The Brief for November 2, 2020

The U.S. presidential election is tomorrow.

People worry about what the outcome will do to stocks and crypto, but debt markets still drive global and local economies.

Since that domain mostly belongs to central banks, corporate financiers, corporations, private banks, and Wall Street, I’m not sure how much one candidate or the other will matter. Moreover, asset prices have never shown any correlation to any president or political party. Why would that change now?

Supposedly, there are a bunch of people who will sell if the Democrat wins and buy if the Republican wins. If that’s true, I’m sure smart money will make sure to take advantage of whatever decisions they make.

If you missed yesterday’s October Recap, November Preview, here’s a heads-up that I will increase the premium membership fee soon, from $5/mo to $7.77/mo (lucky 7s). Stay tuned for more on that and a new altcoin service I’m about to launch.

Today’s brief only has two items, an interview and an article.

Listen to my conversation “Bitcoin Believer, Meet a Realist” with Utsav Jaiswal, Hacker Noon editor, and Jason Knight, host of the One Knight in Product podcast. Tap this button to watch the video:

Growth of the Lightning Network

• Bottom line: Lightning Network continues to improve and grow.

• My take: people dump on LN without recognizing its progress. New products take a long time to develop. With side-chains, custodians, and LN, it’s hard to envision a future where bitcoin does not serve as the primary means to send money from one person to another, even if some app or service handles the user experience.

• Why we care: don’t sleep on the king. Bitcoin is king. Anybody trying to build a better bitcoin faces a tough battle. We want to pay attention to altcoins that solve problems that bitcoin doesn’t solve yet or do things bitcoin can’t do yet.

Relax and enjoy the ride!