Robinhood's Turbulent Times

Lyn Alden, CEO and founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategies, and Raoul Pal, CEO & cofounder  of Real Vision Group & Global Macro Investor, explain their thinking about Ethereum and its native token, and talk about their perspective on GameStop. In this episode, we discuss:

• why Raoul views ether as similar to bitcoin at a macro level (1:25)
• why Lyn decided ETH was not currently investable (5:06)
• an analysis of utility protocols (John Pfeffer’s paper) (6:55)
• counterarguments to John Pfeffer’s paper (9:31)
• how to allocate between BTC and ETH (11:22)
• why Raoul also invested in other coins beyond BTC and ETH (11:47) 
• whether Metcalfe's law applies equally to all kinds of networks (13:35)
• why Lyn views Ethereum’s use case as circular, and why that makes it less investable (15:09)
• whether Ethereum 2.0 and Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559, and whether that could make ETH more investable (21:20)
• the impact of fees on the value of Ethereum (23:36)
• Raoul's views on what S-Curves and the Lindy Effect indicate about the development of a currency (25:22)
• how high fees make DApps less attractive, while low fees potentially decrease demand for ETH (27:06)
• how Lyn believes demand for DeFi is to circumvent compliance and know-your-customer processes, and she doesn't also see that as a downside for Bitcoin (33:10)
• how the regulators are behind innovation in cryptocurrencies, particularly around taxation (36:32)
• Raoul's and Lyn's predictions for the ETH price by end of 2021 (41:45)
• what GameStop says about the democratization of financial information (45:32)
• whether smart contracts could play in preventing situations similar to what happened with GameStop and/or Robinhood (49:03)
• how blockchain technology could be used to prevent a situation in which the hedge funds could short more shares than existed (54:03)
• how the GameStop/Robinhood saga is a giant advertisement for self-custody (54:53)
• whether r/WallStreetBets' behavior was market manipulation or not (56:53)

Thank you to our sponsor! 

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

Episode links: 

Lyn Alden: https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact

Lyn Alden Investment: https://www.lynalden.com/

Raoul Pal: https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI

Real Vision: https://www.realvision.com/contributor/raoul-pal

Global Macro Investor: https://www.globalmacroinvestor.com

Raoul's tweet storm on Ethereum: https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI/status/1347013567799848961?s=20

Lyn Alden’s research paper on Ethereum: https://www.lynalden.com/ethereum-analysis/

Raoul Pal’s tweet: ETH equals BTC: https://twitter.com/raoulgmi/status/1347013567799848961?lang=en

John Pfeffer’s paper: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/john-pfeffer/An+Investor's+Take+on+Cryptoassets+v6.pdf

Network effects and Metcalfe’s Law: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_developing-new-products-and-services/s04-12-there-is-power-in-numbers-netw.html

Quantity Theory of Money: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_economics-theory-through-applications/s30-01-the-quantity-theory-of-money.html

How Will the Government React to GameStop?: https://www.coindesk.com/gamestop-regulators-response

GameStop and Crypto trading: https://cryptonews.com/exclusives/are-gamestop-style-surges-in-crypto-any-different-from-old-p-9151.htm

Robinhood Raises Extra funds: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/93258/report-robinhood-billions-raised-investors-1

Possible role of blockchain in trading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/cardano-foundation-ceo-says-blockchain-could-prevent-gme-type-showdowns

Caitlin Long: https://www.forbes.com/sites/caitlinlong/2019/05/16/naked-shorting-in-the-uber-ipo-it-couldnt-happen-on-a-blockchain/?sh=f2a0dcd4737d

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