Author: Dale Warburton

Dale is a former attorney turned passionate Bitcoiner with an interest in investments, macro, geopolitics, innovation, tech, nature, wildlife, MMA and Bitcoin (of course).

Categories
Banking Crypto News DeFi Stablecoins

$1 Trillion Banking Giant ING ‘Exploring’ Peer-To-Peer DeFi Lending

In the world of crypto, 2021 has been a watershed year – from bitcoin becoming legal tender to NFT mania and then, of course, the absolute explosion in DeFi. Traditional finance is scrambling to keep up with the pace of innovation. ING, the Dutch financial services giant, is the latest wanting to get in on the act.

ING Dips Toes into DeFi

ING, with US$1 trillion under management, made a presentation at the Singapore Fintech Festival where it announced that it was working on a trial of its DeFi, peer-to-peer lending protocol with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.

We are looking into peer-to-peer lending in a DeFi kind of setup. But then not on bitcoins. What is interesting to us is how you can probably create peer-to-peer lending or open up lending capabilities with different kinds of collateral. So with different ways of doing this rather than with volatile bitcoin.

Annerie Vreugdenhil, chief innovation officer, ING

In a white paper published earlier this year, ING outlined how lending protocol Aave, built atop the Ethereum blockchain, was one of the more promising examples of innovation in the industry. Leveraging smart contracts, Aave would enable borrowers to deposit crypto as collateral and take out stablecoin loans.

Despite recognising the benefits of DeFi (borderless payments, 24/7 operations and speed of transactions), the white paper noted several material drawbacks.

One main drawback highlighted by ING was that since borrowing and lending required collateral, it would not enable the creation of new money that could otherwise be used for financing entrepreneurial activities.

In short, ING’s objection appears to be that the very notion of DeFi runs counter to the foundation of fractional reserve banking, on which its entire business is founded. This concern from a legacy company is of course unsurprising, and time will tell how it reconciles current operations with DeFi.

DeFi Adoption Goes Parabolic in 2021

Since the beginning of the year, the total value locked in DeFi has increased more than tenfold. That said, there have been innumerable instances of hacks, leaks and breaches in 2021 – some of the higher-profile instances included Indexed Finance, Zabu Finance and C.R.E.A.M Finance.

While these hacks may serve to slow down adoption in the short run, traditional financial institutions would be well advised to keep their eye on the ball to ensure they are not left behind in the wake of unprecedented innovation.

As an example of an institution that doesn’t want to be left behind, consider Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, which last week announced that its customers would be able to buy crypto natively through its banking interface. If you can’t beat them, join them.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Spikes 6% Amid Imminent ‘Taproot’ Network Upgrade

In June of this year, 95 percent of major Bitcoin pools signalled their intention to implement Taproot, an upgrade to the Bitcoin network designed to boost its privacy, efficiency and smart contracts capability. Taproot will be activated when it reaches block #709,632, estimated to be around November 14.

Taproot – An Overview

Taproot represents Bitcoinā€™s first major upgrade since August 2017, when Segregated Witness (SegWit) was implemented. This led to the creation and launch of the Lightning Network.

While SegWit sought to improve Bitcoin’s scalability, Taproot’s focus is on efficiency, privacy and the support of smart contracts. The Taproot upgrade, due to go live on November 14, encompasses three Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs).

BIP-340 – Focused on Privacy and Reducing Transaction Costs

Introduces the main component of Taproot, deploying a feature known as Schnorr signatures. This helps to fix some privacy and space issues that SegWit introduced back in 2017.

In order to generate public and private keys, Bitcoin uses an elliptic curve digital signature algorithm that allows users to sign a transaction with a private key, revealing a public key in the process. When two or more signatures are used (such as with a multi-sig wallet), multiple public keys are revealed, resulting in larger transactions, thus increasing transaction fees.

BIP-340 therefore improves Bitcoin’s privacy and scalability by adding Schnorr signatures, which allow for key aggregation, making transactions smaller and therefore cheaper.

