EP36: Buy, Borrow and Die: Bitcoin Style

I am in a financial position that may seem somewhat unusual to you. You see, the IRS rewards me for my real estate investments by taxing me less. If, on the other hand, I keep my income in the bank, or invest it in traditional equities or bonds, the IRS shows me no mercy!

Admittedly this is by design. I am a real estate professional. One of the great benefits to that designation is that all of my passive losses flow through my personal tax returns. In other words, all that depreciation and mortgage interest I get by investing in real estate not only builds my net worth, but SAVES me money in the form of tax mitigation. Not a bad deal right?

To illustrate the power of these completely legal tax advantages, remember that with bonus depreciation even limited partners often end up with K1 losses of 50-100 percent of invested capital. Those losses add up in a hurry!

With that perspective in mind, why would I EVER consider investing in anything that is not tax advantaged? Think about the returns I would need to get in order to simply break even with the tax breaks I’m getting from investing in real estate. The returns would need to be HUGE. I’m not going to get that through Vanguard ETFs!

In fact, I truly believe that the only way I can get higher tax equivalent returns on capital is by investing in asymmetric risk type investments. For me, that means a little bit of bitcoin.

You may think I am crazy, but I actually don’t even consider investing in bitcoin all that risky. Sure it’s volatile, but I’m pretty darn sure that 5 years down the line anyone who buys bitcoin today will be pretty happy. I’m less sure about all of the alternative coins/tokens. They may have more explosive returns or they may simply go to zero. But bitcoin going to zero?—ain’t going to happen if you ask me.

Now I don’t overdo it with my bitcoin portfolio. For one, it’s important to have discipline and value add real estate is my bread and butter. In fact, I bought bitcoin with only about 5 percent of my investable assets this year. Aside from its riskier nature, buying bitcoin does not save me any money! It’s not tax advantaged.

So what’s a bitcoin HODLR to do? How about “Buy, borrow, and die”? That’s the mantra of the ultra-wealthy. The idea is that  you can borrow against most assets that you own and invest in something else. You don’t get taxed on your loan and you’ve got a way to create liquidity out of an asset that is sitting around waiting to appreciate. If you invest those borrowed funds into real estate, not only do you get the benefit of investing your capital in two places at once, but you also get the tax advantages!

You can do this with all kinds of assets. Traditionally, the wealthy have done this with brokerage accounts and other real estate but also with gold and fine art.

The good news is that these days you can even do it with bitcoin and that’s what this week’s show is all about. Zac Prince is the founder of a cutting edge company called BlockFi. BlockFi is essentially creating financial products from the cryptocurrency ecosystem including the origination of loans and even savings accounts that pay cryptocurrency in interest.

In this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast, Zac tells us all about it and gives us his take on the massive infrastructure that is creeping slowly but surely into the bitcoin ecosystem. Whether or not you buy bitcoin, you are going to want to understand what’s going on in the digital ecosystem because soon it will be part of your every day reality. Don’t miss this show!

Zac Prince is the Founder and CEO of BlockFi. Zac's experience includes leadership roles at multiple successful tech companies. Initially in adtech, where he was a part of two successful acquisitions, Admeld (Acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to starting BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. He graduated Cum Laude from Texas State University with a BA in International Business and minor in Spanish.

SHOWNOTES:

• How Zach got into Bitcoin

• How Bitcoin became more mainstream in the last 2 years

• What is the Halvening?

• Why is Zach bullish on the future of blockchain?

• Zach talks about BlockFi

• @BlockFiZac

• @TheRealBlockFi

• BlockFi.com

EP35: Cryptocurrency and Asymmetric Risk with Teeka Tiwari

Up to 10 percent of my liquid assets are in very risky stuff—specifically digital assets and startups. 

A lot of people people think I am being irresponsible—particularly because I have a captive audience with whom I have influence.

Now if I was shooting at the hip and telling you to put all your money in this stuff, I would understand. But even highly volatile investments (ie. gambling) may have their role in your portfolio.

To be clear, every year, I allocate no less than 80 percent of the money I invest into real estate through Investor Club. There are many “wealth advisors” out there who would tell me that’s nuts too—that I would be better with a substantial portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Ain’t gonna happen.

One of the great benefits of becoming financially literate is that you get to make your own decisions and feel confident about them. You don’t need someone with a three month long accreditation course to tell you what makes sense. 

