Paulo Pinto
Alti Wine Exchange founding member
Greetings, dear reader.
Three years ago, a group of people with a combined experience of more than 150 years in financial markets concluded that inflation is coming, as a result of weak money.
Indeed, this financialized economy, with zero interest rate policy and quantitative easings, have resulted in more debt and bigger deficits – which in turn can only be managed with the debasement of currencies. (I have been debating this issue for a few months already, in case you are interested.)
As a result, Alti Wine Exchange was fully operational by June 2019. Why? Because given the digital world we live in, its founding members see the future based on a tokenized form of physical assets, for which rare wine is just one of the many assets that is part of a real economy.
Online investment in wine?
Unlike a private security, which is inherently risky because it can “go to zero”, a typical wine token is backed by a real asset: a fine and rare bottle of wine. And we love wine, more than money, but well – nothing can be done without money itself.
Money is a very tricky subject, because everybody talks about when it’s coming their way but few people know about it and where it comes from.
Because everybody understands about wine, we have decided to talk about money in order to better understand fine wine. If we want higher living standards, we need a new monetary system. We need an alternative in the most important area of our lives: money.
* * *
The crucial question is, therefore, how we shape this new monetary system for the benefit of many, and not just a few.
The existing monetary system is causing a dangerous cultural shift, in which people are paid not to work, economic prosperity is no longer a priority, bigger corporations are no longer turning a profit and universities are becoming intolerant to different opinions.
To top it all, the pay as you go to the social security mandatory system is a Ponzi scheme – one that, with its unfunded responsibilities, is a bomb ready to explode.
The money problem covers practically every area of our economic life, from birth to death, with more and more rules that multiply with the sole intention of keeping the existing mechanism working.
Some people spend decades working hard and saving pennies, yet never seem to get there. Others take advantage of simple secrets and achieve financial freedom.
We at Alti Wine Exchange would like to think that we are contributing for people to understand what to do in a world with widespread support for ever more “stimulus”.
Fine and rare wines have little risk of depreciation over the years. Why is that? Because the wine on offer is either no longer found in retail or perhaps there is only some old stock left of it, thus only appreciating as time goes by.
Beyond being a real asset with few associated investment risks and limiting the depreciation cost of a bottle of fine and rare wine over the years (here’s a pension strategy you can adopt for this matter), you need to understand what will bring value to it. Your biggest reasons are:
-
Condition. Knowing it is in perfect storing conditions, you can be sure your asset is not only intact and un-damaged, but ever attractive for potential buyers when you plan on selling in the future. The wines offered on Alti Wine Exchange are held in bond unless you want to redeem them, ensuring the best conditions of storage.
-
Age-worthiness. The Alti Wine Exchange-listed fine wines, unlike the vast majority of wines, maintain quality over the years or even enhance their finest characteristics, becoming truly prized assets (more information here).
-
Number of bottles available. Assuming demand is the same time for your wine, the supply will be ever shorter, as the amount of bottles of a determined wine lessens because they will have been consumed over time. Meaning, a much higher value for one of its bottles in the future.
You do not need much to start prospering from a real asset by betting on the depreciation of money and on a treasured asset you can hold in bond, such as the fine wines listed on Alti Wine Exchange.
These logics have been the basis for developing the concept of this platform, and we hope many more initiatives of this kind will follow.
Until next time.
Santé.