BIP-341 – Focused on Making More Secure Smart Contracts

Introduces Merkelised abstract syntax trees (MASTs) to make smart contracts on Bitcoin more secure.

This feature uses Schnorr signatures to create MASTs to make smart contracts more private and secure. Once live, only conditions that made a smart contract pass will be revealed, rather than all the conditions that it failed on. The idea here is that as as a result, Bitcoin smart contracts will be more secure as hackers have fewer data points or attack vectors to exploit.

BIP-342 – Focused on Improving Future Upgrades and Bringing More Smart Contract Flexibility

Introduces a new scripting language called Tapscript that complements the other two BIPs and makes future upgrades to the Bitcoin network possible through soft forks, rather than hard forks.

In addition, it will provide Bitcoin smart contracts with more flexibility and freedom by removing the 10,000-byte size limit. This is said to enable developers to do more exciting things using Bitcoin smart contracts in the future.

Bitcoin Shoots to New All-Time High

Shortly after printing a new all-time high in October, BTC slipped below US$60,000 following a brief US$1 billion liquidity flush.

However, Bitcoin tends to perform well in Q4 and this one appears no different. Bitcoin balances on exchanges hit the lowest point since August 2018, suggesting investors see significant upside on the horizon. On November 8, BTC shot up US$2,000 in a matter of hours, eclipsing US$65,000.

At the time of publication, bitcoin had surged overnight, reaching a new all-time high of US$67,771.

Categories
Australia Banking Blockchain Crypto News

ANZ Banking Chief on Crypto: ‘There is a Weight of Money You Can’t Ignore’

Between 2009 and early 2020, crypto and traditional finance operated in parallel universes. Then in March 2020, everything changed. Crypto and macro became inseparable and among crypto proponents, it seemed obvious that traditional institutions such as banks would eventually capitulate. ANZ is the latest to see that crypto is here to stay.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Mahatma Gandhi

Traditional Finance Getting Onboard With Crypto

Earlier this week, as reported by Crypto News Australia, Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will become the first to offer crypto trading to its customers, natively through its app. CBA plans to offer its 11 million customers access to 10 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Uniswap, Polygon, Filecoin, Aave and Compound. Other tokens and coins may be added in the future.

Shortly after CBA’s news, a local fintech and financial services webinar event organised by Blockchain Australia, called State of Play, sought to make sense of the current regulatory landscape and innovation in the sector:

ANZ Recognises CBA’s Move as ‘Bold’

Speaking of CBA’s recent move into the crypto space, ANZ Bankā€™s banking services portfolio lead Nigel Dobson described it as ā€œboldā€, suggesting this may be just the start of a major shift in the financial system and something traditional finance would need to embrace or adapt to.

There is a weight of money you simply canā€™t ignore … We have concluded that this is a major protocol shift for financial market infrastructure.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ banking services portfolio lead

Dobson went further, recognising the value of a decentralised system:

We are moving to a more decentralised system ā€“ arguably faster, cheaper, better (yet to be proven) ā€“ that can generate new outcomes and business models that canā€™t be ignored. If thatā€™s the thesis ā€“ that these new protocols can generate better outcomes and new business models – then they canā€™t be ignored. Weā€™re excited about them because they resemble, in many cases, financial markets.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ banking services portfolio lead

Ultimately, Dobson felt that much like the inevitability of the internet and changes it brought to banking, a shift to the digital asset economy was ā€œcompletely going to occurā€.

The preferences of our customers may lead us to places where we feel uncomfortable ā€¦ but the ship has sailed ā€¦ so what we need to do is to navigate our path towards utilising these [decentralised] networks. And the power of these networks is unquestionably strong. The power of networks transcends all companies ā€“ you just need to choose whether to be part of it or ignore it ā€¦ I think we have a much stronger bias to participate than ignore.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ banking services portfolio lead

These sentiments from ANZ represent a remarkable change of tone given that the bank has previously been involved in debanking crypto businesses due to the perceived risk they posed. Just earlier this month, ANZ settled a case with a crypto trader after he was debanked solely on the basis of his profession.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Payments

Miami’s Mayor Becomes First Politician to Take Entire Salary in Bitcoin

It started with a tweet by long-standing Bitcoin advocate and popular podcaster Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, of the “Pomp Podcast”. Pomp posed the question as to which US politician would rise to the occasion and accept their salary in bitcoin. Miami’s Bitcoin-friendly mayor, Francis Suarez, accepted the challenge and the rest is history.

