Michael Saylor's Bitcoin "Halftime War"
Compilation and arrangement: Baize Research Institute
Compilation and arrangement: Baize Research Institute
Michael Saylor is the prodigal son of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin enthusiasts adore him because he is one of them, speaking aggressively like a "church pastor" who believes in Bitcoin.
While many will use his outlandish rhetoric as a weapon against him, the business he started, MicroStrategy (ticker: MSTR ), has survived three recessions and is worth over $1 billion even without Bitcoin holdings , for a reason. The company's track record reflects considerable safety signals, with more than 40 technology patents.
Saylor is a businessman and inventor as eccentric as he is genius. Also a tech mogul, former CEO of MicroStrategy, inventor of more than 40 patents, and a $10 million contract with McDonald's to develop an app that analyzes the efficiency of its promotions.
His MicroStrategy has been controversial since its inception in 1989.
In 2000, MicroStrategy shares fell 62% in one day after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought and settled accounting fraud charges against Saylor and two other company executives. Saylor's net worth fell by $6 billion.
Ultimately, Saylor paid a $350,000 fine to the SEC and forfeited $8.3 million in ill-gotten gains.
In 2022, things get worse. The attorney general in Washington, D.C. has sued Saylor for tax fraud, accusing him of illegally evading $25 million in taxes by falsely declaring he lived in another state.
Saylor responded:
"I disagree with D.C.'s allegations and look forward to a fair resolution in court."
As a human being, Saylor has made mistakes in his 35-year career.
On August 2, 2022, Saylor will step down as CEO of MicroStrategy, but remain executive chairman, and will focus more on the company's bitcoin purchase strategy and related bitcoin advocacy programs, devoting himself fully to the bitcoin space.
Bitcoiners love him because he's like a radical priest straight out of Faith in the Blockchain.
For all his critics, Saylor, through his non-profit organization, Saylor Academy, provides funds for the continued study of over 1 million underprivileged students.
He is so engrossed in building the future of Bitcoin and wanting the world to have the same economic autonomy that he is admired by Bitcoin enthusiasts and even blockchain enthusiasts.
"Bitcoin, as the world's most widely used cryptocurrency, is a reliable store of value and an attractive investment asset with greater long-term appreciation potential than holding cash."
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Bitcoin beats property as store of value
For many years, property has been a store of value solution for most people.
The problem with real estate is that you can't break down its value into a thousand shares and transfer it around the world in seconds.
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If You Can't Hold Bitcoin For 10 Years, You Shouldn't
In an interview, Saylor was asked about bitcoin's short-term price dynamics and why the price fluctuates so wildly.
He believes that if you buy Bitcoin, you should treat it like buying any other asset, just like buying a house, after you buy a house, you don’t need to pay attention to the price fluctuations a month later.
“If you’re going to buy any long-term asset — especially if you’re going to buy real estate and bitcoin — if you’re not going to hold it for ten years, you shouldn’t be holding it for 10 minutes.”
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Bitcoin: "Digital Gold"
Saylor firmly believes that Bitcoin is "digital gold" without the storage and portability issues of gold.
"The fundamental problem with gold is this: I can't move it quickly. I want to move $1 billion of gold to Tokyo, and that takes three months and $5 million in shipping. I can't take it apart and reassemble it."
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Bitcoin is not a currency - it is a digital property right.
Saylor believes that cryptocurrency is not an appropriate term for Bitcoin because it is not a currency.
He sees Bitcoin as a digital property right that can empower the economy, especially the unbanked.
"Cryptocurrency" is the worst term to use because Bitcoin is not legally a currency.
The problem is that most people equate money with currency, so they fall into the same cognitive trap.
"Cryptoproperty" is much better.
Saylor doesn't think bitcoin will compete with the dollar because it's not a currency.
He also believes that the characterization of Bitcoin as a currency has caused a lot of friction in El Salvador, the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.
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Bitcoin and Ethereum
Interestingly, Saylor saw Bitcoin’s energy usage as a fundamental advantage before the Ethereum merger happened. But when the Ethereum network switched to a PoS mechanism and became 99.5% energy efficient overnight, it became Bitcoin's Achilles' heel in the short term.
