#3,104 – Destiny Tech100

When I first starting following the tech scene and writing about new ideas I figured that if I didn’t make it big as a writer or futurist I could at least leverage my knowledge about the next big thing for personal financial gain through timely investing. Getting in at the ground level of emerging unicorns or catching companies with game-changing technologies on their meteoritic rise to prominence. It’s a strategy that worked well with Tesla. But when it came to 3D printing, graphene, and rare earth metals I was less fortunate.

It always bothered me though that I couldn’t fully leverage this knowledge. Believing in your heart of hearts that OpenAI or SpaceX is the next big thing doesn’t do you any good if these are private companies that are off limits to you. If you’re bullish on future tech you should be able to reap the benefits of your faith and, better yet, actually contribute to the future success of these companies just like you would with any Kickstarter campaign that you believed in by investing in them.

Previously that wasn’t possible. But thanks to the new Destiny Tech100 fund now it is.

Fast Company sums it up best:

“Some of today’s hottest companies have remained untouchable for investors. Stripe, for instance, was valued at $65 billion in February. And SpaceX is estimated to be worth $175 billion. If accurate, that puts Stripe at a level higher than Spotify, and Nintendo and SpaceX in the same neighborhood as IBM and Intuit. A new fund, though, might give the public a chance to ride the financial coattails of these and other unicorns.

While individual investors aren’t able to invest in startups, accredited investors (people with a net worth of $1 million or an annual income of $200,000 for the past two years) can. The Destiny Tech100 fund, though, takes an unusual approach to bypass that, giving public access to private companies. The publicly traded fund (under the ticker DXYZ) has shares of 23 private tech companies, ranging from SpaceX to OpenAI to Epic Games. And investors are piling on fast.

In its less than two weeks on the New York Stock Exchange, the fund has seen its share price soar 504%. On Friday alone, the stock was up more than 48% in midday trading (spurred, perhaps, by a New York Times article about it.)

‘D/XYZ [the company’s spelling of Destiny], through products like the Destiny Tech100, is on a mission to make investing in innovative private companies accessible to all,’ said CEO Sohail Prasad in a statement when the fund was announced last month. ‘The future of investment is inclusive, and that everyone deserves a chance to own the future.'”

I currently don’t any stocks but this new fund is making me want to get back into the game. Giving ordinary people like you and me the ability to own a piece of the future, the entire future, in one fell swoop.

Is the Destiny Tech100 the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,666 – Information Week: Selling Shares of Yourself

This next idea is devilishly good: selling shares in yourself to increase your net worth; doing to people what we already allow corporations to do. An idea whose time may have finally come thanks to Daniil and David Liberman. Interesting people you’ve never heard of before. Something that’s about to change.

The New Yorker explains:

“Yet they belong to a rising techie class that quietly traffics novel-seeming ideas among powerful people, shaping the wider world we live in along the way. In the past decade, the brothers led the design of the 3-D-Bitmoji feature on Snapchat, helped put out a hit Russian political-satire show, and devised an approach to capping corporate returns for investors. They have a way of popping up, like a lanky, pale Bill and Ted, in the background of interesting moments, with improbable associates. One friend of theirs calls them ‘hilariously networked.'”

And now it would seem that their network is about to pay off. For they finally found someone to buy shares of them.

According to Upsmag:

“When we measure the wealth of people, we tote up their cash, assets, and debts on a given day and take that as their worth—even if we know they’ll earn more going forward. When, on the other hand, investors value corporations, such as Costco, they take into account the company’s likely growth, and figure out a price for a share with that future in mind. (Costco is priced at forty times its current earnings.) Corporations are allowed to worm their wealth forward and backward in time by selling shares. In theory, people can do this through debt, but debt is psychologically onerous and rarely encourages personal risk-taking. The Libermans convinced themselves that, if you let people move their future wealth value around the way corporations do, people and businesses would be more evenly matched.

