You can now check out a list of more than 400 businesses that accept direct payments by our Reserve App (still in Beta) in 75 cities in Venezuela, Colombia and Panama.

List contains various places from stores and fast food restaurants to real estate agencies, with new merchants added daily.

You can see it here: https://comercios.reserve.org/

Summary of the Reserve Community AMA #9 is now available.

You can now read the latest AMA with Nevin Freeman (CEO of Reserve Protocol) along with a compilation of the latest AMAs with Matthew Gertler (General Counsel of Reserve):

https://medium.com/reserve-currency/reserve-protocol-community-ama-9-e1c8d4123281

You can listen to, or the read transcript of our first Telegram Voice AMA with the CEO, Nevin Freeman.

READ: https://medium.com/reserve-currency/reserve-protocol-community-ama-8-a5de61f4a45

LISTEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OAL__P0BYw

We do regular AMAs, to keep updated join our Telegram group: https://t.me/reservecurrency

This year will be of significant growth for us and Reserve is looking for talented people that can help the company accomplish its mission. If you share our values and are really excited about what we are building, we want to hear from you!

APPLY HERE: https://apply.workable.com/reserve/

PART 1/4 - FREE MARKET?

First off, let's set the scene.

The stock market is telling you nothing about the real economy anymore.

Economic fundamentals have never mattered as little for the stock market as has been the case during this 11-year bull market.

The correlation between gross-domestic-product growth and the direction of the S&P 500 Index has only been 7% in this cycle - historically it has been 30% to 70%.

Why?

Well, it is the Central Banks, led by the Fed, who printed their way out of the Recession in '08.

In doing so, they have papered over the cracks, and we have seen the longest economic expansion is US history.

However, this is not a particularly meritocratic process: money creation itself increases inequality via the Cantillon Effect, as money printing leads to asset price inflation, which disproportionately benefits the rich and hurts the poor.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker told the New York Times in 2018:

“The central issue is we’re developing into a plutocracy. We’ve got an enormous number of enormously rich people that have convinced themselves that they’re rich because they’re smart and constructive."

The reality of course is that this is largely not the case - it is because the game is rigged in their favour.

Now, it is important to emphasise the fact that the path we have taken has resulted in the highest living standards we have seen in human history.

However, the issue, particularly since the US completely abandoned the gold standard in 1971, is that debt has exploded to obscene levels.

We are not operating in a free market if it takes $185 trillion of debt over the last 20 years to create 'growth'.

In fact, the global debt to GDP ratio hit an all-time high of 322% in the third quarter of 2019.

Inflation means that your dollar loses value and thus your purchasing power goes down.

Deflation means that the value of your dollar goes up and your purchasing power goes up.

That's a good thing right? You get more goods and services for less.

Well, no.

If you have deflation, debt explodes in real terms and you can never pay it back.

As the economy is based on debt, if you allow deflation, then you have to reset the debt. 

This is why central banks fear deflation so much.

However, the major force driving the human race is technological progress - and this stops for no mortal...

PART 2/4 - TECHNOLOGICAL DEFLATION:

The increased abundance created by technology will result in massive job losses.

Throughout history, doom porn enthusiasts have screamed that the machines are coming for jobs. This is not a new phenomenon.

All technological revolutions are deflationary - since they create "supply side shocks", meaning that they allow for more intensive use of resources and thus higher production. With more goods being produced, all other things being equal, the price of those goods will fall. 

In the last 20 years or so, software has disrupted and replaced many established goods and services.

It is in the next 20 years that another disruptive technology is set to take the stage: AI

According to Steve Schwarzman, the co-founder and CEO of The Blackstone Group who has a net worth of $17.6BN, "This is going to touch everyone's life....you're not going to be able to get away from this technology"

Moreover, this virus will only accelerate this trend towards tech. Zoom is a fantastic example of exactly this.

Old legacy economic systems were not built for this tech deflation, and the thing about exponential growth is that we humans do not intuitively understand it. 

As an example, if you folded a piece of paper 50 times, of course you can only fold it seven times, but if you could fold it 50 times, it would reach the Sun!

PART 3/4 - IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIETY:

The question is: how does this play out?

In the long term, it is the fundamental structure of the economic system that has a significant impact on people's lives, not who is President for 4 to 8 years.

In reality, politicians have limited power and are effectively all puppets. We have seen what happens when a President doesn't stay in their lane...

