Education | Biz Builder Mike

Meet Turkey’s ‘unexpected winners’ of Uniswap’s UNI giveaway

September 22, 2020 by bizbuildermike

Students enrolled in the class “Introduction to Cryptocurrencies” at Turkey’s Kadir Has University were the unexpected winners of Uniswap’s UNI token distribution on Sept. 17. İsmail Hakkı Polat, one of two lecturers of the class, told Cointelegraph Turkey that all students who, as part of a class project, participated in listing and swapping a token on Uniswap received 400 UNI. In Turkey’s local currency, it was valued at roughly 12,000 liras, or around $1,570, which accounts for nearly half the yearly education fee for some students.

Taught by Polat and Tansel Kaya, two well-known names in Turkey’s cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, Introduction to Cryptocurrencies has for the last two years been included as a compulsory course for students studying new media at Kadir Has University. Polat explained that there are also engineering, law, management information systems — or MIS — and business administration students who take it as an elective course.

Token hunt at the academy

According to a tweet by Kaya, as part of the course taught in fall 2019, an ERC-20 token called KHAS was issued to allow students to directly experience token trading. The students created a MetaMask wallet to purchase the token, which was listed on decentralized exchange Uniswap.

One of the possible use cases identified for KHAS was as a voting app for student president elections. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic in the spring, the studies were interrupted midway. The incident that reminded the course’s lecturers and students of KHAS was the Uniswap’s token distribution, during which thousands of wallet owners received 400 UNI. Polat stated that the class designed a real-world use case for the KHAS token, which was developed as part of the course. Noting that they gathered input from students on this topic, Polat said:

“We received ideas such as the school’s park, cafeteria, student president elections and the merchandise store. We put one of these use cases into practice in a week and provided it to the class in a quiz format.”

Students of the “Crypto 101” course learned how the KHAS tokens can serve eight use cases devised by the group. The lecturers set up a QR code for the university’s merchandise store to receive payments via KHAS, but they did not explain which campus store accepted the token. Instead, they created a “token hunt” game, where the first student to transact via KHAS tokens would be the winner and receive two additional points on their grade.

400 UNI, but no gas?

The winner of the token hunt was Barış Öztürk, a third-year MIS student who chose to take the class due to his interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Calling Crypto 101 “the best class he ever took,” Öztürk elaborated to Cointelegraph that he normally gets bored during lectures, “But in Introduction to Cryptocurrencies, I never skipped a lesson. I even attended after-class discussions with lecturers.”

All of the students who attended the Introduction to Cryptocurrencies course in fall 2019 and transacted with KHAS tokens on Uniswap woke up on Sept. 17 with 400 UNI in their Ethereum wallets, thanks to Uniswap’s distribution of its tokens.

Öztürk claimed his 400 UNI tokens with the help of Kaya. Because he emptied all the Ether (ETH) in his wallet immediately after the project was completed last year, his MetaMask wallet was left unable to pay for the gas needed for the token transfer. Kaya sent him about $75 worth of ETH to pay the gas fee and guided him through the UNI reward claim steps.

After seven hours of nervous waiting in front of the computer screen due to congestion on the Ethereum network thanks to a “UNI reward claim rush,” Barış was able to get his 400 UNI and trade them for fiat. “I never imagined I would land over $1,500 for being a student in a classroom,” Barış said. “The next morning was the first time in my life that my dad sent me a text message saying ‘Good morning, my dear son.’”

Token-based election project sustained due to COVID-19

According to Kaya, Turkey needs to stop being just a consumer in the decentralized finance space and start making its own projects: “The blockchain and crypto industry desperately needs a qualified labor force. Providing education in this field enables access to many global projects for the young population.” Discussing the need for the youth to consider the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a career space instead of a way to make a fast buck, Polat said:

“Cryptocurrencies and blockchain stimulate a new profession in all occupational fields. In tomorrow’s world, a financier will have to know decentralized finance, and a lawyer will have to know smart contracts. While academic education is on the way to an interdisciplinary and interprofessional structure, blockchain serves as a palpable case study in this transition. That’s why it is critical, especially for the youth, to have a grasp of the new generation financial ecosystem rather than crypto trading.”

The first half of the 14-week Crypto 101 course is all about blockchain, and the second half teaches students cryptocurrency technologies. According to the information shared by Polat with Cointelegraph Turkey, Kadir Has University has also established a “Crypto 102” course in which issuance and coding processes of crypto tokens and smart contracts will be taught.

Meet Turkey’s ‘unexpected winners’ of Uniswap’s UNI giveaway

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SEC to Hold Open Meeting to Address Accredited Investor Definition

August 21, 2020 by bizbuildermike

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has scheduled an open meeting of the Commission to address several regulatory issues including an update to the current definition of an Accredited Investor.

Regarding the Accredited Investor definition the SEC states it will consider:

“whether to adopt amendments to the definition of “accredited investor” in Commission rules and the definition of “qualified institutional buyer” in Rule 144A under the Securities Act to update and improve the definition to identify more effectively investors that have sufficient financial sophistication to participate in certain private investment opportunities. The amendments are the product of years of efforts by the Commission and its staff to consider and analyze possible approaches to revising the accredited investor definition.”