In my opinion, residential real estate isn’t risky if you know what you are doing or invest with someone who does. People have to live somewhere regardless of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Real estate in the hands of an ambitious immigrant with no money (my dad), ultimately paid for my upper middle-class upbringing and my education through medical school! Why would I consider it risky? The only time my dad got in trouble was when he invested in the stock market. 

Now, let’s go back to this buying digital currency thing again. You and I know this is seriously risky. But you know what?— a lot of people have gotten very wealthy off this stuff already and it’s still in its early days. 

So let me ask you this. Say you invested $20K into a variety of cryptocurrency projects today and lost it all. Would that kill you? Alternatively, say your $20K became $2 million—is it worth it for you to at least have a chance of this happening in your lifetime?

That’s the kind of analysis you need to do for yourself when considering investments of the asymmetric risk profile variety. Chances are if you are a follower of Wealth Formula Podcast, you are already doing fine. You make a great income and have all the basic things you need to live a happy life. But what if you had exposure to something that could put you in another league of wealth entirely? Would it be worth putting a little capital at risk to make this happen?

 It is for me and that is why I invest in cryptocurrency. This is not foolish—this is calculated risk. It is the kind of risk that the wealthy take all the time. It’s how millionaires become billionaires and how ordinary people can make money that they never imagined possible.

In fact, even the largest, most respected university endowments like Yale and Stanford are getting in the game with small allocations in the digital currency space just to make sure they don’t miss out.

And why now? Well—because no one is talking about it. The bull market of 2017 had everyone and their mother investing in cryptocurrencies. Two years later, technology is better and institutional money is starting to get in, but investors don’t seem that interested.

That’s exactly why, if you have not gotten exposure to digital assets, now may be the best time to take the leap. The more you read about this stuff, the more excited you will get!

To help you understand what is going on with cryptocurrency and whether you should consider getting into the game, I invited Teeka Tiwari back on Consensus Network. He’s a former Wall Street guy with serious credibility with institutional investors and family offices. 

He is also a great teacher so make sure you tune into this week’s show.

P.S. To find out EXACTLY why investing in cryptocurrency makes sense NOW, make sure to sign up for Teeka’s upcoming webinar

HERE.

Mr. Teeka Tiwari is a Editor at Palm Beach Research Group LLC. He is responsible for the firm’s flagship service, The Palm Beach Letter and small-cap and cryptocurrency advisory, Palm Beach Confidential. Earlier, Mr. Tiwari served as a Co-Editor and was also an Editor for Jump Point Trader and Mega Trends Investing at the firm. Previously, he was a hedge fund manager and launched a hedge fund. Prior to this, Mr. Tiwari was a Vice President, youngest in history, at Shearson Lehman. At the age of 18, he was the youngest employee at Lehman Brothers. Mr. Tiwari has been a regular contributor to the FOX Business Network and has appeared on FOX News Channel, CNBC, ABC’s Nightline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and international television networks.

Shownotes:

• Teeka talks about Asymmetric Risk Trade

• Why Cryptocurrency?

• Why is Bitcoin so volatile?

• Is Crypto Winter over?

• The Palm Beach Confidential Newsletter

EP34: Bull Markets in the Least Ugly Economy in the World!

I am a lousy trader. I’ve said it before and I fully recognize this fact. That’s why, I try very hard to stay focussed on investing rather than trading. Nevertheless, I still get trapped in behaviors that I invariably regret.

For example, you may know that I am a believer in bitcoin. I truly believe this will be one of the best investments of my lifetime over the course of the next few years. That’s why when it dropped to $3100, I should’ve bought some more. But, I didn’t because I got greedy. I figured it might drop even more so I waited.

The end result was that by the time I bought more, it had actually doubled in price. Now, over the long run I still think that’s not a bad price at all. Especially considering I believe that we will see $100,000 bitcoin within the next couple of years. However, I was kicking myself because I was timing something instead of just recognizing that it was a good time to buy.

In the heat of the moment, it’s hard to remember Warren Buffett’s wisdom. Here’s a good quote for you. “It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.” The point is recognize when you have a good opportunity and can buy a quality asset at a fair price and just do it!

Now some of you may disagree with me that bitcoin is a “quality“ asset. We can agree to disagree. However, let’s focus on that principal with another example.

One of my friends is a famous home designer and is particularly well known amongst Hollywood celebrities. He told me about a house he once put on sale in Los Angeles. At the time, it was the most expensive house per square foot in all of Los Angeles.

He had a very motivated buyer who happened to be the daughter of a well-known tech billionaire. My friend said that dad had three questions before he bought the house for his daughter. 1) Was the house in a desirable area? 2) Did the house have a great views? 3) Was the house built well?

