GenAI Bounces Back as Google Reveals Users Get a Revenue Boost, Tokenized Gold, and Big Tech's Fintech
Podcast interview covering de-dollarization and multipolarity
Artwork of the day: Wall Drawing #391, Sol LeWitt 1983
Two-part drawing. The two walls are each divided horizontally and vertically into four equal parts. First wall: 12-inch (30 cm) bands of lines in four directions, one direction in each part, drawn in black India ink. Second wall: Same, but with four colors drawn in India ink and color ink washes.
This art is from the Minimalist school. The term minimalism was used in the 20th century, particularly from the 1960s, to describe a style characterized by an impersonal austerity, plain geometric configurations and industrially processed materials. ‘Minimalism derives its name from the minimum of operating means. Minimalist painting is purely realistic—the subject being the painting itself.’
Why this week’s stories matter:
GenAI has been criticized for not making anyone any money, and last week’s market crash just compounded the industry's woes.
This week we’ve got better news for GenAI. New research from Google, which is certainly not an unbiased party, found that early GenAI adopters experienced over 6% revenue growth from their new projects.
This is great news for GenAI and matters dearly to the industry. While Google is the last company I want to trust with statistics like this, I think they’re real.
This leads us back to banking where even Google admits that GenAI is not well developed. That said, our second report shows that GenAI is making advances in banking, but not where you think. Read on for more….
Google and Amazon haven’t made a big play for banking and finance in the West and appear content with being vampires sucking data out of all of our transactions. This matters because regulatory batters limit their role, unlike in India or Brazil, where big tech is a much larger fintech player.
Tokenized gold is coming. Now, I promise I’m not trying to sell you gold, bitcoin, or survival bunkers, but it is interesting to see how gold will be tokenized. That’s a good thing and may make ownership easier for many.
Some may think buying gold or a bunker is necessary if we become a multipolar world where the US dollar doesn’t reign supreme. I don’t think such fear is warranted, and tackle de-dollarization and multipolarity in an entertaining podcast episode!
I hope you’re enjoying some quiet time in August, wherever you are!
From Bullion to Blockchain: Tokenized Gold is the New Gold Standard
Tokenized gold is a hot topic in crypto and TradFi markets, spurred by its 30% price increase this year.
Fears of excessive debt, global crises, and strong central bank buying have undoubtedly fueled the perception that gold is a safe haven.
While gold's prices are the domain of traders, tokenization is poised to change how we buy gold, and that is a good thing as it will make it more accessible.
For now, the $1bn tokenized gold market is dominated by big crypto names like Tether ($608m market cap) and Paxos ($462m ).
The market is changing, and HSBC's entry into the gold tokenization in Hong Kong this past spring shows that tokenized gold is no longer just a crypto phenomenon.
HSBC's entry will likely pave the way for other traditional banks to explore tokenization. The reason for many will be that gold is about as simple an asset to tokenize as it gets.
👉TAKEAWAYS
🔹 Tokenization is poised to change how we buy assets and gold is no exception.
🔹 Tokenization allows for nearly infinite fractionalization of which will make it more accessible to common people who would normally be forced to buy coins with heavy commissions.
🔹 For those with survival bunkers, nothing but physical gold would be acceptable 😀
🔹 The charts comparing Bitcoin as "digital gold" with actual "gold" are a bit of a stretch for me, they are overtly pro-BTC.
🔹 Tokenized gold may also be useful in de-dollarization. Russia and Iran, for example, have explored tokenized gold for payments.
This is a solid introduction to a market that many may not know much about, and I believe it is showing us the future!
Are you buying Gold, BTC or survival bunkers yet?
Can Any Currency Dethrone the Dollar? And Why this is the Wrong Question!
The Geopolitics in Conflict Show is a great listen, and I’m honored that Dr. David Oualaalou and Elizabeth Ann S. had me on once again!
David and Elizabeth asked gritty and practical questions, and we talked about de-dollarization, CBDC, and China!
Lot's of "truth bombs" in this episode!
👉TIMESTAMP
▻ 3:44: 🔥Truth bomb🔥
When you read The Wall Street Journal, the mainstream media here's how this multi-polar world will be framed, it will be framed as the question:
“Is there a currency that can either, ready wait for it, beat topple, dethrone, or otherwise destroy the dollar?”
The answer to that is clearly no, and because the answer to that question is no, the articles always end up the same: the dollar is safe, and nothing is happening.
Now, I’m going to ask you to entertain the following. Could there be a different question: “Could there be another currency that doesn't topple or dethrone the dollar, but take small amounts of meaningful market share from the dollar?That's a very different question and the one we need to answer!
▻ 5:24: Nonnormal perspectives, sanctions: Trade is going to local currencies without the USD. The IMF shows this, and it's hardly anti-American.
▻ 10:00: 🔥Truth bomb🔥 Nations not using the dollar don’t hate America. They simply want a better deal with trade purchases.
▻ 14:00: 🔥Truth bomb🔥 BRICS Currency: There is no credible evidence of a BRICS currency, even though crypto publications report this regularly.
▻ 18:55 MBridge a competitor to SWIFT: CBDCs are coming
▻ 24:10 CBDC vs Crypto: CBDC is going global. Remember the UK and EU are building them.
▻ 30:00 CBDC can be used with credit cards. Trust but verify CBDC privacy.
▻ 34:45 Russia and CBDC and crypto
▻ 38:20 CBDC solves an important problem, how to pay in a digital world.
▻ 41:15 EU wants a digital euro to get payments off of Visa and MC.
▻ 43:30 🔥Truth bomb🔥 China economy: Neither disaster nor boom. Propaganda is a problem with this topic. No one should hope that China, with 1.4 billion people, will collapse. It didn’t work for Yugoslavia.
▻ 48:30 Trump vs Biden: Does it matter? Both were harsh for China relations. Bad relationships with China are hard-wired into the US right now.
▻ 54:00 🔥Truth bomb🔥 Mass amnesia: US CEOs who pushed jobs to China were well-rewarded and hailed as geniuses at the time.
▻ 57:10 Delay and stifle Chinese development.
Thoughts?
Articles that caught my eye to start your week:
ChatGPT is bullshit: Yes that is the actual title of this article. It explains how ChatGPT isn’t hallucinating but in fact bullshiting. More on this entertaining paper: HERE
Geopolitical Risk and Decoupling: Evidence from U.S. Export Controls: This article from the Fed shows how China decoupling has resulted in no reshoring or friend-shoring of jobs. The Fed shows that cutting out China will not return jobs to the US: HERE
Understanding China’s pragmatic AI plan: While the US ecosystem has the edge in groundbreaking innovations, the Chinese one excels in execution. This from the Financial Times showing how different China and US AI plans are yet both have much to contribute:
Visualizing the cost of debt: It's sad to see that the US has now surpassed Italy with the cost of its debt service. Italy was always considered a laughing stock by the US for its debt. No longer. Link: HERE
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