Apple's 'spatial computing' will change you, Elon on Soros, NFTs, and his AI pet Grok, Google's Bard sees company break-up, and living longer...
Elon shades George Soros big time
It is usually not our lane to jump into swampy campaign politics, as life outside the system is more productive and rewarding. Still, we do agree 💯 with Elon’s recent analysis of money and politics on Joe Rogan. Our view is campaign contributions to any public office should be limited to individuals and capped at $100 per candidate per election cycle. Each contributor could be rewarded a spiffy NFT receipt from their candidate that can also serve to digitally validate their donation on their tax returns to receive a 100% write-off. That is Democracy.
Giving voters more of a stake in the people they vote for will increase engagement and participation, yet limiting the stake diminishes the high-rolling power brokers.
The current system breeds candidates who suck up to party organizations, PACs, and wealthy megadonors seeking to extend their sense of power in the world. At least in California, if you don’t join the Club, you are guaranteed to be outspent by ‘their’ candidate by a long margin.
“In my opinion, he [George Soros] fundamentally hates humanity. Getting district attorneys elected who refuse to prosecute crime is part of the problem in San Francisco, LA, and other cities. So why would you do that? He’s doing things that erode the fabric of civilization. George is very smart, and he is very good at arbitrage—he famously shorted the British pound—that’s how he made his money. He used this knowledge to figure out that the lowest value for [campaign contribution] money is a presidential race. Then, the next lowest value for money is a Senate race, then a Congress. But once you get to city and state district attorneys, the value is extremely good. Soros realized that you don’t actually need to change the laws. You just need to change how they’re enforced.”
In our backyard, once SBF filled his pockets with investor and customer cash, he began funneling tens of millions into political causes and positioning himself as the next George Soros. And thanks in part to VC funds supplied by Sequoia and the legions that followed, he achieved his goals. SBF ended up being the second-largest donor behind Soros in the last election cycle. The list of A-list celebrities and politicians he paid off to gain influence and status is exhaustive—a full-time political machine.
We are not psychoanalysts nor fluent in SBF’s supposed guiding gospel of Effective Altruism, but part of his money play was clearly to lather up both teams to play nice to FTX during a period when the bureaucrats are still figuring out what we are up to here out West.
Some of their top partners at Sequoia Capital soaped up their own set of politicians over the years as well. We shall see what kind of ROI they get for that investment when the current US House Select Committee on China investigation is concluded. Sequoia US and HongShan, the rebranded arm of Sequoia China, are being scrutinized over their investments in Chinese companies focused on AI, quantum computing, and semiconductors.
The bottom line is SBF, Sequoia, and George Soros played by the rules. If we were SBF or Sequoia, we would probably have taken out that insurance policy as well. Like our last President—then-candidate—said in his debate with HRC, “I know the system is rigged because I used it.’ ‘It’ is all very ugly, and it breeds favoritism—give money, and they will take your call—which equals corruption. We can do away with this King-Maker machine easily by amending the campaign contribution law and adopting Web3 decentralized technologies.
Elitism and the power-broker mentality are, for good reason, out of fashion with the new generation. It is time to get back to the basics of one-validated citizen-one-vote and politicians having to work hard for every $C-Note they raise. The USA would be a better place if we shut down the Clubhouse. Don’t you agree?
Note to Jumpin’ Joe: A recent American Heart Assoc. study says people who use marijuana daily are 34% more likely to develop heart failure.
Apple goes spatial—will they go Web3?
How much will we live in this world? Watch this Vision OS video by Apple and walk into the world of spatial computing. It is a trip—definitely a huge new medium to visualize, take in, and work with content—a bit unsettling, as well. This is big. Remember this day.
Apple’s Vision Pro immersive mixed reality headset [available early next year in the US] promises to bring us into the world of ‘spatial computing.’ It remains to be seen whether Apple can revive the sagging ‘metaverse’ industry with its new Vision. We are believers in the long-term market power and ultimate cultural influence of Vision Pro. Handling work and personal apps hand and finger-free, immersive viewing of entertainment and educational experiences, your private videos, and those on the phone are dramatic enhancements to our lives.
Do I need an Apple Watch? Not necessarily. Will everyone and the kids want Apple goggles? You bet. It will be a slower ramp than the iPhone, with its luxury $3500 price tag, but it will be more mainstream as Vision apps grow and the price comes down.
Interestingly, Apple was granted a head-mounted display [HDM] patent in 2007, which means that Steve Jobs was in on the vision before the Vision. Part of the reason it took so long to develop was Apple invented half the technology in this headset to make it happen. We believe the idea of spatial computing, as portrayed by the integrated Apple app experience, is as much of a historical development as the original iPhone was in 2007.