The broker assured him that all three answers were a resounding yes. The billionaire went on and bought that house for his daughter at full price. And, that house which was the most expensive house per square foot in LA at the time (in 2007), sold for a significant profit only 10 years later even after the housing correction.

The moral of the story?—most of the time when we think we are saving money, we really aren’t. It may be more expensive to buy a higher quality asset or an asset that is in a higher quality area. However, over the long run, you will come out ahead.

Think of it this way. Ikea furniture is not going to appreciate. So, if you can afford it, buy something that might appreciate so that, someday, you have something of greater value.

This is the kind of perspective you get over time. That’s why it’s a good idea to listen to people of been around for a while. Tyler Jenks is one of those guys. He’s been in the financial industry since 1971. That’s before I was even born!

Tyler can speak on a broad base of financial topics with perspective that is both unusual and multidimensional. From the S&P 500 to gold and even to bitcoin, Tyler is a wealth of knowledge as you will see on this week’s Consensus Network

Tyler Jenks has spent his entire professional career studying financial markets and investments. Mr. Jenks is currently President and Chief Investment Officer of Lucid Investment Strategies, previously a division of Dumont and Blake. Mr. Jenks served for ten years as President and Chief Investment Officer of Amivest Capital Management/NFB Asset Builder, North Fork Bank’s investment advisory division. Mr. Jenks served as Senior Portfolio Manager upon joining Amivest Capital Management in 1991, and was named Amivest’s Chief Investment Officer in 1998 when North Fork Bank acquired the firm. After graduating with a degree in International Relations from Principia College in 1971, Mr. Jenks spent four years as an officer in the United States Coast Guard. While stationed in Hawaii, Mr. Jenks received his M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii. Immediately following his military service, Mr. Jenks joined a major Wall Street firm and has spent the last 42 years as a student of markets and investments. During his career, Tyler has had the opportunity to work with some of the most accomplished chief investment officers, portfolio managers, fundamental and technical analysts, market timers, theoreticians and academicians in the business.

Mr. Jenks’ broad overview of world economics and investment trends is not simply theoretical. He has managed hundreds of millions of dollars for institutions, charities, pension funds and individuals and has done so very effectively for over 42 years. Mr. Jenks loves to share his experience and investment acumen through classes, seminars and the financial media. He expresses challenging and complex concepts in a remarkably simple and down-to-earth style.

Before joining Amivest Capital Management in 1991, Mr. Jenks founded Boston-based Kanon Bloch Carre & Co., Inc. and was Director of Research and Chairman of the investment committee from 1985 to 1991, where he was responsible for the design, development and implementation of mutual fund evaluation techniques. From 1975 to 1986, Mr. Jenks was extensively involved in portfolio management, investment research and trading system design and assessment at Dean Witter, Loeb Rhodes Hornblower and Shearson/American Express.

Shownotes:

• General state of the markets

• The Debt Problem

• The case for a ten million dollar Bitcoin

• Bitcoin in the next decade

• lucidinvestmentstrategies.com

EP33: Crypto thaw and Crypto Law

This past week or two got a lot of people excited. Bitcoin broke through $5K and seemed to be headed to $6K. The usual bulls were out stomping on the grave of the crypto bears. But then the New York Attorney General filed a complaint against Bitfinex, one of the largest crypto trading platforms. It had to do with a stable coin called Tether and how Bitfinex dipped into its funds to cover other shortfalls. This is an old story that the AG has finally moved on so it should not have been a surprise. That said, any news in the digital currency world seems to create a PTSD like response and because of that, bitcoin fell to near 5K as of this writing on April 26th.

Is this the end of the bear market? I certainly don't know but my hunch is that we have a bit of sideways activity to come before any clear resolution. Some technical traders believe the bottom is in and even the most notable bears are conceding their call for bitcoin hitting sub 2K before a bull run might not come to pass.

In the meantime, the only thing to do is to watch, wait, and learn so that's what we are going to do. This week on Consensus Network, we discuss how regulations and laws are affecting the crypto landscape for better and for worse.

Since the JOBS Act of 2012, Mark has spent all of his time in the Crowdfunding space and today he is one of the leading Crowdfunding and Fintech lawyers in the United States. He writes a widely-read blog, www.CrowdfundAttny.com, with a wealth of legal and practical information for portals and issuers. He also speaks at Crowdfunding events across the country, and represents industry participants across the country and around the world.

