Newsletter Issue #42

December 23rd 2022

GM. This is Ponder Crypto.

In case you didn't know...

We're going to be taking a week off to play with our toys and recover from all the Christmas cookies we plan to eat.

Make sure you kick off those New Years' resolutions and STICK TO THEM!

This week's topics

💸 Liquidation or Tax Harvesting?

🔍 The Real Satoshi Nakamoto is...

👏 Paxful Removes Ethereum from Exchange

🎥 This Week on PonderTube

😂 Meme of the Week

💸 Liquidation or Tax Harvesting?

Well, folks, we are near the end of 2022, and looks like we won't end it with a bang but rather a whimper.

There are two big reasons why we are likely seeing downward pressure right now:

• Fears of a DCG (Digital Currency Group) liquidation
• Investors taking advantage of tax loss harvesting

Digital Currency Group (DCG) is a venture capital company focusing on the digital currency market. The company has five subsidiaries which are CoinDesk, Foundry, Genesis, Grayscale Investments, and Luno.

We are still seeing fallout from the FTX collapse and it appears to be affecting DCG.

Potential liquidations are what is spooking the market so whether or not its true, the market is acting as if it were.

The other likely option is investors are taking advantage of tax loss harvesting laws.

Tax loss harvesting is where you sell an asset you hold at a loss for that tax year so that you can write off those losses when you next file your taxes.

Say you bought 1 Bitcoin for 50k in 2022 and then you sell your Bitcoin on December 30th for 17k. This would net you a 33k loss on the year.

You are only allowed to write off so much of that loss but you're allowed to carry over whatever you can't write off for the next year. Tax laws are different everywhere so make sure to look into what rules you have to abide by in your jurisdiction.

So you sell Bitcoin at 17k, then come January 1st, you Buy the Bitcoin back at 17k again.

• You net a 33k loss you can write off and
• You lower your Bitcoin cost basis

This is a pretty common practice and could be why we are seeing the market trading this way towards the end of the year.

🔍 The Real Satoshi Nakamoto is...

Image by @yeg0rpetrov

We're about to wrap up one hell of a year so we thought we'd finish it off with a bang and solve the greatest mystery of the crypto space.

WHO IS SATOSHI?

If you've been in crypto for any amount of time, you'll quickly discover that the godfather of it all, the creator of Bitcoin, might as well be aliens because no one knows who the hell they are, were, is, or will be.

• Yes, I understand "IS" would not be grammatically correct
• Yes, "WILL BE" is impossible because they already "were" obviously
• The fact that I couldn't pick the right tense goes to show you how crazy of a topic this is!

Over the years there have been a few "characters" that have been speculated to be the REAL Satoshi Nakamoto. Here are the most popular candidates:

• Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto
• Craig Wright
• The CIA
• Russia
• Hal Finney

#1 Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto

Arguments For

• I mean... do you see his name? How many Dorian SATOSHI NAKAMOTOS do you know?
• Dorian also lived on the street of Hal Finney (more on this later).
• Dorian worked as a computer engineer for technology and financial information services companies.
• His daughter said he turned "libertarian" after being laid off twice and encouraged her to start her own business so that she doesn't have to be "under the government's thumb".

Arguments Against

• If someone as brilliant as the REAL Satoshi wanted to hide behind a pseudonym, do you think he would just drop his middle name and think that would conceal his identity enough? Or wait, is this one of those things that are so obvious that the REAL Satoshi would have expected we would think this way, so he chose to hide in plain sight?? Is Dorian playing 4D chess? 🤯
• He says he isn't ...

#2 Craig Wright

Arguments For

• ... He said he is?
• Craig is a computer scientist
• He filed a patent claim for the Bitcoin white paper which was actually approved. He then tried to use that as proof that he was the creator of Bitcoin however, The United States Copyright Office stated they did not confirm Wright was the creator. Their job is to determine whether a work is eligible for copyright and approve the claim. if legal ownership is disputed then that would need to be handled in the courts.
• He has dug his heels in deep and has been convincing enough to garner a substantial following. Although that same reasoning could be applied to flat earthers, Kanye, and fortune tellers, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are right.

Wright said he chose the name "Nakamoto" after learning about philosopher Tominaga Nakamoto from his Japanese martial arts instructor.

He chose the name "Satoshi" because that is the original name of the character "Ash" of Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon show and ash represents what the current financial system must be turned into... 😑

Hey, I'm just reporting on what he said!

Arguments Against

• Wright released a blog post that he stated claimed cryptographic evidence proving he was the real Satoshi. However, Bitcoin developer Peter Todd said it contained zero proof.
• When you read all of the original blog posts by the REAL Satoshi, you get a sense that this individual would NEVER consider copywriting their Bitcoin code, which is what Craig Wright did, and then used it to sue others publicly claiming he is NOT the real Satoshi
• The real Satoshi owns more than 1 million Bitcoin from the early days of mining and all the real Satoshi has to do is send .00000001 Bitcoin from any of those addresses and that would prove they are likely the real Satoshi (or somehow gained access to Satoshi's private keys).

#3 The CIA

#3 The CIA

Arguments For

• No one knows who Satoshi is, so conspiracy theorists love to point the finger at the government and make up the wildest possible answer behind the mystery.

Arguments Against

• There is NO central way to control Bitcoin. Why would the government release a financial tool they cannot control?
• Bitcoin has the potential to overtake the US dollar as the global reserve currency in the future. Controlling the US dollar is the biggest weapon the US has, so creating a technology that can destroy that would be illogical.
• The government could NOT keep this mystery going unless everyone involved was whacked. However, then the people that did the whacking would know why the creators needed to be wacked so now THEY would need to be wacked. We've now entered a world of inception where government officials are getting whacked like a trail of dominoes which hasn't happened so I think we can put this argument to rest.

