped what Bitcoin fell 90 percent from its highs. And so my question now and a question that I think remains unanswered is, is crypto now entering a deployment period where, like we see real businesses and real use cases emerge and the technology that the I guess the technology reaches a level of maturity where there are real and practical use cases for it. And so that's, I guess, what we want to talk about in this episode, because that's the question that's on my mind. [00:17:20][186.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:17:20] Yeah. Or have we not actually reached that point [00:17:23][3.1]

Alec Renehan: [00:17:24] yet or is that not that point or is it just a speculative asset? [00:17:27][3.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:17:28] Yeah, well, it's it's an interesting one. I feel like, you know, it certainly matches that that process. But look, you know, it feels also that we're still so, so early on in its journey. You know, you listen to, for example, the interview that we have on Thursday with Alex Saunders and some of the use cases or the ambition that some of these coins have. It seems like it's sort of still 20 years away until some of that, I guess, comes to fruition. So how this all plays out is definitely super interesting. [00:18:05][36.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:18:05] Yeah, yeah. And like the time scale of these phases and these periods, like a long like if you think about the deployment period we've lived through with the Internet, you know, the early and mid 2000s, what a tough period for Internet businesses. They couldn't get money. They couldn't get funding. And it took a long time for them to recover, you know, like Microsoft, Amazon did I it was a real grind in those years. And they're only now reaching their full potential, sort of, what, 20 years after the bubble popped. So, yeah, these periods long and these periods are hard and. I kind of like the fact that long, because it means we have a lot of time to think about it as investors, [00:18:47][41.9]

Bryce Leske: [00:18:49] it means yeah, if you get in early as well, then the rewards are certainly [00:18:52][3.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:18:53] there. You get in early. But the thing the flip side of that is that you don't have to be super early. Like the difference between buying Amazon in 2002 and 2006 is like that's four years. That's a long time. But either either investor is laughing. Yeah. Yeah. [00:19:10][17.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:19:11] Before we jump into some use cases, let's take a quick break to hear from their sponsors. Ren, you are all about getting fit. You've bought the gum and you bought the golf membership, you bought the gym membership and you're on the mind MasterChef. And even in lock down last year, you bought those resistance bands of Instagram that from memory didn't even come. [00:19:31][19.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:19:32] No, look, they didn't come. But all of that effort really was canceled out by the numerous menu log orders that were a real staple of my lockdown experience. [00:19:41][9.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:19:43] Well, we've just headed into a new financial year, so I think it's time you get money fit with Virgin Money, our latest sponsor. [00:19:50][7.0]

Alec Renehan: [00:19:50] That's right, Bryce. With a high interest savings account bundled with a seriously rewarding everyday transaction account, you can manage your money easily on the go smash your savings goals and be rewarded for it. [00:20:02][11.9]

Bryce Leske: [00:20:03] And with the Virgin Money Go transaction account, you can earn rewards on your everyday spending with zero monthly fees. Sounds like just what you need. Ren. [00:20:12][9.3]

