The Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) members and guests listened to two speakers at the PCEC meeting on November 18. The speakers were Joseph Star and Dan Schwartz. Dan has given three precious presentations to the PCEC; the first about no one having a bad memory, followed by two about cryptocurrency. For Joseph, this was his first experience in public speaking.
First up was Joseph. He has had a long sojourn through the business world that has made him more knowledgeable about seeing what is and what is not a good business. He completed university in Israel studying Arabic and Middle East history.
Joseph began by asking how many in the room owned Tesla stock. He then said if you don’t, you should definitely consider it. He then proceeded to give a very enthusiastic talk about Tesla and why he thinks it is such a good investment that will in the future bring great returns.
Joseph said that currently, Tesla builds the best E-cars and their innovative technology will make them the leading manufacturer. He cited several of the technology methods Tesla uses and noted that much of it comes from other related companies, such as SpaceX as their engineers share technological advances with each other. He mentioned that Tesla builds their own batteries which are better than others and continue to be improved. The vision is that these batteries will in the future power ships and airplanes.
Currently, he said that Tesla profits are nearing those of much larger companies, noting that Apple’s profit margin is 30% while Tesla is currently at 25% and he expects it to become 35%. He also mentioned that Tesla has developed new computer software for self-driving cars. Further, he believes that owners will be able to make their vehicles available to a “taxi” service allowing them to be used as such instead of just being parked when not in use. Thus increasing Tesla’s sales.
Next up was Dan to provide more information about cryptocurrencies. Dan has been a leader in sales, marketing and business development for over 30 years. He moved to Asia in 2004 and has been here ever since, bringing a wealth of expertise with particular strengths in areas such as financial reporting systems, profit and loss reporting and management, financial strategy and long-term budgetary oversight. He is the Chief Executive Officer of AladiEx Holdings Group, Anguilla and General Manager of Learning 365.
First, he mentioned that the technology that will most likely have the greatest impact on the future world economy was the “blockchain” which is a digital algorithm that stores information and is decentralized. Bitcoin’s blockchain is used in a decentralized way. Although Bitcoin is well known, there are other cryptocurrencies available for both trading and using for purchases and bill payment. He mentioned that although pseudo anonymous, they are still transparent. He then showed slides that listed various cryptocurrencies and the amount outstanding and values. Other slides he presented showed the historic performance of Bitcoin as well as others.
Although payments can be made with Bitcoin, it is really not conducive to being used for retail purchases. It takes about 10 minutes for a Bitcoin trade to take place, which is much too slow as no one would want to wait around with the cashier for it to be completed. However, there are other cryptocurrencies being created to be used for retail purchases. He mentioned XRP Ripple as being one of these.
Dan provided information about Cryptocurrency Exchanges, such as Coins.co.th which is good for people in Thailand as it is easy to connect, get verified, has many capabilities to use Bitcoins to pay bills, and cash out to banks. He also mentioned that using cryptocurrency does not require a bank account, only a telephone that connects to the Internet.
As to investing in Bitcoins, Dan said that it is volatile but expected to rise. However, whether to invest in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies he provided a caveat. He said one should invest only what they can afford to lose.
After the presentation, MC Ren Lexander brought everyone up to date on latest events and called on Les Edmonds to conduct the Open Forum, where attendees can make comments or ask questions about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya. For more information visit the PCEC’s website at www.pcec.club
