Welcome to Kian Jer's Newsletter
I focus on bitcoin from the perspectives of energy, money, and technology.
From oil & gas, to retail gold, to bitcoin.
My background is in engineering, with a dash of “business” theoretical knowledge.
Specifically, I have a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, and a master’s degree in business administration. My career path has been rather unconventional; I was a chemical engineer in a multinational oil & gas company. I left that job to pursue my master’s degree, after which I worked as a special projects manager at a gold & jewellery retailer in Malaysia. It was then I spent a copious amount of time learning about gold, its history, and its significance as a form of money and store of value. Now, I am focusing all my time on bitcoin.
1. Why bitcoin, why now?
Like many professionals, I struggled to find a career that gave me intrinsic motivation. Fortunately, I had a rough idea of which areas I am interested in. I was eager to learn about the global economy, geopolitics, and investment related topics.
Then, with a friend's recommendation, I started learning from people like Lyn Alden, Luke Gromen, and many others, all of whom were incredibly sharp in their investment analysis. Most of them are advocates of hard assets, including gold and bitcoin. What makes them stand out is that they go far deeper than the typical justification that “bitcoin can give you lucrative returns”, and instead talked about bitcoin as the future of hard and sound money. Curious as to what gave them that level of conviction, I finally went down the rabbit hole of learning about bitcoin, and now I understand bitcoin enough to commit to it.
If I were to summarize my learnings, I would say that our progression as a species to this day can be attributed to advancements in three areas:
Energy
Money
Technology
Every time there is a breakthrough in one of these areas, our quality of life experienced a step change in improvement. And guess what? Bitcoin is a breakthrough that intersects all three areas. For the first time in history, we have a form of money (bitcoin) that is based on improved technology (cryptography + proof-of-work), and secured by neutral energy (enforced by the proof-of-work protocol).
Bitcoin fixes a lot of issues that the world faces today, from an ever increasing cost of living, to securing your individual rights and sovereignty. More people should spend time understanding it because sooner or later, most of us will realize that bitcoin is good for you, your family, and your country.
I have reached a point where I do not see anything else that is more meaningful to work on than bitcoin. Naval has a great quote in his famous “How to get rich” tweetstorm:
“Play long-term games with long-term people”
Bitcoin is a long-term game. People who devote time and energy into bitcoin are long-term people, specifically those who studied bitcoin and committed years to developing the bitcoin ecosystem through all the uncertainty. Bitcoin is where I decided to allocate my time and energy into.
2. This publication is for people who are open to updating their worldviews
We learn by continuously updating our assumptions about how the world works. In science, the saying is “a hypothesis cannot be proven true, only falsified”. This means a theory is never 100% true, as future evidence might disprove it.
I will share evidence and my rationale behind key topics that I believe require major updates in our assumptions. The topics I discuss will focus on energy, technology, and money (particularly about bitcoin and our current financial system).
It took me 7 years from first coming across bitcoin to finally take it seriously. My goal is to shorten the time it takes for you to understand why it will be a big part of our future, so you can at least make an informed decision for yourself.
“The hardest part of learning something new is not embracing new ideas, but letting go of old ones”
Todd Rose - author of “The End of Average”
3. Publication frequency and subscription
My plan is to publish weekly. There will be no difference between free and paid subscriptions for now. You can access every thing I publish for free because my main goals are to clarify my own thoughts and to share my learnings. Paid subscriptions will still be available but purely as a form of support.
More about me
Kian Jer Koh was a chemical engineer at ExxonMobil and subsequently a special projects manager at Habib Jewels. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA and an MBA from INSEAD.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this publication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Readers are encouraged to do their own research and consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions.