Welcome to Arry's Airdrop #08! 
​Hi everyone,

I hear the same theme again and again. And Again. The theme I keep hearing is the need for more educational content. There's a lot of great content out there. There's a lot of great creators out there. What's missing is the glue, the connections, the context, the history, the "why it matters" analysis to help bridge the OG tribal knowledge for the millions of newcomers discovering blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies every single day. 

You'll see even in the article related to Virgil Griffith, an Ethereum developer, who plead guilty to doing a presentation in North Korea back in 2019. There's so much context and history built into looking into this that most people simply do not have, or do not have the luxury of time to dig into. I just spent a few hours writing it down for you. Same goes for the other article noting Michael Saylor's stance on cryptocurrencies and securities. I did the best I could, as I ran out of hours and have to sleep now.

I'd love your thoughts, ideas, volunteers for content, whatever it is on what we can do better to help you, help others, with this tribal knowledge. How do we share it faster? How do we share it more broadly? How do we make it more accessible? 

Dennis Rodman OK 🤠. Virgil Griffith NOT OK ☠️.
​Today, an idealistic young man and Ethereum developer named Virgil Griffith plead guilty to a now removed military-grade Munitions Act offense of talking about publicly available content on blockchain and cryptography, with North Korea. Here are some interesting data points, pulled out 1-by-1 for your easy consumption that are relevant to this landmark historical case:

• "an idealistic young man": do a little digging and all you can see is a young idealistic man who saw an opportunity to try and build a bridge at the Pyongyang Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Conference in North Korea. Looking at the trail of breadcrumbs from Virgil's path to date, he's a peaceful humanity bridge builder. A good guy. The actual title of Virgil's talk was "Blockchain and Peace", not close at all to what is reported.
• "now removed": I didn't know this, but apparently cryptography was once listed as a major offense in the Munitions Act. The cypherpunks, the Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptography godfathers of this space were the ones that put in years of civil disobedience and legal battles in the name of Freedom of Speech. Bill Clinton removed cryptography from the Munitions Act in 1996.
• "military-grade Munitions act": In this Munitions Act, sharing of cryptography was once considered a U.S. grade military secret. Cypherpunks printed cryptographic algorithms and sample encryptions everywhere in the name of Freedom of Speech.
• "publicly available content on blockchain and cryptography": First, another reminder that the title of Virgil's talk was 'Blockchain and Peace" (the government's public statement was misleading). It was not a talk about how to use Blockchain and Cryptography to launder money and evade international sanctions. It was a talk that had publicly available information that anyone, including the officers of North Korea could have found on YouTube. 
• "with North Korea": This is maybe seemingly the biggest part of the problem. Virgil was talking to the WRONG audience, North Korea. North Korea is at the top of enemy #1 in the US. ... but then, didn't Dennis Rodman go back and forth, back and forth, meeting with enemy #1's leader, Kim Jong Un multiple times AND even ended up actually teaching the North Korean basketball team some sports tricks? Why was that considered ok if the DPRK could theoretically make money from the Rodman information? 

Why you should care: Plenty of reasons why you should care:

1. Freedom of Speech. It seems what's being questioned here is not the part about going to an enemy country, North Korea and the idealistic notion of wanting to build bridges and relationships. Dennis Rodman did that, many times, and even provided a service of teaching the North Korean basketball team. Virgil, even if it was sharing publicly available information about blockchain on YouTube, talked about something that the U.S. government is still very afraid of - blockchain and crypto. Apparently, even demonstrating the use of crypto to do cross border payments crosses that line. If you've ever done a crypto transaction, it's one of the biggest features of crypto: borderless, frictionless, faster, cheaper payments. What's illegal, is providing "Practically any type of economic activity — including “indirect … exportation of goods, services or technology to North Korea.” Virgil did this. So did Dennis Rodman. 
2. Freedom of Speech: So if it's the blockchain/crypto part of the subject matter that's the issue, that part, the "cryptography" part was removed from the Munitions Act by President Bill Clinton (1996). Open source cryptography is legal and allowed. If you look at the actual complaint, you can see slight changes in the word choice indicating that this was NOT the Pyongyang Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Conference Virgil presented at - it was the DPRK Cryptocurrency Conference inside the official complaint documents. Definitely see the negative color being presented by the U.S. government against Virgil. Also remember, the North Koreans are VERY advanced when it comes to their cyber-attack capabilities. Some of the biggest cyber-attacks in recent history have been done by the North Koreans. 
3. Freedom of Speech?: Then it really must come down to Virgil's decision to use his own money to go to the Pyongyang Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Conference in North Korea, DESPITE the U.S. government (Department of State and many others) strongly advising against it. AND probably the biggest offense was the fact Virgil sent a payment to demo a borderless cryptocurrency transaction between North Korea and South Korea (a definite no-no, even if it was for a simple cryptocurrency demo). 

