Modern Outlook

Cryptos Now and In the Future

September 07, 2021 Eddie Thomas Season 1 Episode 2
Modern Outlook
Cryptos Now and In the Future
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode we go through the month that August was and why I wasn't able to upload. However, that brings us to what September will be and how there are some new things on the horizon. 
Then we dive into football and golf talk as I go through some personal stories and reflection on my golf game. 
To dive into the finance side of things, we cover a wide variety of topics covering blockchain and cryptocurrencies. We cover some companies that are adopting the technology. The crypto as a storage of value or currency debate and wrap up with what it all may be in the future. 

For the video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0C1_e-Es6LLHC5UXs2g3TA
To follow me on LinkedIn as I start to build out content there: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardmthomas14/

Eddie Thomas:

Hey guys, welcome to the second episode of the life finance and in between podcast with me your host, Eddie Thomas, brought to you by Wealth Management Services here in Hershey, Pa. And so today guys, it's just the intro. So today we get into start off with some future plans for content and what that might look like. And I apologize for not getting this out in August, but I tell you the story, so don't worry. But yeah, I'm super excited to share. And you'll hear when you when you're in the episode, what the new content is going to be and what that's going to look like. And then we go through the slight remodels of the office, see what you think, see if you can kind of tell what's new and what's not. I just get into some life stuff. I talked about golf, and I suck as a work in progress. And then I talk about football. And I'm super excited for that. And I go through all that. And then we get into cryptocurrencies and we have a pretty in depth discussion around the company adoption of cryptocurrencies, and how exciting that is, and what companies are at the forefront of that. And I only mentioned two I know there's more, but for the sake of the time on, I mentioned two, and then we talk about Bitcoin as a currency and what that looks like and then Bitcoin as a storage of value, and what that looks like. And then I talked about the store, the blockchain technology in general, and kind of where that can go where I think it might lead us, but we still have some ways to go. And you're gonna hear me go through that as well. So sit back, guys, I hope you enjoy the episode. I'm excited to get get going here and have a better September than I did August with regards to recording, but I won't take up too much of your time now. So Alright, guys, I'll see you enjoy the episode. Hey, guys, what's going on? Welcome to the episode. Where should we start? So if you're looking at if you're watching the video of this, you're gonna see behind me on the wall, I have some new art back there. And I didn't think my office looked to full width was back there was like a, it's right here, but it's a Pirates small little picture. And so I thought that looked really cool. And so we me, my girlfriend put it up. And it was a pain, it was a pain to do so. But it was good. It was awesome. And if you're not watching the video side of this, all it is just a five piece picture of New York City at night. And so you see all the lights and everything. And it's it's pretty sweet. And then the other other addition to the office was that little plant you see behind me taking care of that. For the people that got me that you know who you are and I appreciate it. And so other than that, guys, I have to apologize to you. I wasn't able to get this out in August, I'm currently recording is September 2 right before the holiday weekend. So if you're watching this after hope you had a good weekend, but wasn't able to get this out in August, because I recorded an entire episode did the editing did all that and then had to make some tweaks on it. And by the time I was done making the tweaks and the edits I had to I just figured it was easy, easier just to take a little bit and then record a brand new one with some new segments in it and new information to go through. So apologies for not getting the sound August wasn't for lack of trying, it was just unlucky, really on my end. But that's not to say September's a very exciting month, at least for myself. And as far as building this brand goes and doing some marketing for wealth management services and building the life finance and in between podcast and just my own personal brand. And the reason being is because this month, I'm going to start at least at least one new project and then potentially to the second one's kind of boring, it's just a blog to accompany these. So we'll see if that comes out. It should. But the second the first one I'd mentioned was I'm actually really excited for and so it's another video audio format. And what I'm going to call it is the commute. And so if you listen or you follow the newsletter, I sent this out around bout too soon. And it goes through what that is. But I was explained on the podcast as well, what it's going to be and I bought the equipment today it got delivered today. So I'm excited for it the back and see what it looks like. But I got this mount from my windshield where I can kind of plug my phone onto the mount. It's not gonna distract me from driving or anything like that. But I'm just gonna scroll my phone for this content. I'm gonna see one thing I want to talk about doesn't matter if it's business, finance, sports, life, whatever it may be. Let me see one piece of content that I want to talk about for the next it'll be five to 15 minutes, some episodes may go longer