The Year of Bitcoin Payments

As Bitcoin becomes increasingly mainstream, we are seeing more and more news of bitcoin being accepted as payment. Initially, we saw it with NFL players and football club sponsorships, but of late it has been extended to include any US employee who wishes to get paid in bitcoin.

And this hasn’t been limited to the US, as Aussie-based Living Room of Satoshi allows employees to automatically dollar-cost-average into bitcoin as they see fit.

Suarez Looks to Make Miami the Crypto Capital of the US

Mayor Suarez is quickly becoming one of the most popular politicians in the US, having just won re-election in a landslide victory in which he secured an astounding 79 percent of the vote.

In mid-October, Suarez said that paying Miami government employees in bitcoin was “a major priority” and further, he expressed a strong interest in putting bitcoin on Miami’s balance sheet. He said he also wanted to allow residents to pay their taxes in bitcoin.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, speaking at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference.
Source: Bitcoin Magazine

And then in September, Suarez launched MiamiCoin, a crypto project aimed at eliminating the need for residents to pay taxes by participating in the mining and staking of the coin.

Whatever your view on his politics, Suarez doesn’t appear to conform to the typical mould you’d expect from a politician – he makes promises and then acts on them with haste.

While New York has traditionally been the financial linchpin of the East Coast, there are growing signs that amid ongoing pandemic-related restrictions, high taxes, increased crime and bureaucratic red tape, more traditional finance and crypto businesses are relocating to Miami, a city perceived as being far friendlier to both businesses and residents alike. Mayor Suarez should take a good deal of credit for this trend.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News

Bullish On-Chain Signs for Bitcoin, Exchange Balances Lowest Since August 2018

Bitcoin has historically performed well in Q4, and this year has been no exception. Glassnode’s latest on-chain data suggests that following its recent new all-time high, there are compelling reasons to believe that further upside in the near-term remains most probable.

Low Levels of Profit-Taking

Despite the new all-time high, current levels of profit-taking are mild and more closely reflect activity seen in early bull markets. This would suggest that current holders are, for the most part, waiting for higher prices.

Profit taking seen to be low. Source: Glassnode

Since March this year, long-term HODLers have added 2.42 million BTC to their wallets. Generally, this reflects ongoing bullish sentiments as long-term HODLers tend to offload BTC when the market is overheated.

Long-term HODLer supply. Source: Glassnode

Balances on Exchanges Remain Low

All things being equal, low balances on exchanges tend to demonstrate increased levels of HODLing as investors shift their coins off exchanges into secure cold storage.

Presently, balances on all exchanges have fallen to 2.74 million BTC, a level last seen in August 2018. Since February 2020, the average rate of outflow has been 30,850 BTC per month. Current outflows are around 22,000 BTC per month, or around 71 percent of the long-term average noted above.

These figures could point to a fundamental shift in the historic Bitcoin bull-bear cycles of the past. Could we be entering a new phase, commonly referred to as the “Bitcoin Supercycle”?

Balances on exchanges. Source: Glassnode

Best Yet to Come?

As reported recently by Crypto News Australia, over 70 percent of Bitcoin’s total supply hasn’t moved in five months. This is indicative of enormous conviction that the best is yet to come.

Plan B, one of the most respected voices in the Bitcoin community, has set his price targets for the remainder of the year:

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News History

Happy Birthday Bitcoin: 13 Years Ago, Satoshi Nakamoto Released Bitcoinā€™s Whitepaper

The Bitcoin whitepaper was first published on October 31, 2008 by its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Since Bitcoin’s immaculate conception, even its creator would have difficulty imagining a world some 13 years later where his creation would become adopted as legal tender in a country.