The brothers shopped the idea around for years, but it wasn’t until recently that reception to it warmed. Sam Lessin, a venture capitalist at Slow Ventures, was the first investor to buy shares of the Libermans’ future. He grew up in a prosperous family and, as a teen-ager, was struck by the fact that he could go to whatever college he wanted, while smart kids without the same financial security might be compelled to select schools on the basis of tuition and aid options. For years, he proposed to investors the idea of ​​’venture capital for people,’ to no avail. Then, as the debt crisis deepened, he noticed the wind beginning to turn. Lessin’s firm recently opened a whole department devoted to investing in human lives.”

A department that might be getting a whole lot bigger going forward as this idea gains traction. Something that is likely to happen as the timing feels right this time around for selling shares in yourself to finally catch on:

As the New Yorker puts it:

“The Libermans see this endeavor as part of an effort to stem twenty-first-century inequality. If they can sell life shares, they think, others can, too. ‘We’re between worlds, and it allows us to be in both skins,’ Daniil said. ‘In the skin of people used to the way capital usually works, and in today’s world, which requires something new.’

America is now beset by twinned and yet somewhat opposing beliefs: that the country has not delivered on its promise of financial opportunity for all, and that the institutions empowered to deliver on that promise are untrustworthy and beside the point. Seniors as a group have grown wealthier for years, while people younger than thirty-five are poorer. Student debt has roughly doubled just in the past decade; Pew finds that trust in government is falling toward an all-time low. This mistrust seems to transcend ethnicity, age, and partisanship, and its sway on ideas in personal finance is plain. Young people now create personal brands online and trade cryptocurrencies, N.F.T.s, and other unregulated direct-market products to try to make a buck. The Libermans and their idea of helping others get ahead by selling futures on the market are the avatars of this era’s desperate reach.”

Just because its desperate doesn’t mean it won’t work. Sometimes desperation is exactly the ingredient we need to inspire action. So if anyone wants to buy shares in a 40 year old blogger with no other skills or prospects please let me know!

Is selling shares in yourself the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,390 – Four-Day Work Week

Palantir just bought $51 million in gold bars leading everyone to speculate what it is that they know that no one else does.  Is it much ado about nothing or a possible “Black Swan” event that could potentially alter the course of human history as we know it?  Could it be further instability in the Middle East falling the fall of Afghanistan? An even deadlier COVID variant on the horizon?  The reinstatement of Donald Trump as President of the United States?  An imminent recession?  What could it be?!

Well, what about congressman Mark Takano putting forth legislation calling for a four-day work week! First a push for Universal Basic Income and now this! Perhaps such a drastic change to the schedules of working class Americans will be enough to cause the massive destabilization that Palantir seems to be predicting.

Of course, I’m only kidding.  A four-day work week wouldn’t lead to the collapse of civilization.  If anything just the opposite.  As it would make people happier, healthier, and yes even more productive as they make better use of the time on the clock they do have.  And its long overdue.  We Americans work way too much as it is.  9 to 5?  No such thing.  Its really 8 to 5 if you want to take a lunch.  And why are we even working rigid schedules at all?  We don’t work on assembly lines in factories anymore.  We really should just be working our own schedules at whatever times of day we are the most productive (night owls vs early birds).  But most importantly of all we really should be working less days period.  And a four-day work week with 3-day weekends every week would perfectly accomplish that.  Allowing us to have one day to do errands, one day to do something fun, and one day to relax before we enter the rat race all over again.  It really is the perfect breakdown. 

A friend of mine even told me about a school district that has four-day school weeks with the fifth day only being needed for students who drop below a certain grade level.  Talk about motivation! Similarly offices could incorporate a similar policy with employees only needing to come in for that fifth day if absolutely necessary to finish a particular project. 

I realize that this idea won’t benefit everyone like those who work in retail or other places like hospitals that are open 7 days a week.  But for your average office schlub who is already wasting away inside of a depressing cubicle at a soul sucking, paper pushing job it would be a total game-changer.  And even if most places of business wind up still staying open 5 days a week at least make it be the law that no one person can work more than 4 days a week.  With less people available to fill the same amount of hours companies would have to hire more people to fill up all the time slots.  Something that could go a long way towards ending unemployment and making up for the loss of jobs due to pandemics, automation, climate change, and other forthcoming issues.