shorter, who knows? And I'm just gonna ramble on about it. And then I'm just gonna give you my raw, uncut reaction to whatever it is that I just read. And and for the most part, I'll probably try to keep it more towards the business side of things but also it's my personal brand. So I'm definitely a delve into the sport side of that as well and just other life stuff that's going on but I'm super excited because of how spontaneous is gonna be. I'm just gonna get in my car hit record, and then see where the the episode takes me and see what kind of ramble I can go on. And if you guys enjoyed I, I'm looking forward to making a bunch more, but I'm going to try one out later today or tomorrow and see how that goes. Other than that guys September's gonna be, I mean, it's the end of summer, my mom's birthday is in a couple days. So I'm excited for that. We get to go down to Delaware for the weekend, celebrate the holiday weekend, but also, it's obviously great being a mom for it, so that'd be cool. That'd be cool. Gift wise, I'm gonna have some TV stand that she personally requested. So wasn't too thoughtful this time around. But uh, I mean, she requested so I can't go wrong right now made easy on my dad. That's for sure. But that's what I'm doing this week. I'm going down to Delaware for the long weekend, leaving tomorrow, the third coming back Monday and I'm back to work on Tuesday. So I want to record this tonight and then get it in edit it, get it in tomorrow, hopefully get it approved. And then next week early next week be having that sent out and then by the end of next week, I'd really like to start the new projects that I'm working on like I just said so keep an eye out for those as well. But enough with the kind of maintenance there with what's going on life topics and what's been happening in my life. Really not too much at all playing a golf here and there if you know me or we've ever talked about golf you know, I suck because I'm not afraid to say that I'm not very good. I'm working on it. But very slow, slow couple year process of being a not a great golfer. bogey, double bogey mostly double bogey golfer. And it is what it is. I try not as hard as I could I guess to get better. I think I need new clubs. Honestly, if you golf you know that probably doesn't do anything. But it sounds good to saying I need new clubs. I'll make me better maybe take like 1015 strokes off my golf game. So I'm gonna lie maybe scoop those up by the end of the year, but probably not. Probably not I don't play enough to justify it. Other than that, what's going on? Staying on the sports topic football is starting a week from now. And if you've been in my office before behind the camera is a an arrowhead painting and if you don't know what Arrowhead is it is the stadium of the Kansas City Chiefs my favorite football team. And yeah, like obviously live in Hershey. I'm a pirates fan penguins fan and somehow the Chiefs snuck in there. I have a story for it. So when I was growing up, my dad was a cheese fan or is a cheese fan to this day. And so I was just pretty much following his footsteps with every sports team I took on and so growing up and I might put this on the YouTube part of it. But I this picture with my dad where I might be three years old, four years old. I'm not really sure maybe younger than that. But I'm wearing a number 58 Derrick Thomas jersey and he's next to me. And he's one in the same jersey and that's probably the earliest memories of me being a cheese fan and having some documented record of it. So all this to say I'm not a bandwagon fan. I did not become a fan when Patrick mahomes went there. I mean I was already a fan I was stoked but not a bandwagon fan and have definitely gone through my fair share of heartbreak with him to justify being a fan now. So I think I like to think I earned it and my dad definitely earned it he became a fan of Super Bowl four. He was like let's see what year that was. I'm gonna look it up quick. Super Bowl for the cheese played the Vikings I beat him and 1970 right. Yeah 1970 I guess that's when my dad became a real fan of him. So he waited 50 years for the Super Bowl. I only had to wait 24, 25 years with that side of it but I'm super excited football season. I mean hear me talk about it a lot on here. I just had my fantasy draft I think a week ago so trying to win that trying to win that league but it's pretty much Sunday as me glued to the couch watching football. Really nothing else on the schedule for Sunday's for the most part. I've got six months event I gotta make every month count because the six months is not happening Sox. Other night guys not too much going on. Especially going into the holidays trying to take it easy trying to record this trying to get some other content out. Just trying to go through my day to day but nothing else with the whole life side of things. But I'm looking forward to kind of dive into that more as life gets a little bit more hectic after the holiday season. Holiday season after this weekend. And then going into the holiday season a couple months. I'm sure life will be very hectic through that time. I'm moving on. At that point, you also have a bunch of content coming out, you'll have a little bit to share for all that. But so let's dive into the actual topic, the finance topic for today and bring it up right now. And what I'm going to go through now is cryptocurrencies and I'm sure you've heard of them, if you've never heard of them. In the past six months, I've almost guarantee you have. And it's pretty much I'm going to go over what they are now, and then what they can possibly be in the future. And so, there's a lot that goes into this. And I definitely think you guys should do your own research when it comes to this. But I'm gonna