Of course it is. That’s why I was asking for specifics. Fintech is enormous, and the only tiny slice of it that I recall discussing with you was remittances. We never really talked about Chainlink - you mentioned and linked an article about it as an example of a crypto business, but never really got into details (they’re a “picks and shovels” company, right, doing oracle software for blockchains?). You never really got into what they actually do or why they’re important (other than helping people, as I mentioned upthread, successfully speculate on tokens).
Than why are you arguing? You asked, I told you fintech so let’s just wait and in a year we will see where they are at.
Andy
Hi Mark,
We had a long discussion on Chainlink, Swift, cross border payments, Zelle. You can search on those terms and see the discussion.
Andy
I guess my reason for asking a further question can be best illustrated by another question: can you give an example of a crypto business that wouldn’t be categorized as fintech? It’s rather an enormously broad term, after all.
Again, just curious what you thought the next (or rather, first) big thing with crypto might be - and “fintech” is just so enormously broad that it’s not really much to go on.
Yes but it is much smaller than what I actually first said. I can’t be sure exactly what they are going into because there is so much innovations coming in this space.
Andy
Which fintechs that are using crypto would you invest in today? After all, getting in early is the key to outsize returns (Amazon, Apple, Google, etc) for companies that will experience massive growth.
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There isn’t one Mark, I am not trying to tell anyone what to invest in, rather I am trying to bring up information on the technology. The feedback has helped me to understand this technology. I feel I have a better understanding of it now than I did 6 months ago.
Andy
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Me, too, Andy.
THANKS to EVERYBODY for the conversation!
ralph
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Me, too.
Based on this better understanding, I’ve just drawn a different conclusion than you have.
Different strokes for different folks.
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Exactly Alpha, but at least you can draw a conclusion with a better understanding of why.
Andy
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My “better understanding” is that the arm waving is going into overdrive, but Bitcoin is off by 65%, other cryptocurrencies are off even more, that “blockchain” is a really cool technology that no one has a significant use for yet (except to make more blockchain, apparently), and that the best minds in “fintech” still don’t have a concrete application for any of this, except to get more people to invest in it because, FOMO.
I invested in AOL in 1995 and Cisco too, because I had some idea of what their technologies might lead to. (To make sure this is not a ‘glory me’ post, I also bought Lucent and @Home for the same reason. Right technologies, wrong companies.)
Here we are, a decade or so later, and nobody can give a straight answer to “what is crypto good for” except “buying more crypto”, and blockchain looks like a vastly energy intensive Vis-A-Calc that everybody can see, always. OK.
Meanwhile crypto has failed to make any significant roads into the consumer space, companies have dabbled but mostly held back, and the number of corporations dropping blockchain increases as daily as the calendar count.
So yeah, I have “a different conclusion” too. Of course I’m always willing to change my mind, as I did with AOL and Cisco when the string ran out, and I’ll keep watching, but until the hand-waving becomes a concrete product or process that seems likely to advance its acceptance, I’ll just be quietly here on the sidelines.
Snickering,
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Now there is 4 long term losers, no wonder you are so gun shy. Cisco still hasn’t made it back to it’s highs in 1999. I would stick to bonds too if I was you.
Andy
You’re new here. I first bought AOL in ‘94, more in ‘95, and even more in ‘96. Same with Cisco. Then I sold everything in ‘99/‘20 and made a bloody fortune. I lost $25k on @Home and about the same on Lucent, and that wasn’t even a rounding error on my taxes the next year. I wrote about it at the time (as I did before fleeing the market in 2008), but that’s all in the wind now that the Fool has closed the archive. Too bad.
Yes but it is much smaller than what I actually first said. I can’t be sure exactly what they are going into because there is so much innovations coming in this space.
I am not saying this is th same, but I a reminded of a discussion I had with an entrepreneur back in the ‘80’s, who was investing heavily in disco. (True story.) I told him it was a fad, or perhaps a phase, that music trends last a few years and then move on.
“Not this one”, he told me. Look at all the investments that people are making: the clubs, the lights, the sound systems. “Look at all the people dancing! That’s never going away.” Sometimes things seem like they’re the next big thing and they turn out not to be, or they flash and then are gone. The Apple Newton. Yes, Beanie Babies (at one time they made up 30% of all transactions on eBay!). Segway. Napster. Betamax. My Space. AltaVista. Not to mention @Home and a bunch of other stuff from 90’s history.
Disco. Cisco. Crypto. Not a perfect rhyme, but close enough for now.
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I wonder what you consider new? I think from what you are saying, everyone on these boards are new. Why does everyone make a killing because they sold just in time?
Only that is your mistake Goofy, no where am I telling anyone to invest in Crypto. In fact I have made it very clear that I don’t know anything about Crypto.
Andy
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A clever entrepreneur has found a use case for NFT’s! NFT prices are plummeting and trading volume is evaporating:
According to the Nonfungible.com market tracker, 144,000 NFTs were sold for $142m (£118m) on 16 January 2022. This Wednesday, there were 17,000 sales for $28,000 (£23,294).
leaving many speculators left holding worthless NFTs that can’t be sold at any price. But a solution has emerged:
Now – alongside the broader crypto market – the appetite for NFTs is so diminished that a specialized market has sprung up for collectors looking to sell off their once-valuable “digital collectibles” as tax losses to offset their income tax bills.
A recently launched service, Unsellable, aims to help collectors do exactly that. Think of it as a distressed asset fire sale.
“While every investment class has its losers, many of the NFTs we invested in were not only down big; they were now totally worthless … illiquid … unsellable,” the service says on its website.
Unsellable will buy your NFT for a penny, and charge $4 in fees. The upside is that you now have a recorded loss, which presumably can be written off as a loss on your taxes. I strongly recommend someone check with a tax attorney before doing this, but this guy anyway has found a way to make money in the NFT market.
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Don’t tell @AlphaWolf about that because he is going to be really mad that his wacky alphawolf NFT’s are pretty much worthless.
Andy
Andy figure this one out.
The Hangzhou Internet Court, which specializes in internet-related legal disputes in China, previously ruled on Nov. 29 that NFTs are virtual property protected by law and that they “have the object characteristics of property rights such as value, scarcity, controllability, and tradeability.” Cryptocurrency exchanges have been banned in China since 2021, although the possession of crypto is recognized as virtual property protected by the law.
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Wow that is huge. I can’t believe China is doing that since I thought they were completely against NFT’s.
Andy
The premier Trump NFTs which give you a Zoom meeting with Trump are now trading for about $25 each on the secondary market.
Turns out there was gold in these NFTs. Just not for the marks who bought them.
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These are the ones originally offered at $99, then Trump’s crew “painted the tape” to some $300+, accompanied by deafening media hype?
Steve…at least, with a tulip bulb, you can have a flower
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