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CryptoCurrenCies must faCe the Bear
How the Amateur-Crypto Investor Can Navigate the Bear Market
Puerto Rico continues as hub for investors and entrepreneurs
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Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal @Landi_Zoe
The crypto market has been in the doldrums lately. In Europe, the number of crypto app installations was down by almost 20% in the first quarter of 2022, a reflection of the market overall. Before 2021, these apps were fairly uncommon throughout Europe, but they were mass-adapted by European crypto enthusiasts that year.
So, what is going on in the cryptocurrency market?
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL spoke with David
Johnston, Chief Operation Officer at DLTx, to hear more about cryptocurrency market trends, tips for the curious, and Puerto Rico’s contributions to its development.
Analyzing the current crypto plunge, Johnston said, “I’ve been in the industry full time since 2012, I’ve been through three market cycles - 2013, 2017, 2021. In that period, adoption went from a few hundred thousand users to 150 million people. The metric that matters is global adoption.”
Every four years or so, the cryptocurrency market goes through a correction of about 50%. In a market like the one we’re seeing now - a bear market - the value decreases by half, but with each cycle, the industry has grown so much that the new lows are much higher than the last highs. The global market value of digital assets was around a few trillion dollars back in November. Since then, it’s decreased substantially. Regardless, it’s still early days for the industry. “If it’s the internet, it’s 1997 in terms of adoption,” Johnston explained where we are in the development of cryptocurrency usage and DeFi (decentralized finance) development.
“If you look at the Dot-com boom and bust and only looked at the stocks, you would’ve thought it was going away, [but] user numbers and connected devices never stopped growing, regardless of the stock market,” he continued,
“Anything with finance, banking - [these are] industries that are being disrupted by crypto.”
A Beginner’s Approach To Investing In Crypto
When asked how everyday people - those who aren’t deeply involved in finance, banking, nor crypto or blockchain technologies - can get involved in the rapidly expanding industry, Johnston recommended that most people shouldn’t try to become day-traders.
Investors should buy and hold using dollarcost averaging - an investment strategy where the investor splits the total amount to be invested into periodic purchases of the desired asset. By doing this, they can reduce the impact of the potential volatility of the overall purchase.
“Buy a little every week, and build a position. Emphasize the blue chips - Bitcoin, Ethereum - the large established players. Treat it like a savings account, not money you need tomorrow. In five years, do you think more people will be using internet money? If you answer yes, give it a try. Keep focused on the fundamentals,” Johnston advised, “Don’t buy anything you wouldn’t hold for the next five years.”
Puerto Rico, A Crypto Island?
Johnston’s business, DLTx, is a publicly traded technology company based in Norway with an office in San Juan. They produce revenues on blockchains, a process that doesn’t closely follow the day-to-day fluctuations in crypto values.
He’s also one of the founding sponsors of the Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association (PRBTA). About one year ago, Johnston and his family moved down to Puerto Rico, attracted by the business opportunities and growing technology community. With states like New York and California implementing restrictive policies for crypto investors and startups, Puerto Rico has an opportunity to position itself as a hub and even reverse the brain drain it’s been suffering over the past decade. “I literally get a call every few days from a friend moving to Puerto Rico,” he said of the influx of Americans moving to the island. He believes that Puerto Rico is well-
In fact, positioned to become a technology hub, especially within the crypto space. “I think PR is big enough, it’s about the same size as Austin, In Europe, the Texas. It has all the elements, number of crypto the government has been super app installations was helpful. [There’s been] an influx down by almost 20% of entrepreneurs and young in the first quarter of technologists,” Johnston described. 2022. Act 60 and its recipients can be a sensitive subject for many, who claim that the tax incentives exploit the island and bring little value. To this Johnston replied, “Well I think it’s a misconception, trust me we’re still paying plenty in taxes. What I would love to see is the program expanded into an ‘Act 60 for Everyone’. I don’t think there should be a difference. It would be great if everyone here would be able to benefit.” “I think it’s important for people to understand that a lot of this is being built by families,” said Johnston, who moved down with his wife, kids, and parents, “I think the demographics have changed. Young, hungry families, entrepreneurs, and people moving down to build a life. We’re here for the long term, We love this place, and we want to see it get better and better. We’re investing our time, money, and effort to see it happen.”