Alec Renehan: [00:20:12] Yeah, the FBI twenty one get Ren didn't quite work, but if fly 20 to get Ren money, it might be to go [00:20:21][8.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:20:22] back to your own Bayt Virgin money terms and conditions and monthly criteria apply. Now let's get back to the show. OK, Ren, so we've got a couple of coins here, I think, for coins that have some great vision and some potential live use cases that we're going to go through. And of course, it would be remiss of us not to start with Bitcoin. Yes, perhaps. Well, definitely the most known and largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap and the one that I guess everyone sees is the most superior when it comes to, I guess, its long term use case, store value, whatever you want to put on it. So let's start with Bitcoin and we're going to go through what's its vision and then how is that sort of playing out now? Yeah, if it's playing out now, yeah. So I'll be the vision master. The vision of Bitcoin is obviously to have a better financial system. [00:21:22][59.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:21:22] Yes. And I think in the Bitcoin white paper, which I assume you've read and know if it's my world, it's bloody complicated. Like honestly, if you crack it out, the you'll get like I got lost, like the equations and all that stuff. I was like, yeah. Anyway, you know, the white paper spoke about it being a peer to peer electronic cash system. It's trying to make it a better financial system. And so a lot of this was just going to talk about what they're trying to do, the use case in theory. And we might pass some judgment on whether it's working. But obviously, it's too early and a lot of cases to pass that judgment. So the the the theoretical use case for Bitcoin is it allows people to transact without relying on third party institutions, without relying on banks or governments or other intermediaries. And so, like a really simple example of that is it allows people to send money overseas without the hassle of, you know, to banks in different countries passing money or using something like transfer wise with a lot of fees. And so it's it reduces the fees. It reduces the cost, it reduces the time and it reduces the complexity. And so in theory, that's a use case. And that use case is playing out like you see the amount of remittance, like workers will move to another country and then send money back to their families. In the first country, the amount of remittance through Bitcoin is definitely increasing. So I think in terms of that peer-to-peer cash system, without relying on a third-party financial institution like you can definitely see that use case playing out. [00:23:05][102.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:23:05] Yeah, well, it's happening. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess the other part of Bitcoin that is well within that is the trust component as well. And the decentralization of the, I guess, record keeping away from these big banks, the likes of PayPal, all those who are traditionally record that the transaction has happened. Yes. And this is one of their other sort of big elements that they like to push, is that no longer can anyone be the central gatekeeper of all of these, I guess, ledgers? [00:23:35][29.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:23:35] Yeah. Yeah. This one, I think is a little bit less played out. Like the idea is that you shouldn't rely on trust, that you can have a trust list system with block chain. And the logic behind that is that there's this like incorruptible, indisputable record where you can say that, you know, what the other party is saying is true or they have the assets they have. But we I don't think we've really seen a use case where this is like widely adopted for a particular thing, you know, like the remittance and sending money, like it's sort of 10x better than what was there before. But I don't really have an example for this. Maybe I'm missing something. I don't know if you do. [00:24:16][40.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:24:16] Well, the decentralization aspect. [00:24:18][1.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:24:19] Yeah. For where? Like, they're not relying on, like, a central ledger. [00:24:23][4.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:24:24] Yeah, good point. I mean, I think the key is that it can't be stopped like a government can't come in and stop you from sending money, you know what I mean. From Bitcoin, from one country to another. Yeah. They can't stop that like they could if you were to go through the financial system. So maybe that's a part where that is somewhat playing out. [00:24:47][23.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:24:48] No, but OK, so now this is getting in the way. So pull me out. But separate for me. That conversation is a separate block chain in Bitcoin conversation because I can talk about examples where block chain is as a recordkeeping function is, you know, being used to have like a decentralized record, like is a bunch of countries that we actually talk about this and I'll get started investing episode tomorrow where they're putting land title and like property ownership on a block chain. So it's decentralized. And there's a number of reasons why they're doing that. I think Sweden, Sweden or Switzerland, Honduras, a bunch of other countries are all doing it. But I haven't seen a use case where Bitcoin is involved in that. And I'm sure there's some crypto experts out there yelling at the headlines right now. Yeah, but hey, come at me. Well, isn't it? Get better at marketing, but [00:25:42][54.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:25:43] it started sending currency. Yeah. Yeah. It can't be stopped like. [00:25:48][5.6]

Alec Renehan: [00:25:49] But you can send U.S. currency as bitcoin and you avoid all the like the international transfers. But then like people like, let's say I'm sending money back to my family in the Philippines, then they're just turning it back into it and using it. Yeah. [00:26:04][14.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:26:04] Yeah, that can't be stopped. You know, it's [00:26:09][5.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:26:12] the last use case for Bitcoin you've mentioned before is a store of value. And I think store value is pretty academic in Western countries. You know, we talk about, you know, is it better than gold or is it worse than gold? Is it digital gold? Like, you know? And there's all that question about like, can Bitcoin do store value? I think while it's academic and a lot of Western countries, it is actually very real in some parts of the world. You know, there are plenty of examples of people in countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, you know, a number of those countries where there's either, you know, political instability and, you know, risk that the government will be seizing assets or there's inflation, having a store of value. That to your point around you know, the decentralized ledger, you know, that government can't come in and take your assets. It is it is meaningful. [00:27:05][53.0]