Lesson? 
The government, especially the U.S. government is powerful. When the government says no, do not go to said country, don't take it lightly. When the government places an enemy country on the OFAC list, be extremely careful as it is going to be nearly impossible to be compliant AND travel to the enemy country. It's very unfortunate that Virgil Griffith, a seemingly nice well-intentioned guy his someone who will now be in Federal Prison, for the next 5-6 years (at least it's with a reduced sentence for pleading guilty). 

Cryptocurrencies are likely securities. 
Bitcoiner and influencer, Michael Saylor was recently interviewed by Raoul Pal. The big meat in the interview was that Michael Saylor says he agrees with Gary Gensler (head of the SEC in the U.S.) that most cryptocurrencies/tokens are securities, at least according to the Howey test. 

Why does this matter? 
Michael Saylor, a very influential Bitcoiner agreeing with Gary Gensler is a bit of an ironic picture. Bitcoin has historically had anarcho-capitalistic roots. Think cypherpunks. Libertarians. Then Gary Gensler, the securities laws. Think especially the Howey Test which was created long ago in 1933-1934 and its old prehistorical way to test in order to determine whether or not something is a security. AND, accredited investor laws haven't changed much either since 1982, are viewed as generally limiting the common person from taking advantage of financial products and services that only the elite investor takes advantage of every day. These laws need revisiting, especially today in the day of digital. Now we have access to investments like NFTs, yet most people cannot invest in a private company (or maybe even cryptocurrencies eventually) unless you are of accredited status. 

Maybe the U.S. should revisit our accreditation laws? Maybe embrace more tests to give access to more folks to investment products? Who are we protecting - the elite or the common person? As you know, savings will not help a person become wealthy anymore - the only way to wealth is investing now.

I've been immersed in the blockchain and crypto space for about 5+ years and I still feel like I'm just a beginner in so many ways. Even the above highlighted news articles that I write about requires a lot of context and knowledge - whether it be on the history or simple definitions. 

Here's a resource I put together over a couple of years, and have been maintaining for another couple of years thanks to crowdsourcing and the community. You may have noticed that there are multiple definitions for almost every term in this space - so consolidating as best as possible one version of the truth was the focus of the "Global Super Blockchain Glossary". I'll hope you'll be able to use it as a resource for yourself, and if you find any definitions or words that are incorrect/missing/needs updates, please help keep it up to date so others can benefit.
​ 

• LINK to the SUPER BLOCKCHAIN GLOSSARY

​AND whether you’re into blockchain for technological innovation or looking to trade crypto, it all starts with the fundamentals. Fundamentals are everything to do with the theory, the context, the history and the "why it matters".  

The waitlist has already been filling up quickly for my next "Blockchains & Cryptos Fundamentals" course. Get on the waitlist and get in-the-know. Standby, I'll be releasing a THREE DAY version of this course for those that need an even more compressed and curated course.

COMING UP:

• A practical Crypto Tax AMA with TaxBit's SME team on October 1, 2021, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with decentralized health insurance Decent's CEO, Nick Soman on October 8th, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with Jesse Proudman of Markara on October 22nd, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with the Neil Bergquist, CEO of Coinme; the head of CA's Blockchain Advocacy Council, the Blockchain Association, and more coming up --- stay tuned! 