Currently, an Accredited Investor is determined off a wealth metric. An individual who earns over $200,000 a year, or has a net worth of over $1 million (minus their primary residence), is deemed accredited. If the individual is married, the salary metric rises to $300,000. Individuals who are accredited may participate in certain exempt offerings like securities issued under Regulation D – an enormous market of over $1 trillion annually.

While the wealth metric is currently in place in an attempt to defend individuals the government believes are not capable of making these types of investment decisions, it is widely believed the metric misses the mark as sophistication is obviously a far better metric.

Individuals who have the experience, or education, to assess investment risk are understandably better positioned to make decisions on more esoteric investment opportunities.

As private markets have boomed, and public securities have waned, a generation of retail investors has been boxed out of some of the most promising investment opportunities. Some observers believe the current definition has acerbated the wealth disparity as private securities have grown in popularity for institutions and the very wealthy. Even in light of this, some individuals believe the government should make it more difficult for even highly sophisticated individuals to purchase private securities.

Any update or change to the definition will be closely watched by the industry engaged in capital raising including online capital formation.

The second item to be considered by the Commission is:

“whether to adopt amendments to modernize the description of business, legal proceedings, and risk factor disclosures that registrants are required to make pursuant to Regulation S-K. These disclosure items, which have not undergone significant revisions in over 30 years, would be updated to account for developments since the rules’ adoption or last revision, to improve disclosure for investors, and to simplify compliance for registrants. Specifically, the amendments are intended to improve the readability of disclosure documents, as well as discourage repetition and the disclosure of information that is not material.”

Regulation S-K reporting requirements have become increasingly arcane. The Commission may attempt to make reporting requirements more approachable to a wider audience.

The meeting of the Commission will take place on August 26, 2020, at 10 AM ET and is open to the public as it will be live-streamed on the SEC website.

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The Fed Demands Higher Inflation

August 7, 2020 by bizbuildermike

For a while now, it’s been clear that the Fed wants higher inflation.

Now it’s finally starting to admit it. Here’s an excerpt from CNBC’s article this week titled “The Fed is expected to make a major commitment to ramping up inflation soon:”

“In the next few months, the Federal Reserve will be solidifying a policy outline that would commit it to low rates for years as it pursues an agenda of higher inflation and a return to the full employment picture that vanished as the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Recent statements from Fed officials and analysis from market veterans and economists point to a move to “average inflation” targeting in which inflation above the central bank’s usual 2% target would be tolerated and even desired.”

In essence, the Fed is arguing that because inflation has been so low over the past decade or so, they can “make up” for those lost price increases going forward.

The Fed’s justification for higher inflation is shaky at best. Here’s how CNBC explains it.

“The Fed and other global central banks have been trying to gin up inflation for years under the reasoning that a low level of price appreciation is healthy for a growing economy.”

So the “official” explanation is that higher inflation is good for the economy. Seems strange, doesn’t it? Higher prices are horrible for the average person. It’s an invisible tax that erodes savings and hampers financial performance.

But inflation does have one very specific “benefit” for the economy. Inflation will help wipe away the huge amounts of debt we’ve built up over the last few decades. It will help corporations, governments, and individuals who borrowed too much deal with their debt problems.

I think that’s the real reason they want more inflation.

Will They Succeed?

The big question is this: can the Fed achieve the level of inflation it desires? Many investors are skeptical that they can. Just one year ago, the cover story for Bloomberg Businessweek was “Is Inflation Dead?”

The Economist ran a similar article last year — subtitled “The end of inflation?” — which seemed to argue that inflation used to be a problem, but is no longer relevant today.

The problem is that analyses like these rely on official inflation data. But many of us believe that inflation today is much higher than official Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers say. John Williams, an econ PhD who operates ShadowStats.com, offers an alternative measure of inflation. He simply uses the same methodologies that the U.S. government did in 1980 and 1990. His 1980-based measure shows inflation could be as high as 8% today. And the 1990-based version shows around 4% annual inflation.

The measuring stick the government uses for inflation has changed a lot over the past decades. And every change seems to only result in lower numbers. In my view, it’s likely that inflation is already far too high. Just take a look at the long-term rise in healthcare costs, education and housing. Inflation is all around us.

Another thing we have to account for is the current trade war with China. Cheap imports from China have helped keep prices down significantly. If the trade spat continues to escalate, consumer prices will likely rise.

So yes, I believe the Fed has already succeeded in creating significant inflation. And it’s now openly discussing plans to make it even higher.

The investment world is slowly reacting to these trends. That’s why gold just hit an all-time high over $2,000 and silver is up 58% this year. It’s almost certainly why bitcoin is breaking out and is currently trading at close to $11,900.

A Sustainable Trend

Loose monetary policy by the Fed and other central banks is what’s driving these assets higher. I believe it will continue for 10 years — maybe longer. This is why I’ve been pounding the table on precious metals and other alternatives. There are no other investments in the world with such a strong fundamental bull case.

I expect these assets will continue to outperform for years to come. This is not some quick trade for me. It’s a 5-to-10 year plan. I don’t think the Fed will be able to raise rates — or stop printing money — for at least that long.

So while precious metals and bitcoin have done quite well over the last year, I think we’re just getting started. Needless to say, there will be dips (buying opportunities) along the way. But I’m betting that the trend remains higher for years to come.

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