Bryce Leske: [00:27:05] Yeah. Whether that was the ambition of Bitcoin, probably not. But it's certainly playing out. [00:27:10][4.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:27:10] Uh, yeah. Yeah. Well, no one knows who the real founder is, so. [00:27:14][4.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:27:15] Yeah. But he's doing the white paper. Look, they want it to go. All right. Next one, Ren Ethereum, second largest bitcoin in terms of market currency sorry, cryptocurrency in terms of market cap ETF, I think is its vision is all about smart contracts. Yes. Making contracts smarter. [00:27:37][21.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:27:38] Yeah. Now, if it remains as possible, Ethereum is one where people a lot smarter than me that are going to need to drive the conversation because I get it conceptually, but I kind of get lost. But basically to explain the use case, think about how we currently interact with contracts, you know, renting the property, signing up to a mobile plan, admitting yourself to hospital, signing up for insurance, whatever it is, the paperwork exists in some kind of database. And then all those questions about like who controls the database, how secure is the database, who has access to the database, who can corrupter, change the database? Do you have a single point of failure in the database? Like all those questions exist around like a central database. And so part of the idea is decentralizing that ledger makes the database more secure, makes it incorruptible because there's multiple records of it and people can't go back and change things that are on the block chain. So I think that's the first part. But then you build on top of that with a theory and this idea of smart contracts and things can like basically trigger automatically and stuff like decisions can be made. Yeah. And so one example that I found of a use case of these smart contracts is in insurance and so on insurance contracts. And so using the Ethereum lock chain, insurance companies could automate their insurance policies basically with certain conditions are triggered, for example, a natural disaster. The claims process could be triggered immediately. And so and then this is where I get a little bit lost. But then it's like due to the fact that it's distributed the block chain transparency and trust in the process is visible to all stakeholders and regulatory bodies. [00:29:26][108.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:29:27] So any questions can be on. [00:29:28][0.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:29:29] And so I, I think it's like it. You know, you can build all this stuff in the automatically triggers and, you know, there's undisputed ownership and stuff like that. Well, actually, for undisputed ownership, let's let's move to non fungible tokens. [00:29:45][16.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:29:46] The hottest thing on the hottest thing is yes. [00:29:49][2.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:29:50] And it's basically like how do you protect ownership of digital assets? And these nonfungible tokens have been created to basically assign ownership so you can digital assets, digital assets, so you can create a song and someone can buy it. And the non they own that the song. And there's like a non fungible token that's granted to them that basically shows everyone that the actual owner. And so we've seen that with like objects and games. We've seen that with. Well, actually, you were talking about your favorite golfer putting out some NFTE DeChambeau. [00:30:31][40.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:30:31] Yeah. Yeah, yeah, in December has put out some playing cards, and I think when he hit over the head, over the likeme on the fifth, that I'm not going to remember the course, but when no one in most recent golf tournament's 200 and 300 something, you know, they look shit, though. [00:30:47][16.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:30:48] Obviously, I don't really get it as I said, someone smarter than me is going to have to explain that much like I on one that I do understand a use case that I do understand using the theory and block chain is some of these decentralized finance stuff. And so if you think about traditional lending businesses where you have to go to a bank and the bank takes money from depositors and then lends it out to borrowers, owners of a theory and can basically cut the bank out of that process. And if I own a theory, I mean, you want to borrow a theory, I can lend it out to you in interest. And it's a way to decentralize, I guess, that borrowing and lending process and cut the banks out. And so that's a use case that is emerging. And there's a lot of money in that space. And arguably, it's not 10x better. I mean, I would need to understand better, but I think. Again, we're going to get some height from Krypto people, but like for me, sometimes intermediaries like the central authority plays an important role, like if we're doing decentralized finance and I'm lending, like, how do I assessing credit worthiness, you risk like how do I build, you know, you as a bank, you day risk your portfolio by having a number of like dozen [00:32:06][77.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:06] materials that would be built into the blocks. I know, but [00:32:10][3.6]

Alec Renehan: [00:32:10] if I'm just lending to you. Yeah. [00:32:11][1.7]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:12] Definitely be built [00:32:13][0.6]

Alec Renehan: [00:32:13] like I don't have the balance sheet of a bank to diversify my. [00:32:15][2.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:16] No, but I'm sure they would build into the Ethereum code that it will do its credit check on you somehow. [00:32:23][7.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:32:23] Odd. I highly debatable I think Coenraad do you do. Yeah. [00:32:28][4.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:29] Cool. [00:32:29][0.0]