#4 Russia

Arguments For

• Bitcoin is a direct attack on the US dollar and Putin is not besties with the U.S.
• Bitcoin would allow Russia to avoid US sanctions, although Russia hasn't taken advantage of this as far as we know.
• Russia was behind major Twitter troll farms attempting to create chaos in our latest presidential elections, so they clearly have at least a "decent" technological arm.

Arguments Against

• Russia has publicly stated they have considered banning cryptocurrencies
• Again, Bitcoin cannot be controlled, so no government would ever create such a financial weapon that they cannot guarantee would benefit them over the other 194 countries.
• Russian hate in the media is at an all-time high, so pointing the finger at them as the creator of a technology that can be used as a weapon against the U.S. is an obvious connection.

#5 Hal Finney

Arguments For

• Hal Finney was an original member of the first Bitcoin forum where he collaborated with Satoshi and other cryptographers during the early development days.
• Hal received the very first Bitcoin transaction from the REAL Satoshi.
• A few houses down from Hal lived none other than, Dorian SATOSHI NAKAMOTO! Coincidences are very rarely a thing. They lived in California, so it's not like they lived next door to each other in Japan where you may hit a Satoshi with every baseball throw.
• Finney created the first reusable proof-of-work system before Bitcoin.
• Hal was a noted cryptographic activist.

Arguments Against

• The writing style of Hal and Satoshi read differently when you look at their emails and posts.
• He also denied that he was Satoshi before he passed away.

Hal Finney ended up passing away in 2014 from ALS.

So, who do we at Ponder Crypto think is the most likely candidate?

*drum roll*

..

......

...........

....................

.......................... *crash!*

Hal Finney!

Ok, Hear me out.

1 / The admiration for creating what could end up being the most important tool for society would be a near-impossible secret to keep. Everyone wants to know who Satoshi is and if you were that person, could you imagine going to your grave without ever receiving the credit?

2 / The amount of Bitcoin in control by Satoshi, again over 1 million, is beyond generational wealth. To keep those Bitcoin locked away in cold storage through every Bitcoin cycle would be next to impossible unless you were... dead, or physically could not access them.

3 / Any developer knows that their biggest fear is that their code doesn't work. The fact that Satoshi sent the first transaction to Hal instead of to himself is a red flag for me. Satoshi would have likely created his own second wallet and sent the transaction to themselves, confirming that it worked or caught something they needed to fix before opening it up to others.

I'm not sure we will ever know who the real Satoshi is and personally, I hope it stays that way. Bitcoin is about Decentralization and even though Satoshi has no more control over the Bitcoin blockchain than you or I today, not knowing the original creator solidifies that Bitcoin stands for the many and not the one.

👏 Paxful Removes Ethereum from Exchange

CEOs by nature have a "greedy" essence to them but the crypto CEOs this year took that to another level.

That's why it was a breath of fresh air to read the announcement from Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, that he was removing Ethereum from the exchange and only allowing Bitcoin.

Delisting Ethereum will definitely hurt their bottom line and if you are an Ethereum investor like me, this won't be the best for wallets either.

You may not agree with the decision but Ray has his reasons and I commend him for making a financial decision that aligns more with his ethics than his wallet.

Per the announcement:

The biggest problem in the world is economic apartheid. It is the root of all of humanity’s pain. I want to see a world where Bitcoin frees billions of people held back by this evil system, especially those unnecessarily harmed living in the Global South. This is why I built Paxful—to achieve this MISSION. It is what truly drives me, it’s from the heart, and this is personal for me.

So, here are the reasons why I am removing ETH from Paxful:

• ETH switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Proof-of-work is the innovation that makes Bitcoin the only honest money there is, whereas proof-of-stake has rendered ETH essentially a digital form of fiat.
• ETH is not decentralized. It is controlled by a small group of people and one day you will need permission to use it.
• ETH had some utility in real use cases, such as credit and lending, but it thrives because of tokenization. The tokens that ETH has spawned have been scams that have robbed people of billions. They have stolen valuable momentum away from Bitcoin and cost us years on our mission.

In short, our industry is under attack right now—which means our responsibility to protect our users is greater than ever before. We are not perfect, but we’ll always do the right thing, even if it’s not popular, and even if it costs us money. The payoff for all humanity will be so great that the billions of scammers have stolen via tokens will seem like pennies by comparison.

You have my word as a CEO and as a human being that I will always put purpose before profit. We're really going to do this brothers and sisters.

This is the way.

- Ray

🎥 This Week on PonderTube

Prison Cell Nightmare for FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been indicted on eight criminal charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy by misusing customer funds, according to an indictment from the US Southern District of New York.

SBF is being held in Fox Hill Prison where conditions are reported as "hell on earth" with up to six inmates in a 6' by 10' cell, no toilet, and reported to be infested with maggots and rats.

FTX CEO John Ray III testified to congress that FTX was way less sophisticated than Enron and that QuickBooks was used to keep track of accounting records.

There will be many more updates over the next few months but this situation drives home why investors should take the time and learn how to properly self-custody their assets. It's impossible to know the inner workings of a company and trust should not be relied upon.

😂 Meme of the Week

Image by u/pyritejet

This is not financial advice. I am merely stating my own opinion on how I am perceiving the current market structure and conditions. Consult with a legal investment advisor and all the other good legal stuff that needs to be said.

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Disclosure: All content shared in the Ponder Crypto website, newsletters, video channels or any other medium are for entertainment purposes only and should not be received as legal or financial advice. We are not legal experts or financial planners so please, exercise proper due diligence and do your own research.