Commentary: Bitcoin

Bitcoin has become one of the most discussed and debated assets of the modern era. Opinions often focus on where its price may go next, but before asking where Bitcoin is headed, it's worth asking a more fundamental question. What is Bitcoin?

In this article, Basepoint Wealth examines Bitcoin through the lenses of economic history, monetary theory, and investment principles. Rather than forecasting future prices or advocating for a particular outcome, our goal is to provide a thoughtful framework for understanding Bitcoin, evaluating its characteristics, and considering how it compares with more traditional investments.

Whether you're an investor, an enthusiast, or simply curious, we hope this article encourages informed discussion and a deeper understanding of one of today's most fascinating financial topics.

"Money is not, properly speaking, one of the subjects of commerce; but only the instrument which men have agreed upon to facilitate the exchange of one commodity for another. It is none of the wheels of trade: It is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels more smooth and easy.”

-David Hume, Of Money

It’s Tuesday morning and you finally remember to pick up your dry cleaning after noticing a dwindling supply of clean shirts in your closet. In a rush, you make your way to the counter. You check your wallet, your coat pocket, and your briefcase, but your claim ticket is nowhere to be found. Luckily, you have used the same cleaners for 10 years and they recognize you immediately. They hand over your neatly pressed shirts with no hesitation. Did the claim ticket really have any value? What if I told you that Bitcoin is similar to the laundry claim ticket, but instead of being linked to laundry, it is linked to energy spent solving cryptographic equations, and there is really nothing left to claim. This article describes Bitcoin and discusses why it is hard to value, even though it carries price and direct ownership.

Thomas Hobbes famously described life in “a state of nature” as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." The academic discipline of Political Economy, the precursor to Economics, was developed to facilitate cooperation between people and allow for protection of life, property, and rights. In the prehistoric world, possession was the only asset. You had food, shelter, and warmth or you did not. If your tribe was short of resources, you found someone else who had them and took them or died trying. Humans organized into civilizations and searched for reliable ways to allocate resources. Because excess perishable resources have limited immediate utility, finding ways to delay and preserve consumption allows more efficient distribution. It also allows excess work that you do today to be pooled together, sold to others, and conserved for benefit later. Financial innovation is the story of how humans have worked together to meet their collective needs over time.

One of the most important inventions in human history was the observation that valuable resources can be embodied in a representative claim. Traveling back 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, we find physical tokens called bullae, which were stylized clay objects meant to physically represent a claim on a commodity. An advanced system of collection, storage, and distribution of physical necessities existed in the ancient city of Uruk. Commodities were collected at the local temple for safe storage, and ownership claims were issued in the form of representative objects to empower the owner to make claims or trade claims without physically possessing valuable and perishable goods. Grain, livestock, honey, and even physical labor were represented in token form.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat, an Art History scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, spent her career traveling around the world examining these priceless antiquities at museums and studying the archaeological literature on the sites where they were found. She hypothesized that not only were these tokens claims on physical commodities and not simple decorations, but their physical form was also the precursor to written language as the shapes of the objects were eventually transformed into characters recorded on cuneiform tablets. It appears likely that the earliest forms of writing were accounting and finance conventions.

The ability to document and track assets and liabilities eventually led to the issuance of debt, the calculation of interest, and the securitization of physical claims. In due time the temples realized that not everyone made their claim simultaneously, and that only fractional reserves needed to be held to support the burgeoning economy. The claims had value because of what they represented, not in their own right. A tokenized claim on wheat has no practical value unless it can be reliably converted into wheat. The important thing to note is that some of these claim tickets still exist, but their value comes from their history and their rarity, not from their original purpose, which was allocation of resources.

The Lydians in modern day Turkey created coins, and the Greeks and the Romans later learned of this concept and used it to facilitate trade and payment for services. The idea of money was born, and purchasing power became fungible and temporal. In China, paper claims were created that could be exchanged for goods and labor without being physically represented by any direct tangible commodity. Eventually business activity was securitized, and in addition to facilitating transactions, securities were formed to sell fractional interests in business operations. The Dutch greatly expanded contract law, securities transactions, and the ability of merchants to raise capital to explore and to fund trade.

There is an important distinction that needs to be made between money and claims on future money. Both are assets, but one is a claim on current goods and labor, and the other is a future claim on goods and labor, discounted back to today. Money cannot be properly valued as an asset other than the convention that it is denominated numerically. It is only worth the things that it can currently acquire. Securities are also denominated in current numerical form, but they are discounted based on how much purchasing power they are expected to command in the future.

