The Blockchain: What it is, Why it Matters, and Why Governments Hate it.

Business, Cryptocurrency 0 Comments

Disclaimer: Don’t take any financial advice from me and if you invest in anything I say you’ll probably lose all your money.

Second Disclaimer: I own several different cryptocurrencies personally. So there’s my bias.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, I wanted to talk about crypto and the blockchain.

If you’re totally new two the idea of crypto, I’ve written about it in the past. You can find more about it on my blog or scroll through my FB page.

In fact, I recommend checking it out as it’ll be useful to you.

But the technology that underpins Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar, Zcash, and a whole lot of other cryptos is the blockchain.

What’s the blockchain? Before we talk about that, let’s talk about how traditional transactions (say at a bank) work.

But let’s even remove technology from the equation. Let’s go old school with paper checks and paper ledgers.

In banking, the ledger keeps track of how much of the money in the bank (as a whole) belongs to each person.

So if you go and put $10 in your account, the banker will make a note in the ledger to increase your account balance from $0 to $10.

Then say you write me a check for $3.

I take that check to the bank and give it to the banker. I tell him to deposit it in my account. He verifies it and then moves $3 from your account to my account.

You now have $7 left in your account and I have $3 in my account (assuming I had zero).

For most of us, this works really well. As long as the banker is honest, you get your money and I get my money.

But the whole system is based on one thing: trust in the banker. He keeps the ledger. In a society like the US, this works because we have some laws in place to ensure the bankers don’t get too creative in their accounting.

Now let’s take a look at the blockchain, but we’ll use the same analogy.

Imagine instead of the ledger being held by the banker it’s held by 100 people.

So every time you want to make a transaction, you walk into a room and there’s 100 people with separate ledgers.

You declare that you’re paying me $3 and every one of these people (who are completely independent) make a note to move $3 from your account to my account.

Once that transaction is declared, it goes into all 100 ledgers.

Now if you came back two days later and tried to get your money back, you couldn’t. You won’t just have to convince just the banker, you’d have to convince all these people that the transaction never happened.

You’d have to get 51 of the 100 to agree that the transaction never happened. And that is very unlikely to happen.

This is how blockchains are different from a traditional system.

Blockchains are decentralized. Meaning that everyone has a copy of the ledger. And every transaction goes in every ledger.

Now instead of paper and people, imagine this system is run on a network with computers. Each computer on the network is verifying each transaction as it comes through. And anyone (you included) can create a “node” to help verify transactions.

This also means that blockchains are ultra-transparent. It’s almost impossible to cause any funny-business on the network unless you can control 51% of the computing power.

This is fundamentally how blockchains work. It’s the democratization of the financial transaction process.

And that’s why it’s so impressive.

One other important point: I won’t address how the coins are created (mined) here, but I want to mention that the network also controls how, when, and how many coins get created. So the supply is limited and is not controlled by any one party. That’s an important note that will come up later.

So this technology could be used in a lot of different areas.

It could be used for identification (passwords and passports). It could be used for ad networks. It could be used for storage.

But it really makes sense only when you want a system that is decentralized. It makes sense when you don’t want any group of people to have too much influence.

That’s why it found a home so quickly in finance. There is all kinds of dishonesty in the financial system. A decentralized system reduces the opportunity for this “funny business” to take place.

From time to time, you hear governments talk about wanting to use blockchain technology to create their own cryptos or other currencies.

I’ll tell you now, this isn’t going to happen.

They may create their own currencies, but they won’t use true blockchain technology.

Why? Because a currency created by a government using blockchain isn’t controlled by the government.

In a true blockchain, they don’t control the supply. They don’t control the transactions. They don’t control any of it.

The rules are set (via algorithms and cryptography) at the beginning and then they are followed absolutely by the computers.

A true, decentralized blockchain fundamentally hands control to the community.

Governments don’t like this.

They influence supply to create assets bubble and grease the wheels of the economy. They reverse financial transactions they don’t like. They collect taxes when and how they want to.

That doesn’t mean that governments won’t create cryptocurrencies. But almost all of these governments (with maybe the exception of the Swiss) will create a centralized system.

