We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!
This week, our 6 Questions go to Lisa N. Edwards, a cryptocurrency trading specialist who runs and co-owns Getting Started In Crypto.
Lisa is an Elliott Wave specialist trader with 20-plus years of experience in traditional stocks and commodities, now exclusively trading cryptocurrency. She runs and co-owns Getting Started In Crypto, Thousand To Millions and The Moon Mag with Josh Taylor. Lisa is widely experienced, with previous business ventures including Satoshi Sisters, Trading Places VIP, D4.Partners and CoinRunners. Outside of trading, Lisa has a flourishing career in the media and film industries, with a cryptocurrency-themed screenplay titled “CoinRunners,” which she anticipates will be filmed in late 2021.
1 — When you tell people you’re in the blockchain industry, how do they react?
Does anyone say they are in the “blockchain” industry? Crypto, baby, all the way! I have been telling everyone for years to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and various cryptocurrencies, and now that Bitcoin is around $45,000, all of a sudden it is interesting — more interesting at $45,000 than it was at $200. That was the price when I started actually telling people to trade Bitcoin. I shake my head and laugh when those people ask me. The reactions, though, are polar opposites — mostly, people respond with interest or they look at me blankly. There is no in between.
2 — What will happen to Bitcoin and Ether over the next 10 years?
Let me get my crystal ball — it has been getting a workout during the bull runs. I don’t ever like to look that far into the future, as a lot can happen in crypto in just two months. So, 10 years is like an eternity. Both may become dinosaurs, and we know what happened to them.
3 — Does it matter if we ever figure out who Satoshi really is or was? Why, or why not?
Depends on who you’re asking. Different things matter to different people.
Satoshi is defined by people in many ways, and thoughts and ideas — about who or what something is — bring about new ideas, changes and conversations. I have family ties with the name Satoshi and have yet to get through an interview without it being mentioned (yawn). But honestly, I’m just interested in living my life, sharing my experiences in the world of crypto and letting others make up their own mind.
4 — Which is sillier: $500,000 Bitcoin or $0 Bitcoin? Why?
Neither is silly, and there are arguments for both.
$500,000 Bitcoin is an easy argument from a trading perspective, with global adoption and an extremely outdated, archaic financial system. With only 21 million BTC mined and a projected 2021 global population of over 7.8 billion people, as of writing this there is currently 18,821,768.75 BTC in circulation. Then think that 30% to 50% of the total supply could be lost due to early paper wallets being destroyed or hard drives no longer being in existence, or just simply forgetting the password to access them. This is a closed market model that makes it scarcer by the day, so demand could definitely outweigh supply, making $500,000 Bitcoin a strong reality. Money is essentially a technology that reinvented the barter system, and Bitcoin is a technology that can reinvent how we transact globally.
As for the $0 Bitcoin, you guys are trying to get me to expose family ties and the BSV camp’s argument that when Craig Wright moves the genesis block, BSV is Bitcoin and BTC is obsolete. I personally don’t think that BTC would go to zero even if he did that. My analogy is that if we look at blockchain as the roads we drive on and each cryptocurrency as the car we drive, I might like a Porsche 911 because it is faster, sleeker and looks better to me, but Bob down the road likes his Prius because it is reliable and saves energy. They can both successfully drive on the same road — like crypto, with bridges and interoperability — but more people like Porsches over Prius. So, don’t be Bob — be like Lisa!
5 — From smart contracts to DApps, NFTs and DeFi, we have seen so many of crypto’s next “killer apps,” but none have really taken off quite yet. What will stick?
The app that anyone can use without needing to understand the terminology or what it is, just what it does to change their life. It’s the same with apps in the non-crypto world. A successful app needs to be simple, it needs to offer a solution to a real-world problem and it needs to do it efficiently, as attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
The truth is that most people just want solutions, regardless of how things work, although I like to think that those in the crypto world take a stronger interest in the understanding of how something works. It’s actually fascinating when you get into it! Think mainstream output with an underground build. Most apps would get away with not mentioning anything to do with crypto despite being built around the technology! It doesn’t have to be the defining feature that grips the audience.
6 — Have you ever bought a nonfungible token? What was it? And if not, what do you think will be your first?
I buy and sell NFTs all the time when trading. Do I own nonfungible art? Not currently. My issue with this right now is that art is meant to be displayed. I have issues with having to display art on an LCD screen. I suppose it’s no different to having a photo library on my iPhone, to pull out memories when feeling nostalgic, but having a big, ugly LCD screen on my wall to display a $69-million Beeple kind of defeats the purpose of art. I believe NFTs can transform the music and media industries, allowing artists to be automatically distributed royalties, and I would love to see my CoinRunners movie funded in this way as a way to showcase the cryptocurrency industry to the masses. So, to answer this, I would love CoinRunners to be my first NFT.
A wish to the blockchain community:
If you can dream it, you can achieve it, so don’t stop trying until you find a way!