While we owe much of the progress that civilization has enjoyed to representative claims, fungibility, fractional reserves, securitization, and discountability, important nuance has been lost over time. Money, securities, assets, commodities, debts, and accounts have been artificially homogenized into a common silo. Each of these represents a different claim over a different time period, and with varying degrees of certainty. To properly understand an asset, we need to pay very close attention to what we really own, and when. In the long run, these are still just metaphorical claims on wheat.

Historically, the value of money has been subject to the manipulation and exploitation of institutions created by men. Coins have been clipped. Metallic purity has been degraded. Paper has been printed. Fractional reserves have inflated the supply of money. Representational claims on metal have been severed. Significant debt has been issued. All these things cause the money in your pocket to purchase less in the future than it did in the past. As finance moved to the digital world, it became impossible for two individuals to exchange value without trusting a third-party intermediary to facilitate their transactions. In 2008 an anonymous cryptography researcher going by the nom de plume “Satoshi Nakamoto” proposed a peer-to-peer electronic cash system designed to eliminate the need for a trusted third-party in online transactions. What began as a proposed solution to a narrowly defined technical problem would eventually evolve into one of the most significant monetary debates of the last decade.

Bitcoin- History

“Abstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online

payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a

financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main

benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending.

We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU[central processing unit] power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they'll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.

--Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, Satoshi Nakamoto

On October 31, 2008, an anonymous white paper authored by an unknown entity going by the handle “Satoshi Nakamoto” was published on a cryptography mailing list on the platform Metzdowd. The white paper is 9 pages long and describes a system of peer-to-peer electronic cash. The author’s true identity was never revealed, and three years after publication the author disappeared completely.

The white paper is quite simple in both intent and explanation. The proposed system would allow transactions between anonymous users without having to utilize a trusted third party like a bank or payment service. The peer-to-peer system would facilitate transfers of small amounts of money that transaction fees make prohibitively expensive but also permit transactions larger than those allowed by online banking institutions. It would also remove trust and transaction reversal from the equation.

The peer-to-peer system would utilize proof of work to update a distributed ledger proving that transactions were valid. It proposes methods for dealing with double-spending, preventing network attacks by dishonest parties, and adjusting the difficulty of the proof of work required to update each block of information.  The system is by design decentralized, utilizing a network of pooled computers working together to solve cryptographic problems to update a ledger.

On January 3, 2009, Bitcoin was launched by Satoshi Nakamoto with the mining of the Genesis Block (Block 0), which embedded a newspaper headline about bank bailouts, and established the first Blockchain. This transaction created the first 50 Bitcoins, which due to a quirk in the code are permanently locked and non-transferable. The previous-hash block, an authenticity signature embedded into every new block, is all zeros due to there being no parent block. Five days later, on January 8, 2009, Block 1 was mined, and a message from Satoshi was posted on the cryptography board encouraging users to download the software and participate in the network to facilitate processing. Later in January 2009, the first peer-to-peer transaction was processed when Satoshi transferred 10 Bitcoins to computer programmer Hal Finney. During March 2010, the first market value for Bitcoin was established at $.003. On May 22, 2010, the first commercial transaction was recorded when Laszlo Hanyecz used 10,000 Bitcoin to purchase two large pizzas from Papa John’s, a day still celebrated in Bitcoin culture as “Pizza Day.” By February 2011, Bitcoin hit parity with the US Dollar at $1.00 per coin, and on November 27, 2013, Bitcoin first crossed $1,000 per coin.

What started as an obscure experiment conducted by cryptographic researchers had turned into a functioning peer-to-peer exchange network. Exchanges, wallets, mining and the other pillars of the Bitcoin community proliferated over time, reached mainstream financial status, and evolved into an institutional asset class. Technological improvements have been implemented, a regulatory structure has developed, solutions for custody have evolved, exchange-traded funds have been created, and increasingly individuals, institutions, and advisors allocate capital to Bitcoin.

In the present moment, Bitcoin is no longer heralded by proponents as simply electronic cash. They call it “digital gold”, they classify it as a store of value. They argue it should be a reserve asset for both governments and corporations. They insist that it can be used to hedge against monetary inflation. And most importantly, they classify it as a new form of money.

Bitcoin- Nature

“History in general is therefore the development of Spirit in Time, as nature is the development of Ideas in Space.”

--Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History

History and nature are not the same. History tells us what happened, and nature attempts to describe what something is. History is an account of past shifts in nature. Necessarily, since nature evolves in space, an account at one time can be inaccurate in comparison to another time. What we attempt now is to describe the nature of Bitcoin as best as we can understand it today.