opinion
Energy Transformation: An opportunity to improve PR’s competitiveness
The economic inflation forces us to urgently search for alternatives to reduce costs and be more efficient to maintain and improve competitiveness. The possibility of a Global Minimum Tax may impact Puerto
Rico’s historical strategy of leveraging incentives to attract foreign investment and urges us to pivot our approach towards improving the island’s overall competitiveness and reduce the cost of doing business, with energy being a significant piece of said costs. Today, our energy sources primarily depend on the import of fossil fuels, which rely heavily on a global market that is subject to constant market shifts, and daily changes; most recently due to the conflict in Ukraine. Dependency makes our energy capacity – and its cost – vulnerable to these fluctuations, which create instability and are not controlled by local agencies or regulators. This vulnerability, in conjunction with environmental and sustainability considerations, were key elements in the development of Puerto
Rico’s Energy Policy, which set forth an aggressive transformation of the existing system. The Pierluisi administration’s plan includes facilitating and accelerating the development of clean distributed generation, energy efficiency implementations, and the development of microgrids. The private sector is leading advances in these developments, and the government is accelerating them with important allocations of federal reconstruction and recovery funds. Combining this unprecedented investment with local funds –for example, incentives developed to aid specific sectors and individuals – is key to maximize community impact and spur transition to cleaner, more reliable systems. The results of “Apoyo Energético,” a recently created incentives program for small businesses, show how the efficient managing these funds contributes directly to our energy goals. A total of 888 projects, which will add a total of 16.8MW of distributed renewable energy, have been impacted. Supplies and installation services for the development of these projects are being provided by local small businesses certified by the DEDC’s Energy Policy Program and selected by the beneficiaries as part of the application process. This incentive model will provide savings and resiliency to small businesses in a wide range of sectors and regions, including Vieques and
Culebra. As an additional benefit from the incentive program, 56 small companies will have the opportunity to make their businesses grow while expanding Puerto Rico’s capability to achieve its energy goals. To ensure these small business suppliers have the tools to develop the incentivized projects, the DEDC will support additional programs to enable them to develop their workforce, apply for green energy incentive decrees, and facilitate access to capital, among others. External support will also be coordinated by the DEDC, including commitments from LUMA to facilitate project interconnections.
Manuel Cidre Miranda By Manuel Cidre Secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce Entrepreneur & Founder of Los Cidrines Watch Out! Don’t Threat the Workhorse of
Puerto Rico’s Economy
The pharmaceutical industry is undoubtedly the workhorse of Puerto Rico’s economy. It pays $3 billion in annual taxes, which is over 33 percent of our budget, employs 78,000 direct workers who earn on average $62,000 and spends $500 million annually in capital expenditures in its plants. To put this into perspective, pharma represents 30 percent of Puerto Rico’s GDP, while tourism is just 7 percent.
However, for some inexplicable reason, our government has spent decades without a coherent strategy to keep them investing Information from more than 1,500 small businesses was captured during the registration process for this incentive program, and will be analyzed for the development of future programs and to identified sectors and regions with the most need for support. The information will be shared in a public report to provide a benchmark for energy consumption per commercial sector and the green energy market. Furthermore, the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board recent approval of the integration of more than 845MW of renewable energy into the grid, the framework to finally facilitate transmission, and the upcoming integration of hydrogen to our energy generation will accelerate the transition to clean energy sources and will help us reduce the import of fossil fuels. This ongoing transformation of the energy system is historical, and the Government is fully committed to its completion. The unprecedented allocations of federal funds have given Puerto Rico a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make this transformation a reality and will undoubtedly improve the island’s competitiveness by offering stable and low-cost energy to continue accelerating our economic growth.
in the island. Instead, our politicians refer to them as foreign, when they are US companies, and continuously attack them, threatening to raise their taxes one way or another whenever there is a budget shortfall or some governor wants to spend more money.
Therefore, it is not surprising that a large portion of our population does not understand the importance of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries to our economy and society as a whole. Our politicians’ populist rhetoric has actually led many to believe that these are evil, corporations that take, take and take while giving nothing back to their communities and the island.
As we see in the first paragraph, this is simply not true. You might think these companies should contribute even more, but ignoring that they already are one of the most important contributors to our economy and society in terms of job creation and paid taxes, is completely absurd.
I write this op-ed because this industry, which we’ve already established plays a vital role in our economy, is coming under attack, for the second time in 20 years. It worries me to see a lack of action from our government and pharma leaders. I fully expected that by now, industry and government leaders would have come out to announce a joint workgroup dedicated solely to solving the issues generated by the phaseout of Act 154.
