Bitcoin Continues to Grow in the Capital Markets ─ Coupled with a Healthy Dose of Wariness

I've tried to understand the full complexities around blockchain technology and the wonderful potential of bitcoin, and while I have a very general understanding of these things, I still feel my knowledge base is woefully dim.

So I'm not going to use this space to throw around any opinions. After everything I've read, my guess is that bitcoin is going to eventually be looked at as the Netscape of crypto-currencies and we're still years away from a Chrome (or Firefox, if that's your game) entering the scene, but that's just a gut feeling with no empirical evidence to support such a claim.

But what I did want to do was alert you to some fantastic stories ─ both on this site, and others ─ that touch on digital currencies.

First up, my colleague Tim Bourgaize Murray took a deep dive into bitcoin's penetration into the capital markets, noting that many of the name players in the space first made their bones in swaps (and there's a reason for this). In his adjoining opinion piece on the subject, he looks at some of the red flags that are still being raised, including the fact that most of those leading the bitcoin charge don't always have much of an IT background.

In the Shadows

About two months ago at a conference held by OpRisk, a sibling publication of Waters, a secret service agent told those in attendance that, "[i]f digital currency did not exist, cyber crime would be much more difficult." As with most any technological revolution, there are going to be seedy elements looking to game the system in their own favors.

To get an excellent look at how this works, I highly recommend reading Joshuah Bearman's fantastic two-part series for Wired on how the Silk Road empire was built, and eventually brought down. [Part 1 can be found here, Part 2 here.]

Silk Road was an online criminal enterprise run on the Deep Web and masterminded by a man named Ross Ulbricht. It's a fascinating story of how a smart kid with strong libertarian beliefs created an online drug ring that used bitcoin as its currency.

Finally, New York Times Magazine recently dedicated a whole issue to the future of "money". The most interesting piece, in my opinion, was a story on how in Argentina the adoption of bitcoin is helping some vendors to overcome onerous government restrictions on receiving money from abroad.

So, again, there are bright spots here. It's really fascinating, if you ask me. It's like being front and center during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century with the advent of paper money, or the first dollars to be minted in the United States in the 18th century.

Or...maybe I really have no clue what's happening right now and I find shiny objects to be interesting. I wouldn't put that past me.

Some Random Thoughts

* Speaking of features, I'm currently working on a story looking at the emergence of the Python scripting language in the capital markets space. If you've got some insight, shoot me an email or call (646-490-3973), but keep in mind that my deadline is Thursday.

* Playoff hockey is equal parts great and horrible. The Rangers win a brilliant Game 7 over the Caps, and the reward is another two rounds of nail-biting anxiety. (See Game 1: New York-Tampa Bay, as proof.)

On a side note, you have to love the Discovery Channel for this sick burn. When it comes to hockey, hating on the Penguins is one thing that Tim Murray and I can fully agree upon. 

* I watched "Mad Max: Fury Road" this week and thoroughly enjoyed it. But be warned, there's not much in the way of plot in that movie...just basically two hours of non-stop action and explosions.

But even better than that movie, on Sunday I watched a fantastic documentary called "Stripped", which looks at the past, present and future of comic strips (or the funnies, as we liked to call 'em back in the day). It is visually brilliant, very informative, and also provides a (voice-only) cameo from Bill Watterson ─ of "Calvin and Hobbs" fame...my personal favorite ─ who also drew up the movie poster.

* On June 6, you'll be able to find me at Belmont Park cheering on American Pharoah in the third leg of the Triple Crown. I was there to watch Big Brown and California Chrome come up shy of the feat, so hopefully I'm not a jinx.

* I had the best brunch I've ever had this past weekend. If you live near Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, go to the Manhattan Inn and thank me later. I had the baked eggs, which was terrific, but my girlfriend had the biscuits and gravy...which was life-changing (he said, without any understatement). Not only that, but there's a pianist pecking away on a grand piano to add a pleasant ambiance while you wear off your Saturday hangover.