@signulll Not a lot that can be seen by us, who are privileged enough to have financial services freely available to us.
However, there are hundreds of great companies building for those that don’t have the same access.
Enabling payments, investments, savings etc for real utility
So you’re telling me we got the rest of the world to do the lowest value, lowest profit margin, most capital intensive, and most cyclical parts of economic activity.
And in exchange, they gave our companies the cheapest priced goods in the world to resell and thrive off of. Which then gave our companies the time to pursue the actual high value parts of economic activity (you know, like Silicon Valley, Wall Street, military R&D, etc).
And all we had to do was give them IOU’s for an imaginary currency unit that we would only ever pay them back in worthless real terms in, if we ever repaid them at all.
And… we were the ones that demanded this system come to an end?
“Why doesn’t that old, rich guy just retire already? He must not have a purpose in life outside of money!”
Like a lot of people, I used to think that way. But it’s wrong.
Fundamentally, there are two things humans do: We produce and we consume. That’s it.
Most of us, throughout our lives, produce and consume roughly in parity with each other. We make money, and, over time—even if invest some of it and don’t spend it immediately after earning it—we expend it all. The work we do—the economic value we create—is offset by the house in which we live, the food we eat, the medical costs of keeping us alive, the vacations we take, and all the myriad other things we consume each day and over the course of the years.
Some of us consume more than we produce. This requires some type of external subsidy, be it a trust fund, charitable support, or government benefits.
A small number of us produce more than we consume. And an even smaller number produce vastly more than they could ever hope of consuming.
These people have many different roles and titles. If you respect these people and appreciate their contributions to our society—which, by the way, I hope you do, because these are the people make it possible for you to eat food you didn’t have to grow yourself, live in a house you didn’t have to build yourself, and utilize countless technological innovations you didn’t have to invent yourself—you probably call them builders, creators, or inventors; founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders; titans of industry, pillars of community.
If you don’t like them, you probably have other terms—plutocrats, bourgeoisie, kulaks, parasites, vultures, hoarders of wealth.
Going back to the old, rich person at the start of this, that guy—whether you respect him or not—attained his position in society by virtue of having been a net producer. He’s produced more than he’s consumed; his outputs total more than the sum of his inputs. Put simply, he’s planted and harvested more than he’s eaten.
People who produce like that over the course of their lives don’t do so because they want to one day start consuming more. Men and women who spend each day as a net producer don’t just switch it off one day to become a net consumer. Vacations, rounds of golf, restaurant outings, and movie showings simply aren’t satisfying to someone whose mind—not to mention whose heart, whose animating spirit—is wired for producing.
It simply doesn’t work that way.
You might not understand it; you might not understand these people. And that’s fine—for much of my life, I didn’t either.
But don’t question what drives them just because it’s not what drives you. Because these are the men and women who built our society, explored new worlds, invented the wondrous technologies we use every day, and created the works of art and literature we get to enjoy.
And they’re the ones who will keep building, keep creating, and keep making it possible for future generations to enjoy things even greater.
If you think of Coinbase like a bank, we now hold about $0.42T in assets for our customers, which would make us 21st largest bank in the US by total assets, and growing.
If you think of us more like a brokerage, we'd be the 8th largest brokerage today by AUM.
If you think of us like a payments company…TBH i'm not sure where we rank on that list. There are various ways to measure it, but there were about $30T in total stablecoin payments last year (not all of those were goods and services though).
The point is, with crypto the line between these categories is blurring. There are many legacy reasons these are separate in the traditional financial system - and not all of them are good reasons. Why does the money you spend lose value instead of growing in value like an investment? Why does your checking account not earn yield like a savings account (or better yet, like short term treasuries)? Many people use Coinbase to invest, but also to spend, get a loan, etc.
In the updated financial system, you will have a single primary financial account which serves all these functions. A greater % of global GDP will run on more efficient crypto rails over time. We'll have sound money, lower friction transactions, and greater economic freedom for all.
Honored to be on #Forbes30Under30! This award reflects the incredible work our team at Fasset is doing to make finance accessible to all. Huge thanks to my team, partners & our growing community. @Forbes_MENA_@fasset#CryptoForGood
https://t.co/1FWZlNHew0
I’m always in awe and admiration of the work that my wife puts in to level the playing field for Women in finance.
Super proud of your achievement @uneesafinance 😄🚀
@jspujji One of the best threads I’ve read in a long time! All pieces of advice I wish I had known earlier. Must read for all budding entrepreneurs out there
It’s kind of weird that we were all at the Big Bang. Like the matter and energy in our bodies was all there. Then we floated in space, we were part of different stars, we exploded in supernovae, we came together as part of a planet, and at the moment, we’re a bunch of people.