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| HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS |
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One of my favorite modern writers is Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar who lives in New Mexico and writes things about religion and spirituality that many of us believe, but are too afraid to say out loud. (Here's a taste.) I subscribe to his excellent newsletter, and he wrote something this week that I feel is important to pass on.
Titled “Some simple but urgent guidance to get us through these next months,” Rohr puts this difficult year in perspective, reminding us that humans have endured much more suffering in the past.
After acknowledging that these next four months – leading up to the November U.S. elections and beyond – may hold even more suffering, he closes with two challenges:
Challenge 1: Limit the amount of news you consume across TV, social media, and internet news, hopefully to an hour per day or less;
Challenge 2: Use this time for some sort of public service, volunteerism, contemplation, or thoughtful reading.
I want to amplify this message. If we are to obtain “health, wealth, and happiness,” as I sign every newsletter, we can’t do it by doomscrolling negative news feeds in our dark basements.
This clouds our vision, and it’s also a terrible way to live. We need to go on a “media diet,” and redirect our thoughts to higher things.
This is a radical idea, but I encourage you to try it. No more than an hour per day of news; instead, use this time for volunteer service, or giving back.
Try meditation. (I meditate daily, as do some of the world’s most successful investors.) Or use this time to feed your mind with higher thoughts.
To that end, here is a new Blockchain Investor’s Reading List, made of inspiring books that will help you put things in perspective—and no matter what happens next, you'll be a smarter, better investor.
The Reading List of the Blockchain Illuminati
You may not know there is kind of an underground reading list for leaders in the blockchain space: I’ve had blockchain luminaries like Changpeng Zhao, Chris Burniske, and Arianna Simpson recommend some of the books on this list. Feel free to dip into the ones that seem to be calling your name. |
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| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt Amazon rating: 4.6 stars (1,600 reviews) Hazlitt was a financial reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times who wrote this book (you might call it a manifesto) which explains the economic machine, while slashing through economic myths. Hazlitt writes in a clear, readable style, using simple stories and fables. First published in 1946, the book remains as relevant as ever. |
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| Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillan Amazon rating: 4.5 stars (50 ratings) From investing in tokens to using digital exchanges, blockchains are deeply intertwined with markets. John McMillan was an economics professor at Stanford University who wrote this book in the wake of the 2000 dot-com crash. For blockchain investors, this is an important book for understanding the five components of successful markets – and how to build better ones. |
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The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham Amazon rating: 4.5 stars (11,438 ratings)
Perhaps you know that Ben Graham was the O.G. (original guru) who taught the Warren Buffett crew how to invest (Buffett called it “By far the best book on investing ever written”). Graham’s ideas -- investing in companies that provide real value, buying stocks on sale, and thinking long-term -- are the bedrock principles we preach for blockchain investors today. |
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Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders by Warren Buffett (Free to download!)
Speaking of Warren Buffett, his annual letters to shareholders of his company are little pearls of investing wisdom. For me, the larger lesson is Buffett’s generosity in freely sharing this wisdom (how many other billionaires do this?). You don’t need to read these from the beginning; in fact, you may want to dip in and out of his most recent letters, which are relevant to today. |
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The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream by H.W. Brands Amazon rating: 4.4 stars (160 ratings)
This isn’t just any history book: it’s a page-turning account of the California Gold Rush of 1849, packed with colorful characters, shady profiteers, and a few savvy miners who built dynastic wealth. Blockchain investors will see many parallels to our modern day “digital gold rush,” and learn excellent lessons for how to invest wisely when everyone else is losing their mind. |
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Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Amazon rating: 4.6 stars (4,735 ratings)
Ray Dalio’s firm Bridgewater Associates is the largest and best-performing hedge fund in the world, and this book outlines Dalio’s principles for success in both life and business. Originally circulated as a PDF that he shared with new employees, it’s now a New York Times bestseller, an app, and a series of educational videos. (Dalio’s new book, The Changing World Order, is also required reading for investors.) |
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Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Amazon rating: 4.7 stars (26,200 ratings)
A self-help and personal development book, this little classic is probably the easiest read on the list. The story goes that Napoleon Hill was interviewing the great steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, who offered to connect him with the world’s wealthiest people, if Hill would distill a formula to success. Whether or not the story is true, correct thinking – or mental mastery – is certainly a key to financial success. |
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The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko Amazon rating: 4.6 stars (4,800 ratings)
The premise of this book is that millionaires are everywhere (even next door), and they are quietly amassing wealth through time-tested financial principles. This book is the antidote to the Lambo-loving blockchain culture which rewards crazy risk-taking and showy excess. These are sound financial principles (entrepreneurship, frugality, hard work) shared by the truly rich … not the newly rich. |
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The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner Amazon rating: 4.6 stars (350 ratings)
Contrary to popular belief, economics is not a science, but more like philosophy. That philosophy is shaped over the centuries by great thinkers who bring in radical ideas. From Adam Smith to Karl Marx, Heilbroner explains their ideas with great clarity and readable storytelling, with a chapter devoted to each. This is an excellent crash course on the history of economic thinking. |
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Governance in Decentralized Networks by Risto Karjalainen (Free to download!)