In case you didn't know, all AMAs with guests are recorded and posted on our podcast and YouTube show, Windshield Time. Recent AMA's with Jennifer Mace (Crypto Tax), and Hong Fang (CEO of Okcoin) have been posted! 

Join my weekly AMA every Friday, 12-1pm PST
Blockchain is a game changer as a powerful alternative technology to what most businesses use today. Cryptocurrencies and other kinds of digital tokens are fascinating. This meetup is all about focusing our time on global impactful topics, not just crypto-fluffery.

Join us if you want to get into real authentic discussions about what really matters in the blockchain space and have some actual FUN while we're at it, via the Blockchain Underground.

See you next week!
– Arry (@ArryinSeattle)

​P.S. Like this post? Get it weekly in your inbox by signing up to get the email here: eepurl.com/hD2tND

Welcome to Arry's Airdrop #07! 
​Hi All,

One key theme I keep hearing over and over again, especially this past week is the need for more educational content. There's a lot of amazing content out there (along with a lot of bad misinformation, too). What I aim to do a better job of, is to not just find these great resources, but to also SHARE with others all of the knowledge that I am learning every, single day. 

That's why I'm doing all that I can to help share the knowledge that I've been lucky enough to have acquired all these years, with you. I'm sharing the highlights with you. I hope you'll pass it on, and share with others too. That's how we can build a better future, together.

Evergrande panicked the market today.
​Today, the China Evergrande news crisis sent shockwaves throughout both the crypto and stock markets - it was a bloody Monday. Some would say perhaps quite a few cryptos and equities were on sale. What's going on with the Evergrande story? 

China Evergrande Group is the world’s most indebted property real estate developer, whose financial woes have quickly become everyone's business. They have monumental debt that they cannot repay to the order of over $300 billion. Evergrande is also on the hook for 1.6 million apartments and tens of thousands owed to their own employees. Evergrande is a grand catastrophe. Failure is right round the corner whether it be through a complete restructuring or total liquidation of the company. And this one company, the China Evergrande Group may become today's Lehman Brothers cascading into causing a global credit crunch, and demolishing any confidence in Chinese investments. In the end, it may leave us with even greater global catastrophic effects.

Remember the Lehman Brothers? The Lehman bankruptcy filing was the largest in U.S. history. It is believed that their bankruptcy was the first critical domino to fall that led to global markets crashing in the global financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Why you should care about the significance of Evergrande: Couple big reasons why you should care - here are a few.

1. We're looking at the potential "Lehman" in the markets today. Evergrande could be that "contagion" of counter-party failure in the market. History has a way of rhyming. 
2. Again, the world is seeing at a global scale, how broken the system really is on the trust front. Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin white paper author) said once, "The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust."  These financial institutions (Evergrande, Lehman) collapse REPEATEDLY in the course of a person's adult life. And then, the banks get bailed out by government. We're in a system of socialized losses, and privatized profits.

Let's look in contrast at Bitcoin: 

• Bitcoin has no debt.
• Bitcoin has no CEO.
• Bitcoin has no Board of Directors.
• Bitcoin has no intermediaries.
• Bitcoin has no trusted third party security holes.

Bitcoin is a bearer instrument held by HODLers and made up with cold-hearted code. It's a protocol for money. Yes, in theory, Bitcoin companies could also get into financial trouble if they too over-leverage or mishandle their finances (like Evergrande, and the banks). Bitcoin's uptime as a network and protocol is one of the best, if not THE BEST uptime in history. 

• Bitcoin is truly decentralized.
• Bitcoin is truly peer-to-peer.
• Bitcoin is secure.

There's absolutely nothing like it as an asset class, a network, a protocol, and technology. Bitcoin is a huge contrast to Evergrande and the Lehman Brothers stories of our world.