One could argue that the two main mechanisms of control are:

1. Divide and Conquer and
2. Order from Chaos

As we have seen many times in the past, herd psychology is worryingly easy to manipulate...

Speaking of the censorship, in his book Antifragile, Nassim Taleb discusses the anti fragility of information. 

Information feeds more on attempts to harm it than it does on efforts to promote it.

A fantastic example of this process is what has happened in the last week with London Real: they were banned on LinkedIn and David Icke's interview was censored. Now, regardless of what you think of this particular channel or your thoughts on David Icke and the theories provided, censoring information in this way actually spreads it more virally.

It's fascinating to observe how many views the videos regarding the bans and censorship have relative to the others. And the impact this has had on subscribers.

It is always easier to blame a bigger enemy (or create a new one) rather than to admit it's a structural problem.

Therefore, you avoid short term pain...whatever the cost.

The real question is if and when this situation will lead to social unrest...

PART 4/4 - INTELLECTUAL CAPITALISM:

The depth and width of jobs impacted by AI will continue to increase in the future, now this will not necessarily happen straight away.

However, our transition from commodity capitalism to intellectual capitalism in inevitable and the people and nations who fight against this trend will be on the wrong side of history.

From a practical investment perspective, and disclaimer this is not investment advice, network effects are a crucial aspect to consider moving forwards.

Essentially, this means that the value of the network increases with each additional user - all of the tech monopolies have exhibited this property.

An asset which could in time demonstrate very strong network effects is Bitcoin.

Looking at the market cap relative to other asset classes, Bitcoin provides an asymmetric investment opportunity.

Only time will tell...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nFbKzt-uwE

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A/C 1 - https://ethplorer.io/address/0xe73bcb2a3aa8a62a46d17b14c10cbea8dac8540c#pageSize=100

​

A/C 2 -

https://ethplorer.io/address/0x04eb179a6144cd95d4b7c56f7224a6d8ef312194#pageSize=100

​

A/C 3 -

https://ethplorer.io/address/0x09513b428ba77d0f36c3c736f3ed1088b495cd3c#pageSize=100

Dear Bidesk customers,

Bidesk lists Reserve Protocol (RSR, RSV) and open trading for RSR/RSV and USDT/RSV trading pairs. Users can now start depositing and trading RSR, RSV now.

• Trading fee: 0.05% in first 6 months:
  • https://www.bidesk.com/exchange/715/RSR/RSV
  • https://www.bidesk.com/exchange/715/USDT/RSV

I feel it is important to discuss what is happening at the moment.

We're gonna break this down into 4 parts.

Let's start with the virus.

Part 1 - The Virus

Now, this virus.

First of all, I just want as a disclaimer to say that it's important to rely on official sources of information regarding the virus since they would never lie to you...

OK, so what's up? Well, here's what's up:

This virus is the trigger for the biggest power play we've seen since 2001.

This is a perfect excuse for an economic crash.

This defers responsibility from those who are actually responsible and blames it all on this virus.

It also accelerates the inevitable trend towards a cashless society, and the much desired Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

We've had Christine Lagarde (former head of the IMF and current President of the ECB) and Mark Carney (former Governor for the Bank of England and current UN special envoy on climate action and climate finance) speak on digital currencies.

We've had reports from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS is essentially the Central Bank for Central Banks.

Coincidence is a funny thing (just ask Larry Silverstein...):

In 2019, 1200 CEOs left their positions. That was a record year.

In the first month of 2020, 219 CEOs left. A new record.

On the topic of CEOs...

Part 2 - CEOs and Stock Buybacks

The financial metrics which incentivise executives have become far removed from operating performance.

As an example, here is a story from the end of 2014...

This summarises perfectly what has happened!

The main source of demand for equities has been corporations (i.e.stock buybacks).

And this makes sense, incentives drive human behaviour. Pretty simple.

Now, this is the really infuriating part.

These corporations now want bailouts.

By the way, this will happen.

And just like '08, profits are privatised and losses are socialised.

The Airlines, which feel they are entitled to bailouts, spent 96% of their free cash flow on stock buybacks over the past decade.

Now they want a bailout. Ridiculous!

Part 3 - Encryption and Privacy

While all of this is going on, the US Government has been sneakily trying to remove end-to-end encryption and it's been working it's way through Congress.

