You’ve bought Dogecoin? Now what?

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn cryptoLeave a comment

A friend messaged me a week ago to tell me they had bought Dogecoin. My eyebrows rose slightly, although it was a wet weekend, so buying DOGE was probably a form of indoor entertainment. It may also appeal to dog lovers: the Shiba Inu is pretty cute compared to the symbols all the other altcoins use. I mean, if there was a Peppa Pig token, I expect my youngest would be begging me to buy it.

Elon Musk (yes, him again) did a lot for DOGE by calling it ‘the people’s crypto’ and tweeting that SpaceX would put a literal Dogecoin on the moon. Plus, Mark Cuban told Forbes that Dogecoin was “the best entertainment for your buck” and noted that he had bought some Dogecoin for his son. There, you see – it’s entertaining and it has the dog!

Still, let’s not forget the say about he who laughs first! Dogecoin has been soaring: it’s up more than 300% over the past month — and it has surged more than 10,000% in the last year. That’s remarkable, but what can you do with it?

You need a BitPay card

BitPay’s Mastercard now supports DOGE. So, if you have a BitPay card you can now use the Shiba Inu-inspired currency to make purchases online or in stores. BitPay has also added support for the Apple Wallet, so you can store your BitPay card in your iPhone and fund Apple Pay purchases with crypto, including DOGE. Sadly for some, BitPay is only available in the USA.

The downside of Dogecoin

Nobody else seems to be remotely interested in DOGE. Coinbase won’t list it, which is very important, because Coinbase has a more stringent vetting processing than many exchanges. The Motley Fool says, “Dogecoin’s absence underscores management’s lack of confidence in its long-term potential. And given Coinbase’s scale, that’s a serious problem.”

Dogecoin hasn’t made the cut with PayPal either. Its recently launched Checkout with Crypto, allows consumers to fund purchases with cryptocurrency, and with the size of its user base, the absence of Dogecoin is a blow to the altcoin’s owners.

The problem for Dogecoin is that its utility doesn’t match its popularity, and while it has made huge gains thanks to its celebrity followers, such as Gene Simmons and Snoop Dogg, as well as Musk, there is no guarantee this level of excitement around it will continue.

It’s basically a ‘fun buy’, and there is nothing wrong with that, just don’t expect too much from it.

Has Ethereum’s time to shine arrived?

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn crypto, DeFi, EthereumLeave a comment

If you compared the crypto market to the music charts, it would be fair to say that no artist has ever managed to hold the No.1 position for as long as bitcoin has. Ethereum (ETH) meanwhile, has been holding the No.2 spot for such an extended period that is was doubtful this might ever change. Until now!

Those who are ETH holders and supporters have been disappointed that this blockchain has had to be content with playing second fiddle to BTC for so long. Surely its position as the bedrock of DeFi must indicate it is no poor relation? Now it seems that ETH is on a new trajectory into the limelight, something its fans welcome.

Everybody talks about bitcoin

It is true that BTC has been most people’s entry point into crypto, with the more adventurous diversifying into ETH and other altcoins after time. As Katharine Wooller writes, “I am interested to note that most of the more vociferous fans of crypto from the traditional banking industry (i.e. Blackrock, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan) tend to limit their comments to Bitcoin.” This is also true of the MSM, when they do write about crypto – it’s all about the bitcoin, even though the journalists assigned these stories still appear to know very little about cryptocurrencies in general.

The market tells a very different story. This year and last, ETH ‘wiped the floor’ with BTC, as Wooller says. “In 2020 the appreciation was more than double – Bitcoin’s gains were a non-too shabby-240% vs Ethereum’s stratospheric 450%.”

Furthermore, ETH has only fallen below its initial price against BTC for the first five months of its existence in 2015.

Yes, BTC’s market cap does dwarf that of ETH, but that’s not the only data to look at. Since January 2020, Bitcoin’s dominance has fallen from 69% to 56% whilst Ethereum’s has risen from 7% to 12%. 

Ethereum has a great use case

The use case is another aspect to consider. BTC has become widely accepted as a store of value and “thus heir apparent to our current economic system.” Wooller correctly states. Ethereum’s utility on the other hand is more complex, and perhaps less comprehensible for retail investors. However, its smart contracts have the powerful potential to provide us with a huge variety of innovations in finance, gambling, gaming, advertising, identity management, and supply chain. As Wooller says, “Personally, I see Ethereum’s potential market as greater than Bitcoin’s albeit hard to explain to someone new to the industry!” I think most ETH owners would agree with that.

