CryptRowe #27

sunset

Hi all,

So it’s been a year since I started this Newsletter, and what a fun (sleigh?) ride it’s been. Since then, 831 of you have subscribed to get analytical investment updates on the Bitcoin Network and I’m so grateful for it. I’ve gotten the chance to do fun Math and Stats, meet amazing people in the CT / BT space, learn about myself, and also build some really fun data structures (lol said no one ever).

But it seems the time has come: I’ve decided to pause my efforts on the CryptRowe Newsletter for now. For how long? I’m not sure. Maybe for good, maybe not. We’ll see.

“Why?” you ask? Well here’s my reasons (in no particular order, especially since my friend James-Olivia would say “Why doesn’t matter.” 😏).

• The Newsletter has started to feel like a chore, and I’m not as excited about it. I’ve never been a “social media” guy, and until recently haven’t really been able to put my finger on “why”. I think, though, it’s because I so prefer relating to people 1:1 or in small groups. And if you combine that with my Education training, I am much more interested in helping people come to skill-building and empowerment and learning and growth on their own rather than presenting information (not saying there isn’t value in the latter, just that my spirit leans towards the former).

• Not that this is why I did it, but the data I use and share here ain’t cheap. It’s around $10,000 a year. And so, if I’m thinking from a “business lens” of my time, given the newsletter is free and I don’t have / am not pursuing advertisers it doesn’t make business sense to keep doing this. Also, I have talked to loads of “famous” CT / BT folks who have newsletters and content channels, and every single one of them (even the ones with like 100x reach than me) find it difficult to make sustainable money off of their content. So, if it’s not as fun as it used to be, and even the “big” folks can’t make money, woof. Which leads me to…

• As creator in this space, the way to be profitable seems to be in either (a) owning the data (like Glassnode), (b) creating a community of some sort (educational, “trading”, job postings, etc.) or (c) creating some sort of indicator to sell (data derivatives). All of these categories have versions of them in the space that are full of integrity and also there are way too many scammy and unhelpful examples of each as well.

So part of this pause, is me wondering what, if anything, I’d like to do in this space next, and why, and how. I’m not interested in selling hopium to anyone (as you probably aren’t surprised of being a bear the last few months). I’m also not interested in selling something that isn’t robust or actually helpful to folks. I’m also not interested in trying to duplicate work that, honestly, other folks in the space are way better at. I’d rather just point at them and say, “go to them!” 😂.

So, there’s lots of options in my brain of how I could move forward in this space, or not. And I’m going to take some time to sift through those ideas, maybe do a few experiments, and make some decisions about them, outside of the regular cadence of this newsletter.

Additionally, my regular work in the world is filling up for 2023 and I’m so excited about what’s going on there. Starting a few businesses, supporting a lot of existing businesses and CEO’s, advising on some really amazing projects and ventures, writing my second meditations book (first one here), and working on efforts that will improve equity where I live (Minneapolis, MN USA). There’s just so many fun things to do and get up to right now that my plate is full, and I want to do all those well.

If I do decide to come back (the same, or anew) in this space, I’ll send out another note through this medium (Substack). Or if I have an idea for an essay or something I might still write here. But the main thing is the regular cadence of the data and updates sharing will pause for now.

So before I close and leave, and in the spirit of wanting to still empower you all to learn and grow, I want to leave you all with a list of folks I think you should track and follow and learn from:

• TXMC: a delightful human that has a Newsletter and YouTube channel. Is balanced, thoughtful, driven, and has a hunger to learn new things. He focuses heavily on data-driven macro-economic narratives. He spends a lot of time curating his base-cases only from data and it shows. His data and charts and insights are only getting better over time. Keep an eye on him.

• Ecoinometrics: another amazingly brilliant Math and Stats genius who also spends time sharing Macro-Economic data but primarily from a “ok but can we backtest this?” and “what are the odds?” stats questions. Loose hypothesis are unwelcome here and I love it. Robust thinking abounds.

• Market Sentiment: ok this human - oof. In the realm of “Deep dives on specific investing subjects that are both interesting to read and robust in nature with great take-aways” there is no equal. I have a backlog of these to read 😂.

• Honorable Mentions that I don’t need to mention because I mention them all the time: Lyn Alden & Macro Alf.

In the meantime, I’ll be on Twitter still (as long as that’s still around?) so feel free to reach out if you have thoughts or questions or just want to chat!

Regardless of any of this, I hope all good things for you. Regardless of how long you’ve been joining us on this journey, I hope you are finding ways to be the best, fullest, and most powerful version of yourself that’s possible. We need that in the world. We need you.

Grateful for you all,

Matt Rowe