Overall I think a four-day work week is a great idea and would have positive long-term benefits for society.  But what do I know.  I can’t see the future like Palantir. 

Is a Four-Day Work Week in our future?

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#2,292 – Supermarket Sound Effects

The other day I saw a joke online that gave me a great idea. The joke went like this:

“A new supermarket just opened up nearby.

It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh. Just before it goes on, you hear the sound of distant thunder and smell fresh rain.

When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and there is the scent of freshly mowed hay.

In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks with onions.

When you approach the egg case, you hear hens clucking and cackling, and the air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.

The bread department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread and cookies.

I don’t buy toilet paper there anymore, though.”

Haha. Very funny. But seriously, why don’t we make such a store for real?! Couldn’t Amazon pull this off technologically in their new Amazon Go Grocery Stores?! Wouldn’t this be the coolest thing ever?! And practical too. For you could actually navigate through the store via these sound effects, knowing in an instant what section to head towards to find the next item on your shopping list. It would certainly make food shopping easier for visually impaired people at the very least.

But it would also do much more than that. Turning food shopping from a chore into a source of entertainment in of itself. Just don’t go when you’re hungry. If you do you’d buy everything in sight after catching a whiff of all those intoxicating scents. Especially the bacon.

Are supermarket sound effects the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,185 – Information Week: Sound Printing

In the future it may be possible to print using sound.

Tech Radar explains:

“In a major breakthrough, scientists at the Universities of Bath and Bristol have successfully used sound to control ink droplets and print precise patterns.

A paper on the new printing technique, named Sonolithography, has been published in Advanced Materials Technologies journal.

‘The power of ultrasound has already been shown to levitate small particles. We are excited to have hugely expanded the range of applications by patterning dense clouds of material in air at scale and being able to algorithmically control how the material settles into shapes,’ explainsd Professor Mike Fraser from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath.

The implications of manipulating microscopic particles and droplets into precise patterns using sound are ‘far-reaching’, according to the researchers.

The researchers believe their work has the potential to change printing, especially in the fields of medicine and electronics, by increasing speed while reducing cost.

‘The objects we are manipulating are the size of water drops in clouds. It’s incredibly exciting to be able to move such small things with such fine control. This could allow us to direct aerosol sprays with unheard of precision, with applications such as drug delivery or wound healing,’ said Professor Bruce Drinkwater of the University of Bristol.

The researchers have also shown that Sonolithography works with a variety of materials, and are keen to hone it for printing electronics by adapting the technique to arrange conductive inks into circuits and components.”

No word yet if this new technique will prevent your office printer from jamming as frequently as it does now.

Is printing with the sound the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,174 – Information Week: Tales From The Crypto: Dogecoin

The future of cryptocurrency may not be Bitcoin after all. Instead, it may be a currency that is a more of a joke than a real financial instrument. More of a brand than an investment.

Tabarak Khan sums it up best in a post on Medium:

“Dogecoin launched on December 6, 2013, using the base code of Litecoin, which itself is an offshoot of bitcoin. It was developed by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a joke inspired by the Shiba Inu dog meme, which also dates back to 2013. The meme typically consists of a picture of a Shiba Inu dog accompanied by multicolored text in comic sans font in the foreground. The text, representing a kind of internal monologue, is deliberately written in broken English.

Dogecoin is different from other cryptocurrencies because it is essentially a brand. As I’ve written before on brand storytelling, successful brands place their message into a customer’s worldview and make them feel good about themselves. Dogecoin’s creators made the altcoin as a meme crypto for people who didn’t care about traditional cryptocurrency but still wanted in on the fun. Even within the realm of cryptocurrency as a whole, Dogecoin differentiated itself through its ‘meme-y’ ethos.

