 Okay, there's a lot I want to unpack here for this blog post... so let me grab a drink. In the meantime, here's a picture of Vancouver! --- So I recently took a trip to both Vancouver BC and Whistler Blackcomb, a trip that I usually make once a year. Other than the amazing scenery, fresh air, and friendly disposition of nearly every Canadian, I continually notice a unique racial demographic. And yes, this has a lot to do with the point I'm going to make regarding Bitcoin. Let me break this down. Let's start with Vancouver. Almost everywhere I look, I see individuals of Asian descent. More specifically, I see a lot of Chinese. Even more specifically, I see a lot of Chinese buying up the skyline of Vancouver. So they are living and investing heavily in the city. With that comes Chinese customs and technological demand, the same demand that they have in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hong Kong (yes, H.K. is kinda China). Okay, so why the hell does this matter? Well you'd understand if you've seen this video: Seriously, watch this video so you can understand my point here. The Chinese are all MOBILE! They don't carry wallets or accept fiat for payment. They use Alipay or WeChat instead. So what did I see everywhere I went in Vancouver? That's right! I saw Alipay and WeChat. The reason I bring this up, is that in North America, we lag behind Asia in almost every technological arena. Especially when it comes to finance. Vancouver serves as a fantastic example of where North America is heading. This leads into my main point regarding Bitcoin. There is a high likelihood that North America bypasses the retail banking shift, from banks to big tech, entirely and instead goes mainstream with cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin. You can thank the Chinese people for driving tech demand, and we'll likely see Bitcoin widely accepted in Vancouver long before the rest of the continent catches up. Regarding Whistler, I saw the same thing, but in a more relaxed and suburban/rural setting. With Whistler Blackcomb being home to one of the biggest ski resorts in the world, it could be a fantastic launch pad and test case for cryptocurrency adoption. Not to mention the need for better efficiency, which blockchain could provide for hotels, ski lifts, restaurants, rentals, etc etc.  Well, that's my mini rant. Here's a picture of me at the top of Mt. Whistler looking cool.
These are just some things I keep noticing that may one day bring my ideas into fruition. Hopefully in terms of blockchain. Looking forward to a decentralized world. Brandon Zemp B.A. Neuroscience
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The Symbolism behind Josie Bellini7/26/2019 One of the best parts of recording a podcast, is the people you meet. I can't emphasize that more. Over the past 2 months, I've had numerous guests on the podcast that spoke about Crypto Art and how much blockchain is changing the way we look at art. Jess Houlgrave, Jonathan Perkins, and Fanny Lakoubay were absolutely awesome, and really expanded on the benefits of blockchain. From verifiable ownership, to royalty protections for creators.
I really enjoyed learning from these individuals and began enjoying art myself; I'm often an analytical machine. But the home run hitter was Josie Bellini. Not only is she a popular, up-and-coming artist in the crypto-verse, but she paints the symbolism that we often forget Bitcoin stands for. Bitcoin wasn't a random incident. It came in the wake of the 2008 financial recession, which saw great frustration among the populous for the ignorance of the "too-big-to-fail" banks. The idea of money was finally being questioned, and people were getting sick of corruption. Then, miraculously, Satoshi Nakamoto released a whitepaper for a peer-to-peer payment system called Bitcoin. This anger and frustration that Bitcoin was born out of is what you see in Josie's artwork. The notion that fiat is inflating, governments increasingly can't be trusted, and that people are being stripped of their sovereign rights as individuals. On the podcast, I had the chance to explore these complex meanings with Josie and in her artwork. The fact that her artwork isn't just an abstract creation, but rather a careful message, gives me faith that the longevity of this new innovation will go on. I'm more bullish than I've ever been. As Thomas Jefferson once said: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Brandon Zemp B.A. Neuroscience Uncharted Lending4/9/2019 Last week, Brock Pierce bought a home for $1.2 million using Bitcoin. But listen, this is nothing new. Or is it??
Every now and then, we hear of some crazy purchase made with Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, society still isn't tailored to accepting crypto as a payment. But that's what makes purchases like this kind of cool to hear about. So why am I talking about another random purchase with Bitcoin? Well, because it's not that simple, and it's brilliant. Brock Pierce didn't just buy a very expensive home with Bitcoin, he loaned the money to himself. Okay, yes, it sounds a little different. But let me break down why this was brilliant, and how I'm doing the same thing on a much different level. Nexo is a company that allows you to borrow against your own crypto, up to $2 million dollars or something crazy like that. Using a loan-to-value model, you can borrow the money you need, payment almost nothing in payments (other than interest), and still HODL your hard earned crypto. Sure, Bitcoin could collapse and you might lose your collateralized Bitcoin. Unless... you use it to buy another asset. This is where my genius kicked in. Sure, buying a house is reasonable, but he wants to live in it, and make it a liability, not an asset (thank you Kiyosaki for the wisdom). Instead, why not reinvest? That's what I'm doing. I won't stay how much or how little, but why not leverage your crypto to buy more crypto! Or even better, stake that crypto! Or even better than that, invest in NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Guys, this is a wide-open market and Nexo is giving us a blessing to invest heavily, especially when we are close to another bull market cycle. I'll just say this. ICOs were a boom. Futures contracts were a boom. Mining even drove the market for a long time. But Dapps and Staking, these will be massive market drivers and that's where I would put my money right now. Excuse me, my crypto-backed loan. Brandon Zemp B.A. Neuroscience The future is Pundi X11/29/2018 I remember this exact moment last year. I was in the process of launching my book "The Satoshi Sequence" and a mining company. So much was escalating in the crypto sphere it was almost suffocating. I was fortunate to have been vocal about Ethereum at the time. In fact, I had my finger on the button 2016, saying that Ethereum was ushering in a 2nd Generation of blockchain tech. In 1 year, I watched Ethereum rocket up from $7 to over $1200 by the end of 2017. That was incredible to be a part of. With that said, 2018 has been the polar opposite. It's funny how the same people that I knew in 2017, that were rushing to buy crypto on Coinbase, are now running away from crypto at the same frantic pace. That's how I know this market is young. The lack of education has prevented many people from adopting the technology. Including major institutions. Despite the doom-and-gloom of 2018 and the market bloodbath, there is 1 project that has stood out to me, which is Pundi X. Great team, deflationary revenue model, built for scale, and producing physical products (e.g. XPOS and XPhone). The advent of products and services being coupled with blockchain will drive adoption much faster than any financial instrument. I have been saying this for a long time. Blockchain is a new technology, and it will only be understood when our generation can interact with it. I'm talking Online Gaming, Storage, Smart Contracts, Dapps, Encrypted Communication, Verified Voting, Autonomous Organizations, Monetization of Personal Information, etc etc etc. I could talk about this forever. For now, enjoy this picture of a Z9 Mini sitting on top of Pundi XPOS boxes.  Brandon Zemp
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