The Metaverse, Luxury Strategy, Bull Case for Ethereum

May 26 2021

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

- Paul Atreides, Dune

“Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself - and there isn’t one.”

- Wei Wu Wei

“Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.”

- Irish actor and playwright Dion Boucicault

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A. A Few Things Worth Checking Out

1. Great deep tweetstorm on the Metaverse.

Kaspar ☾ @_Kaspar__

MAPPING THE METAVERSE A new world order is here: The ETH x DeFi x NFT metaverse. This is my attempt to map it all. Please share this crazy thread and say hi 👋 🦊 tl;dr - this is so much bigger than I ever imagined… and none of us has enough #ETH for what is about to happen.

2. Lael Brainard, FED Governer gave a speech on Monday titled: Private Money and Central Bank Money as Payments Go Digital: an Update on CBDCs.

This tweetstorm summarized the key ideas well, but is a little exaggerated.

Christopher Bloomstran @ChrisBloomstran

I’ve read this Brainard speech three times. Some takeaways: Private money/crypto? We will kill you. Stablecoins? We will kill you. Cash? It will be digital and our liability. All of it. Kiss paper fiat goodbye. The unbanked? You will be banked. We will be the bank. 1/

Federal Reserve @federalreserve

Speech by Governor Brainard on private money and central bank money as payments go digital: https://t.co/YFgEwbYMdo

3. Bernard Arnault became the richest man in the world this week, eclipsing both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. He built his fortune exclusively in Luxury.

One of the best books to understand Luxury and how it works, is “The Luxury Strategy” by Kapferer and Bastien. I summarized the +400 page book in a few tweets below.

Ahmed Husain @1ahmedh1

2 of the top 5 richest men in EUR are luxury billionaires - Bernard Arnault (+70bn) and Francois Pinault (+30bn). Given the work done by @BillBrewsterSCG on $RH and @GWInvestors on $PTON I decided to check out The Luxury Strategy to figure out what makes luxury so unique.

4. The Inflation Narrative in a picture. We discussed this last week.

5. The different levels of “rich”. Where are you?

Trung Phan 🇨🇦 @TrungTPhan

1/ A Redditor who runs in high net worth circles writes on the "gradations of rich". He explains in minute detail the difference between being worth $10m+ and $1B+. It' a doozy 🧵

6. A few weeks ago I had shared Ted Seides interview with Yen Liow on “The Quest for The Right Tail”. Yen spoke to the CFA Society India on: The Ultimate Compounding Machine - Your Mind. How to Train it.

7. Eli Dourado was on the Invest Like The Best podcast. Eli is an economist and senior research fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.

They discussed the ongoing stagnation in labor productivity, the system constraints, and some of the innovative technologies that could reverse this trend. While Eli identifies as an economist, the bulk of the discussion was around biotech innovation, alternative energy, and the space opportunity.

Ahmed Husain @1ahmedh1

Are all the significant inventions behind us? and if not then what technologies will have the biggest impact on our lives over the next decade? To quote @elidourado: "Economist Robert Gordon identified 5 Great Inventions, whose discovery in the late nineteenth century powered..

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B. The Crypto Section

1. The Bull Case for Ethereum. Do you own some?

2. Ross Stevens of NY DIG speaking with Andrew Tsai of Chalkstream Capital Group discussing The Beauty of Bitcoin.

3. How to manipulate crypto markets by someone who has done it. Thank you Yaser.

Two Comma Pauper @twocommapauper

Some inside info on FUD & fucking with markets by someone who's had blood on their hands (many times) before. This is going to be decently detailed, so sit down & take your time. I'll also add some proof as I dig through some old drives (without doxing any clients obvs). 1/n

4. Goldman Sachs published a report earlier this week titled: Crypto: A New Asset Class? It’s a good, even handed discussion.

Here are two charts I found useful to put some context to the BTC journey in just nine years:

And here’s an interesting paragraph on Ether vs Bitcoin:

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"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

- Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross on how beautiful people are made