I've been immersed in the blockchain and crypto space for about 5 years now, and I still feel like I'm just a beginner in so many ways. I learn every day from the content creators that share regularly. I learn from talking to others in the meetups, AMA recordings for the podcast, and even talking to my husband who's in the space. 

If you aren't already, there are a few human gems of knowledge I've discovered recently, that are very worth following:

• Michael Nadeau on LinkedIn. Not everyone is on crypto-Twitter, so for folks in the LinkedIn world, check out Michael's posts for some amazing insights into the Defi (Decentralized Finance) world which has quickly taken the world by storm especially over the past year. Follow his posts.
• Travis Kling on Twitter. He's the Chief Investment Officer for Ikigai Asset Management. Full disclosure, I am an LP with the fund. We've done our research, visited the offices, met with the founders, religiously read the monthly updates and attended the LP monthly calls. Travis has an uncanny way of building narratives from huge swaths of data and sources. It's his unfair advantage in the marketplace, along with his pedigree training with the absolute best in the industry. 
• Lyn Alden on Twitter or through her own newsletter. She's got the finance and engineering background. She's got incredible investing strategies with a global macro overlay that's a killer in the marketplace. 

​Whether you’re into blockchain for technological innovation or looking to trade crypto, it all starts with the fundamentals. Waitlist has already been filling up quickly for my next "Blockchains & Cryptos Fundamentals" course. Get on the waitlist and get in-the-know. Standby, I'll be releasing a THREE-DAY version of this course for those that need an even more synthesized course.

COMING UP:

• AMA with an OG Bitcoiner, Jerry David Chan is coming up THIS Friday, September 24th, 2021, 12-1pm PST
• Crypto Tax AMA with TaxBit's SME team on October 1, 2021, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with decentralized health insurance Decent's CEO, Nick Soman on October 8th, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with Coinme, Jesse Proudman of Makara, the head of CA's Blockchain Advocacy Council, the Blockchain Association, and more coming up --- stay tuned! 

In case you didn't know, all AMAs with guests are recorded and posted on our podcast and YouTube show, Windshield Time. Recent AMA's with Jennifer Mace (Crypto Tax), and Hong Fang (CEO of Okcoin) will soon be posted! 

Join my weekly AMA every Friday, 12-1pm PST
Blockchain is a game changer as a powerful alternative technology to what most businesses use today. Cryptocurrencies and other kinds of digital tokens are fascinating. This meetup is all about focusing our time on global impactful topics, not just crypto-fluffery.

Join us if you want to get into real authentic discussions about what really matters in the blockchain space and have some actual FUN while we're at it, via the Blockchain Underground.

See you next week!
– Arry (@ArryinSeattle)

P.S. Like this post? Get it weekly in your inbox by signing up to get the email here: eepurl.com/hD2tND

Welcome to Arry's Airdrop #06! 
Hi All,

The recent headlines of the past week plus the flurry of back-to-school activities across the country remind us of how important the human-to-human community relationships are in each of our lives. Life in a pandemic hasn't been a cake ride either, no matter what side of the line you're on or state you live in. There's a lot of misinformation everywhere, and that misinformation is driving policies that affect all of us - whether you are a crypto HODL-er or not.

Let's get back to basics, old school, follow the politicians that represent us in local, state, and federal government. Let's talk to each other using the telephone. Let's learn each other's names and get to know our neighbors. Let's even know the name of our friendly neighborhood mailman. Watch the drafts of legislation being drafted and proposed. Talk about what we hear with our neighbors, other parents in our children's schools, and acquaintances in our communities. This is the only way we'll combat misinformation and policies created from misinformation. Let's say no to politics or malevolent advertisers.

Real people talking to real people.

Coinbase versus the SEC
The biggest news with the biggest potential impact to the overall industry happened last week with headlines, "The SEC has told us it wants to sue us over Lend. We don't know why." Coinbase has been working on launching its latest lending product, "Lend" and was proactively working with the SEC to iron out any potential issues ahead of its launch. Seemingly looking like "all in a good day's work", when they were surprised by the SEC's threat.

