Five Moments - Bitcoin, Netflix, Ritt Momney, Relaxation Economy, & more
Netflix is releasing more than one movie per week in 2021 and I am thankful to have never forgotten the password to $220 million worth of Bitcoin
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Enjoy!
Bitcoin Moment
There has been a LOT of Bitcoin news this week and here is a quick round up of the stories you need to know to ensure you too can think about how much money you would have by now if you had just put $1,000 into Bitcoin in Dec. 2014 (it would now be worth ~$124k). Oops!
Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes - The story that spurned all other this week.
Of the existing 18.5 million Bitcoin, around 20 percent — currently worth around $140 billion — appear to be in lost or otherwise stranded wallets, according to the cryptocurrency data firm Chainalysis.
Bitcoin Erases Most of New Year’s Gains Amid Short-Term Profit-Taking - The ever-volatile price of Bitcoin dropped >20% this week and all your day-trading friends bought a lot of Pepto Bismol this week.
Don’t Forget Your Bitcoin’s - Matt Levine at Bloomberg continues to be the only guy in financial journalism that keeps my attention each week. His column Money Stuff is always a fantastic read about all the weird things happening in finance.
Honestly I could read these stories all day. Here is a fact about me: I did not mine Bitcoin in the early days, so I do not now have thousands of Bitcoin that are now worth tens of millions of dollars, so I do not, for instance, own a $25 million plot of oceanfront land in Barbados, as one person in this article does (even after losing some of his Bitcoins). I admit that I occasionally envy the people who bought Bitcoin early for nothing and are now billionaires and retired. One thing that soothes this envy is reading about people who bought Bitcoin early for nothing and are now theoretical centimillionaires but lost their private keys and can’t access the money. I may have no Bitcoins, but at least I haven’t misplaced a fortune in Bitcoins.
Kara Swisher interviews the Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard - Before you start to debate your friend, who has turned into a Bitcoin influencer, about whether Bitcoin is going to be the world’s next currency listen to this podcast with Mastercard’s CEO. Discussion begins around 17:50.
Same problem, it’s got — no, I told you, it’s a great asset. If you want to invest in pork bellies, go ahead. You want to invest in shares, go ahead. If you’re a smart investor, go ahead. But don’t call shares currency. Currency is something you transact to buy a drink just now, and toilet paper the minute later. If that drink costs you $3 today, and then the value goes up to $2,900 the next day, that’s not a viable method of exchange.
Extra Credit: Hedge Funds want to help people find their bitcoin in a town’s dump | Bloomberg
Relaxation Drink Moment
If you frequent the world of “wellness” influencers then you may be familiar with the ever-growing rise of relaxation drinks marketed as a healthy option for winding down each day. This trend has rode the wave of CBD and help fuel the rise of non-alcoholic alternatives.
There’s one other thing that isn’t really listed on any of these labels. All of these concoctions are meant to make you relaxed or sleepy, which are subjective responses. That means we have the good ol’ placebo effect in play; on some level, the drinks don’t actually *need* to do anything because if you anticipate them making you relax, you might just relax anyway. And the stronger your anticipation is, the stronger the placebo effect will be.
Extra Credit: In Supplements We Trust | Fitt Insider
Streaming Moment
Americans are spending more than 17 hours per day glued to a screen and that has increased to nearly 19 hours during the pandemic. Streaming services are a primary beneficiary of this trend and are highly focused on gaining and keeping the consumer’s attention. Netflix in a letter to shareholders:
We earn consumer screen time, both mobile and television, away from a very broad set of competitors,” Netflix said in the letter. “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO . . . There are thousands of competitors in this highly-fragmented market vying to entertain consumers.
To keep you occupied Netflix will be releasing more than a movie per week and HBO Max will be premiering all Warner Brother’s movies on their service before they reach theaters in 2021.
Trailer for all of Netflix movies in 2021
All movies coming to HBO Max in 2021
Extra Credit: Part 2 of Tiger, the Tiger Woods documentary airs tonight on HBO.
Behind the Sound Moment
Three podcasts dedicated to going into the weeds of music creation and the impact of sounds in our lives.
Song Exploder - Each episode dissects a single song with an artist and dives into why they wrote it, the details behind the lyrics, and the x factor of why it became a popular song. A few of their best episodes: Selena Gomez, Hozier, Fleetwood Mac, and 197 more. If podcasts are not for you, Song Exploder recently was turned into a Netflix show as well.
Switched on Pop - Musicologist (apparently that is a real thing) Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding go very very deep into musical theory and the musical tricks used to manipulate the listeners emotional associations with a song. Start here - How Beyoncé to The Beatles Modulate Your Emotions.
Twenty Thousand Hertz - In each episode of 20K Hz, Dallas Taylor looks into the worlds most interesting and most misunderstood sounds in our lives. This podcast is not focused on music but will absolutely grab your attention with the fascination of these sounds and the stories behind them. My favorite episode, Stradivarius, explores the enduring history of the Stradivarius violin which is proclaimed to have the most exquisite sound.
Music Moment
Ritt Momney released a great cover of Put Your Records On (originally Corrine Bailey Rae) a few weeks ago that has become quite popular and brought him to my orbit. Momney is a 20-year old solo musician from Salt Lake City (yes his name is a play on Senator Mitt Romney).
What was your favorite Moment this week?
🤑 Bitcoin
😎 Relaxation drinks
📺 Streaming
🎶 Behind the sound
🎵 Ritt Momney
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Next Distribution 01/24/2021