The currencies they create won’t fundamentally compete with Bitcoin. They’ll compete with PayPal and Visa.

The systems are fundamentally different.

One is centralized and one is decentralized.

If the US government came out with a crypto tomorrow, it could certainly make my life easier. But I’d also know that a system created by the government would very likely be controlled by the government. And that means it will be centralized.

So by all means, I hope governments start creating crypto currencies. But unless they are fundamentally decentralized, I don’t see them competing against Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Let me close with this quote from Naval Ravikant.

“Bitcoin is a tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick scheme”

Food for thought.

The Life Chart

Diet, Finance, Health, Life Lessons, Making a Difference 0 Comments

Note from Tyler: I originally meant to keep this private, but after sharing with some friends I had a lot of interest. So I’m writing up a quick post about the chart I use to help me determine what in my life is “on track” and what is “off track”. I share this in the hope it may help you.

The other day in small group I had a realization.

Most of the things we spend a lot of time worry about in life can be boiled down to just a few things.

In fact, if we get a few things right, everything else often falls into place.

That doesn’t mean things happen out of our control. Of course they do.

Getting fired, medical issues, sickness, and death are realities that we live in. But we can often reduce our risk by living well.

Even if you’re ill, it can still make sense to live a healthy life.

The fact is, it can seem like there are so many things in life we need to focus on. It can be overwhelming at times.

But in fact, it can be fairly simple.

I had this idea back around the new year, but it came up recently and people seemed interested in this.

So I thought I’d share my life chart:

This little chart pretty much contains all the important and relevant things in life.

And each of these fall into one of five categories: Relationships, Faith, Health, Money, Achievement

By and large those five categories contain everything that is important and fulfilling.

Each of these categories are color coded. Green is good. That means I’m content with that area. I don’t want to get lazy, but overall I’m in pretty good shape.

Yellow is so-so. It needs some work, but it’s passable.

Red is critical. There are areas I need to devote some time and effort into.

This was my chart from Jan 1. Since then a few things have changed, but you’re not here to snoop on my life. I hope you can use this in your own life.

If you have a spare minute, sit down and color code each of these areas on your life. If you’re not sure what to focus on, this will help.

I made this chart in about 20 minutes using LucidChart. You can view it here (but you’ll need to create an account).

You could just as easy do it in Powerpoint and Microsoft Word.

Hope it helps.

The Word I Hate the Most

Life Lessons, Relationships, Spirituality 0 Comments

There’s one word I hate more than any other word.

I wish I could remove it from the face of the earth. Blot it out from every book, article, and mind on the plant.

It’s a word I’ve eliminated from my own vocabulary. It’s the word that’s been responsible for my deepest fears and darkest moments.

It’s a word that is responsible for virtually all of my unhappiness.

It destroys my gratitude. It instantly brings on feelings of sadness, envy, and depression.

Eliminating this word changed my life. And it might change yours too.

What word?

Deserve.

I can’t even stand writing it. I want to move my cursor up and erase it.

When I graduated college and stuck out on my own, I thought the world owed me. I’d spent years in school. I’d behaved. I’d saved money. I followed all the “wise” advice.

And I was convinced I deserved good things.

That took me to a spot in my life where I was always stressed. I was borderline depressed. Unhappy. And ungrateful. Why wasn’t I getting what I thought I deserved?

I thought I deserved good things. I thought they were owed to me.

But I don’t.

I don’t deserve an amazing family like I have.

I don’t deserve to date the girl I’m dating.

I don’t deserve the friends I have.

I don’t deserve my business.

I don’t deserve the opportunities I’ve been given.

I don’t deserve health.

I don’t deserve my home.

I don’t deserve my next heartbeat.

I don’t deserve any of it.

Have I worked hard for it? Yes.

But I don’t deserve it.

As a Christian, Scripture teaches we deserve death.

That’s it. Death.

That’s what we deserve.

So all the good things in my life – family, friends, relationships, professional success, resources – it’s all extra.

It’s a bonus. It’s gravy.