go over the kind of conversations around being a currency around being a store of value, I'm gonna go through what kind of what companies are adopting, specifically Bitcoin, and what their reason for doing so is and what that kind of means for Bitcoin going forward. And then just potential overall use going forward on what it might turn into. Not in any particular order. I'm actually going to start with the company side of things. But I think it's a super interesting topic. I'm not sure how much you guys have done your research again, you should definitely look into it if you haven't do your own research. But, man, it is exciting. It's exciting as an entire, I guess, topic and field to look into and see how fast everything's changing. I mean, five years ago, no one's ever heard of Bitcoin, are you if you heard about your very early to it, and fast forward the clock, and companies are adopting it as form of payment. And companies are not companies countries are making it their official currency, granted, not major countries, but countries nonetheless. And so everything's changing so rapidly. What does that mean? What blockchain and what does that do going forward? And so that's the big question. And I genuinely believe that blockchain is gonna play a major part in our lives at some point, I think it's too advanced technology for us to kind of comprehend and use effectively right now. But I just think it's coming. It's gonna be synonymous with how we saw the internet where people were thinking, who would ever use the internet, why then use it, it's slow, it doesn't work. And then you have the crash, and on and on, because of all the internet companies and people just write it off, and they hate it. And then it's how we run our lives now. And I think blockchain is going to be similar thing, it's going to work hand in hand with the internet. And it just makes things so much easier, like the transfer of money, so much easier through blockchain technologies, the traceability of transactions and the security of transactions is so much easier. The speed at which processing happens, like transferring your money from country to country gets way quicker when blockchains involved if you're doing it through blockchain in the future. And once we have regulated and we're able to use it in a legal manner, it's so much easier than the traditional banking setup now. And you're seeing companies see that and you're, you're seeing companies take a step towards that, and specifically the companies I'm talking about, and one you've all heard of the second one you might have heard of most likely. But the first one being Tesla, I think they're like, kind of like the poster boy for all this. The second one being square, whose CEO jack Dorsey, the same guy who runs Twitter. But so So specifically, let's jump into them a date go back a couple months, and Tesla says they're going to use and accept Bitcoin as currency. And when they did that, because they made that announcement, they bought into bitcoin, they had very large holding in it. And they needed to show that as kind of proof of their idea that we're supporting it. And we're also going to use it and we're gonna have it on our balance sheet because we believe in this going forward. And so the idea was and for this is a hypothetical, let's say one Tesla is $50,000 and at the time bitcoins worth $50,000 instead of them writing and study writing a check giving alone whatever may be if you have one bitcoin, you just transfer the Bitcoin Here you go, that's my payment. I'll take my Tesla now. We're done here, see you later. That's the idea of its use, obviously, using as a currency just like anything else. The issue with that, and I'll jump in so I'm going to combine that Tesla conversation and cryptocurrency conversation right now is that when you do that, they now on the Bitcoin and we know and I do your own research on how Bitcoin moves and what Bitcoin does, but it could be worth more than that in a couple of weeks. And it could be worth less than that in a couple of weeks. We know what the dollar when you use that as a currency if you said I $50,000 here it is write a check, give him cash, whatever it may be, you know, in two weeks, a month, two years, whatever the timeframe is, that that $50,000 or $50,000. Now you can get in the conversation of inflation, amen. Keep that out of this for now as far as buying power goes. But the idea being 50 grand is 50 grand, that's not changing the one bitcoin you give them if you decide to use Bitcoin as a currency, and why I don't think it's there yet, is because if I give them one bitcoin that's worth 50 grand in two years, nobody knows what it's gonna be worth at all, you could have grossly overpaid for your Tesla, or you could have grossly underpaid for your Tesla. And nobody knows, they don't know, we don't know, you don't know. And it just is a good risk, like buying a buying it at that point is potentially a risk for you. But it's not when you use just normal currency, just normal dollars. And so I think there's a lot that go with Bitcoin and other cryptos use them as a currency, to at least have that peace of mind that you're not going to regret this decision. Going forward. I think that's the big hurdle to get over there. But so what Tesla did is they said, we're gonna accept as a currency, they pretty much waited like the big one, like they waited two months, not even I don't know. And then they turned around, and you almost said, we're not going to accept as a currency anymore. And so what they cited as their reasoning, was because the amount of energy to mine Bitcoin is incredibly high. And when you're an electric car company, and one of your missions is to use clean energy and continue use clean energy and help the earth