Satoshi's 6 cents + The $15 fool

Greetings,

Rizzo, the Bitcoin historian here, back with the top 5 Bitcoin History moments of the week that was. 

This week we hear from two of Bitcoin’s most bullish billionaires, receive a latter day reminder that the best strategy is to buy the dip and hold, and hear the tragic untold story of a $16 billion exchange rollback. Ouch.

Let’s dig in.

$6.80 l Michael Saylor on the iPad

Few of us are as big Bitcoin bulls as Michael Saylor.

As even those under rocks know, he has been relentlessly buying Bitcoin for several years now, and has turned his company Microstrategy into what is one of the most incredible corporate finance stories of the decade.

In this interview I shared on Tuesday, we look back at Saylor’s views on technology more broadly. The year was 2012, and Saylor was speaking about Apple’s dominance in the technology industry, and why it was only likely to continue to grow its commanding leadership position.

He spared no praise for its new product, the iPad, calling it the most “under appreciated or underestimated” new technology. Much like Bitcoin.

The video provides a look at how Saylor’s investment strategies on Apple compare to Bitcoin – and given Apple’s performance over the past decade, we can only hope the results are the same.

$14 l Edward50 mid-curves it

Edward50 is a hero member on the BitcoinTalk forum. 

But even hero’s make mistakes. Here is one of his first posts, asking who would be foolish enough to buy Bitcoin at $15

I can imagine a few, and a couple of others who wish they did.

Edward50’s prolific posting on BitcoinTalk chronicles a speculator, interested above all in Bitcoin’s price action. Notably, he went bearish circa 2015, and wrote that interest in Bitcoin was failing amid the first China bans.

He even claimed he wouldn’t be buying, while the price was $200.

This post, and the one below, are part of my weekly Reddit shares. If you’re not following me there, I add in other sides of Bitcoin History than what I show on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Either way, there are many places you can now ignore Edward50’s advice!

$0.06 l Satoshi explains the benefits of deflation

Two monetary undercurrents dominate economics: deflation and inflation.

Proposers of the latter, like renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes, advocated for an increase in the money supply by governments as a way to keep the economy chugging along. However, what inflation insidiously does is decrease our purchasing power over time.

In other words, your money is worth less, because every time the central bank “prints” money, the already circulating supply loses a little bit of value.

On the opposite side we have deflationists, like Satoshi. Among his many musings, he eloquently explained how deflation benefits Bitcoin hodlers, a position held by many in our community.

$65 l Billionaire ignores the FUD and buys the dip

The year is 2013 –– and at least one hedge fund CEO is paying close attention to a new monetary asset dubbed Bitcoin.

After founding Pantera Capital in 2003 with a focus on global macro trends, CEO Dan Morehead discovered Bitcoin in 2013, and was enthralled. Although it’s not clear when he bought, this email from July 5, 2013, to his funds partners tells quite the story.

Bitcoin had suffered a precipitous 50% drop, but Dan understood that this was an opportunity–not a death sentence. He quickly typed up an instigation to invest in BTC, and called for Pantera to “buy aggressively now.”

Dan was so bullish, in fact, he went out and purchased 30,000 BTC for himself. Now he is up 80,000% and is a bonafide billionaire. A legend indeed.

$0.01 l The tragic story of Kevin Day

Kevin bought 260,000 BTC only for an exchange to erase the trade. Yes, you read that right. Somewhere on this earth is a man, a man who completed a purchase of 260,000 BTC, who looked at his account, saw a balance of 260,000 BTC, but who has it no more. The definition of pain.

This is a truly unbelievable story, that remarks a number of interesting bits about the Bitcoin ecosystem both back in 2011 as well as today. It highlights the importance of taking custody of your funds, how clever traders can get swindled by the power of centralized authority, and a poignant event that cost a 1990s computer geek billions.

Sit back and enjoy it here.

Extra posts

• Bitcoin sign guy thread

• Buying 200 BTC for $1

• Adam Back on Bitcoin 

See you all on Friday,

Rizzo

P.S. How’s your Bitcoin custody doing? I sleep easy at night because I use Casa’s 3-of-5 multisig setup. Head there, and snag 10% OFF their standard membership with the promocode PETERIZZO.