My Relationship With Bitcoin and St. Louis

A small view into my journey with the St. Louis area's relationship with Bitcoin, crypto, and blockchain.

Late 2010:  Published "Escaping Oz: Protecting yourself during the financial crisis" with the first mention of Bitcoin (BTC).  My prediction centered on BTC becoming a disruptive economic force.  This was so early in the life of BTC that it hardly registered.

2011- 2017: Published a few articles published in financial journals on the topic.  There was a particularly contentious article in 2017 on an investor site that generated fierce disagreement among those commenting.

2017: Published "Escaping Oz: An Observer's Reflections" and reflected on Bitcoin's usability as a value transfer mechanism seamlessly occurring outside of centralized finance.  The book was well-received though not much attention was focused on BTC.

2018:  Presented to a local chamber of commerce (twice) on the importance of blockchain technology and BTC.  Admittedly, my enthusiasm outran the expertise of the audience, and I should've made the presentations more digestible.  One attendee suggested it was the best presentation on the topic he'd experienced.

2016-2019: Tried to be an evangel for the technology with local financial advisors and commercial bankers.  I suggested that their clients would soon ask about this.  Crickets.  One banker noted, candidly, that commercial banking senior management was not interested in this topic so they shouldn't be either.

2021: Attempted to convene an event (free) for a curated list of financial advisors where we'd discuss Bitcoin/Blockchain and how to prepare for inevitable conversations and queries from their clientele.  Out of thirty invitations sent, there were ZERO responses.

2022: Applied to present a topic labeled, "The Future of Money" at local event where ideas are shared.  While I was not selected, there was a speaker selected to present on something known as Non-Fungible Tokens or NFT.  Regrettably, that topic was en vogue due to the value of cartoon images and the audience would be robbed of understanding the scope of BTC and blockchain.

2022:  I spoke with several members of a STL-based financial services firm about employment opportunities and how their retail model would need to change to account for competing online brokerages and cryptocurrencies.  To be fair, they understood the first part of this but not the second.  A common refrain was, "this is a conservative firm and..."  It became clear after a few conversations that my potential employment with this firm would not materialize — they could not digest what was occurring in their market with respect to cryptos.

2024: Offered to create a cryptocurrency/blockchain course for a local university, while an employee of said institution. After a successful lecture in an upper-level finance class, it became evident such a course would be desirable.  I deemed it successful since the students were not engaged with their cellphones and no one left the class after its conclusion.  I would also receive queries from students separate of this. At the time, it was unlikely that a similar class would have been offered in the STL area from a higher ed institution.  The administration twisted itself into a pretzel offering a myriad of reasons why it was a not a good idea.

What's the state of the market today?

 Leading crypto brokerage Coinbase is a $75 billion market cap firm that recently:

• Offered a sleek metal credit card with 4% Bitcoin cashback.

• Developed Shopify integration for merchants using USDC on Base (sayonara, Visa fees).

• Offered in-app Decentralized Exchange access (easy decentralized exchange swaps with a UX even the most challenged computer user could navigate).

• Acquired Deribit, the world’s top crypto options platform.

Ever heard of Robinhood?

• They offer stock, options, and ETFs

• They also have a crypto wallet.

• Plans for banking, credit, and on-chain assets.

I always posited that any company removing friction from using crypto would, by itself, increase usability and consequently, expand the market.  There's much more than the aforementioned two examples.   If you've not heard of decentralized finance (DeFi), ask your AI chat bot about it.

Know what a Stablecoin is?

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency with a fixed price designed to maintain a stable value to a currency such as the U.S. dollar (USD).  Unbanked populations love them since, as digital assets, they enable anyone to send value to anyone else anywhere in the world at any time.  Want to send a payment to your relative in Brazil at 6 p.m. on a Friday but don’t want them to have to wait the entire weekend before they receive it?  Ask those who've used remittance services like Western Union.  Execute this transaction on a blockchain and watch it materialize in seconds.  And your pocketbook will like it too!

Stablecoins may indirectly be a way for the USA to "manage" our gargantuan federal debt.  In order for Stablecoins to be "stable" they must hold the native asset, say US Dollars, or something nearly as liquid, US Treasuries. Imagine a future where people all over the world transact in Dollar-based Stablecoins.  This will disrupt centralized finance in ways you may not imagine.

Speaking of Stablecoins, the US Senate passed the GENIUS Act.  The “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025” – or GENIUS Act – is a bill developing a federal regulatory framework for stablecoin payment.  By the way, this bill passed with bi-partisan support (68-30).  When's the last time you heard that from the US Senate?

Oh, and the US Dollar price of Bitcoin recently hovered between $105,000 and $110,000.  The market cap of crypto has also gone from less than $1 billion to over $3 trillion during the time noted above.  Hopefully, the St. Louis financial market is now awakened to the possibilities and will wade into the waters of innovation and adoption as crypto moves from esoteric to mainstream.