Alec Renehan: [00:32:30] Come on. Someone who knows more about a theoretical answer that question for us this morning. [00:32:36][6.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:37] It's not just [00:32:37][0.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:32:39] that building credit checks 100 percent, but who's doing the credit check. [00:32:42][3.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:42] They'll build it into the. Look, I'm not at the level of saying I know how they're going to do it, but I'm I would be very confident that it would be built in theory. [00:32:52][9.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:32:53] And anyone doing a credit check is then a central authority, like it's either a credit agency or it's a bank or it's like a government. [00:33:00][7.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:33:01] But maybe your credit worthiness is distributed across the block chain. So anyone who wants to. [00:33:06][4.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:33:07] Maybe. Yeah, why not? I mean, I can't answer. Why not? Because, as I said, theory does my head in a little bit. Yeah, but [00:33:16][9.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:33:16] he's not the hope. Yeah. I mean I don't see any reason and I don't know enough about this at all, but I'm sure if that's what they want to like, there's definitely the capability to do that, I would imagine. And the whole idea that they that they want to do this is to be able to take away the need for a bank to be the credit check and the need for all these intermediaries. So you would imagine that they are going to be able to build this into the functionality. And considering we are very early in this phase 10, 20, 30 years down the track to make a bet that they're not going, [00:33:47][30.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:33:48] I just don't I don't understand how you could have a credit check without then creating an authority [00:33:54][6.0]

Bryce Leske: [00:33:54] where maybe it's. Well, it's it's [00:33:56][1.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:33:56] I don't know. Yeah, but not to say I may say slide into items on Instagram and tell us to more quickly that I think are particularly interesting. Well, that have particularly interesting use cases. So one called Golomb that has the vision to create decentralized worldwide supercomputers. Yeah. That's a good one. And basically conceptualize it like the Airbnb of supercomputers. So lucky for equity markets, when we want to build our trading, we would have to buy supercomputers ourselves, like buy a heap of computing power. What Golomb is trying to do is basically say there's a whole bunch of excess capacity, excess computing power that isn't being used at any time across individuals, businesses, organizations around the world. And if you can create this block chain to connect them all people can then trade the excess computing power to people who want computing power and get paid in these golden tokens cryptocurrency for giving up their excess computing power. And then we, as equity makes building our carbon trading. If we want to use excess computing power, we can pay people in these golden tokens to do it, which I think is a pretty cool idea. Good use case. Yeah, relatively straightforward. Another one that is along a similar vein so that. Yeah, yeah. Uh, which is trying to do the same thing, but for cloud storage. So right now we have like Microsoft Jua, Amazon Web Services, Google and you know there is a central authorities that sort of. You buy cloud storage off them and Seyah is trying to do something where people who have extra storage can offer it up to people who want storage and, you know, pay or get paid in the same token, depending on what side of the transaction. [00:35:54][117.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:35:56] Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, all look, we've managed to get through for pretty decent coins without discussing price, so we're not going to. But look, it is clear that there are some clear use cases somewhat in play at the moment. And you can see where this is going, whether or not all four thousand plus coins out there have use cases is another question, which [00:36:21][24.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:36:21] is, you know, the same is Internet business is back in the day. Not all Internet businesses were good businesses. [00:36:26][4.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:36:26] No, no. But I look to close this out. We couldn't help ourselves. We have to we have to give our old Specky McGee a call to see what he has in store for us. And then we'll wrap. [00:36:39][13.6]

Alec Renehan: [00:36:40] I think we spoke about for potential cryptos. We've used cases. I think now we're going to talk about some crypto currencies with absolutely no use. [00:36:49][9.0]

Bryce Leske: [00:36:50] We've noticed cases. So let's give Mr. Specky a call [00:36:53][3.7]

Speaker 3: [00:36:55] to start a position in one of your blue Horschel Star Airlines. You've reached the Specky Hotline. [00:37:05][10.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:37:06] Very specky hot line looks, Becky. We're just giving you we're just giving you a quick buzz today. Look, normally we talk about equities and what's what's hot and what's not. The rocket emoji indicator, what's buzzing. But as as we let you know, we're doing crypto week. And I know that you do like to dabble somewhat in the lower end of the coin. [00:37:33][26.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:37:33] There's a lot of specky opportunities out there. [00:37:35][2.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:37:37] So we've also lately we thought we'd check in with Specky McKay to understand what is what's happening in the space. [00:37:44][7.0]