in that aspect, you cannot accept the currency, that takes a whole lot of energy to use. So what Elan musk and their team did, and he did hint at it in July sometime where they might accept that as a currency going forward. And he said, the reason we were going to do so now is because we did our due diligence research. And we found out that more clean energy is being used to mine Bitcoin than we thought, until that's promising. I don't know who we talked to, I don't know what kind of data they had, it's all pretty brand new. Who knows what the numbers are. But if the numbers are there, and it's all clean energy, they're gonna accept that as a crypto as a currency again, specifically Bitcoin, they didn't mention any of the current kryptos, at least as of right now. So that's their kind of main idea around that and using as a currency, but why I think it for right now. And I'm not saying in the future, it's not different. For right now. It's just something where if I have 50 grand in cash, or I have one bitcoin that's worth 50 grand, I'm probably going to lean towards just a cash because I don't want to regret the decision in the future. But I don't know. I mean, if if 50, grand cash, I mean, you're doing all right for yourself, so you're gonna be okay. But so the other company that's using kryptos as a kind of a platform for them to bring themselves to the front of the line here and really show themselves as innovators. And they're not using it as a currency is square. And so what square started with is they started as a company that helps small businesses get transactions through and helps them with their back end. I guess services where they can help smaller companies operate effectively and efficiently going forward. And so jack Dorsey, their CEO is a major believer in cryptocurrencies major believer in Bitcoin. And because of this swears kind of poised where they have the cash app, if you guys use that, it's like a Venmo app. It's like a Venmo app. If you don't use cash app, use Venmo. It's very similar product, you just transfer money between friends. And so what you can do in the cash app is you can go buy bitcoin on there and have it as an investment there. Through the cash app. And his idea being going forward is he knows that that one, not everyone has access to the cash app. So what they want to do is create a wallet for it, where if you have Bitcoin, you can store it in that wallet. And now the wallet is an even amount. It's not a product that's online. It's pretty much just like any other object. If you were watching the podcast, I held up a mouse it doesn't look like a mouse. But my idea being it is physical object, it's not anything tied to the Internet, and therefore has more security to it. You can't get hacked unless someone knows your pin your passcode to get into it. So that's their main idea with with what they're going to do going forward. Now a square especially, I will keep an eye on them going forward with regards to what their role is inside the cryptocurrency space. I think there's a lot to come from square. I think they have some really cool ideas with regards to cryptocurrencies and how they want to use them and leverage them in their business. I just think it's still a new idea in its infancy for the most part and they're trying to work through those waters. It's exciting as they are. It definitely is exciting. But I think they have a long way to go before they're really a player in that space with some major Moving power, but I think it might come, it might come for square, which is cool. And then so the other conversation I have and it's kind of tied to the currency conversation on kryptos. And what I want to talk about is if you hear about cryptocurrency, you're definitely gonna hear it as especially Bitcoin, a storage of value. And the reason I don't love that conversation is because the your traditional storage values is$1, gold, and other other metals. And Bitcoin just does not act like them. And I, again, cannot stress enough and I will say it multiple times throughout this podcast, to do your own research on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But Bitcoin especially does not act like your traditional storage of value, meaning if I have $1, if I have a bar of gold, it's similar to the currency issue where in two weeks, I pretty much know what that is worth. With Bitcoin in two weeks, I do not know what that is worth. And that's because the technology is new, and the products are new, I'm calling, it's practically a product. The technology is new around, it's exciting, but we don't really know where it's going. And same with blockchain. It's super exciting. And we just don't know the future use cases for yet or how it's gonna pan out and the society. And so there's, there's a long way to go. But that's why these conversations around it being a currency and storage of value right now I think are very, very premature, I think down the line, if they can figure a few things out with it, we get some regulation around it. Sure, maybe that kind of falls into those buckets. But for right now, I just don't see it. And that's not again, that's not to say it won't change companies like Tesla and square being involved in it are really important, I think more company adoption going forward is going to show it as a legitimate tool to use. But as of right now, it's still something that's so new. Anytime it's cutting edge technology, it's hard to wrap your mind around, if you're an everyday person, how to harden Viper monitor around it, if you're in the space, I think they're still figuring a lot of things out. And that's exciting. It's just too soon to kind of be having those conversations now. And I could come on here a year from now, I can remind your two years