Why you should care: Many reasons why you should care - here are a few.

1. First of all, this is a continuation of the increasingly negative stance, from Elizabeth Warren (Senator) to Janet Yellen (Treasury) to Gary Gensler (SEC), the U.S. federal government overall has taken recently on its approach to blockchain/crypto regulation in the United States. In terms of global competition and innovation, America is faced with real risks in falling significantly behind in the emerging digital economy if clear regulation isn't created, ASAP. The US to date has been using the approach of regulation via enforcement - which has created the opposite of regulatory clarity across the country and the states.
2. We're looking at the future of financial services versus the last gasps to live longer from the dying dinosaur, the Banks. And to date in this country, the definitions and the laws of what define a security, particularly lending as a security, have a big old exception, for the banks. So, as with the approach of regulation via enforcement, the industry will have to wait and see to understand what the regulation really is.
3. The SEC has also requested that Coinbase handover the customer data in Lend's waitlist. But why? Is it for taxes? Is this an invasion of privacy? What's going on here? Exactly. There continues to be NO regulatory clarity in this regime, and regulation via enforcement is NOT regulatory clarify. 

Walmart Litecoin fake news
Tsk Tsk. The news reported a fake partnership between Walmart and Litecoin. Walmart later confirmed that no partnership exists. And as happens with fake news, again, crypto prices soared, then crashed back to reality. The fake press release was the result of an overly eager social media member who tweeted about the partnership, then a fraudulent user account created a press release on GlobalNewswire. 

As with anything in the media and especially online, approach everything you hear, see or read with a bit of cynicism and disbelief, sprinkled with a little paranoia. Information (and misinformation) moves very quickly in the digital world, and often resources we assume are reliable, can easily be fooled too. 

WIth the recent El Salvador news and the kickoff of a cohort on Monday the 13th for my course, I'm reminded again and again that everything in this space all starts with the fundamentals, and that means understanding the grandpa of the whole space (the cryptocurrency, the network, the protocol): Bitcoin.

It is now also known as "boomer-coin" as a joke from some of the more jaded participants.

• One of my most personal favorite interviews on Bitcoin is one with Michael Saylor and Ross Stevens. It's an about an hour long and packed full of knowledge that you don't want to miss if you haven't seen it yet. This is especially an important one for executives of companies. Recorded February 3, 2021.
• Vijay Boyapati is one of our local Pacific Northwest residents who is a global thought leader on Bitcoin.  He wrote an essay that is highly regarded and now published as a book. Please support his book (with a forward by Michael Saylor) and/or read his essay on Medium, Bullish Case for Bitcoin. 
• Parker Lewis' series of essays, Gradually Then Suddenly, is also a classic that you have to read (or visit again). It's one of my go-to resources that I strongly recommend for newcomers into the space.

​Whether you’re into blockchain for technological innovation or looking to trade crypto, it all starts with the fundamentals. Waitlist has already been filling up quickly for my next "Blockchains & Cryptos Fundamentals" course. Get on the waitlist and get in-the-know. I'll also be releasing a THREE-DAY version of this course for those that need an even more synthesized course.

Coming Up:

• AMA with Okcoin's CEO, Hong Fang is coming up THIS Friday, September 17th, 2021, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with TaxBit, Coinme, and all about Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) coming up --- stay tuned! 

Join my weekly AMA every Friday, 12-1pm PSTBlockchain is a game changer as a powerful alternative technology to what most businesses use today.

Cryptocurrencies and other kinds of digital tokens are fascinating. We have seen their meteoric rise over the past couple of years. This meetup is all about focusing our time on global impactful topics, not just crypto-fluffery.

Join us if you want to get into real authentic discussions about what really matters in the blockchain space and have some actual FUN while we're at it, via the Blockchain Underground.

See you next week!
– Arry (@ArryinSeattle)

​P.S. Like this post? Get it weekly in your inbox by signing up to get the email here: eepurl.com/hD2tND

Welcome to Arry's Airdrop #05! 

