Is payment the breakthrough point for crypto applications? | Q&A

1 Is Payment the Breakthrough Point for Crypto Applications?

This has been a hot topic on Twitter these past few days, with several well-known figures in the industry joining the discussion.

They generally believe that payment is an extremely important breakthrough point for crypto applications moving forward.

I have always been skeptical about payment applications based on crypto assets (especially stablecoins).

I’m not saying this application is bad, but I believe it will encounter significant obstacles during promotion, especially regulatory hurdles from various countries.

Recently, there was news in the stablecoin ecosystem: USDT was requested to be delisted by European regulators due to its lack of transparency in regulation.

In contrast, USDC, which is subject to stricter regulation, faced much less regulatory resistance.

However, once an asset is subjected to overly strict regulation, I feel it will face considerable limitations in development. This is not in line with the laws of technological development.

The law of technological development is that breakthroughs first occur in directions with the least resistance. There are still many areas where crypto applications need to break through, and many of these areas face far less resistance than payment applications. So at least for now, I do not believe payment will be a very promising breakthrough direction.

Moreover, for human society, we already have network payments based on fiat currency. If stablecoins are regulated as strictly as our electronic payments, I really don’t see why we need a stablecoin payment that is also strictly regulated.

Or, for ordinary users, how much difference is there between using a blockchain-based payment application and using internet-based electronic payments?

The above reflects my previous viewpoint, but now my perspective has slightly changed: if such payment applications are not serving humanity but rather serving AI, then the scenario might be different.

AI does not necessarily need stablecoins pegged to human society's fiat currencies; they can completely create their own set of assets that may be meaningless to humans and may not attract the attention of regulatory bodies, but are of great significance to themselves.

In that context, payment applications based on crypto assets might have a very different prospect.

2 Buffett's Investment in PetroChina is Completely Political; the United Nations' Compradors Have Betrayed the Nation.

Regarding the reasons behind Buffett's investment in PetroChina, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders have asked this question more than once at shareholder meetings.

On one occasion, a shareholder's question was particularly typical; his question (in essence) was:

He could hardly believe how Buffett thought to buy PetroChina's stock without ever having contact with its senior management or any insider information.

The old gentleman's reply to this question was roughly as follows:

He does not know anyone at PetroChina and has no special information; he simply looked at PetroChina's financial data and roughly assessed that the company's scale and production would be similar to that of Western giants like ExxonMobil. However, at that time, PetroChina's market value was only about half, or even lower (for example, one-third), of similar Western companies.

In this situation, even considering the risks in the financial data and other more sensitive risks that could be alarming, he still felt that PetroChina's stock price was undervalued. Therefore, he decided to buy PetroChina.

Later, when PetroChina's price rose to about 60% to 70% of its intrinsic value, the old gentleman sold all his shares. The reason was simple; the old gentleman's original words (in essence) were:

In a country where rules can change at will, it is difficult for him to control the subsequent risks of this company. So even if PetroChina still had room for growth, he did not want to stay in the game.

Subsequent developments indeed unfolded as the old gentleman had anticipated: even after he sold, PetroChina continued to rise for a while before starting to decline.