Stephen David Mauldin
6 min readNov 29, 2020

“Zero Money”: First Principles Thinking About Monetary Value

Change the Money, Change the World (24)

Part 6(B) — Appendix: Annotated links on adaptation of Bitcoin

Digital Currency by Country (Competing with Bitcoin)

Oct 12, 2020 China hands out $1.5 million of its digital currency in one of the country’s biggest public tests Last week The government in Shenzhen carried out a lottery to give away a total of 10 million yuan (about $1.5 million) worth of the digital currency. The winners can now download a digital renminbi app to receive the digital yuan and spend it at over 3,000 merchants in a particular district of Shenzhen. The digital yuan is not a cryptocurrency like bitcoin. Instead, it is issued and controlled by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/12/china-digital-currency-trial-over-1-million-handed-out-in-lottery.html

Oct 10, 2020 Why Singapore is emerging as global crypto leader Singaporean authorities … developing rigorously-applied regulation, while also encouraging innovation and attracting blockchain businesses … no licenses have officially been given out yet … payments platform Wirex, crypto trading platform Binance and digital currency exchange Coinbase, have been granted a temporary exemption … a 50% increase in crypto-related jobs … an environment where entrepreneurs and investors are welcomed to freely experiment and collaborate … developing blockchain technology, not just for the development of cryptocurrencies and as a type of payment, but as a way of improving government processes, such as authenticating identities to issue passports, managing government records and services, exchanging contracts and executing transactions to collect taxes … an initiative exploring blockchain technology for clearing and settlement of payments and XX securities, as well as Singapore’s central bank digital currency. Singapore may very well be one of the first countries to launch a central bank digital currency and integrate blockchain technology into its payment system. https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/why-singapore-is-emerging-as-global-crypto-leader/

Oct 9, 2020 Federal Reserve, 6 Other Central Banks Set Out Core Digital Currency Principles “Central bank digital currencies: foundational principles and core features” — documentation was prepared by the central banks of Canada, the U.K., Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) … It sets out several “core principals” for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and how they should be designed. https://www.coindesk.com/fed-reserve-central-banks-bis-digital-currency-principles-cbdc

Jul 19, 2018 State-Issued Digital Currencies: The Countries Which Adopted, Rejected or Researched the Concept The concept of CBDCs, or national digital currencies — the scenario in which the trend of digital currencies gets adopted by a federal regulator, essentially under its rules, with the central bank issuing digital fiat money, rather than cryptocurrencies in their most popular, decentralized form and becomes not only a regulator, but clients’ account holder as well — has attracted many governments across the world. Some of them have already implemented the idea, some keep researching, while others — like Germany — have dismissed the idea altogether. Here’s a list of those countries along with their reasoning for/against CBDCs https://cointelegraph.com/news/state-issued-digital-currencies-the-countries-which-adopted-rejected-or-researched-the-concept

May 2, 2018 The Next Cryptocurrency Evolution: Countries Issue their Own Digital Currency To date Countries that have issued their own cryptocurrencies include Ecuador, China, Senegal, Singapore, Tunisia, though these countries will not be standing alone for long with Estonia, Japan, Palestine, Russia and Sweden looking to launch their own national cryptocurrencies. … the world’s largest economies could force the hands of smaller nations and we would expect momentum to build in the years ahead. Central banks now looking closely at the successes and constraints faced by those who have already stepped into the light, though only in early September, ECB President Draghi stated in a press conference that no member state of the Eurozone can introduce its own digital currency, with the currency of the Eurozone being the euro. https://www.fxempire.com/education/article/the-next-cryptocurrency-evolution-countries-issue-their-own-digital-currency-443966

Digital Currency by Banks (Competing with Bitcoin)