In fact, you and I don’t even deserve to be alive right now.

The likelihood of you becoming a person is something like 1 in 400 Trillion. Those are unfathomable numbers.

We don’t deserve to be here.

But we are.

And isn’t that amazing? Isn’t it just amazing to be alive? To have all the things you have?

To have your friends and family? To have your job? To have your next heartbeat?

Here’s the secret: If you think you deserve something, not only are you wrong. But it’s also keeping you from being grateful.

If you want to make the most out of your days, your weeks, your months, and your years, you have to be grateful.

Suddenly all the good things are truly gifts. Gifts that you don’t deserve. Gifts that I don’t deserve

And all the bad things? They’re still tough. But just remember: You didn’t deserve any of the good things to start with.

For 2018, I’m going to be grateful.

Join me?

Bitcoin 101 – How it Works, What it is, and How to Invest

Cryptocurrency, Finance 1 Comment

First, let me say this. I’m not “certified” in any way, shape, or form to give specific investment advice. Investing is risky and you could literally lose everything. So only invest money you can afford to lose. This is strictly my opinion and is not intended as investment advice. If you want real investment advice, seek a professional.

Defining Cryptocurrencies:

First, what the heck are cryptocurrencies.

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange. It’s simply a money that’s fully digital. It is not backed by the gold standard or any such thing.

Most popular cryptocurrencies are also decentralized. This means (unlike most major currencies) that one party does not control the supply of currency.

For example, if the Federal Reserve decided to add $900 trillion to the US economy tomorrow, your savings would basically become worthless.

And there’s nothing stopping the Fed from doing that.

How Bitcoins are Made:

With Bitcoin (the example I’ll talk about most), there are limits on how many bitcoins can be produced.

This limit is primarily due to the expense of producing more coins.

Coins are “mined” (aka created) using software. This software runs complex algorithms. These complex algorithms take a ton of time to run, so that limits the supply.

Once a coin is “mined” it can be traded to anyone with a BitCoin Wallet.

With BitCoin all of these transactions are public. Every single one.

The miners are the ones who lock transactions in place between users.

Think of it like a fly trapped in amber.

Overtime, more and more layers are added. If the fly has a lot of amber around it, you can be fairly sure it’s been there a long time.

Each transaction is like the fly. The algorithms are the amber.

Miners are the ones who lay down this amber to ensure the network transactions are properly recorded.

They are awarded coins for their efforts.

Anyone can mine coins. Miners are the ones who power the whole network.

As more coins are discovered, new coins become harder to discover. This means that over time it will become all but impossible to create new coins.

The “supply” of BitCoin will eventually hit a hard limit (21 million). Most other cryptocurrencies are mined in a similar fashion. Some, such as Etherium are limited to a certain amount each year.

What does this mean to investors?

It means that bitcoins are treated from an investment standpoint like a digital version of gold. Just as the supply of gold in the world is extremely limited, so are most cryptocurrencies.

Thus, cryptocurrencies (in an ideal world) are a good hedge against inflation.

Volatility?

All cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile at this point. They often come up and down large percentages every day.

They are also still incredibly new. The goal originally was to have them used as an interactive currency. Meaning you’d use them the same way you’d use your credit card to make purchases. Except Visa and MaserCard wouldn’t get a cut.

But they have yet to catch on in such such daily transactions. Instead, they are often treated as a unique asset class as part of a larger portfolio.

Going Long

Here are the reasons one might go long on (buy and hold) cryptocurrencies:

  • If you think that eventually all currencies will be decentralized via crypto, then it makes tons of sense. Many people believe that eventually all currency will be crypto based rather than government backed. I don’t think we’ll see that in our lifetime unless we see the collapse of one or several of the major currencies.
  • If you think that people will in time distrust government and large banks more, then crypto makes sense. It’s decentralized – meaning no one body controls it. It’s truly democratic.
  • If you think bitcoin and other currencies will continue to gain in popularity, then it makes sense to invest in them. Limited supply and increased demand will drive up prices.

