I have already written a bunch about ICOs here on Continuations, including earlier this week about the Chinese ban. Regulators are approaching this, not surprisingly, by focusing on their own country. While that’s understandable, it undermines one of the most promising aspects of using tokens as equity: a global capital market that’s readily accessible to everyone. If you are a wealthy investor or if you are a large corporation you already have access to a global capital market today. For exa...

Since I am an immigrant to the United States I want to comment on the Trump administration’s announcement yesterday to end DACA (Uncertainty Wednesday will resume next week). I first came to the States as an exchange student in 1983 to 1984, when I lived with a wonderful family in Rochester Minnesota. One of my lasting memories is how quickly one can fall in love with a country as a child or young adult. For the DREAMERs, who all came to the United States as children and have grown up here, t...

I have already written a bunch about ICOs here on Continuations, including earlier this week about the Chinese ban. Regulators are approaching this, not surprisingly, by focusing on their own country. While that’s understandable, it undermines one of the most promising aspects of using tokens as equity: a global capital market that’s readily accessible to everyone. If you are a wealthy investor or if you are a large corporation you already have access to a global capital market today. For exa...

Since I am an immigrant to the United States I want to comment on the Trump administration’s announcement yesterday to end DACA (Uncertainty Wednesday will resume next week). I first came to the States as an exchange student in 1983 to 1984, when I lived with a wonderful family in Rochester Minnesota. One of my lasting memories is how quickly one can fall in love with a country as a child or young adult. For the DREAMERs, who all came to the United States as children and have grown up here, t...

As has been widely reported, China has banned all ICOs. Given the torrid pace of ICOs in China, many of which appear to be downright scams, this should not come as a surprise. What will be interesting to see though is what comes next. Here are some key questions. First, is this a temporary ban only? Will China come out with a set of regulations that allow some ICOs to go forward? Given that China has allowed crypto currencies per se, I expect that they will come up with regulation and that th...

As has been widely reported, China has banned all ICOs. Given the torrid pace of ICOs in China, many of which appear to be downright scams, this should not come as a surprise. What will be interesting to see though is what comes next. Here are some key questions. First, is this a temporary ban only? Will China come out with a set of regulations that allow some ICOs to go forward? Given that China has allowed crypto currencies per se, I expect that they will come up with regulation and that th...

This will be my last post until Labor Day. I will be spending as little time online as possible, reading books instead, spending time with family and friends and working on World After Capital. I will be disabling all notifications on my phone and checking email only twice a day. Given all the craziness here in the US and elsewhere in the world, I have been spending too much time on news and I am looking forward to this break to dial things down.

This will be my last post until Labor Day. I will be spending as little time online as possible, reading books instead, spending time with family and friends and working on World After Capital. I will be disabling all notifications on my phone and checking email only twice a day. Given all the craziness here in the US and elsewhere in the world, I have been spending too much time on news and I am looking forward to this break to dial things down.

Last Uncertainty Wednesday, we saw how diminishing marginal utility of wealth provides an explanation of risk aversion via Jensen’s inequality. Why would it be then that lots of people seem to like small gambles, like a game of poker among friends. One possible explanation is that the utility function is locally convex around your current endowment. So this would look something like the following:In the immediate area around the endowment (marked with dotted lines for two different levels) th...

Last Uncertainty Wednesday, we saw how diminishing marginal utility of wealth provides an explanation of risk aversion via Jensen’s inequality. Why would it be then that lots of people seem to like small gambles, like a game of poker among friends. One possible explanation is that the utility function is locally convex around your current endowment. So this would look something like the following:In the immediate area around the endowment (marked with dotted lines for two different levels) th...

In my draft book World After Capital, I write that humans having knowledge is what makes us distinctly human and gives us great power (and hence great responsibility). I define knowledge in this context as science, philosophy, art, music, etc. that’s recorded in a medium so that it can be shared across time and space. Such knowledge is at the heart of human progress, because it can be improved through the process of critical inquiry. We can fly in planes and feed seven billion people because ...

In my draft book World After Capital, I write that humans having knowledge is what makes us distinctly human and gives us great power (and hence great responsibility). I define knowledge in this context as science, philosophy, art, music, etc. that’s recorded in a medium so that it can be shared across time and space. Such knowledge is at the heart of human progress, because it can be improved through the process of critical inquiry. We can fly in planes and feed seven billion people because ...

As has been widely reported, in the last few months ICOs have raised significantly more money for blockchain startups than has come from traditional venture investors. This can be seen as a sign of the long discussed unbundling of venture capital. The idea is that while VCs bundle capital, advice, governance and possibly services (e.g., help with recruiting), technology may make it possible to separate out these different functions. Today I want to focus on “governance” which is the least und...

As has been widely reported, in the last few months ICOs have raised significantly more money for blockchain startups than has come from traditional venture investors. This can be seen as a sign of the long discussed unbundling of venture capital. The idea is that while VCs bundle capital, advice, governance and possibly services (e.g., help with recruiting), technology may make it possible to separate out these different functions. Today I want to focus on “governance” which is the least und...

In my draft book World After Capital, I write about how digital technology has given us the possibility to leave the Industrial Age behind and enter the Knowledge Age. In an early chapter on Optimism, I argue against economic, historical and technological determinism. These are all theories in which an external force determines the shape of society, instead of the decisions made by us humans under the guidance of a set of values. The memo written by a Google employee, is a good reason to add ...

In my draft book World After Capital, I write about how digital technology has given us the possibility to leave the Industrial Age behind and enter the Knowledge Age. In an early chapter on Optimism, I argue against economic, historical and technological determinism. These are all theories in which an external force determines the shape of society, instead of the decisions made by us humans under the guidance of a set of values. The memo written by a Google employee, is a good reason to add ...

Last Uncertainty Wednesday, I introduced Jensen’s Inequality. I mentioned briefly that it explains a lot of things and today we will look at the first one of these, which goes by the name of risk aversion. This is simply economists way of saying that most people prefer a smaller guaranteed payment over a large but uncertain one. We will now see that this follows directly from diminishing marginal utility of money via Jensen’s inequality. So what is this “diminishing marginal utility” of money...

Last Uncertainty Wednesday, I introduced Jensen’s Inequality. I mentioned briefly that it explains a lot of things and today we will look at the first one of these, which goes by the name of risk aversion. This is simply economists way of saying that most people prefer a smaller guaranteed payment over a large but uncertain one. We will now see that this follows directly from diminishing marginal utility of money via Jensen’s inequality. So what is this “diminishing marginal utility” of money...

Last week in Uncertainty Wednesday, I introduced functions of random variables as the third level in measuring uncertainty. Today I will introduce a beautiful result known as Jensen’s inequality. Let me start by stating the inequality: f[EV(X)] ≤ EV[f(X)] where f is a convex function In words, if we apply a convex function to the expected value of a random variable, then we get a lower value than if we take the expected value of the same function of the random variable. This turns out to be a...

Last week in Uncertainty Wednesday, I introduced functions of random variables as the third level in measuring uncertainty. Today I will introduce a beautiful result known as Jensen’s inequality. Let me start by stating the inequality: f[EV(X)] ≤ EV[f(X)] where f is a convex function In words, if we apply a convex function to the expected value of a random variable, then we get a lower value than if we take the expected value of the same function of the random variable. This turns out to be a...