These are his comments ahead of the Ethereum merger:
"Bitcoin is basically complete, and Ethereum will no longer be complete after the merger. Idealism makes it unsuitable as a currency and a commodity. Bitcoin is trying to become a digital asset without an issuer".
After the Ethereum merger was successfully completed, Saylor questioned that Ethereum lacked the test of time, which raised concerns among users about the technical reliability and security of the new version of Ethereum.
"Technically sound" means I need to look at Ethereum 5-10 years from now.
If you hard fork and change it, you introduce a new attack surface every time you do a major upgrade.
Now, Saylor casts doubts on Ethereum’s moral sanity:
"Ethical" means I need to know that no one can change the Ethereum protocol, including co-founder Vitalik.
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Saylor and the White House "Crypto Mining Report"
In September 2022, as part of President Biden's executive order, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) conducted a study on the climate impact of cryptocurrency mining and released a report. The report suggests that the government will ban proof-of-work (PoW)-based cryptocurrency mining.
“Powering cryptocurrency mining can consume large amounts of electricity – putting pressure on the grid, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and harming society through noise and water pollution. However, there is an opportunity to combine the development of digital assets with A combination of [transitioning to a net-zero emissions economy] and [improving the environment].”
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“If measures to make mining more environmentally friendly prove ineffective in reducing environmental impact, the administration should explore executive action, and Congress may consider legislation to limit or prohibit the mining of cryptocurrencies based on the proof-of-work consensus mechanism.”
After the report was released, it was widely criticized by blockchain industry leaders because it only cited non-peer-reviewed assessments by many academics with conflicts of interest in cryptocurrencies, completely ignoring the contributions made by industry experts. , such as the professional data shown by Arcane Research very early on.
Surprisingly, President Biden had reservations about cryptocurrency mining before the report was released. At least that's what he said:
"Cryptocurrencies are important to the future of the American economy, not just for wealthy investors, but for the middle and working class as well."
How does Saylor feel about this report?
Saylor quickly posted a statement on his website calling for the report to be scrapped.
According to Saylor, the report is full of misinformation and its sole purpose is to “combat Bitcoin for purely political and financial reasons.”
In an open letter, Saylor sought to "clarify" the environmental impact of Bitcoin:
To journalists, investors, regulators, and anyone interested in Bitcoin and the environment.
"Bitcoin mining is the most efficient and cleanest way to use electricity in industry and is improving its energy efficiency at the fastest rate of any major industry."
“Our metrics show that approximately 59.5% of Bitcoin mining energy comes from sustainable sources, a 46% improvement in energy efficiency year-over-year. No other industry can match it.”
“The Bitcoin network is continuously becoming more energy efficient due to the continuous improvement of the semiconductors that power the Bitcoin mining centers, coupled with the halving of Bitcoin’s mining reward every four years.”
Michael Saylor’s claims can be fully verified on the Bitcoin Mining Council’s website.
Like any eccentric genius, Saylor later explained things with childlike analogies in a Youtube interview:
Bitcoin is as bad for the environment as oranges, meat, buildings and cars are. They both use energy. In fact, hospitals also use energy. If I went to you and said I was going to close down your hospital and replace it with an imaginary hospital, it would reduce the cost of health care. Whenever you have a hypothetical heart attack, we'll give it a hypothetical operation, and you'll go home hypothetical happy.
You can do this, but it's ridiculous.
If you think Bitcoin is not comparable to other important industries, Saylor explains it this way.
He sees Bitcoin as a tool for economic empowerment for 8 billion people, a financial tool that should be treated on a level playing field with other major industries.
Bitcoin is leading energy efficiency improvements in any other industry, and that’s the real data.
According to the Bitcoin Mining Council, the global Bitcoin mining industry uses about the same amount of energy as our festive Christmas lights and less than half that of gold mining.
The real question is, is this technology that empowers the global economy worth the energy costs we spend on it?
My answer is yes.
According to the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risk of Hype in Virtual Currency Transactions" issued by the central bank and other departments, the content of this article is only for information sharing, and does not promote or endorse any operation and investment behavior. Participate in any illegal financial practice.
risk warning:
According to the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risk of Hype in Virtual Currency Transactions" issued by the central bank and other departments, the content of this article is only for information sharing, and does not promote or endorse any operation and investment behavior. Participate in any illegal financial practice.