Shownotes:

• Mark's background

• The "Wild West" of crypto ICOs

• What happens to tokens that violated the SEC rules?

• What needs to happen for exchanges to become more compliant in the eyes of American securities law?

• The possibility of a crypto ETF

• Utility tokens vs. Security tokens

• crowdfundattny.com

EP32: THE SEPARATION OF MONEY FROM STATE

It’s funny how long lasting paradigms perpetuate without question for centuries without being questioned.

It used to be in most places, specific religions were mandated by the government to its people and heretics were persecuted. Of course that still exists in many parts of the world but the point is that a large part of the world does not see that as simply status quo anymore.

If you live in the United States, for example, you would likely feel very uncomfortable with the idea that government chose your place of worship, what you ate or drank, and what you wore. Why is that?

The answer to that, again, is that we tend to let outdated paradigms perpetuate without questioning them. They become part of conventional collective reality that few even think about questioning. Then, one day there is an awakening. The separation of church and state was one of those awakenings that has occurred gradually over time.

Similarly, while this may sound like a bit of a leap, I believe that bitcoin represents the first modern step in separating money from state. I have been watching and studying this space closely and I have come to the conclusion that bitcoin is real and it’s not going anywhere.

And when you look around and see the infrastructure that is being built around bitcoin at the institutional level, that belief is no longer outlandish. A lot of smart money believes it’s here for the long term as well. I’m talking about university endowments and even some pension plans. Bitcoin is not a fad. It’s a movement that is unstoppable.

It doesn’t matter what the price of bitcoin is today. Its value is in what it’s going to do to the world tomorrow and, in that sense, is grossly undervalued. In my opinion, you will regret it if you don’t take time to understand bitcoin and its implications now.

For that reason, I have invited a former Wall Street guy turned bitcoin purist for an interview on Wealth Formula Podcast today. His name is Tone Vays and you are going to want to listen to this week’s show so you can start the process of learning what will, in our lifetimes, become a new reality in our economy. 

Tone Vays has worked on Wall Street for almost 10 years starting as a Risk Analyst at Bear Stearns and later becoming a VP at JP Morgan Chase in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. His expertise is in Economic Trends, Trading and Risk Analysis. Ever since getting involved in the Crypto Currency ecosystem in early 2013, he has been very active in spreading the relevance and importance of this technology as it helps promote economic freedom. Tone has been featured in several Documentaries like Magic Money & Bitcoin – Beyond the Bubble. Tone is now an independent content creator at ToneVays.com and on his YouTube Channel focused on sound economics & finance. Tone holds a Masters Degree in Financial Engineering from Florida State University along with Bachelor Degrees in Mathematics and Geology. 

Shownotes:

• TONE’S BACKGROUND IN FINDING OUT ABOUT BITCOIN

• WHAT MADE BITCOIN SO UNIQUE

• IS BITCOIN MONEY OR A STORE OF VALUE

• IN WHAT MARKETS SHOULD THE BLOCK CHAIN TECHNOLOGY BE USED

• WHAT IS BITCOINS “BOTTOM”

• TONE’S PREDICTION FOR BITCOIN

• WHEN SHOULD YOU BUY BITCOIN

• TONEVAYS.COM

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbiWJYRg8luWHnmNkJRZEnw

EP31: Blockchain, Crowd Wisdom, and AI with Cindicator

As the story goes, in 1906, the great statistician Francis Galton observed a competition to guess the weight of an ox at a country fair. Over 800 people entered that contest. Galton, being a numbers guy was curious about how the crowd faired with its guesses. What he discovered was that the average guess, 1,197lb, was extremely close to the actual weight of the ox at 1,198lb. No one person had made a guess as good as that of the combined wisdom of the crowd.

Since then, there have been lots of examples of this kind of crowd intelligence and it has become a science unto itself. Meanwhile, another kind of intelligence has become sort of a buzz word in the technology space over the last few years: Artificial Intelligence.

So what happens when you take crowd intelligence and combine with artificial intelligence and blockchain? The answer is a project called Cindicator.

Cindicator has applications in just about everything you can think of predicting. Sound interesting? If so, you will not want to miss this week’s episode of Consensus Network.

Trader with more than 5 years experience of active trading and asset management. Master's degree in finance. Black swan catcher.

Successfully shorted Russian market right before the Crimean crisis in February 2014, the U.S. stock market before the panic selloffs in August 2015 and January 2016, as well as before Brexit and Trump's election.

