| Preface: I say this as a former fintech founder within the 'crypto space' (Bitcoin), with a stint in the corpo World as a developer and consultant for what was mainly multi-nationals. I also did my time in kitchens in Europe and the US during my apprenticeship and later as a chef. > The systems the privileged and wealthy create to shuffle resources and capitol back and forth to one another never ceases to amaze. This is a topic I have spent the better part of nearly 20 years trying to understand. But I agree, it's called accounting; and it seems that the oldest recorded use of written the language we have was for this very usecase in meosptamia using sanskirt [0]. The length to which the entire breadth of retail, mercantile and political classes has dedicated to ensure that accurate records are kept about how money is transferred as credits and debts in the story of Humanity is overwhelming to truly fathom. Especially since the average life-span of most currencies is about ~40 years, meaning they typically imploded with major consequences when they did--think Wiemar Republic, Hungary, Zimbabwe and Venezuela hyper inflation. Personally, my biggest take away is that most of Humanity simply doesn't understand or doesn't care enough about money to take the time to care about it unless it personally affects them directly. With that said, I recently came across what seemed on the surface like a total cashgrab to cash in the opaque NFT 'Web 3.0 space' [1], wherein restaurateurs are deciding to simply anticipate the imminent collapse of the restaurant industry as we know it and create an alternative; they decided to revert to the private diner's club model that, I will remind you was the reason why the modern credit model has become as prevalent as it has in the US, seems entirely unorthodox unless you have a unique perspective like mine where you have a background in both fintech and the culinary industry. You see, Private diner clubs aren't held to the regulatory capture that most restaurants are: they operate on a vague and opaque existence wherein they do not service the general public and are therefore not bound to the myriad of forced compliance (especially in NY) that eats into profits with exorbitant operational costs and since COVID the nebulous and often tragically-comical levels of absurdity when it comes to being allowed to operate [2]. What this operation did was essentially what every seasoned startup founder would love to do if/when he decides to take on his next project: have a closed seed round in the millions that will have enough runway to pilot test and prototype, but will remain as a sort of closed beta that only services the owners of those NFTs. Which means they can potentially create a new paradigm in which future Diner Clubs interested in following this model can curate relationships with suppliers, vendors and ideally local farmers for food and beverages on their own terms without a need for permits and licensees and bypassing the regulatory bureaucracy entirely! This alone is worthy of immense respect, because most will never realize the nightmare that comes with all this needless compliance of running a restaurant, which has created a sort of license mafia--try getting a liquor license in a historical city, no amount of money can buy you one and if you can't sell liquor along your food you're pretty much waiting your inevitable death as the highest ROI come from FOH bar sales. Again, I think the NFT craze was just like the ICO craze: mainly a passing fad that was heated by a broken Market in disarray and flooded with cheap cash with promises of overnight riches and no real substance, which in the end crashed as it had very limited actual uses cases beyond 'grifting the next guy.' But what it did do was serve as a foundation for what is possible to build actual tech around, and I think if successful it can be a way for many established restaurateurs and chefs to continue to exist in an Industry that has been absolutely decimated in the last 3 years with countless blunders that the very politicians who enact and enforce these supposedly critical health measures and do not follow them in practice [2]. I'm personally excited to see the disruption occur if this becomes a viable, because it could potentially decentralize the food and beverage Industry model moving forward in a way only the most stringent farm to table concepts could only begin to explore and implement; and the truth is most like most startups (even prior to COVID) most restaurants failed within the first 1-3 years, those that survived COVID are hanging on by a thread from a myriad of things from high debt loads, lower customer turnover, labour shortages etc... and the writing is on the wall: we could potentially lose a large sector of the economy and more importantly a critical part of our culture. And it goes away because politicians decided to do what they've always done: choose winners and losers not based on merit but rather proximity to power. This at least gives us a chance to retain some of our local culture and preserve our beloved eateries from bureaucratic incompetence, and corrupt regulatory capture. 0: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40697796 1: https://ny.eater.com/2022/1/13/22880787/worlds-first-nft-res... 2: https://abc7news.com/los-angeles-country-restaurant-owner-vi... 3: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/gavin-newsom-fre... |