Original email circulating Bitcoin whitepaper. Source: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute

Bitcoin’s Origins

Shortly after publication, a copy of the whitepaper was distributed to a cryptography mailing list where Satoshi outlined how Bitcoin solved the problem of decentralised parties being able to arrive at consensus without relying on a trusted central party, otherwise known as the “Byzantine General’s Problem“. Satoshi’s lack of trust in centralised institutions was clearly articulated in the whitepaper.

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.

Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin whitepaper

Satoshi noted that the other key problem addressed by Bitcoin was that it solved the “double-spend problem”, an issue that plagued all prior attempts at creating digital cash.

Double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network. No mint or other trusted parties. Participants can be anonymous. New coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work for new coin generation also powers the network to prevent double-spending.

Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin whitepaper

Bitcoin was later officially launched on January 3, 2009, the date on which the first block of transactions, known as the genesis block, was mined.

Bitcoin 13 Years Later

Close to 13 years after the creation of the genesis block, Bitcoin has become the most valuable and fastest-growing decentralised network on Earth, valued at approximately US$1.2 trillion.

Every day, like clockwork, approximately 900 newly minted bitcoins are created. To date, just under 90 percent of the 21 million hard cap supply has already been mined. Bitcoin’s supply curve is fixed, so the only area for investors left to speculate is its demand.

Bitcoin supply curve. Source: Buybitcoinworldwide

Bitcoin has already won the “store of value” narrative within the crypto sector and, to an extent, even in traditional finance where some argue that it is eating gold’s market share. Bitcoin prioritised decentralisation and security over speed. At the base layer, it is therefore slow and costly when it comes to transmitting value.

Bitcoin proponents, however, are quick to highlight the parabolic growth in Bitcoin’s layer two solution, the Lightning Network, which enables instantaneous global transfers for fractions of a penny. This is already working in El Salvador, where estimates suggest that this technology could cost Western Union US$400 million in remittance fees.

Even for those who aren’t technically minded, Bitcoin’s number-go-up (NGU) technology, coupled with its efforts to separate the state and money, has led to growing adoption worldwide, which naturally reflects in price growth over time.

Bitcoiners who have been in it for the long haul have witnessed innumerable existential challenges and threats over the years. Fortunately, Bitcoin has proven to be remarkably antifragile, and at present appears to be better placed than ever to capture an even larger share of the estimated US$420 trillion of global wealth.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News Regulation RMIT University Online

RMIT University Urges Australian Government to Reform Crypto Capital Gains Tax

Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University recently called on the federal government to provide more support for blockchain technology. Now, it is urging parliament to implement the reforms outlined by the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre’s 12-point crypto reform plan.

‘An Opportunity to Take a Global Leadership Position’

In the world of blockchain education, RMIT is recognised as a heavy hitter, having recently ranked second in Coindesk’s index of global blockchain universities. Now, RMITā€™s Blockchain Innovation Hub has implored federal parliament to adopt the Senate inquiry’s recommendations on the regulation of crypto assets to help attract jobs, investment and innovation in Australia.

We have an opportunity to take a global leadership position and compete with countries such as the US, Singapore and Switzerland in this incredibly vibrant sector … it is good to see our recommendations to change how cryptocurrency is taxed and how blockchain-based decentralised autonomous organisations are regulated being taken up by the Australian Senate.

Associate Professor Chris Berg, RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub co-founder

RMIT academic Dr Elizabeth Morton, with concurrence from NSW Senator Andrew Bragg, noted that reforms relating to capital gains were particularly welcome:

We see an urgent need to ensure the tax system achieves balance in simplification, reflective of a digitally driven economy, encouraging tax compliance and protecting tax revenues from the risk of leakage. Reform will offer clarity for taxpayers and confidence in the tax system as a whole.

Dr Elizabeth Morton , RMIT University lecturer of taxation in the School of Accounting, Information Systems and Supply Chain

Committee Urged to Create DAO Company Structure for Australia

Commenting on the recommendations relating to changes to decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), RMIT’s Dr Aaron Lane noted it would encourage investment in Australia and represent some of the most significant changes in corporate law. Lane felt that “providing DAO members with the option of a limited liability company structure will encourage talent and investment in Australia”.