Becky: [00:37:46] Yeah, well, it's funny because when it comes to cryptocurrency, pretty much every cryptocurrency is specky, so it's sort of like sticky hotline going. Thermonuclear was what last week I spoke about the Subrata ASX bit. If you want to learn a bit about the ASX Specky community, there's actually one for cryptocurrency to who is Satoshi Street bet. OK. Yeah. And what in there. Well, OK, so I'll start off by telling you guys about one that came across my desk in twenty seventeen called Brainbox. So this is a currency that's as opposed to bitcoin. It's instant transactions, no transaction fees, no inflation. So when this came across my desk, I actually did a bit of data for one [00:38:43][56.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:38:44] that's very unlike you. [00:38:45][1.2]

Becky: [00:38:47] It actually looked OK. So I bought some on a crypto exchange called Big Grail, an obscure Italian. I think that JS [00:38:58][10.6]

Alec Renehan: [00:38:58] you take the Specky approach to exchanges as well. [00:39:01][2.4]

Becky: [00:39:03] Yeah, it was fairly Natia at this point, but the problem is that exchange was hacked in twenty eighteen, so I lost all of it. But so just on Ribot's Reebok's rebranded to Nonno and this is sort of where I'm going with my tip. [00:39:19][16.3]

Alec Renehan: [00:39:21] Not a very clear, not a suspect. [00:39:23][2.3]

Becky: [00:39:24] So yeah. So they've rebranded Hanano and then off the back of Nano Nano has a new cryptocurrency called Banana like banana. I and I sort of like banana but banana. Now, it's a fault of the Nano, so it's all the same technology, but I think they're really trying to run with this whole main thing with cryptocurrency, sort of trying to be the new dogecoin. So this would have to be they might have trading at one cent market cap or not. This is my analysis. [00:40:02][38.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:40:04] Not great analysis [00:40:04][0.8]

Becky: [00:40:05] yet. Yes. Trading at one cent, market cap. Thirteen million. And it's ranked eight hundred and sixty five in terms of cryptocurrency. So, you know, it's due to technical time with the bitcoin. But look, I think it could be quite an interesting point, actually. I went to buy some of it because it's so neat. It's only available in a few obscure crypto exchanges, I guess maybe to be hacked. So and that's why I looked at it based in the Seychelles. So it's a small African country like the East. So, yeah, I'm looking into it. Unless you guys know, when Bitcoin launched, it all started with the white paper. So that was the. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's only like an eight or nine page document that explains all the technology behind it. And the Nano has a yellow paper, which is why I know you're kidding if you're interested. And I mean all it's going to take is Elon Musk to come across this and give it away. And, you know, it [00:41:17][71.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:41:17] made a lot more screen. We've got Specky on the district, Inspector Solid-State doing some solid Day-Day and letting the crypto curious in the equity markets community know about it. So, look, thanks. Thanks for coming on and sharing that with you. [00:41:31][14.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:41:32] Oh, it's going to be so funny when Specky gets hacked for a second time [00:41:37][4.2]

Bryce Leske: [00:41:38] off the coast of Africa. Have you done the sums on what your nano purchase would have been worth had you not been hacked? [00:41:45][7.1]

Becky: [00:41:46] No, I think when I bought it, it's subsequent to when I bought I think it bag, but then I held it for a bit too long and then it started dropping. Then the exchange got hacked. So, yeah, I didn't I didn't invest too much in it. [00:42:00][14.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:42:00] So you wouldn't be driving a Lambo. [00:42:02][2.1]

Becky: [00:42:03] Yeah, the Lambo. [00:42:04][0.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:42:08] Okay. The yellow paper filler. Nano Nano. I reckon there's you know that Gwen Stefani like this shit is bananas. I reckon there's a viral tart in this coin is Bunnett [00:42:21][13.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:42:24] this one Specky McGee will look. Thanks for coming on. We look forward to bringing it back onto the equity side of things and hearing some data. But look, that is all we've got time for today. Appreciate you will put the banana in the show notes and I don't [00:42:38][14.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:42:39] reckon we put it the side. [00:42:39][0.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:42:40] You've got a signup code for your random African crypto exchange. You want us to push lettuce? [00:42:47][7.0]