Hi All,

Calling all policy makers! This week’s crypto headlines make is clear that now is the time to equip yourself for the imminent flood of important issues, debates, regulations and investigations that are on the horizon for policy makers that interface with the global crypto and blockchain industry.

Whether you’re into blockchain for technological innovation or looking to trade crypto, it all starts with fundamentals, and without a doubt that means understanding the grandpa of the whole space: Bitcoin.

My Blockchains & Cryptos Fundamentals Course starts in less than 1 week! Seats are now more than 80% sold out. Use the code AIRDROP10 to get 10% off until the final application deadline tonight, September 7th, at 11:59PM PST.
​
Sign up before this session fills up.

Bitcoin Achievement Level Unlocked September 7th
Bitcoiners have been talking about this milestone for years. It's finally here.Bitcoin is a legal sovereign currency. El Salvador made the first move in the global game theory being the first nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele even doubled down by purchasing yet another 200 bitcoins recently - which means, El Salvador now holds 400 bitcoins, worth nearly $21mm at this point in time. Today, Tuesday September 7th, 2021, all eyes globally are on El Salvador as they pioneer the adoption of Bitcoin nationally. Every El Salvadorian will receive $30 in BTC.

Why you should care: To celebrate this momentous milestone, people globally will also be participating in purchasing $30 in BTC (or $300, or $3,000, or $30,000, etc...) in true global communal support. Crypto traders say, Bitcoin will go into a true price discovery phase after this date. In terms of game theory, what other nations will join the ranks of El Salvador? What if the other 150 nations around the world do the same, ahead of the comfortable top G20 nations like the US, Germany, France, China, and South Korea? Game on!

Crypto Recognition And Regulation Heats Up
Cryptocurrencies are now recognized under commercial law in Texas. Two crypto related bills were passed by both chambers in the state legislature in May, and signed into law in June by Greg Abbott (Governor). The laws came into effect on September 1.

Lee Bratchner, President of Texas Blockchain Council said that H.B. 4474 helps to better define the security interests for different cryptocurrencies in order to allow institutional investors to get involved with sizable investments. Nice job, Texas! 

Buy Bitcoin From Your Bank In Oklahoma
Vast Bank, an independent bank based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has recently become the first bank in the United States with Federal Reserve charter and FDIC insurance to offer Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency services.

The bank’s new Crypto Banking service is available via a user-friendly mobile application which simplifies the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies directly with bank accounts, according to their press release issued on August 25th.

Reminder, whether you're into blockchain, distributed ledger technology, or looking to trade crypto/digital assets, it all starts with the fundamentals, and that means understanding the grandpa of the whole space (the cryptocurrency, the network, the protocol): Bitcoin.
​

• Read the "Bitcoin Standard" by Saifedean Ammous, professor at Columbia University. Here’s the “free PDF version, but if you can buy the actual book, please support him!
• For those that want a more developer-centric technical deep dive of Bitcoin, here’s again the free PDF copy. If you can buy the actual book, please support them: Mastering Bitcoin - GitHub and Digital Copy
• ​What Bitcoin Did: The Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin is a fantastic series of podcast interviews by Peter McCormack, check it out for hours of listening and learning.

Coming up:

• Compass Mining AMA with CEO/Founder Whit Gibbs September 10, 2021, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with CEO of OkCoin, chat with TaxBit, and all about Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) coming up --- stay tuned! 

​Join my weekly AMA every Friday, 12-1pm PST
Blockchain is a game changer as a powerful alternative technology to what most businesses use today.

Cryptocurrencies and other kinds of digital tokens are fascinating. We have seen their rise over the past couple of years. This meet up is all about focusing our time on global impactful topics, not just crypto-fluffery.

Join us if you want to get into real authentic discussions about what really matters in the blockchain space and have some actual FUN while we're at it, via the Blockchain Underground.

See you next week!
– Arry (@ArryinSeattle)

​P.S. Like this post? Get it weekly in your inbox by signing up to get the email here: eepurl.com/hD2tND