The distorted narrative
5th December 2022 |
Very recently, my attention was drawn to a particular article in the financial media. It related to the comments at a recent conference from Larry Fink. As you may know, he is the chief executive officer (CEO) of BlackRock, one of the largest asset management companies in the world.
When Larry Fink speaks, his remarks are noteworthy.
The headline of the article in question was as follows:
BlackRock’s Fink Says Most Crypto Firms Will Fold Following FTX’s Implosion
And, in the subsequent paragraphs, it wrote about how the CEO of BlackRock thought that most crypto companies wouldn’t be around in the future.
Overall, the whole piece had a negative tone: it suggested that Fink was highly sceptical of the entire crypto industry.
There’s one problem though…
You’re only hearing a fraction of this story.
And hence we arrive again at volume 409 of the things that grind my gears…
Think for yourself
My very nature is that of intellectual curiosity with a persistent (although some probably call it annoying) habit of questioning the status quo.
When I read something, I never accept it as gospel. I want to really find out if what I’m seeing really is the truth.
What you find is that everyone at some point has some kind of motivation when it comes to storytelling – even me.
What humanity is good at doing is telling stories. Perhaps ultimately that’s what differentiates us from animals, and what will always ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) can never truly achieve sentience.
The stories that are most valuable teach us something.
That makes storytelling one of the most powerful weapons in the world. Information, stories, narrative, it can shape a person, it can guide a crowd, it can manipulate an entire society.
Even if the source of a story has a good reputation for being fact-based and objective, that is not necessarily so.
This Larry Fink interview is a perfect example of distorted narrative.
First, watch the whole interview. I did.
Once you’ve watched it, you’ll see the distortion. Yes, Larry Fink did say he didn’t think a lot of crypto companies would be around in the future – but that’s not the end of this story.
Here’s the other part of that section where he was talking about crypto,
“I believe [that decentralised ledger] technology is going to be very important… I believe the next generation for markets, the next generation for securities will be tokenisation of securities. And if we can have that distributed ledger that we know every beneficial owner, every beneficial seller, we all have our code of who’s buying, who’s selling, instantaneous settlement, it changes the whole ecosystem, you don’t need to trust banks.”
When you watch the whole video, you see that Fink is rational and contemplative. What really matters is that he is actually positive about the impact that decentralised finance (DeFi) is going to have on traditional finance (TradFi).
That’s not a story that you will see in the mainstream or financial media. You won’t see the following headline: “BlackRock’s Fink sees DeFi as the future of markets”. But that’s what he said.
The moral of the story is simple. Take nothing at face value. Dive deeper. Find the truth.
And with everything I’ve written to you here at Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network, I hope that I’ve helped you to do that.
Remember: when the mainstream or the financial media venture into the crypto world, they sometimes produce quality reporting. However, there is also a lot of absolute garbage.
Wherever possible, go to the original source(s) and draw your own conclusions. If someone cites a high-profile media outlet as saying that the CEO of BlackRock expects all crypto to fail: bear in mind what he really said.
Crypto to know
Below is our “Crypto to Know” list, where you’ll find several cryptos that we think you should be taking the time to learn and understand.
They each form an important part of the burgeoning crypto ecosystem.
Several of these cryptos are doing very different things relative to others.
What’s key is every crypto has its own use cases, its own guiding principles, and its own potential.
Each is to be judged and assessed on its own merits.
Our aim here is to help you understand these crypto and the wider crypto world.
These aren’t specific recommendations, but a guide to help you learn and build your confidence in operating in this space.
We will add more names to this list over time. However, if you’re new to the world of crypto, these are the names where we think you should look at to start your education and learning.
We’ve also added links to each.
The links are to what we believe, in each case, is the best resource for learning about that particular crypto.
“Crypto to Know” watchlist
- Bitcoin – it/wiki/Main_Page
- Ethereum – ethereum.org/en/what-is-ethereum
- IOTA – docs.iota.org
- Tezos – tezos.com/learn/getting-started/
- Filecoin – docs.filecoin.io
- Cosmos – v1.cosmos.network/intro
- Binance – binance.com/en/about & research.binance.com/en/projects/bnb
- Solana – docs.solana.com/introduction
- Secret Network – scrt.network/about/about-secret-network
Until next time…
Sam Volkering
Editor, Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network
