"Well, we do try to stay ahead of the competition", said the barman. "And we are serving free pints every Wednesday from 6pm until 8pm. We have the cheapest beer in Mumbai."
Rahul Bhatia, Chief Executive of IndiGo Airlines - the so called cheap airline in India, after arriving at a hotel in Mumbai, went to the bar and asked for a pint of Guinness.
The barman nodded and said, "That will be ₹50 please, Mr. Bhatia."
"Well, we do try to stay ahead of the competition", said the barman. "And we are serving free pints every Wednesday from 6pm until 8pm. We have the cheapest beer in Mumbai."
"I see you don't seem to have a glass, so you'll probably need one of ours. That will be ₹150 please."
Rahul scowled, but paid up.
He took his drink and walked towards a seat. "Ah, you want to sit down?" said the barman.
"I think you may be too big for the seat Sir, can I ask you to sit in this frame please."
Rahul attempts to sit down, but the frame is too small and when he can't squeeze in
"I'm afraid if you can't fit in the frame, you'll have to pay an extra surcharge of ₹250 for your seat sir."
Rahul swore to himself, but paid up.
"I see that you have brought your laptop with you," added the barman.
Rahul was so incensed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the counter and yelled, "This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the manager!"
"I see you want to use the counter..." says the barman,
Rahul's face was red with rage. "Do you know who I am?"
"Of course I do, Mr. Bhatia!"
"I've had enough! What sort of Hotel is this? I come in for a quiet drink and you treat me like this?
I insist on speaking to a manager!"
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So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
If everyone was holding bitcoin on the old x86 in their parents basement, we would be finding a price bottom. The problem is the risk is all pooled at a few brokerages and a network of rotten exchanges with counter party risk that makes AIG circa 2008 look like a good credit.
— Greg Wester (@gwestr) November 25, 2018
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.