Bitcoin is a decentralized ledger maintained by consensus of proof-of-work by a network of computers and servers processing cryptographic problems to generate a solution to update transaction data. It is classified as a cryptocurrency and operates on a technology called blockchain. It is important to note that Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency, it is estimated that millions of different cryptocurrencies currently exist, or have been abandoned; roughly 10,000-15,000 of these are still actively traded. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and it has the highest total market value, but it is not unique in terms of technology or function.

Ownership of Bitcoin is created by possession of a private cryptographic key. There is no physical possession of a tangible item. It is not a security, or a fractional interest in any operating business. It is an exclusive digital right to update a specific location on a public ledger. A Bitcoin, or fraction thereof, is assigned to a public key, much like an e-mail address, that anyone can see. This public key shows the network that a specific amount of Bitcoin belongs to that location. Access is controlled by a private key. The private key is a secret, unguessable cryptographic password that gives the holder the mathematical authority to transfer their holding to someone else. There is no computer file, no receipt, no trading ticket, and no certificate. Bitcoin only exists on a large public datasheet known as a blockchain. Ownership simply means that the entire network agrees that your individual private key controls a specific number of coins, or fraction of a coin.

One of the key tenets of modern Bitcoin culture is scarcity. There will only be 21 million Bitcoins mined. Each time a node updates the ledger, additional Bitcoins are created as compensation for updating the ledger. The reward for mining a new block is currently 3.125 BTC. The reward amount is halved approximately every 4 years, reducing the speed at which new BTC is created.

• First Halving: November 28, 2012 (reward dropped from 50 BTC to 25 BTC)

• Second Halving: July 9, 2016 (reward dropped from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC)

• Third Halving: May 11, 2020 (reward dropped from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC)

• Fourth Halving: April 20, 2024 (reward dropped from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC)
  

Over 20 million of the allowed 21 million Bitcoin (95.2%) have already been mined. But due to the halving function, the last Bitcoin will not be mined until the year 2140. Once the last Bitcoin is mined, there will need to be a new reward, perhaps a transaction fee, to incentivize the miners to utilize computing capacity and energy to update the ledger.

To “spend” a Bitcoin, value is transferred directly between network participants. Service providers have emerged to facilitate transactions between individuals and businesses, and to process conversion into cash. The unfortunate fact is that not having to utilize trusted third parties to facilitate transactions was, in essence, the entire proposal of the original white paper. Because the Bitcoin network can only process a limited number of transactions, processors like “Lightning” exist to bundle transactions before they are directly updated on the ledger. This has introduced third parties, trust, and transaction fees into a system designed to eliminate the need for these very things.

The integrity of the Bitcoin network is derived from cryptography, incentives to miners, and validation that is distributed across the network. Advanced encryption is used to verify data integrity, transaction blocks, and the mining process. Proof-of-Work is used to validate and confirm pending transactions. Miners use massive amounts of processing power and energy to repeatedly guess a cryptographic hash that falls below a specific target. This real-world expense is intended to make it impossible and unrewarding for a hacker to rewrite Bitcoin’s ledger.

There are three parties to the operation of the Bitcoin network. The users are owners who create and request transactions to send and receive Bitcoin. Their transactions are broadcast to the network using Bitcoin Wallets. The miners are computer operators who work alone or in pools to collect pending transaction data and group them into blocks. Miners use real world energy and computer processing to solve a complex cryptographic puzzle to add new entries to the blockchain. Nodes are separate computers running the full Bitcoin protocol to maintain a verified and complete copy of the entire ledger. Nodes independently verify that the blocks proposed by miners follow all the rules dictated by the Bitcoin protocol before they are accepted into the database.

The smallest unit of Bitcoin is called a Satoshi, or Sat, which is equal to one-hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin. Each Bitcoin has exactly 100,000,000 Sats, making very small transactions possible even at very high prices of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is portable, meaning that all you need is your private key to process a transaction. In theory, very large amounts of spending power can be transported across borders, and transactions can occur anywhere in the world that the ledger can be updated. Each ownership interest is verifiable, censorship resistant, and durable.

This should all be uncontentious because it is simply a description of what Bitcoin is. A digital address exists that only the owner has the key to, and with that key the owner can transfer the address to anyone else. It is not a token, or a ticket, or a bullae. It is simply a password that allows the holder to transfer a place in a spreadsheet to another entity. These entries in the spreadsheet are created over time as the miners processing the blocks update the ledger. The miners can then choose to sell their reward or hold it.

Bitcoin- Logic

“Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion."