Ultimately, Lane saw the reforms in a broadly positive light, saying:

Blockchain and cryptocurrency is not just about providing new types of financial products – this technology is the infrastructure for new ways of governing economic exchange.

Dr Aaron Lane, lecturer in the Graduate School of Business and Law and a research fellow in the Blockchain Innovation Hub at RMIT University

While the crypto industry has been broadly supportive of the Senate inquiry’s recommendations, scepticism remains that parliament is unlikely to implement them. Time will tell.

Categories
Crypto News Dogecoin Investing

DOGE Blamed For Robinhood’s 78% Decline in Q3 Crypto Revenue

In the wake of the March 2020 Covid-19 financial meltdown, user growth in investment apps such as Robinhood skyrocketed as retail investors piled into stocks and crypto, particularly memecoins such as DOGE. Things have since taken a rather dramatic turn as the company recently reported results reflecting a 78 percent decline in crypto revenue, much of that blamed on DOGE.

Slowdown in Crypto Hits Revenue

This week, the company revealed in its Q3 earnings report that crypto revenue had dropped to US$51 million – a staggering 78 percent decline from Q2’s US$233 million. To be fair, it is still significantly up over the past year where in Q3 2020, it recorded only US$5 million in crypto revenue – a 880 percent increase over the period. In any event, some remained unimpressed.

Notwithstanding, total net revenues increased by 35 percent to US$365 million while other financials included a loss of US$1.32 billion. This represents a substantial improvement on the US$11 billion loss recorded in Q3 of 2020.

Split of the company’s revenue. Source: The Block

Robinhood and DOGE – A Match Made In Heaven?

Few could have imagined a few short years ago that a coin created as a joke would have a market capitalisation of US$34 billion, much less comprise 62 percent of a listed company’s crypto revenue. To provide some context, DOGE would rank approximately 238th in the S&P 500 index. Apple takes the number one spot at US$2.4 trillion.

Given that over 60 percent of Robinhood’s crypto revenue came from a coin whose value is derived by FOMO, speculation and celebrity endorsements, it isn’t surprising that revenues collapsed as interest in DOGE waned in favour of the latest canine-themed memecoin, SHIB.

Robinhood CFO Jason Warnick indicated on a call with reporters that customers had shifted focus towards equities in Q3, whereas:

In Q2, the story was about crypto, especially DOGE.

Jason Warnick, Robinhood CFO

Despite the significant decline in crypto revenue, CEO Vlad Tenev remained upbeat about some of the more exciting developments within the company:

This quarter was about developing more products and services for our customers, including crypto wallets. More than one million people have joined our crypto wallets waitlist to date. With 24/7 live phone support, we believe that Robinhood is becoming the most trusted and intuitive platform for retail and crypto investors.

Vlad Tenev, CEO, Robinhood

Users are looking forward to the release of Robinhood’s crypto wallet and hoping that the company lists SHIB later this year. Warnick has refused to rule it out but cited ongoing regulatory concerns as a possible reason not to.

Despite being forced to pay a US$70 million fine earlier this year for misleading its customers, they appears committed to investing in memecoins through the popular platform. It wouldn’t therefore be surprising to see SHIB pop up as a trading option in the near future.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Privacy Tokens

Bizarre ‘Worldcoin’ Wants to Scan Your Eyeball to Give Everyone Free Coins

Worldcoin is a newly launched cryptocurrency out of Silicon Valley that wants to get its coins into as many hands as possible, as quickly as possible. In exchange for your free share, you’ll only need to have your eyes scanned by their “Orb” as “proof-of-personhood”.

Let’s Talk About Worldcoin

Worldcoin claims to be a “new, collectively owned global currency that will be distributed fairly to as many people as possible”. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the company’s investor base suggests that the distribution of coins is likely to be anything but “fair”. Willy Woo correctly pointed out: “How is it fairly distributed when it has primary round investments by the big name VCs and angels?”