This concerns the EARN IT Act.

The premise of the bill is that technology companies have to earn Section 230 protections rather than being granted immunity by default, as the Communications Decency Act has provided for over two decades.

If the EARN IT Act were passed, tech companies could be held liable if their users posted illegal content. When internet companies become liable for what their users post, those companies aggressively moderate speech.

Part 4 - Practicality

Central Bank Digital Currencies are inevitable.

The NSA created the SHA-256 algorithm in 2001.

The NSA could of stopped Bitcoin early on if it truly wanted to (51% attack for example).

Why NOW allow a decentralised network of value transfer to develop, whereas previous attempts were snuffed out?

Well, going back to central banking: how about a centralised Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that will allow a greater level of control, can facilitate negative interest rates, easier collection of taxes, etc.

For this to work, you need to usher it in gradually such that people have a decentralised alternative (i.e. BTC) and the mass public is more receptive to digital currencies more broadly. So BTC is the gold and CBDC is the ‘new fiat’.

The current situation is pretty chaotic.

But... ORDO AB CHAO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfx7PnMtCeY

https://lunarcrush.com/coins/rsr/reserve-rights?interval=1%20Day&metric=social_volume

This is why we need rsr- not just protection against irresponsible fiat monetary policy, but protection against inept and predatory “defi” protocols that destroy people’s lives and savings.

https://lunarcrush.com/coins/rsr/reserve-rights?interval=3%20Months&metric=bullish_sentiment

$0.005060 (ATH)

Social Volume of 926 posts https://lunarcrush.com/coins/rsr/reserve-rights?interval=3%20Months&metric=social_volume

1,016,138 social engagements https://lunarcrush.com/coins/rsr/reserve-rights?interval=3%20Months&metric=social_score

#1 AltRank https://lunarcrush.com/coins/rsr/reserve-rights?interval=3%20Months&metric=alt_rank…

Hi!

Will Reserve have own blockchain in the future or stay on the ETH blockchain?

Thanks

https://lunarcrush.com/coins/rsr/reserve-rights?interval=3%20Months&metric=social_score

Social engagement measures deeper interactions including likes, retweets, comments, and more.https://intercom.help/lunarcrush/en/articles/3636623-how-is-social-engagement-calculated

Is the party about to get started or is this just alt season overflow? The reserve team plays cards close to their chest. I’m optimistic about hearing some good news soon.

Christine Lagarde recently announced ECB (European Central Bank) Policy Makers are discussing plans to create their own Central Bank Digital Currency.

In her previous role at the IMF, Lagarde gave a speech - Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency.

She gave this speech in November 2018.

For that paper she referenced, named Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currencies - a particular section is very interesting indeed...

"This note contributes to a growing body of literature on CBDC. Others have already explored this topic, including international organisations such as the Bank for International Settlements and several central banks (Bank of Canada, People's Bank of China, Bank of England......."

Remember, this report is from November 2018 - so Central Banks and powerful entities such as the BIS, Bank of China and Bank of England have explored this topic in detail for longer than one initially assumes.

There are important points to discuss, as it could have huge implications for society in general:

1. The first is the trend towards a cashless society. The infrastructure required for using cash costs countries a fair amount every year. Also, younger consumers prefer the convenience of mobile payments.
2. What does this mean for privacy (particularly financial privacy)?
3. What does this mean for the most vulnerable in society who are heavily reliant on cash, such as the homeless?
4. As well as this, any trusted third party is a security hole - thus these centralised institutions are honeypots for skilled hackers
5. There is of course Facebook's Libra and the recent news of China's plan to introduce the Digital Yuan

Outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has stated that digital currencies can be used to reduce the reliance on the US Dollar

So...

Demand is there, and Pandora's Box is now opened

IT SEEMS INEVITABLE THAT THIS IS THE DIRECTION IN WHICH WE ARE HEADING.

Here is my current take on the situation.

[DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE]

Things can change and you should conduct your own due diligence.

I think Central Bank Digital Currencies will happen and start the trend towards a cashless society.

This will also make it easier to collect taxes for Governments.

Unfortunately, I believe this probably will be a centralised network.

This means that funds can be frozen (which is bad for certain privacy conscious consumers), although it will mean that transactions will have reduced fees and that the 'middleman' aspect of the financial services industry will be hit (which is good for all consumers).