Its reputation as a feel-good currency was driven by feel-good acts encouraged by the community. On January 19, 2014, a fundraiser was established by the Dogecoin community to raise $50,000 for the Jamaican Bobsled Team, which had qualified for but could not afford to go to the Sochi Winter Olympics. The fundraiser inspired the foundation, led by Eric Nakagawa, to collect donations to build a well in the Tana river basin in Kenya in cooperation with Charity: Water. On March 25, 2014, the Dogecoin community successfully raised 67.8 million Dogecoins (around $55,000 at the time) in an effort to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise.

Just like its mascot, the Dogecoin brand was fun, warm, and fuzzy.

In his book, The Information, James Gleick wrote that memes have embodied the evolution of information. ‘In the competition for space in our brains and in the culture, the effective combatants are the messages. The new, oblique, looping views of genes and memes have enriched us.’

When viewed through this cultural prism, ‘Dogecoin is best thought of as a cultural product, rather than a financial asset,’ writes Jason Potts, professor of economics, RMIT University, and Chris Berg, senior research fellow and co-director, RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, RMIT University. ‘The reality is few cryptocurrency users hold it as a serious investment or to use in regular transactions. Instead, to own Dogecoin is to participate in a culture.’

A culture that I have to admit I now want to be a part of. The Meme Economy holding more value in my heart than the real economy ever has and ever could. And who knows, maybe one day real value will follow too.

Is DogeCoin the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,170 – Information Week: Tales From The Crypto: NFTs

I’ve always been a collector. First baseball cards. Then back issues of Wired Magazine. And most recently antiques and books about inventions. So what’s next for a collector like me who acts with reckless abandon with no regard for their retirement plan? Well, how about Non-Fungible Tokens? Wait. What?!

Forbes explains:

“Most simply, an NFT is an entry on a blockchain, the same decentralized digital ledger technology that underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. But unlike most bitcoin–which is fungible, meaning that one coin is essentially indistinguishable from another and equivalent in value–tokens on these blockchains are non-fungible. That means they are unique, so they can represent one-of-a-kind things, like a rare William Shatner headshot or even the title to a piece of real estate.

And because they’re unique and stored on the blockchain, they’re unquestionably authentic. That’s especially important when the asset they represent is digital. Since digital files can be copied infinitely and perfectly, it’s hard to own (or sell) a rare digital photo of Captain Kirk. An NFT token solves the riddle by proving that one digital file is the one-and-only ‘original.’

When purchasing an NFT, you acquire both the un-erasable ownership record of an asset and access to the actual asset. These assets can be anything. At the moment they’re mostly works of digital art or trading cards. Some are virtual goods existing only within the marketplace selling them, and some come packaged in familiar formats like a JPEG or a PDF. A small minority of NFTs are digital records of ownership of an actual, physical object.”

If you think this is just a passing fad think again. Based on how much buzz is being generated right now and how many people are jumping on the bandwagon NFTs look poised to become The Next Big Thing. Or maybe it is a fad. But still. It’s an incredible, fast growing fad at that.

Case in point:

“Controversial YouTube celebrity Logan Paul has jumped on the nonfungible token, or NFT, bandwagon as part of his latest self-promotion.

Decentralized e-commerce platform Bondly announced Feb. 4 that it will create a limited edition of 44 NFTs featuring a ‘holographic’ image of Paul in his boxing gear mocked up as a Pokemon card.

The NFTs will be distributed to auction winners in Paul’s upcoming Pokemon Box Break.”

Not to be outdone Elon Musk’s girlfriend Grimes is even getting in on the fun:

“Grimes is the latest artist to get in on the NFT gold rush, selling around $6 million worth of digital artworks after putting them up for auction yesterday.

A series of 10 pieces — some one of a kind, others with thousands of copies — went up for sale on Nifty Gateway on February 28th. The highest-selling piece was a one-of-a-kind video called ‘Death of the Old‘ that involves flying cherubs, a cross, a sword, and glowing light that’s set to an original song by Grimes. The winning bidder took it for nearly $389,000.

The bulk of the sales came from two pieces with thousands of copies available that sold for $7,500 each. The works, titled ‘Earth‘ and ‘Mars,’ are both short videos featuring their titular planet with a giant cherub over it holding a weapon, also set to original music. Nearly 700 copies were sold for a total of $5.18 million before sales closed.”