Oct 27, 2020 JPMorgan creates new unit for blockchain projects, says the technology is close to making money JPMorgan Chase said its digital currency, JPM Coin, is being used commercially for the first time this week by a large technology client to send payments around the world. That development, along with other behind-the-scene moves, persuaded JPMorgan to create a new business to house its blockchain and digital currency efforts called Onyx https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/27/jpmorgan-creates-new-unit-for-blockchain-projects-as-it-says-the-technology-is-close-to-making-money.htm

Aug 12, 2020 Unpacking the Avit, Avanti Bank’s New Digital Asset Being Built With Blockstream The Avit represents one of several bank-led innovations in the digital asset space. With Goldman Sachs considering its own Stablecoin issuance, Sygnum issuing a Stablecoin tied to the Swiss franc and other experiments, Avanti has joined a growing list of banks that want to compete with startups on digital assets. https://www.coindesk.com/unpacking-the-avit-avanti-banks-new-digital-asset-being-built-with-blockstream

May 30, 2020 JPMorgan — Bitcoin’s ‘Biggest Enemy’ — Suddenly Appears To Be Going All In On Crypto … the largest U.S. bank by assets, has been waging a war of words with bitcoin and cryptocurrency for years … turbulent relationship with bitcoin appears to be rapidly softening, after the bank added its first crypto exchange customers and … reportedly hosted secret meetings with the boss of major bitcoin and crypto exchange, Coinbase and rival bitcoin and crypto exchange Gemini after a lengthy vetting period https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2020/05/30/jp-morgan-bitcoins-biggest-enemy-suddenly-appears-to-be-going-all-in-on-crypto/?sh=736430fd23a6X

Digital Currency by Tokens (Bitcoin asset inclusion)

Oct 27, 2020 DBS Bank Is Planning to Launch a Digital Asset Exchange Singapore-based bank … is building a digital assets trading platform … trading against the Singapore dollar, the Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen and U.S. dollar will be four top cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether and XRP … Assets will be held by a dedicated … custodian set up by DBS, dubbed DBS Digital Custody https://www.coindesk.com/singapore-bank-dbs-looks-to-be-planning-a-digital-asset-exchange

Aug 20, 2020 CoinShares passes USD1bn in assets The firm’s … family of crypto exchange traded products (ETPs) provide investors throughout Europe with a simple way to access digital assets via their existing broker or platform … In 2019, the firm traded USD3 billion in crypto assets, with 2020 … on pace to triple this volume by the end of the year … continues to see rapid growth across the trading ecosystem … which pave the way for the further financialisation of Bitcoin and digital assets. https://www.institutionalassetmanager.co.uk/2020/08/20/288766/coinshares-passes-usd1bn-assets

May 21, 2019 Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Startup Pays Out 6,567% Return A buyback by Block.one, a cryptocurrency startup, will return as much as 6,567% to its earliest investors … volatility had “adversely impacted” its cryptocurrency portfolio, halving it to about $500 million. The company held as many as 140,000 Bitcoins, making it one of the largest holders of the original cryptocurrency … those losses were “more than fully recovered” as of May 15, as Bitcoin rallied this year. it raised about $4 billion in the biggest sale of digital tokens … to help produce key buildings blocks for a new secure version of the internet … But with few outward signs of progress since the sale of EOS tokens https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/thiel-backed-crypto-startup-pays-000004930.html

Change the Money (1) Preamble — Monetary value true by nature

Change the Money (5) Introduction (1) — Zero Money & First Principles

Change the Money (8) Part 1 (A) The technological solution

Change the Money (10) Part 2 (A) The Naming of the Beast

Change the Money (12) Part 3 Ending Inflation and embracing deflation

Change the Money (13) Part 4(A) — Phases of transition 1

Change the Money (17) Part 5(A) — Adoption, adaptation & activism

Change the Money (23) Part 6(A) Appendix: links on adoption of Bitcoin

Change the Money (25)Addendum 1 — Politics: Author & Ontology

Stephen David Mauldin

DOB 1946 Retired Counseling Psychology M.S. Consciousness Studies — Interests: Citizen Diplomacy, Digital Currency