Friday Finance 5/6/2022: Misguided Decisions
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the Leo community.
After a lighthearted journey yesterday into the world of aliens, it is time to get back to business. Today is Friday and of course that means finance.
It's a bit rough out there if you know what I mean. FED raise the interest rate by .5% or 50 bpm. Stocks went up, stocks came down, and crypto as we have seen lately followed suit. It wasn't a huge pump, so the fall to $36K doesn't feel quite so bad. It still sucks though.
Senators Senatoring
The first piece of Friday Finance I have for you today deals with US regulations on cryptocurrency. It's actually one of the few positive pieces of legislation I have seen lately as the government tries to figure out what it is going to do about this crazy Internet money thing.
Senator Lummis and Gillibrand:
"are proposing a tax exemption for up to a certain level of capital gains on cryptocurrencies"
This sounds pretty good at first, but then when you read the article you will find that the number they came up with for the exemption cap is $600. Of course it isn't set in stone, but golly gee, $600 is a pretty low number when you are talking about crypto currency. There are some people who make $600 per hour if not minute in interest on some of these platforms.
Don't get me wrong, I think their heart is in the right place. The one senator is from Wyoming, so you know she probably knows what's up when it comes to crypto.
One of the concerns they pointed out was a kid who owns $40 worth of crypto and plays a P2E game. They don't want him to have to pay taxes on his earnings. Like I said though, I think they are really out of the loop concerning the figures.
Sure, a kid might only be making $600 per year at current prices, but we see another bull run and more mainstream adoption of crypto and P2E, and that same kid could be making $6000 or $60,000 per year. Crazier things have happened!
Wikipedia says no to crypto
I'm actually a bit shocked I didn't see any other posts about this one this week. The news came out back on Monday and I was expecting my Leo Finance feed to get filled with posts about it. Maybe people just don't care... Maybe the posts were there but I missed them. Who knows.
So the TL:DR boils down to the company that owns Wikipedia has decided to stop taking donations in crypto due to the "environmental impact" and the damage it is doing to their reputation.
Here we go again with another group that clearly doesn't know the difference between proof of stake and proof of work. They clearly also don't realize how much carbon emissions the global banking system emits as a whole.
Apparently, this was a community driven decisions, which I think almost makes it worse.
When I read the article my thoughts went to Elon Musk and his Tweet after Twitter initially rejected his offer when he said something to the effect of "I guess we build our own".
I know there have been attempts to make a blockchain based Wikipedia in the past, but who knows if they will ever pick up traction or match the amount of information that is available on Wiki.
Either way, I think it is pretty sad and short sighted that they made this decision.
Pulling up stake
Just as many of the tech companies are waving bye bye to California and moving to greener pastures in Texas and Arizona, many crypto companies are calling Singapore quits.
While Singapore used to have fairly favorable crypto laws, things have shifted and many of the companies that used to call Singapore home are now moving to Dubai. From what I have seen, Dubai doesn't do anything small, and the same applies for the crypto sector which is apparently booming there.
Apparently, Singapore still claims to have a favorable stance on crypto (as long as you are an institutional investor), but their attitude towards retail investors is making the decision to move fairly easy for those institutions.
Though not altogether relevant for those of us who live in the US, I think it does set a precedent. Many of these companies can see where this is heading and they know what the public wants. If it takes moving countries to protect their profits and customer base, they are going to do it. No hesitation.
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