Becky: [00:42:49] Yeah, I think, yeah. We got to go back to equities next time. Just as I said before, Specky Crypto is just like, yeah, it's not going to end well, end well for anyone. But I've got to tell you, it's like on the website and in the yellow paper basically this is verbatim, it describes itself as a Baylis instant rich in potassium cryptocurrency. [00:43:12][23.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:43:15] I hold I've just gone to their website. The byline is Don't let your names be dree. [00:43:23][8.1]

Becky: [00:43:23] Yes, that's right. Oh, my God. Dogecoin was originally started as a joke. I really enjoyed going and then to see where it is now. So who knows? It could be the next day. [00:43:33][9.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:43:34] I've been after a coin that's rich in potassium JS. All right. Well, we've got now we've run out of time, but we'll have to leave it there. The website is literally Bonnano Dot C so go and check [00:43:48][13.5]

Alec Renehan: [00:43:49] out of that. [00:43:49][0.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:43:50] It's pretty well worth it. Glad that came across your desk. [00:43:54][4.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:43:54] What features on their website is not a shit. Clean brackets until digested. [00:43:59][4.6]

Becky: [00:44:02] Yeah. [00:44:02][0.0]

Alec Renehan: [00:44:03] Specky before you go, does this have an RSI writing or Arreola purely for equities. [00:44:08][5.2]

Becky: [00:44:09] So I went on the banana. I celebrate it. There are no rockets there so I don't know. I think the anti-rocket and potassium. I don't know. [00:44:17][7.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:44:19] Let's leave that one off the area indicated in Moscow. All right. Well, that is the end of Specky Hotline and Ren. That is the end of our crypto week open. [00:44:29][10.3]

Alec Renehan: [00:44:30] As I said, you know what I'm really happy about? I was worried when we got Specky McGee on the line that he would talk about the price of a coin. No price, but we kept our promise, the. Crypto content online, that doesn't mention the price, so your own research, [00:44:44][14.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:44:45] your own research, but that is the end of our episode for today. Hopefully, you manage to understand a little bit more about the use cases of crypto and I guess the importance of not getting caught up in the price [00:44:57][11.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:44:58] and the importance of potassium and [00:44:59][1.6]

Bryce Leske: [00:45:00] potassium in the crypto. We do have a big, big week coming up. As we said, tune into tomorrow's episode. Don't get started investing where we actually do a bit more of a crypto 101 and actually walk through the history of crypto starting from blockchain and then how cryptocurrency comes in on top of that and then what that means for investors going forward. And then, of course, we've got two interviews with experts later on in the week and [00:45:26][25.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:45:26] then three things before we go. Keep your eye out for our live shows. It's coming. And then the two platforms that we use, if you want to check them out, Bambu, get Bamburgh. I will search Bambu in the App Store and [00:45:39][12.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:45:39] access the code. [00:45:39][0.4]

Alec Renehan: [00:45:39] Use the code equity markets for ten dollars in bitcoin, Ethereum gold or silver, and then swiftx.com.au/equitymates sign up there to get fifteen dollars in bitcoin so you could walk away with twenty-five bucks in bitcoin. [00:45:53][13.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:45:53] Nice one. Well, we'll leave it there. Crypto week and then next week back into equities of course. So looking forward to that. Until then, Ren. We'll chat later in the week. Sounds good. [00:45:53][0.0]

[2578.2]

More About

Meet your hosts

  • Alec Renehan

    Alec Renehan

    Alec developed an interest in investing after realising he was spending all that he was earning. Investing became his form of 'forced saving'. While his first investment, Slater and Gordon (SGH), was a resounding failure, he learnt a lot from that experience. He hopes to share those lessons amongst others through the podcast and help people realise that if he can make money investing, anyone can.
  • Bryce Leske

    Bryce Leske

    Bryce has had an interest in the stock market since his parents encouraged him to save 50c a fortnight from the age of 5. Once he had saved $500 he bought his first stock - BKI - a Listed Investment Company (LIC), and since then hasn't stopped. He hopes that Equity Mates can help make investing understandable and accessible. He loves the Essendon Football Club, and lives in Sydney.

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