Not to deflate the discussion, but check out this (thankfully) short video of Meta’s answer to the Vision Pro. Steve Jobs always said Apple was a software company first. The Questa Pro looks like and is sold like a plastic toy.
One emerging challenge to the Vision Pro vision and the entire Apple product line is whether it meets Web3’s open ethos.
A Web3 phone
A new crack at a Web3 phone is Vertu’s Metavertu II Web3 announced last week in Hong Kong. Somewhere between their use of sapphire screens, titanium frames, precious metal customization, ruby buttons, ceramic earpieces, and alligator skin finish over its carbon fiber models, and its $5,000 to $9,000 price tag is an attempt to offer modern Web3 features, the iPhone and Android phones do not.
Metavertu II Web3 features
It offers “bank-grade, unhackable encryption hardware, so users’ private keys and other sensitive data are always safe, even if the phone is lost or stolen.
In addition to being an Android phone, METAVERTU 2 offers a separate and decentralized operating system (DOS) for running dApps isolated from any potential Android OS vulnerabilities.
Built-in MPC wallet, which frees users from having to memorize mnemonic phrases, and a dApp store where users can download and install the latest Web3 apps.
An identity system called I-DID that links a user’s mobile IMEI number with their decentralized identifiers (DID) streamlines the crypto user experience and eliminates the possibility of duplicate registrations by functioning as a ‘passport to the Web3 world.’
AI enhancements include Godon, a virtual concierge who can plan your travel itinerary, and Alfred, the butler who can moonlight as your financial advisor.
A ‘Ghost System’ offers a one-click erasure of all sensitive data stored on the Vertu smartphone.
It supports programmability through open protocols and provides access to APIs for various Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) protocols.
Our gut says that the Metavertu II Web3 smartphone, with its trying-too-hard brand name and busy and boxy design-by-committee feel, may sell well with the luxury-brand tattoed nouveau rich from faraway lands but is not a serious threat to Apple in any way.
Will Apple go Web3?
In the land of Google and Facebook, Apple is revered for never selling its customers, its cyber security record, and its high-quality and integrated product lines. That being said, will Apple take the next step and start incorporating the Web3 dApps the privacy-sensitive and crypto-oriented new generation is demanding?
The spirit of Web3 is to build a new world where we can participate in society without having to trust any individual or organization. Privacy and respect for individual rights are deeply rooted in Apple culture. To date, Apple, unlike Facebook, Google, and Twitter, has never betrayed its customers.
‘We could make a ton of money trading our customers’ personal data, but all people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demand it, the Constitution demands it, and morality demands it.’
— Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
However, something also baked deep into the Apple culture is its founder’s OCD-like perfectionism and need to control. Steve wanted everything that Apple touches—from the box your iPhone comes in, to the Apple bus stop ads, to the device software interfaces and industrial design—to ‘delight’ the customer, and that requires control.
At a critical point in the company’s history, Steve Jobs had to be convinced that the iPhone should be open to outside app developers, which was very much the right decision. Apple needs to be available to crypto wallets, dApps, and decentralized highly encrypted data that only the customers own and control. This new ethos fits Apple’s Hippie, civil rights-loving roots—but it will require letting go of some control.
Did you know?
(Overheard on the streets of the global Silicon Valley. Got any hot insider tips? Email us editor@cryptoniteventures.com)
Billionaire Boys & Girls Club
The Silicon Valley billionaire titans confirmed they acquired all the land they needed to build a utopian city in Northern California after quietly buying more properties in the past month. We gave our opinion on all this in the earlier post below—and we shall leave it at that.
VC Whispers
The Venture Capital Journal ranked the top 50 private VC funds based on total capital raised from January 1, 2018, to March 30, 2023, here.
IBM launched a $500M VC fund to invest in early-stage to hyper-growth generative AI technology startups focused on the enterprise. ‘AI is slated to unlock nearly $16 trillion in productivity by 2030,’ says Big Blue, and they have no intention of missing out on the action.
Intel is backing Stability AI with $50 million convertible note financing at a critical time in the AI technology race. While Stability AI previously raised a unicorn value-level seed round, the startup has ‘grappled with high operational costs against the backdrop of dampened revenue forecasts.’
AI Tracker
Sam Altman: “Grok [Elon’s soon-to-be-launched chatGBT competitor] answers questions with cringey boomer humor in an awkward shock-to-get-laughs sort of way.”
Elon: ‘GPT-4? More like GPT-Snore! When it comes to humor, GPT-4 is about as funny as a screendoor on a submarine. Humor is clearly banned at OpenAI, just like the many other subjects it censors. That’s why it couldn’t tell a joke if it had a goddamn instruction manual. It's like a comedian with a stick so far up its ass, it can taste the bark!’