Responsible for the development and implementation of new trading strategies. Passionate about the creation of a unique investment fund managed by Hybrid Intelligence.

Show notes

• HYBRID INTELLIGENCE

• CINDICATOR TIERS

• HISTORICAL ACCURACY

• FUTURE PREDICTIONS

• DIFFERENCE FROM COMPETITORS

• FUTURE OF CINDICATOR

• CINDICATOR.COM

EP30: Dentacoin? What?

I’m a surgeon—a retired surgeon. I started out in neurosurgery. Then, after a couple years, I fled to a specialty where I could operate on the head and neck without the brain. I loved neuroscience, but found the brain, itself, to be a pain in the ass. When the brain gets injured, you can’t wait until the morning to fix the problem. That’s a problem for someone who does not like being woken up in the middle of the night.

Anyway, after finishing my less night intensive surgical residency I did a fellowship year in cosmetics. By the time I was done with all of this training, I was 34 years old. Now I’m retired from surgery and medicine of any kind and I’m 45 years old. In fact, I haven’t seen a patient in two years. Imagine that. Admittedly, it is a bit painful for me to think about my lost decades of youth. It was a long run for a short slide.

Why did I retire from medicine? It wasn’t because I wanted to “retire” aka sit around and wait to die. I just stopped doing something that I no longer wanted to do. I didn’t like it anymore. Actually, I liked operating but didn’t like anything else about medicine.

On top of that, I have a little bit of attention deficit disorder so I tend to change direction a lot. I transferred out of my first college after my first year, I changed residency specialties after two years, I quit/got fired from my first job after 8 months then I quit medicine all together in less then a decade after completion of my training. The only thing that’s lasted over 10 years in my life is my marriage and I’m going to stick with that one for sure!

Anyway, beyond the general lack of interest in practice, I didn’t like the way medicine in general was headed. I had one insurance based business that was a nightmare. The insurance companies were ultimately telling me who I could operate on and who I could not. For those of you in the medical field, you know exactly what I’m getting at.

Insurance based medicine is also the only field in the history of the universe where someone does the work first and then a third party decides how much to pay you or whether or not to pay you at all! But we health care providers are too focussed and idealistic to fight for compensation.

We also have created an environment within our own culture that makes talking about money dirty. Mixing money talk with medicine, at least in my experience, is considered heresy in physician culture. The end result is that others in the system happily fill that vacuum and they are the ones getting paid the most!

I feel especially bad for my friends in non-surgical specialties who are getting squeezed even harder. My best friend in college was the smartest kid in the class and became a pediatrician. Now she works her tail off and her reimbursement is going down every year. 

Internists are also in the same boat. They just can’t see enough patients to stay profitable. Of course patients blame the doctors for not giving them enough attention and using ancillary staff like physician’s assistants to help with the workload. If patients understood how badly internists are getting squeezed by insurance companies and how much they have to work to make a living, they might instead focus their anger at the insurance companies that now control their care.

As a result of this unfortunate situation, some doctors have decided to move towards a concierge practice model. Here’s how it works. You sign up with a doctor and pay maybe a $200 per month. The doctor has all of his patients do that. That makes sure he can make a living. Next, the doctor caps his total number of patients. The result…medicine that you remember as a kid. Doctors spend a lot of time with you. You can stop in if you are sick and you can pretty much make an appointment anytime you want. Oh…and some will even do house calls.

I use one of these doctors and it is definitely worth the price of admission. But, I have to admit it is sad that this kind of care is no longer the standard of care. The insurance companies and reimbursement have made that impossible.

Of course my experience is that of a physician but I have met a lot of dentists and orthodontists through our accredited investor club. I will say this, dentists are a heck of a lot more business savvy than doctors are as a general rule. And some of you are downright killing it by selling large practices etc.

So, it came to no surprise to me when I learned about a blockchain project called dentacoin which has gotten a lot of very positive feedback from the dental community around the world. This is project that combines both health care and cryptocurrency and may actually be applicable to a host of other fields.

Whether you are interested in blockchain technology or not, you will find this interview with the cofounder of dentacoin absolutely fascinating. It is a sign of things to come in the new world financial paradigm.

Welcome back to the show everyone. I hope you enjoyed the show.

If I were a dentist, I would definitely check this out. Think of it this way. The concierge aspect of the model is valuable in and of itself. If you don’t care for cryptocurrency, immediately convert your crypto to dollars. If you want, keep some in crypto and see it potentially 100X in the next few years. Anyway, I like the idea and it may be worth checking out.