These NFTs clearly stand to benefit the artists and influencers who are cashing in on the craze but why should regular folk like you and me care?

The Verge explains:

“NFTs allow buyers to support artists, but it also gives buyers a couple things in return. Buyers may not get to hang these digital pieces on their wall, but they might get bragging rights for purchasing a famous work like Nyan Cat or something from a popular artist like Grimes. NFTs are also a speculative asset, and many marketplaces have popped up that offer the ability to resell them — theoretically for a lot more, so long as the hype around NFTs continues.”

And the hype is likely to continue for the foreseeable future since NFTs combine the best of sports collectibles, cryptocurrencies, pop culture, celebrity and social media. Making them the perfect distraction in today’s instant gratification age, especially during a pandemic when there’s nothing else to do. But if you think you’ve seen the best of what NFTs have to offer just wait until a short video of me writing this very blog article hits the market in the near future. Once that happens all bets are off.

Are NFTs the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,079 – Doughnut Economics

Today Greta Thunberg is giving another impassioned speech about Climate Change to world leaders at the World Economic Forum. A speech that will likely fall on deaf ears. It really is a shame. The evidence exists. So too do the drastic pleas for help. And yet it’s still business as usual. I suppose we really shouldn’t be surprised. This is capitalism through and through. Take. Take. Take. Build. Build. Build. Grow. Grow. Grow. Consequences be damned.

For a while, when natural resources were abundant, and the environment was not yet teetering on the brink of destruction, capitalism worked. It’s a far better economic model than communism or some other models. But there’s just one problem: it’s not sustainable. At some point you’re going to run out of resources. At some point you’re going to run out of time.

What we need then is a new economic model. One that can take environmental concerns into consideration. One that can ensure that our basic needs are still meet. I’ve been saying this for a while. That I wished there was a way to create a hybrid mix of socialism and capitalism and environmentalism. But I didn’t know how to pull it off. Thankfully British economist Kate Raworth did. Say hello to your new best friend. Say hello to Doughnut Economics.

Time explains:

“In April 2020, during the first wave of COVID-19, Amsterdam’s city government announced it would recover from the crisis, and avoid future ones, by embracing the theory of ‘doughnut economics.’ Laid out by British economist Kate Raworth in a 2017 book, the theory argues that 20th century economic thinking is not equipped to deal with the 21st century reality of a planet teetering on the edge of climate breakdown. Instead of equating a growing GDP with a successful society, our goal should be to fit all of human life into what Raworth calls the ‘sweet spot’ between the ‘social foundation,’ where everyone has what they need to live a good life, and the ‘environmental ceiling.’ By and large, people in rich countries are living above the environmental ceiling. Those in poorer countries often fall below the social foundation. The space in between: that’s the doughnut.

Amsterdam’s ambition is to bring all 872,000 residents inside the doughnut, ensuring everyone has access to a good quality of life, but without putting more pressure on the planet than is sustainable. Guided by Raworth’s organization, the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), the city is introducing massive infrastructure projects, employment schemes and new policies for government contracts to that end. Meanwhile, some 400 local people and organizations have set up a network called the Amsterdam Doughnut Coalition to run their own programs at a grassroots level.

It’s the first time a major city has attempted to put doughnut theory into action on a local level, but Amsterdam is not alone. Raworth says DEAL has received an avalanche of requests from municipal leaders and others seeking to build more resilient societies in the aftermath of COVID-19. Copenhagen’s city council majority decided to follow Amsterdam’s example in June, as did the Brussels region and the small city of Dunedin, New Zealand, in September, and Nanaimo, British Columbia, in December. In the U.S., Portland, Ore., is preparing to roll out its own version of the doughnut, and Austin may be close behind. The theory has won Raworth some high-profile fans; in November, Pope Francis endorsed her ‘fresh thinking,’ while celebrated British naturalist Sir David Attenborough dedicated a chapter to the doughnut in his latest book, A Life on Our Planet, calling it ‘our species’ compass for the journey’ to a sustainable future.”

