On today’s episode of The Financial Commute, Chris welcomes Nik Bhatia, USC finance professor, author of Layered Money, and creator of The Bitcoin Layer, a market research newsletter. Nik’s mission is to make education about bitcoin accessible to all. 

Nik says there should be more regulations and insurance mechanisms to help crypto investors safely store their assets. According to Nik, this is what FTX lacked. However, although their failure may have cast a negative light on cryptocurrency, Nik still believes bitcoin has considerable potential going forward because of its core innovation: decentralization. Its mining algorithm and military-grade security make intermediaries obsolete and pose a greater question to the world: can other systems be reformed in this way, like voting and the transfer of property title?

Chris and Nik also discuss the question of how “real” bitcoin is. Nik points to hash power, which refers to all the bitcoin mining hardware that is on and plugged into the mining network and fighting over the limited supply of bitcoin (a maximum of 21 million bitcoins can be issued and 19 million have already been mined). Nik says the competitive mining industry and infrastructure that have developed around hash power show him that bitcoin has real value. He thinks there may even be a time in the future when people will have bitcoin wallets before bank accounts, as digital currency and decentralization could become society’s new horizon.

Disclosures: 

Information presented herein is for discussion and illustrative purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the speakers are as of the date of the recording and do not represent the views and opinions held by Morton Wealth. These views are not intended as a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, and should not be relied on as financial, tax or legal advice. You should consult with your attorney, finance professional or accountant before implementing any transactions and/or strategies concerning your finances.