from now, a month from now. And I get a totally different conversation with you about these things. But for right now, as we speak, September 2021. I just think those conversations around being a currency and storage value are just a little bit premature. But I'm still super excited to see where it goes. And so the other reason it's kind of premature, is you hear about in the news, if you watch, like the financial media you hear about all the time, no one knows what's going to happen with it. We don't know where it's going. And a lot of it's because the overall adoption of cryptocurrencies as a whole just isn't really there yet. I think there's a lot of room to run with, I think we have a lot of younger people using cryptocurrencies and being much more okay with the whole blockchain idea. And jumping into that and seeing where it goes. And we've seen that with NF Ts, and we've seen that with the kryptos. Now, if you don't know what an NF T is, we're going to get into that at some point in the future because they are, in my opinion, exciting, but wild. But I'll save that for another time. But the idea being that the overall adoption of these is not very, it's not very prominent, yet you no matter how much you've seen the news, and now is it way more than it was 10 years ago? Yes, bull is out of the water, even five years ago, the adoption of it now blows that out of the water. And so I think we're gonna still see that accelerated timeframe where we're seeing more people use it. I just think, five years now we have a different conversation. But for right now, as we speak, the overall adoption of kryptos and blockchain isn't quite there yet to the point where we can have these actual conversations. And you can use it as a currency and feel good or you can use as a storage of value and feel good. And I just think it's, it's something I need to get there. And in five years, I don't even know what Bitcoin and aetherium and the other cryptocurrencies are even a part of the conversation. Because there's countries coming out are gonna come up with their own crypto currencies, their own internet based currency. And so there's gonna be a lot of competition going forward. Now the names you hear the most right now Bitcoin Ethereum and those others Yes, and you're gonna continue to hear those probably forever. But we don't know what's going to happen with it, you don't know if it's still going to be the main crypto that everyone talks about, or something else gonna take its place or if each country is gonna have their own, and that's what you use inside that country. We have no idea. But the technology there and I've said it a million times. It's cool. And it's really exciting stuff to see. And I've kind of gone through anything, everything I kind of had for the other side of it. And this is Mars on aetherium. But even like outside of the storage value and currency side is the idea that you could have smart contracts and use blockchain in order to do so and so What that is, the smart contract is it's pretty much the payment is withheld. Until, okay, sorry, guys, this might be a little choppy, he's had some camera issues, it cut off and stop recording for whatever reason. But back to the conversation I was having are smart contracts. And this will kind of wrap that up. And the whole idea around blockchain and cryptocurrencies. But these are cool, because so say you have a contract to do pretty much whatever someone's coming to your house to do some work for you. And it's all internet based, or whatever it may be. The contract itself and the money is not exchanged until both parties acknowledge that the service has been completed and done. And then it's through blockchain. It's completely traceable. And then the currency or whatever it is, is exchanged, and the contract is completed. And so there's a long way for those to go. But I think as far as these ability in the legal sense, with smart contracts, I think going forward that has another big role to play. But compared to the other things in crypto, that's not really that's the last thing on my mind, I want to see where everything else goes out. We talked about like the company adoption, cryptocurrency the value, the storage of value conversation and see where that goes first. And then everything else will come through. But yeah, guys kind of wrap this up. I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend. Again, I apologize for the choppiness and some camera issues, but I think it's gonna be alright, I can just edit through it or I think it was pretty seamless, but we should be fine. Either way. But yeah, I appreciate you guys. listen to the podcast here. If you're a fan, leave a review, give it a like, share it with a friend or with a family member, whatever it may be, but I'm so excited to be recording us and make it nice for you guys and keep an eye out for the new content. I'm super excited to get out. Get that out to you guys, too. So until next time, guys, stay happy, stay healthy, and I'll see ya. Securities offered through Securities America Inc. Member FINRA slash SIPC. advisory services offered through Securities America advisors Inc. Wealth Management Services and Securities America are separate entities. The opinions and forecasts expressed are those of the author and may not actually come to pass. This information is subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions and should not be construed as a recommendation of any specific security or investment plan. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Intro
The office, recording, football is back, and golf
Cryptocurrencies - General talk
Tesla/Square - Bitcoin as a currency
Cryptos as a storage of value
The future
Brief description of smart contracts
Wrap-up
Outro disclaimer