If it’s good enough for Sir David Attenborough, the Pope, and the residents of several major cities around the world then maybe it’s good enough for the rest of us. And besides, who doesn’t love a good doughnut?!

Is Doughnut Economics the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,028 – Anxiety Week: Comingle

One of the things that could give a person anxiety, especially now during a pandemic, is financial security or lack there of. That’s why the idea of Universal Basic Income is so great. Receiving a stipend to do nothing may not seem like a great idea at first glance but in a counter intuitive way it really is because once people’s basic needs are met they’re freed up to follow their passions and do what they want, creating even more wealth for themselves and others in the process. If handed a pile of money I wouldn’t just rest on my laurels. I’d quit my job and become a full-time futurist and who knows where that might lead me.

Which is why the new app Comingle is so intriguing. Because it may provide us with a way to participate in Universal Basic Income without having to wait for our government to get around to it.

Fast Company explains:

“If you want to benefit from direct cash transfers or a universal basic income right now, you have to live in one of the areas where various governments or nonprofits are running pilot programs to test the idea. Not that many people have won that geographic lottery. But now there’s a chance for anyone to volunteer for a guaranteed income program, one that you both can benefit from—and help support.

A new app called Comingle plans to offer this online community approach to guaranteed income. Members will contribute 7% of their weekly earnings to a general fund, which is then divided among all the members via a weekly payout. Those on the lower-earning end will receive more money than they pay in. For those with higher incomes, they might put more into the fund than they get back, but Comingle founders Conrad Shaw and Josh Worth hope the benefit of helping others is enough of a draw to participate. Plus, that person might receive a net-positive payout in the future, if bigger earners join the platform or if they fall on financial troubles themselves.”

As with most new startups scale is the differentiator. Not enough users and this app will never get off the ground. But if it can reach a certain saturation point and get enough rich backers to kickstart it then maybe it has a chance. An opportunity to provide millions of people with a little bit more extra income, a little bit more financial freedom to do what they really want to do. And then at that point all bets are off.

Is Comingle the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#1,795 – Karat

When I first heard about Karat, a new credit card designed for social media influencers I have to admit that I was a little bit skeptical.  Basing a line of credit on how many followers you have and not your financial history?  Seems gimmicky.  Or worse –  a peak into a future where our social credit scores determine our ability to buy plane tickets or more freely throughout society.  An experiment that’s already underway in China.

But when you actually dive into the details of Karat, you see that the idea actually makes a lot of logistical sense.  After all, a lot of social media influencers are young people who don’t have a credit history yet.  They need some way to obtain credit and process their business expenses.

Explains Forbes:

“Many successful content creators and social media influencers are young and haven’t had the opportunity yet to build up a strong credit profile, which means they could be unfairly penalized when it comes to obtaining a credit card for their business expenses, says co-founder [Eric] Wei.

‘As a creator you could be making a million dollars and get a secured card or one meant for students,’ says Wei.

The average Karat Black Card cardholder has over $100,000 in the bank and one million combined followers on popular social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and TikTok, says [Will] Kim.

Other highlights of the Karat Black Card include:

• No annual fee.
• A one-time welcome offer of $250. This is in the form of a statement credit towards any future purchases.
• No interest fees. The Karat Black Card is a charge card so your bill has to be paid in full each month.
• No personal guarantee requirement. Unlike many business cards, if your business fails, you aren’t on the hook for any debt on the card.
• Customized rewards. According to Kim and Wei, Karat determines the rewards rate based on an algorithm that analyzes the cardholder’s spending habits and social media reach. Rewards range from 2% to 5% cash back on vertical-specific purchases (streaming equipment, electronics, makeup etc) with premium perks such as advances on sponsorship payments at zero cost.
• No foreign transaction fees.”

That all sounds pretty good to me.  Maybe I should get one?! Oh, that’s right.  I don’t have any followers. 😦

Is Karat the Greatest Idea Ever?

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