We had the pleasure of interviewing Tone Vays, a prominent trader who is a former analyst at JP Morgan and a well-known Bitcoin maximalist. In our first interview, he talked about why he got into Bitcoin from Wall Street and the appeal of this cryptocurrency.
Tone Vays
Interview Date : 14th July 2020
Token Business Model Does Make No Sense
The only cryptocurrency that I pay attention to is Bitcoin. Even if some of those cryptocurrencies are not really scams, I fell they are just silly, useless, and kind of stupid. If you have a product that uses a token for the functionality of the product itself while the token is being openly traded on exchanges, that token is a scam to me. There is absolutely no product that needs a fluctuating currency in the middle of a transaction. This business model makes absolutely no sense at all.
A fluctuating Token Product
If this business model would make sense, then we would be paying for Netflix in Netflix stocks. We would also be paying with e-bay stocks for e-bay, and we would be paying amazon stocks or amazon currency to purchase from Amazon. All these projects use a utility token that does not have a stable value. The only reason to have that token is to print money for yourself and sell it to unqualified investors. I think this business model has broken many security laws that have evolved in the 100 years to protect investors in such companies. Don’t get me wrong, but all those are companies with centralized servers. I don’t see how they are decentralized.
Important Metrics to me
My evaluation of a token stops the moment I realize the only reason for it to exist is for a selected few people to profit on the printing and the creation of that token. The only metrics I use are for Bitcoin, including the innovations which are being built and integrated on top of Bitcoin like the Lightning Network, the Liquid side chain, and the Hash Rate. Hash Rate just hit a new high, meaning the electricity securing Bitcoin has never been higher. Those are all positive metrics that ensure operations on Bitcoin go smoothly with no problems.
Besides, the Bitcoin network never goes down. It has not gone down even for a second in the last 5~6 years. Maybe the transactions are not always fast, they are not always private but they always work, but my Bitcoin transactions always go through. Those are the metrics that I really care about and with every passing day the confidence that I have in the Bitcoin that I protect only rises.
Bitcoin is a Free Market
I personally don’t think there are people in the crypto space that could move or influence the market with a tweet or a statement because they have power or influence. People think that they do but even if they do it is only temporary. I do not think any one person has that kind of effect. Again, we have to separate the Bitcoin from the rest of the crypto coins.
In the world of Bitcoin, I don’t think there is anyone that has such kind of an effect influencing anything in the market. Now, if someone has a lot of Bitcoin and they actually sell that Bitcoin or they have a lot of money and they are going to buy Bitcoin, they will move the price.
A lot of people call that manipulation. I don’t like to use the term manipulation for someone with a lot of money or a lot of Bitcoin moving the market. I believe in free markets, and I believe that if you have a lot of Bitcoin, you can move it around. If you want to sell it you should not be restricted because it is risky for you not to take on big bets as there might be a bigger fish that will take you down in the market. The same applied to the US dollar market. If you are a billionaire who wants to come into space, and you want to throw a million dollars and buy Bitcoin immediately, you will move the price to the upside, and that’s great.
However, when it comes to the other cryptocurrencies, there is usually one person or a small group of people, that have an enormous influence on the markets. If the CEO of one of the big Altcoin company says something, the market or the price will move. So any markets in the crypto space can easily be influenced by these charismatic leaders. But when it comes to Bitcoin, I believe in free markets and I don’t think anyone has overwhelming influences in it.
It’s Like Playing Poker
Whales will certainly influence the markets if they execute large trades, but I don’t consider that malicious as long as they are playing by the rules. However, if an exchange is changing the price against their users, that’s manipulation and probably criminal as well. If an exchange is providing information to a whale to give him an advantage in the market, that’s manipulation as well. That is what is regulators are supposed to prevent. For me, as long as the whale is playing by the same rules as me in the market, he gets to push the price around because he has more money.
It is the same as a poker game. When I sit around a table to play poker, I have a certain amount of money in the form of my chips. If someone else sitting across the table has 10 times more chips than me, he can turn the table around to his favor, he has all the right to do that. I could walk away from the table, or I can play him knowing that he has an advantage with more chips, but I also have an advantage that I can take those chips if I feel like that I am the more superior player. Now, if he knows what my cards are, that is not an even playfield anymore. But as long as everyone is playing by the same rules, it is a fair game.
Bitcoin’s Side-Ways Trend
During the first week of this year, I wrote a blog post as to what my expectations were for the crypto space and Bitcoin. In the first week of January of this year, I predicted “a big crash down to approximately 5000 dollars before the halving”. That was exactly what happened.
Bitcoin is significant and extraordinary, but it is highly valued, so to move the price of Bitcoin up is still very challenging. I expected Bitcoin dominance to rise over this year, and it will rise eventually, but people are buying into a lot of scams. This is part of what is also holding Bitcoin back a little bit.
Still, the supply is very heavy as we saw with the big Ponzi-scheme in China that collected a lot of Bitcoin, implying that everyone wants your Bitcoin.
The most valuable thing I have is my Bitcoin. I almost do not care about anything else; you can hack my bank account, you can hack my pay-pal.
I hope that you won’t, but if you do, I can probably get my money back through the banking system. There is only one thing that I cannot get back, and that is my Bitcoin. So I try to protect it.
Separation From Bitcoin Is Challenging
The Crypto artist Vesa is great! I saw him at an event where he had one of his paintings on the walls displayed. His paintings come in only three pieces. During the event, two pieces were already sold as they had corporate logos on them, and there was only one clean piece left.
Afterward, we commissioned Vesa to create a painting for the Unconfiscatable Conference. He did a long interview with me to get the essence of what the conference is about, then I let his creativity and his vision to do the rest. He did a magnificent job, and we put together an awesome painting where we had the speakers of the unconfiscatable conference sign it. We auctioned it off, and one of my friends won the auction.
I think that what Vesa is doing id great, and he loves selling his paintings for BTC. Acquiring BTC is challenging, and to separate people from their Bitcoins you have to offer them something they really like. That is a way for him to earn Bitcoin, and I think if not the best, he is in the top 3 most famous crypto artists we have in the space today.
Interviewer , Editor : Lina Kamada
【Disclaimer】
The Article published on this our Homepage are only for the purpose of providing information. This is not intended as a solicitation for cryptocurrency trading. Also, this article is the author’s personal opinions, and this does not represent opinion for the Company BtcBox Co.,Ltd.