Let’s talk about some things happening in the crypto space right now. 

1. Nasdaq launched real-time information on two new indices linked to the crypto asset market —Bitcoin liquid index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX) were both incorporated into the Nasdaq platform on February 25th. This is sort of like the Nasdaq composite with the end goal to bolster mainstream adoption by fusing crypto assets into traditional entities like the stock market.

2. Bitcoin surpassed PayPal in yearly transaction volumes in 2018 with $1.3 trillion dollars more then doubling PayPal with just over $500 billion

3. The CBOE/Van Eck ETF ETF wil have a decision on it made by April 5th—this was extended of course because of the government shutdown.

Of course, BAAKT, the platform owned by the new york stock exchange owners—Intercontinental exchange—is still delayed with launch expected “later this year”—partnership with starbucks-not wanting to do it during a bear market.

That it for me this week. This is Buck Joffrey signing off.

Jeremias is the Co-Founder & Core Developer at Dentacoin being an early entrant into the Blockchain scene. Immersed within the peer-to-peer technology for 8 years. Contributor to Ethereum, Waves, ZCash, uPort, Status, imToken, Byteball. Strong believer in decentralization and transparency.

Shownotes

• WHAT PROBLEM DOES DENTACOIN LOOK TO SOLVE

• HOW IT IS WORKING TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE

• THE VALUE BLOCKCHAIN BRINGS TO DENTISTRY

• WHERE IS DENTACOIN

• THE BENEFITS IT BRINGS TO PROVIDERS

• DENTACOIN.COM

• DENTACOIN.COM/DENTISTS

• DENTISTS.DENTACOIN.COM

Ep29: Power Ledger: Peer to Peer Energy

We’ve had a lot of high profile folks on the show lately that represent the “bitcoin maximalist” crowd. In other words, they believe that bitcoin is the only worthwhile blockchain and that every other project/token out there is a “shitcoin”.

There is all sorts of terminology for this—the bitcoiner, the multicoiner, the nocoiner, and then there is the full spectrum in between.

What am I? Well, it’s funny because a couple of years ago I would have been one of those people who said, “blockchain not bitcoin”. Why?…Because I didn’t understand bitcoin as well as I do now. “Blockchain not bitcoin” really means “I have no clue what I’m talking about but I will give you my opinion anyway.”

On the other hand, I’ve come to realize that there is, indeed, and overabundance of needless projects and tokens. So, I would call myself more of a bitcoin maximalist in the long term. However, in the next couple years I actually believe people stand to make a lot more money with the right alt coin than with bitcoin itself.

One of my favorite projects is Worldwide Asset Exchange (WAX). WAX is trading at 3.5 cents right now. WAX will get to 35 cents way before bitcoin does its 10X in my opinion. In fact, when bitcoin has its next 10X bull run, I believe WAX will be up closer to 100X. On the other hand, bitcoin is more likely to be around in 10 years than WAX. Anyway, I think you get my point.

The reality is that there are some really good projects out there that are already using blockchain that are making things more efficient. Peer to peer energy is one of the interesting use cases that I have spoken about on a few occasions. So, as we pick our alts to HODL for the next bull run, we will start exploring some useful blockchain use cases and quality projects.

One of the areas in which blockchain appears to be emerging as a very useful technology is peer to peer energy production and consumption. The clear leader in this area is a Project Called Power Ledger who’s cofounder is our guest on Consensus Network this week.

Jemma, as the Chair, provides the strategic external relations, risk management and leadership development for Power Ledger. Jemma has more than 15 years' experience in finance and risk advisory having worked for 11 years in investment banking in London. Whilst there, she completed a Masters degree and two postgraduate diplomas from Cambridge University. Jemma is a research fellow at Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, whose doctoral research into “Citizen Utilities” has produced unique insights into the challenges and opportunities for the deployment of rooftop solar PV and battery storage within multi-unit developments and the application of the blockchain. Jemma is experienced in the challenges of sustainable cities through her role as an independent Councilor of the City of Perth. She is also the Chair of Climate-KIC Australia, a founder of the Global Blockchain Business Council and a contributor to Forbes on blockchain disruption.

Shownotes:

• BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN ENERGY

• ENERGY TRADING

• PEER-TO-PEER TRADING

• POWER TOKEN ROLE

• POWERLEDGER.IO

• FORBES.COM/SITES/JEMMAGREEN/#5FBDEFA92019

• T.ME/POWERLEDGER

• FACEBOOK.COM/POWERLEDGER