Tokenize Deez Nuts

I've been following the crypto space for over a decade. At various points along the way I have been that guy. I have also been one of the rabid crypto haters. It's hard not to be conflicted when something you get into in high school becomes a two trillion dollar thing and you don't get rich because of it. Of course your relationship to said thing would take on an, at times, adversarial dynamic.

Nowadays I don't worry about what my wallet could have been. I have six girlfriends who are into Fed policy pillow talk. How did I get into learning about how the Federal Reserve works? That's right. Bitcoin.

So, after watching for years with both horror and delight as the line went up, what do I have to say for myself? Not much. On the whole, I think it's mostly a profound waste of energy built on speculation. However, so long as global techno-industrial capitalism persists, I believe it will exist and that the line will go up. Though as recent fluctuations demonstrate, things don't go up in a straight line. Buy the dip? Probably the right move but I honestly don't care please get Mr. Satoshi out of my head.

If there is anything that gives crypto staying power beyond life as a speculative asset,1 I think it'll be tokenization.

Our mutual friends Larry Fink and Vlad Tenev are bullish on tokenization, although they both have something to gain from its success. I believe tokenization's ability to unlock capital to be used as collateral benefits Capital by expanding the frontier available to it. The phrase "digital identity" is also one applicable to tokenization and technologies associated with it. This is what the blockchain promised all along: distributed accountability and verification of capital, identities, assets, and other property.

I think the concept is best illustrated by Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. ($BMNR on NYSE American). He takes it to its logical conclusion in last month's Chairman's Message:

What I don't see being addressed - which may in part be due to taking Leary's advice and "dropping out" of crypto - is the legal finality. How does one arbitrate smart contracts? How are the bankers formulating the laws associated with these things? No matter how much the cypherpunks and I wish it would happen, the world isn't going to go "native onchain" anytime soon (if ever). Existing legal plumbing needs to be shaped and molded to suit tokenization using existing technologies, or newer solutions created to address it. My stealth B2B SaaS notwithstanding.

In a world where Sam Altman thinks Worldcoin is a good idea, I don't think it's too far-fetched to imagine we'll land on something like tokenization eventually. Hell, I think it may be one of the things that comes after AI if the bubble ever does pop. We've had memecoins, NFTs, and the Metaverse already. Given our current financial world, I wouldn't be surprised if tokenization is finally the real world use case we've been looking for (again, besides being a speculative asset, which is still useful but different). What if we commoditize all assets, including all natural capital, with fractional ownership in a 24/7 exchange-value marketplace powered by a loose cartel of so-called miners increasing universal entropy by solving increasingly difficult New York Times crossword puzzles? This is the future I am imagining:

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I do think Bitcoin specifically is amusing when considered as a store of value of invested energy. Like some kind of abstract global entropy futures market? A financial instrument for measuring our eventual heat death? Winter has only just started and I already have cabin fever. ↩