Lead investors in Worldcoin. Source: Willy Woo

False claims of fair distribution aside, you may still be wondering what Worldcoin is actually trying to do. What is their value proposition and what real-world problems are they looking to solve? These seemingly trivial details would appear to have been overlooked in their haste to outline how this coin will be readily adopted worldwide.

To rapidly get its new currency into the hands of as many people as possible, Worldcoin will allow everyone to claim a free share of it. For this to happen, we first had to solve one major challenge: ensuring that every person on Earth can prove that they are indeed human (not a bot) and that they have not received their free share of Worldcoin already. This challenge is the longstanding problem of ‘unique-humanness’: how can you prove you are you, without telling us anything about yourself?

Worldcoin website

The coin’s lack of utility isn’t apparently a problem when it comes to the company’s vision of having the entire planet collect their free share. Instead, the issue is proving your “unique-humanness”, otherwise users would be double-claiming.

Fortunately, to solve this issue Worldcoin has a new device called an “Orb”, which scans a person’s eyes and makes it possible to know if the person has already signed up for their free share. The plan is to manufacture and distribute Orbs around the world. Orb holders then grow the network by bringing on individuals and having their eyeballs scanned. It’s like Herbalife, but for crypto.

For users concerned about privacy, the company says they needn’t worry due to “modern cryptography”, but Edward Snowden remains unconvinced about this and CBDCs.

Silicon Valley Tone Deaf?

Silicon Valley is known for being in a bubble, and this uniquely invasive and dystopic effort would appear to support that view. Could it be that Silicon Valley is entirely disconnected from the ordinary person and their concerns? The founder himself even admitted that he “underestimated the visceral reaction to using biometrics”.

To anyone paying even a little attention, it was obvious that this would be the response.

Worldcoin is seemingly, on the face of it, a self-serving project lacking any utility or value for its users, but that alone is unlikely to prove enough of a deterrent for investors looking for the next big thing.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto Exchange Crypto News Hackers

Infamous Mt Gox Hack Draws to a Close, Creditors Expect 150,000 in BTC Within a Month

The end may well be in sight for creditors of the now-defunct Mt Gox, which between 2011 and 2013 was hacked to the tune of an estimated 600,000 bitcoin or approximately US$53 billion based on today’s values.

In a statement issued this week, 99 percent of creditors voted in favour of a resolution distributing bitcoins in custody back to the creditors.

Creditors wait outside Mt Gox offices. Source: The Verge

The Notorious Mt Gox Heist

At one stage, Japanese exchange Mt Gox handled over 70 percent of all bitcoin transactions worldwide. The industry was in its infancy and, soon enough, the exchange’s security was quickly exposed as being woefully inadequate. Through a combination of ignorance, naivety and mismanagement, around 850,000 BTC were stolen between 2011 and 2013, the vast majority belonging to its customers.

Today, we have a plethora of user-friendly applications that make it incredibly easy for non-technical users to take control of their keys. This naturally reduces the financial harm experienced by users when exchanges are hacked, as was the case in Hong Kong earlier this year. Unfortunately for Mt Gox customers, at the time there simply wasn’t a convenient and uncomplicated way for non-technical users to take custody of their bitcoin.

After a series of hacks and growing negative press, Mt Gox ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Since then, creditors have been embroiled in various court cases in an attempt to recover their funds.

The End May Be in Sight for Creditors

According to the statement released, the Mt Gox trustee indicated that around 99 percent of the 24,000 creditors impacted by the exchange’s collapse approved the draft rehabilitation plan originally filed in the Tokyo District Court in February. Furthermore, claimants representing roughly 83 percent of total voting rights voted in favour of the plan.

The trustee indicated that he expected the distribution of assets to commence within a month or so, once the rehabilitation plan became ā€œfinal and bindingā€.

Unfortunately for the creditors, although unconfirmed, the trustee is said to only have 150,000 BTC to repay the affected users. While some are undoubtedly going to feel aggrieved, for some it may well have been a blessing in disguise in the sense that they are likely to have sold a long time ago.