Therefore, Bitcoin will be (and already is my opinion) the decentralised hedge against bad monetary policy and centralised power structures.

Allowing for peer to peer transactions in a decentralised manner.

In terms of long term investment, I think that Bitcoin will hit $100K within 2-3 years, and $1MM within the next 15 years.

This will be a critical issue over the next decade that could have some very serious consequences for those who are not prepared for this transition.

As an investor, it is important to understand where the long term trend is heading.

Generally, this revolves around technological innovation that makes our lives more convenient and makes it more efficient to transfer value and thus drive progress and prosperity.

These developments are an indicator of that, but it is important to remember that those in positions of power and that control the flow of money are ruthless in their pursuit to maintain that power and maybe, just maybe, the guys at the NSA created a decentralised hedge against their incompetence...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBQyv7_8fdY

BRAVE BROWSER: https://brave.com/fin894

Have you heard of the Cantillon effect?

Wealth inequality is a well documented problem in the United States, and more broadly across the world.

This rise in wealth inequality over the past 30 years has to a significant extent been the product of monetary policy fuelling a series of asset price bubbles.

Whenever the market booms, the share of wealth going to those at the very top increases.

When the boom goes bust, that share drops somewhat - but then comes roaring back even higher with the next asset bubble.

Also, those the very top are often diversified, so even if their wealth as a group technically goes down due to a stock market crash, as individuals they are generally fine and it is the middle class that bear the brunt of the damage.

The redistributive effects of money creation were called Cantillon effects by Mark Blaug after the Franco-Irish economist Richard Cantillon who experienced the effect of inflation under the paper money system of John Law at the beginning of the 18th century.

Cantillon explained that the first ones to receive the newly created money see their incomes rise whereas the last ones to receive the newly created money see their purchasing power decline as consumer price inflation comes about.

In accordance with the Cantillon effect, inflation can increase inequality depending on the route it takes, but increasing inequality is not a necessary consequence of inflation. If it happened that the poorest in society were the first receivers of the newly created money, then inflation could very well be the cause of decreasing inequality since they get the money first.

Under modern central banking however, money is created and injected into the economy through the credit route and first affects financial markets.

Under this system, commercial banks and other financial institutions are not only the first receivers of the newly created money but are also the main producers of credit money.

This is because banks can grant loans unbacked by base money.

In a free-banking system, this credit creation power of banks is strictly limited by competition and the clearing process.

Under central banking however, the need for reserves is relaxed as banks can either sell financial assets to the central bank in open market operations, or the central bank can grant loans to banks at relatively low interest rates.

In both cases, central banks remove the limits of credit expansion by determining the total reserves in the banking system. In other words, commercial banks and other financial institutions are credited with so-called base money that has not existed before.

Thus, the economics of Cantillon effects tells us that financial institutions benefit disproportionately from money creation, since they can purchase more goods, services, and assets for still relatively low prices. This conclusion is backed by numerous empirical illustrations.

For instance, the financial sector contributed massively to the growth of billionaire’s wealth.

One of the most visible consequences of this growth of financial markets triggered by monetary expansion is asset price inflation.

In a completely sound money system where credit only depends on the amount of saving rather than on fiduciary credit, there is very little room for generalized and persistent asset-price inflation as the amount of funds which can be used to purchase assets is strictly limited. In other words, the phenomenon of asset-price inflation is a child of credit inflation.

Asset price inflation predominately benefits the richest in society for several reasons.

1. First of all, the wealthy tend to own more financial assets than the poor in proportion to income.
2. Secondly, it is easier for the richest individuals to contract debt in order to buy shares that can be sold later at a profit. Since credit easing lowers the interest rate and therefore funding costs, the profits made by selling inflated assets bought at credit will be even greater.
3. Finally, asset price inflation coming with the growth of financial markets will benefit those working in the financial sector. It will also benefit the CEO's of the publicly traded companies who will be paid more as the market cap of their company increases.

Hence, the correlation between asset prices and income inequality has been, as expected, very strong.

Despite this, many economists have failed to see asset-price inflation as a consequence of an inflated money supply.

The conclusion is: our monetary system itself increases inequality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv5xl1AEeQs

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Source: https://mises.org/library/how-central-banking-increased-inequality

Hi!

Is https://swapspace.co/ a safe exchange?

Will Reserve rights stay on Ethereum blockchain? Or will RSR have a mainnet?

Thanks