It is time that not just the crypto media, but also the MSM, gave ETH and the Ethereum blockchain more oxygen, so that the public can understand its potential. It has an excellent spokesperson in its creator, Vitalek Buterin, unlike BTC, which only has the mythical Satoshi.

I agree with Wooller when she says, “Recently Ethereum has broken two all-time highs in quick succession this April. I would expect, therefore, in the medium term to see more investors and treasuries alike increasing their Ethereum holdings.”

It’s time to give Ethereum the limelight it deserves.

Coded Bias: a film exploring AI

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn AI, Digital InnovationLeave a comment

Have you seen Coded Bias, a new film from Netflix? If you are at all interested in artificial intelligence (AI), I recommend you find a way to watch it, even if you don’t have a Netflix subscription. It takes a deep dive into the state of artificial intelligence, and as Aparna Dhinakaran writes at Forbes, “the issues it confronts are uncomfortably relevant.” What she is referring to is the facial recognition programmes that have a severe algorithmic bias against women and people of colour.

MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini says in the film, “The systems weren’t as familiar with faces like mine (as those of mostly men and lighter-skinned people),” and her research showed that Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon’s facial recognition services all have common inaccuracies.

The Netflix film examines how these inaccuracies can spread discrimination across all spheres of daily life. It also touches on other spheres of AI use where bias occurs, such as “who gets hired, what kind of medical treatment someone receives, who goes to college, the financial credit we get, and the length of a prison term someone serves.” This is not the aim of AI, which should be used to enhance opportunities and advancement for all people, particularly those most vulnerable to discrimination.

 Coded Bias tries to show us how these issues with AI can be removed, with the onus lying in looking at how AI leverages data and how it is developed, deployed, and used. The film’s director, Shalini Kantayya said, “This is a moment where we are all in a lot of pain. This moment is asking us to drop into a deeper place in our humanity to lead.” She also attempts to shine a light on why better AI solutions should be focusing on protecting those communities that stand to be harmed the most by it.

One way forward is to look at the innovations in AI/ML (ML is machine learning). These will change how AI models are observed and measured to ensure fair, ethical, and absent bias. There is also a need to deliver AI systems that have better tools for accountability.

We live in a time when socio-economic inequities based on ethnicity are in the spotlight, therefore we need AI that makes it easier for marginalized populations to benefit from improved technology, rather than the technology pushing them further into the margins. When that happens we will all experience a better world.

Has China really changed its tune on crypto?

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Bitcoin, crypto, Governments, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I am of course talking about China’s recent turnaround regarding cryptocurrencies. The change of tone coming from Beijing and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), with regard to cryptocurrencies makes you pause to think, ‘What’s all this about?’

China’s central bank is now referring to bitcoin as an ‘alternative investment’, signalling something is afoot in the country that cracked down on digital assets four years ago.

Of course it is a welcome shift in perspective from the Chinese, and many are describing it as ‘progressive’. At the same time, they are closely monitoring the PBoC for signs of forthcoming regulatory changes in relation to the crypto sector.

During a panel hosted by CNBC at the Boao Forum for Asia on Sunday,

Li Bo, deputy governor of the PBOC, said, “We regard Bitcoin and stablecoin as crypto assets … These are investment alternatives.” He went on to say, “They are not currency per se. And so the main role we see for crypto assets going forward, the main role is investment alternative.” This indicates an unwillingness to see bitcoin and other similar tokens, such as Litecoin, as a means of payment, but at least it is a move towards a broader acceptance of cryptocurrencies in China.

As CNBC points out, China was once one of the world’s biggest buyers of bitcoin, before banning ICOs in 2017 and closing down crypto exchanges in the same year, both moves prompted by a perceived financial instability in the digital asset sector.

Li said, in explaining more about what he meant by calling them investment alternatives: “Many countries, including China, are still looking into it and thinking about what kind of regulatory requirements. Maybe minimal, but we need to have some kind of regulatory requirement to prevent … the speculation of such assets to create any serious financial stability risks.”

Flex Yang, CEO and founder of Babel Finance, called the comments “progressive”, while Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno said, “I think it is quite significant and is definitely different to their previous statements or positions on public cryptocurrencies.”

When asked about what he thought had changed China’s thinking following the PBoC announcement, Ayyar said, “Governments are realizing that it is a viable and established, yet growing, asset class and need to regulate it. China regulating crypto would be another massive boost to the industry in China and globally.”

At the moment, China is still trialling its digital yuan, which will eventually replace the cash and coins in circulation, and there is a rumour that the country may wish to trial with foreign visitors to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

As with everything to do with China and finance – watch this space!