Best on the Block
Maple Finance hopes to tap Coinbase’s institutional users by launching on Base Network. The Maple lending platform also has products on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. The first pool on Base will be Maple’s Cash Management pool, which currently yields 4.8% generated from short-duration US treasuries.
On Hollywood
The Hollywood Actors 118-day strike is over—the longest such strike in Hollywood’s history—and the engines of the $130B entertainment industry can start grinding again. The terms have not yet been disclosed, but generative AI became the major sticking point, and the actors wanted studios to pay for AI scans until death, after which studios would not need the consent of the estate or SAG.
The Science of Life
Laura Deming, founder of the first longevity-focused VC fund in 2011—the Longevity Fund—has teamed up with Alex Colville, a Stanford biology PhD and family office investment manager, and closed $35m for their new age1 VC fund based in San Francisco.
NFT & Bitcoin updates
“The funny thing is the NFT is not even on the blockchain—it’s just a URL to the JPEG [hosted on an external server]. You should at least encode the JPEG in the blockchain. If the company housing the image goes out of business, you don’t have the image anymore.
—Elon’s comments on the recent Joe Rogan Experience
This comment created a stir. On one hand, he is right, with FTX’s NFT marketplace, in which Coachella and Tomorrowland debuted NFT collectibles, as an example. When FTX tanked and servers went offline, many of the NFTs stopped working.
But Elon’s view is dated; the leading blockchain for NFT projects is Ethereum—the leading blockchain network for NFTs, including CryptoPunks, Moonbirds. and generative art platform Art Blocks. Projects can also leverage decentralized storage platforms that allow NFT owners to back up their artwork as a backstop. In other cases, the artwork isn’t on-chain because the NFT merely represents an ownership stake in a real-world item like a sculpture or other pieces of fine art.
“This is why [Bitcoin] Ordinals will continue to grow. It's the most elegant solution to one of the most universal criticisms of NFTs,”
—Rohun “Frank” Vora, creator of prominent profile picture (PFP) projects DeGods and y00ts, who minted projects on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
The BTC heads used Elon’s remarks to brag about Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol that allows users to ‘inscribe’ artwork and other media onto the Bitcoin blockchain. There are currently 38 million media-based inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain.
The yearlong downward trend in NFT trading has been broken. Despite layoffs at NFT marketplace OpenSea last week, NFT trading volume grew by $99M in October compared to the previous month, reports DappRada
Bitcoin update: Crypto analysts are now pitching that rising liquidity in bitcoin markets over the past four months has given traders more confidence and is an encouraging sign for a sustained price recovery.
Straight outta Silicon Valley
Jack Dorsey’s POS payments company, Block, is reducing its headcount by 10%. ‘Square’s number of people has far outpaced our growth and performance,” says Jack. Dorsey, in spite of the company’s 3-fold increase in profits over four years. When Elon bought Twitter, he reduced the staff by 90%.
‘Turns out you don’t need all that many people to run Twitter. If you’re not trying to run some glorified activist organization, and you’re not caring that much about censorship, you can really let go of a lot of people, it turns out,’ explained the X-man. Maybe Jack has learned something from Elon.
‘I believe that the Justice Department should prevail in this case,” says Google’s AI bot Bard when prompted. ‘If Google is found to have violated antitrust laws, the court should order Google to change its business practices and make it easier for other search engines to compete. This would lead to more competition in the online search market and lower prices for consumers.’
WeWork’s imminent bankruptcy filing means billions in an estimated $11.5B in losses for SoftBank, the co-working space vendor’s biggest backer. WeWork was basically screwed by long-term office commitments struck by founder/CEO Adam Neumann and a pandemic that radically changed our view on how much time we really need to spend in the office.
Pura Vida (pure life or not)
A few moments of conscious breathing anywhere, anytime will slide back your blood pressure and heart rate—. The result? ‘Improved cardiovascular health, immune function, longevity—an overall better quality of life, no Xanax needed,’ says our health guru, Dr. Frank Lipman. Try it—it’s easy and doesn’t hurt!
Including almonds in an energy-restricted diet not only helps people lose weight. ‘Almonds are a great snack—high in protein, fiber, and packed with vitamins and minerals, and unsaturated fats – or healthy fats – which improve blood cholesterol levels, ease inflammation, and contribute to a healthy heart,’ says Dr Sharayah Carter.
Current Wisdom
“Friendship is a priceless gift that cannot be bought nor sold, but its value is far greater than a mountain made of gold; for gold is cold & lifeless - it can neither see nor hear, in time of trouble its powerless to cheer — it has no ears to listen, no heart to understand, it cannot bring you comfort or reach out a helping hand. So when you ask God for a gift, be thankful if He sends not diamonds, pearls or riches but the love of real true friends.”
— Muhammad Ali, The Greatest
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