Even though blockchain technology is new, the way that we organize groups of humans to work together – known as governance – has been tried many different ways over the centuries. In this groundbreaking working paper, the founder of Streamr Network dives deep into the different models of governance, and how they apply to blockchain today. (This filled in so many gaps in my knowledge.) |
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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson Amazon rating: 4.5 stars (800 ratings)
"The ascent of money has been one of the driving forces behind human progress." So begins this book, where Niall Ferguson, an award-winning historian, argues that money – far from being a “necessary evil” – has acted as a “coordinating mechanism” that lets the world prosper and thrive. In the 10th anniversary edition (linked above), he also includes a chapter on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. |
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Blockchain Success Stories: Case Studies from the Leading Edge of Business by Sir John Hargrave and Evan Karnoupakis (Available for preorder!)
This is the book we wished we had when we started working in blockchain: simple, readable stories that showed how real people built real blockchain businesses: not theory, but practice! Deeply researched, packed with firsthand interviews, the book contains 10 page-turning stories of today’s leading blockchain projects (Binance, Cardano, Circle), with best practices for entrepreneurs and investors. |
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See the Patterns, And You See the Possibilities
No matter what happens over the next four months (and beyond), these books will help you see the big patterns in financial markets throughout history. The "new" world of blockchain is not really new, just the newest form of patterns that have happened over and over again.
When you see the patterns, you see the possibilities. You begin to see when markets are likely to go up and when they’ll go down. You get better at recognizing the psychology of other investors. You improve your mental habits, and avoid getting sucked into FOMO or FUD.
These books, in short, make you a better investor.
Better yet, they teach you about humans. Money is a human invention, and financial markets are just human systems. Even blockchain, with its emphasis on the laws of mathematics, is human in its design.
By understanding humans, we are better able to understand their financial creations, and that is incredibly valuable. It’s like a secret weapon for investors.
The 4-Month Challenge
Over the next four months, then, I hope you’ll take up the gauntlet thrown down by Richard Rohr.
Limit your news intake to an hour or less per day. Use the extra time for volunteering, public service, meditation, and/or reading.
You now have a reading list. The rest is up to you. |
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| Health, wealth, and happiness, |
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| John Hargrave Publisher Bitcoin Market Journal |
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Hi Everyone,
We're only human, I guess. Sometimes we get so distracted by what's right in front of us that we fail to see the bigger picture.
This happens to many newbies the first few hundred times they perform technical analysis. We tend to make the time frame so small as to be insignificant.
Only with experience do we learn the value of patience in the market, to zoom out and focus on the long-term, while keeping a keen ear on the noise, just to anticipate any lasting changes.
Another example of this is the recent news that's currently making the rounds in crypto media that: |
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(Here is the breaking article in Hebrew written by markets editor and reporter Roy Katziri.)
Of course, it would be amazing for me, as an Israeli citizen, and for many others, if this passes, as it will not only reduce taxes significantly, but also encourage people to report their holdings, bringing the wider benefits of institutional crypto into the light.
From my understanding of local politics, it doesn't have a great chance. The party proposing the bill belongs to Avigdor Liberman, who in the last election cycle ostracized himself from both the left and the right. As a result, it has few allies to pull a bill through the three voting sessions necessary to be signed into law.
The bigger picture, however, is not just cryptocurrencies and digital assets, but the wider world of financial technology. It's true that the Israeli banking giants have been actively blockading blockchain from the beginning.
This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the young startup nation to make any headway in this space.
However, their preventive measures are not solely against bitcoin, but according to a recent government report, they've been playing monopoly with the entire world of FinTech.
Zooming out to a broader market, we can see a similar dynamic approaching its endgame in the United States. ... |
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Really??? With 39 days left to the election, partisan polarization at a peak and so many open issues, this bill is gonna slide right through?
Don't get me wrong, it'd be great if it did. The bill would give bitcoin and pals a dedicated regulatory body, allowing companies to deal in the entire U.S. market rather than going state-by-state like they do now.
Of course, here we once again need to focus on the bigger picture. As we correctly pointed out three months ago in our first ever video analysis, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian P. Brooks, the so-called Crypto Comptroller, is already taking care of this.
Obviously, the elections could very likely impact this as well since the office of The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is under the Jurisdiction of the U.S. Treasury, one of the main components of the Executive Branch. So it might be difficult for him to continue his work should we see a change of power.
Finally, this Monday there will be no BMJ Newsletter as it is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. As is customary, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to you and to everyone that I may have caused any harm over the last 12 months or more.
May we all be inscribed in the book of life, the book of blessings, health, wealth and happiness. |
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Mati Greenspan Analysis, Advisory, Money Management |
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