But this hasn’t happened; both groups appear to have taken an “ignore and pray nothing happens” mentality and that is not acceptable. Hoping our government takes the lead in these conversations is futile, we are in the middle of an election cycle, and it is evident that our governor and her opponents are more worried about campaigning than actually preventing an economic crisis. Therefore, I think it’s time for pharma’s industry leaders to take control of the narrative and force our government into action by making the phaseout of Act 154 an election issue.
The people need to clearly understand what will happen if the deductions provided by Act 154 are phased out by the federal government. We need to understand what options are on the table to help pharma grow in Puerto Rico and maintain the sector’s contribution to the economy. Whether it’s changing the industry’s tax structure so that Trump’s guilty tax does not apply, extending current decrees, allowing plants to build out power generation without interference from the AEE, or some other thing that only industry insiders know.
I genuinely believe that through proactive communication and education, we can change the current narrative of locals versus foreigners and get everyone to understand that what is good for the industry is good for the people and vice versa. As Puerto Ricans, we can’t allow for a repeat of the 936 debacle to happen; the island might not survive it. This vulnerability, in conjunction with environmental and sustainability considerations, were key elements in the development of Puerto Rico’s Energy Policy.
Ms. Pac-Man clears path to World Video Game Hall of Fame
The Associated Press
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — More than 40 years after blazing a trail for female video game characters, Ms. Pac-Man was inducted last week into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, along with Dance Dance Revolution, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Sid Meier’s Civilization.
The Hall of Fame considers electronic games of all types each year — arcade, console, computer, handheld and mobile. Inductees are recognized for their popularity and influence on the video game industry or pop culture over time.
The Ms. Pac-Man arcade game was released in 1981 as Midway’s follow-up to Pac-Man, which entered the hall as part of the inaugural class in 2015. The Pac-Man sequel reimagined the main character to acknowledge the original game’s female fans, according to the hall. After selling 125,000 cabinets within the first five years, it became one of the best-selling arcade games of all time.
There was nothing inherently gendered about early video games, said Julia Novakovic, senior archivist at the hall. But
“by offering the first widely recognized female video game character,” she said, “Ms. PacMan represented a turn in the cultural conversation about women’s place in the arcade, as well as in society at large.”
The Class of 2022 was chosen from a field of finalists that also included Assassin’s Creed, Candy Crush Saga, Minesweeper, NBA Jam, PaRappa the Rapper, Resident Evil, Rogue, and Words with Friends. It is the eighth class to be inducted since the World Video Game Hall of Fame was established at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution, first seen in arcades in Japan in 1998, was recognized for helping to pave the way for other music-centered games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The fastpaced game put players on a dance floor with a screen in front to direct their moves.
“Music has been an integral part of human life since prehistoric times, so it comes as no surprise that DDR enjoyed a unique popularity that spanned ages, genders, and regions,” said video game curator Lindsey Kurano. A home version of the game followed on the Sony PlayStation in 1999. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, also first released in 1998, came out for the Nintendo 64 gaming console and defined what a 3D action video game could be, Hall of
In fact, Fame officials said. The awardwinning game sold more than 7.6 million copies worldwide and continues to be recognized The Ms. Pac-Man arcade game was released in 1981 as Midway’s follow-up to Pac-Man. by some players and critics as one of the best video games ever made. “Even today, developers throughout the world credit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as influencing the way they create games,” digital games curator Andrew Borman said. “The game’s sprawling 3D world, fluid combat, complex puzzles and timeshifting story combined to inspire a wonder in players that they have never forgotten.” Sid Meier’s Civilization, released in 1991, was recognized as an influential simulation and strategy game. The game, which invited players to develop their own empires, launched a series of successor games, including the most recent Civilization: Beyond Earth and Civilization VI. “The addictive nature of the game, which creator …by offering the first widely recognized female video game character, Ms. Pac-Man represented a turn in the cultural conversation about women’s place in the arcade, as well as in society at large.
Julia Novakovic Senior archivist, World Video Game Hall of Fame
Sid Meier himself called the ‘one more turn’ quality, and its nearly unlimited choices that prevented repetitive gameplay, earned Civilization recognition from Computer Gaming World as the best video game of all time in 1996,” said Jon-Paul Dyson, director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic games. “Altogether — and given the extraordinarily long periods of play the game afforded — players have engaged with the Civilization series for more than a billion hours.”
Anyone can nominate a game for the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Final selections are made on the advice of journalists, scholars and others with knowledge of the history of video games and their role in society.
