We live in a bastardized world where our financial system still operates on the culture of pen & paper, but the individual has access to digital technologies. This is inherently maddening to the individual because it skews realistic expectations.
Ultimately, the individual is sovereign — this is the north star trend to track towards.
The average person does not have the bandwidth to learn the intricacies of the financial system, and so they must be presented with a singular, abstract & simple solution — the solution must fit within a single sentence. An uncomfortable reality is there does not, nor will there ever, exist a singular & standardized financial instrument wherein everyone can use as their personal finance solution. That’s what makes a market.
Consider the task of a savings account. We can’t all use dollars as our singular savings solution, because fiat currencies are required to debase over time. We can’t all use equities as our singular savings solutions, because stocks require specific knowledge, have high counter party risk, and are highly volatile. We can’t all use passive investing as our singular savings solution, because passive investing is inherently threatening to the well-being of the overall system (shout out to Mike Green). We can’t use bonds as our singular savings solution, because — as we’re witnessing today — credit bubbles are not resistant to crashes. We can’t all use bitcoin as our singular savings solution (though IMO this is the growth option), because BTC is volatile and subject to demographic & political swings.
I’m not proposing a new financial instrument.
I’m proposing a new system of structure, which is only made accessible through public digital networks, and is of greater value to the sovereign individual than what currently exists.
To cut to the chase… this is what crypto is, but it’s still early days. The number of entrepreneurial opportunities here are difficult to wrap my head around. The general idea is public digital networks will introduce a structural hierarchy which will disintermediate the existing financial giant mega-corporations. This is a story of localization.
Consider the job of a financial advisor or wealth manager, but wherein the role is part of a global financial system which is built on public digital networks.
There is so much to unpack here that I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it. So, instead I’ll present a bulleted list of the characteristics of public digital networks.
All of these characteristics offer value which will accrete to the sovereign individual — don’t forget about our north star.
More to come from me on this subject in the future.