Viv’s Notebook. Thoughts, insights and reflections from Viv

Explore Viv's videos, insights and reflections on cryptocurrency, the markets and the ideas shaping the future of digital assets. Browse the archive to hear Viv's perspective, explore the thinking behind the headlines and make better sense of what’s happening across crypto.

A special series

The Machinery

Six short episodes, free, on the machinery behind dollar stablecoins and tokenized markets. Then The Custody Ladder: four parts for Pro members on where your money sits and who can stop it.

New episode every Wednesday, 21 Oct to 25 NovScroll sideways for all ten →

Episode 1 of 6

Who can say no to your money?

Wed 21 Oct

Episode 2 of 6

What a dollar stablecoin actually is

Coming Wed 28 Oct

Episode 3 of 6

Who actually settles a trade

Coming Wed 4 Nov

The Machinery04

Episode 4 of 6

Who's buying America's debt now

Coming Wed 11 Nov

The Machinery05

Episode 5 of 6

The rule almost nobody adopted

Coming Wed 18 Nov

The Machinery06

Episode 6 of 6

Programmable money, minus the panic

Coming Wed 25 Nov

Pro

The Custody Ladder · Part 1 of 4

Where you actually sit

Coming Tue 27 Oct

Pro

The Custody Ladder · Part 2 of 4

The freeze record

Coming Tue 3 Nov

The Custody Ladder03

Pro

The Custody Ladder · Part 3 of 4

Redemption under stress

Coming Tue 10 Nov

The Custody Ladder04

Pro

The Custody Ladder · Part 4 of 4

What tokenization changes for you

Coming Tue 17 Nov

Why institutional adoption isn't the same as decentralization

A road system built to get rid of tollbooths, adopted by the tollbooth companies, and what it may say about Wall Street's move into crypto.

Who can say no to your money?

A $20 bill can't be switched off. Under America's new stablecoin law, every dollar stablecoin has to come with a switch that can.

Exchange or self-custody? The safest choice depends on you

How much you've invested and how technically confident you are probably put you in one of four groups, each with its own place to start.

What Bitcoin is, and why it gets compared to gold

Money no government controls and no bank can print more of, and the one test where gold is still ahead.

Why a small market cap doesn't mean a bargain

Established assets or smaller projects further down the market, and the questions to ask before a small one earns a place.

Why Ethereum's network keeps growing and ETH hasn't followed

Cheaper, faster and busier than it has ever been. The value the ecosystem creates is landing somewhere other than the token.

How Bitcoin went from fringe experiment to institutional asset

Bitcoin spent years being dismissed as a scam. The shift came when people stopped asking what they could spend it on.

How to think about risk before you buy crypto

Most people work out what they could make long before they think about what they could lose. This entry starts with the second question.