usdaed

Ethereum, in theory, is the cool kid in the blockchain playground. It’s the platform where all these ‘decentralized applications’ – or dApps, because acronyms are essential in tech – hang out. Apparently, these dApps are going to revolutionize everything from finance to gaming. Which is great, if you enjoy waiting five minutes for a digital cat to load. The idea is that every time someone uses one of these apps, they pay a fee in Ether, creating demand. It’s a lovely ecosystem, assuming enough people actually use the apps and aren’t just collecting digital dust.

One might recall, with a degree of amusement, a pronouncement earlier this month, proposing a limitation upon these rates – a constraint, it was declared, to be enacted with all possible haste. The notion, though perhaps well-intentioned, appears to lack a certain practical consideration. For, as any observer of the financial world knows, such matters are rarely settled by mere declaration, but require the more cumbersome process of legislative approval. And Congress, as is so often the case, proves a body less easily swayed by executive pronouncements than might be desired.

Two pieces of legislation are on the horizon, and they could be the difference between a ghost town and a functioning marketplace. It’s not about making everyone rich, mind you. It’s about bringing a little order to the chaos, giving the cautious among us—the institutions with real capital—a reason to step in. A reason to believe the ground won’t swallow their investment whole.

Bill Ackman, a man who moves mountains of money, has spoken before the filings were even made official. He’s laid his cards on the table, a bold stroke in a game where silence is often mistaken for strength. He’s put a considerable portion of his fund, Pershing Square, into the workings of Meta Platforms – two billion dollars’ worth, a sum that feels both immense and, in the grand scheme, a mere ripple in the ocean of capital. But ripples can become waves, and waves can shape the shore.

LiDAR technology uses lasers and sensors to instantly and accurately measure distances and movement in the real world. This allows self-driving cars to create a constantly updating 3D map of their surroundings, helping them avoid obstacles like traffic, road closures, and people.

Kevin Hassett, a perfectly sensible fellow, suggests this should encourage further cuts in interest rates. A boon for businesses, naturally. But the S&P 500, that rather excitable barometer of public sentiment, decided to take a different view. One is beginning to suspect it operates on pure whim.

Intel. The name itself once evoked an empire of transistors, a dominion over all that glowed and computed. Now? Now it’s a company many presumed had shuffled off this mortal coil, surpassed by younger, more agile competitors. Nvidia and AMD, those nimble sprites, danced rings around the aging giant. Past attempts at resurrection proved… well, let us say they lacked the requisite spark. But a curious thing has happened. Under the stewardship of Mr. Lip-Bu Tan, a man who appears to possess a most unsettlingly calm demeanor, a flicker of life has returned. He’s orchestrated a revival, a delicate re-alignment of gears and circuits, just as the demand for these artificial intelligences reaches a fever pitch. One suspects a pact with some unseen force, perhaps a benevolent spirit of the motherboard.

And now everyone’s saying you “missed your opportunity?” Please. That’s just a tactic to get you to FOMO into something. I mean, it went up a lot, sure, but the stock is still… reasonably priced? They say that like it’s a good thing. It should be ridiculously expensive if it’s this AI darling. That’s the whole point. It’s a market. Supply and demand. It’s not rocket science. But they try to make it sound complicated. Like they’re doing you a favor by explaining it.

This, naturally, leads to the question of dividends. Companies that happen to be good at extracting and processing this stuff are, predictably, quite keen to share some of the profits with their shareholders. It’s a surprisingly logical arrangement, really. A sort of delayed gratification scheme with a statistically low probability of actually seeing you through retirement. Still, it’s better than nothing. Here are three companies that, at the moment, seem reasonably determined to keep the dividend checks coming. Don’t mistake this for a recommendation, of course. Just an observation. (And a slight acknowledgment that we all have bills to pay.)