Risks: There are several steep risks with cryptocurrencies. Here are some of the most prominent ones:

  • Fall Out of Favor – If demand for crypto drops suddenly (due to it becoming illegal, replaced by some other asset, or just generally falling out of favor), then you’ll see a huge drop in values. If you believe it’s a “bubble”, then this is the biggest risk.
  • Breaking Cryptography – It’s very unlikely (although possible) that someone will be able to crack the cryptography behind Bitcoin and other currencies. Now these assets use strong cryptography, but this is always a possibility. For me, it seems remote, but it’s worth mentioning. (Also, if the currencies are cryptographically broken, then most online security and banking is likely to also be broken. That’s why I see this as a very low risk.)
  • Hostile Takeover Using Hash Power – The value of currencies like BitCoin is their decentralized nature. But with enough computing power, theoretically a government (or other entity) could put enough processing horsepower on the network to control more than 51% of mining. This would be extremely expensive and prone to issues. However, if it did happen they could mess with current transactions and cause havoc on the networks.
  • Security and Storage – Another major risk is security and storage. This isn’t a risk to the currency itself, but instead it’s an individual risk to your coins. Most people don’t have the technical knowledge to store and manage their own cryptocurrencies. If your computer was hacked, someone could steal all your coins easily. On the flip side, there are some companies you can pay to be “custodians” of your currency. But then you’re putting your currency in their hands. There are some famous examples of companies ripping off users and stealing their coins. Or being hacked and having their coins stolen (Mt. Gox). Simply put, there’s risks either way. And these deposits aren’t usually insured, so you’re on your own. Trust yourself or trust another company. Either way is risky.

If you start investing:

This is not investment advice. In fact, most investment advisors will probably tell you to leave cryptocurrencies alone. It’s a high risk, highly volatile investment. I highly recommend talking with an investment professional (just not one paid by big banks). But should you want to move forward, here are some things to think about.

Step 1: Find an exchange you trust.

Some of the most common are:

I cannot recommend one over the other. But they all *seem* legitimate. So take your chances.

Step 2: Secure Your Account

Enable two factor authorization (using the Google Authenticator or similar app, not just a phone number). Connect your email address. Then enable two factor on your email as well. Don’t open random messages. Do all the things to make your computer secure.

Step 3: Buy

Using a credit or debit card, bank account, or other method of payment, convert your local currency (likely USD) into whichever cryptocurrency you want.

Step 4: Trade or Wait

You can buy and hold. You can trade. You can do whatever you want.

The trend has largely been up. Others say it’s a bubble. It’s up to you how you proceed.

Step 5: Cash Out

When you’re ready, you can cash out. Hopefully you’ve made money. But I’m told you’re legally required to pay taxes on that money.

Talk to your accountant or financial advisor to determine the best way to do that.

Wrap Up:

Crypto is a huge opportunity. But it comes with a lot of risks. I’d only allocate money into crypto that I could afford to lose. In fact, I’d plan on losing it.

You also have to be OK with volatility. Often the value moves 20% in a few hours. THAT’S A LOT OF VOLATILITY! You have to be OK with that.

If you’re OK with it, proceed!

Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole:

How To Lose Weight and Eat Whatever You Want

Diet, Fitness, Health, Life Lessons 0 Comments

*Note: This is not fitness or nutrition advice. Please consult your doctor or another professional before doing any kind of diet. But I wanted to share my experience – because I find nutrition dazzling complicated given the information overload available.

At one point, I thought weight loss was really complicated. If you spend anytime online, there’s thousands of different sets with different outcomes, promises, and goals.

And honestly, I didn’t care much for any of them that were in the “this works instantly” category.

But as I’m getting ready to take a trip, I wanted to be more in shape.

And those of you who know me know that I’m often experimenting with different exercise and food strategies.

So as I looked at losing weight, I had a few requirements:

  • If I’m hungry all the time, this isn’t going to work. I need to feel full. That minimizes the amount of will power I need to use.
  • I love chicken, steak, and fish. If I’m required to give up any or all of these, it’s not going to work. Sorry vegetarians, but y’all are on your own.
  • I needed to be able to find something decent to eat at most restaurants. I routinely have business meetings and can’t always eat at some special place with some certain kale blend. No thank you.
  • No maths. No calorie counting. No complicated apps or hours spent reading labels. This can’t slow me down.

