Ask Doctor Bitcoin #1: Well, hello world! [Free]
I'm back, and I'm here to help you navigate bitcoin, crypto and blockchain!
Well, hello there!
This is our first post to the list! You should have already received our welcome message that tells you a bit about what to expect here.
The first few issues will be slow rolled out while we iron out our workflows behind the scenes, but we fully intend to be weekly in our content flow once we’ve hit our stride. Thanks for hanging in there with us while we get our sea-legs back!
As always, the free version gives you a quick briefing that gets you up to date quickly, but the paid version will include actionable context and detailed long-form content!
Blockchain Bulletin
Bitcoin record highs boost media attention. February created a Bitcoin media fever when BTC reached a record price of $58,354 that has fallen somewhat and stabilized just around $50,000.
Bitcoin institutional portfolio investments continue. Major firms, including Tesla, Square and Microstrategy have added significant amounts of bitcoin to their balance sheets, ranging from hundreds of millions to billions.
AWS blockchain now interoperable with Ethereum. Amazon Web Services recently announced that its Amazon Managed Blockchain now has general availability of Ethereum making it possible to build decentralized finance application (DeFi) and other decentralized apps (dApps) using AWS.
Blockchain Behind the Scenes
Crypto artwork is becoming a craze and proving NFTs an option. Non-fungible tokens can be used to exchange unique digital items, artwork for example, which does not have a physical presence in the same way a painting or a sculpture does. As a result, digital artists are using this technology for their performance, artwork, videography, and music, to great success.
Kraken CEO optimistic about Bitcoin’s future. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, the Kraken CEO Jesse Powell quipped “We can only speculate, but when you measure it in terms of dollars, you have to think [Bitcoin’s] going to infinity. The true believers will tell you that it’s going all the way to the moon, to Mars and eventually, will be the world’s currency.”
Spotlight on: A brief primer on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Bitcoin is the reference architecture for blockchain, which is a decentralized Internet Protocol aimed at removing or mitigating the requirement for trust between counterparties.
If Bitcoin is the digital version of an analog ledger, that makes Ethereum and Turing-Complete blockchains is the digital equivalent of a spreadsheet.
Turing-Complete blockchains allow for execution of smart contracts.
One of smart contract types most quickly growing in popularity is the ERC-721, or NFT.
Crypto-Kitties, in 2017, was the most popular dApp for Ethereum, which featured NFTs centrally.
Art titling and provenance is the most common usage for NFTs presently.
There’s a much larger future for NFTs involving self-sovereign identity, privacy protection and data provenance.
As always, see our paid newsletter for the full story!