With that in mind, I set out to find something that would meet those requirements.

After a little bit of research, I realized that often sugars and carbs are the reason that people gain weight.

In our culture, we think meats and “fat” are responsible for weight gain. But often that’s not true.

In fact, it’s carbs that are responsible for much weight gain.

It’s the breads, cereals, pastas, and other empty carbs that are causing our issues.

(In this post I won’t go into why that is, but check out posts like this one to learn more.)

As an aside, remember the food pyramid we grew up with? If you don’t, here it is:

Six to eleven servings of breads a day? Forget that. No wonder Americans are so overweight. This was paid for by big ag companies. The government should never be involved in health for financial advice.

Anyway, back to dieting.

So I wondered, what if I give up virtually all carbs? What if I don’t eat breads and sugars?

So I eliminated the following:

  • Breads
  • Cereals
  • Pasta
  • Candy (except dark chocolate)
  • Sugars
  • Starches (potatoes)
  • Most dairy

Instead, I replaced all of that with protein, fruit, and veggies. So a normal diet consists of:

  • Eggs
  • Steak
  • Chicken
  • Coffee
  • Fish
  • Veggies
  • Dried fruit
  • Fresh fruit
  • Occasional protein shakes
  • Unsalted nuts

I actually really like all of those things on the second list. And I eat a lot of them.

I started last Monday. I’ve already lost between 3-4 pounds net weight. And I’ve also gained a good bit of muscle, so the fat loss is greater than that.

And I’m not hungry. I feel full. And I feel good.

More updates to come.

A vs. B Players

Life Lessons, Making a Difference, Marketing, Nonprofits, Politics, Start Ups 0 Comments

Lately, I’ve been spending a good deal of time thinking about what makes the biggest difference between “A” players (successful people) and “B” players (generally less successful). I used to think it was knowledge or ability.

However, I’m becoming more convinced that it’s simply one thing – execution. B players can’t get stuff done. They get stuck. They don’t go.

A players get things done quickly. They execute on ideas.

I know this because I’ve spoken to over 30 people in the past couple months. I literally gave them the key to building a great marketing strategy and growing their business. I laid it out as clear as possible. It was right there.

And nobody has come back and done anything about it. I don’t know that anyone has used the knowledge I’ve given them. Maybe they have. I hope they have.

But I haven’t seen any successes. I haven’t heard any stories.

Before, I thought it was just me. Maybe my speaking wasn’t good enough or persuasive enough. And I’m sure there’s some truth in that. I do need to get better.

But the content was all there. It was recipe for success. But nobody has baked the cake. All the ingredients are still in the fridge.

And that is what separates A and B players. It’s all in the execution.

Nobody Has It Together

Life Lessons, Spirituality 0 Comments

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a men’s retreat.

Somehow I always had this idea that as I got older, things would just make more sense. That through natural attrition, things would begin to fall into place. Hanging out with a bunch of people nearly 2x as old as myself made me realize that things don’t naturally get better.

If we want to live an adventure, we need to find it. If we want to have a healthy body, we need to exercise. If we want to have healthy relationships, we need to build those too.

The choices we make today impact tomorrow. If you don’t push yourself today, you won’t get what you want tomorrow.

The Demise of Social Media Marketing

Business, Life Lessons, Marketing, Nonprofits, Politics, Start Ups 0 Comments

If you’ve followed any of my professional work over at Analytive over the past few weeks, you’ve undoubtedly seen my recent posts showing how little value most businesses get out of social media.

It’s also made me wonder – how much value do people get out of social media? Are we really building deeper relationships? Or are we all becoming actors and actresses? Instead of going for the ratings on primetime, are we going for the “likes” during breaktime?

Don’t get me wrong. I still use social media. I’m not saying it’s all bad. But sometimes I wonder if I’m better off because of it. Somedays I think yes. Some days no. Most days I’m too busy looking at Facebook to care.

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