--Francis Bacon

Up to this point our entire discussion has been descriptive. It is meant to be a recounting of facts that are not in dispute. If there is disagreement with anything said, it is a dispute of fact and an accusation of error, not a difference of opinion. Now we enter the realm of judgment. We will try to build a scaffolding that determines what an owner of a Bitcoin really owns.

Is Bitcoin an asset?

Milton Friedman defined an asset as “any form of wealth holding”. This can be money, bonds, equities, land, a spatula, clothing, or even human capital like skills, knowledge, and health. Clearly under this definition, Bitcoin is an asset. It is a password that allows you to transfer an entry in a ledger to another entity.

Is Bitcoin a security?

A security is defined as a tradable financial instrument that holds monetary value. A security functions as a bridge between an entity who needs capital and an entity who has capital. The primary types of securities are equities and bonds. Bitcoin is not classified as a security by government regulators, and it does not represent an incidence of interests between parties; it only exists as an entry in a ledger.

Is Bitcoin a commodity?

A commodity is a basic, interchangeable raw material or primary agricultural product that is used as an input to produce other goods. Regulators in the US define Bitcoin as a commodity. The key characteristics of a commodity are: Fungibility, Price Drivers, and Market Participants. Gold, silver, corn, wheat, oil, and livestock are all commodities. Bitcoin is not used as an input for any other good, however, its price is solely determined by supply and demand, and great emphasis is placed on the opinions and beliefs of market participants. It could be argued that Bitcoin exhibits more characteristics of a collectible than a true commodity.

Is Bitcoin Money?

There are three characteristics required for a thing to be money:

Store of Value: Bitcoin, as currently understood, functions as a poor store of value. While there has been significant appreciation since the days of the first pizza purchase, price regularly fluctuates between very large gains and very large losses. If the money in your pocket was worth $1.00 today and $.50 a month later, you would not consider that valuation to be stable. It is also noteworthy that the value of Bitcoin currently relies heavily on its price in terms of currency. A true store of value would be measured in what it can acquire, not in terms of how much money it can be converted into before being converted into goods.

Medium of Exchange: It is possible to use Bitcoin directly as a means of purchasing goods. However, this is not the primary function, or even a common function. There are lists of companies accepting Bitcoin as payment for goods. However, most of these merchants utilize a payment network to immediately convert Bitcoin into dollars as soon as the transaction is processed. So, while it is possible to purchase things directly with Bitcoin, it is not a defining feature, and most transactions do not ultimately settle in Bitcoin, they settle in currency. In addition, it is very rare to use Bitcoin without incurring a transaction fee. There is no user fee to use currency directly. This is why a credit card is not money, because a third party is required to facilitate the transaction.

Unit of Account: A unit of account provides a common, measurable standard for pricing and comparing the relative value of different goods and services. I have yet to see a single price quoted in terms of Bitcoin. I don’t know how many potatoes a Bitcoin is worth, or how many Bitcoin the average house is worth. It is always necessary to convert Bitcoin into currency to price any good or service in terms of Bitcoin.

Verdict:

Based on a reasonable estimate of the logic of Bitcoin, it is an asset, but not a security, with some features of a collectible, classified by US regulators as a commodity, but not exhibiting the features of a commodity, and it does not satisfy any of the three criteria at this point in time to be considered money. There are securities that own Bitcoin, but these are derivative securities, not primary securities.

Bitcoin- Valuation:

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”

--Warren Buffett

Now we find ourselves facing the most important question: do we have sufficient information or knowledge to make a decision about buying or selling Bitcoin?

As investors, we allocate capital based on the reasonable assumption that what we buy will at minimum provide the return that we need to meet our goals. We buy equities, bonds, and real estate based on both expected appreciation and the income that they produce. They generate cash flow that allows us to discount future economic benefits into an estimate of value today. Stocks produce earnings and dividends, bonds produce interest, and real estate produces rent. These streams of income can be discounted given a required rate of return to determine how much we are willing to pay to satisfy the need to generate income over time.

We hold cash because it generates interest, does not have short-term fluctuations in asset value, has zero duration, and is available directly as purchasing power of both goods and services. Cash is not just a placeholder for us; it is a component in our allocation. Securities generate cash, cash generates interest and provides monthly spending power, and cash can be readily converted back into securities when needed.

We buy some commodities and companies that produce commodities because they may provide protection during periods of inflation. Inflation eats away at purchasing power, and when equities and bonds are over-valued, we may use gold, silver, and commodities producing firms like oil companies or miners to hedge our portfolio and to provide protection. We do not buy commodities futures contracts because they are not direct ownership of commodities, they are claims on commodities.

So, what do we get when we buy Bitcoin? We have established that it is a password that provides the ability to change the public key occupying a cell in a ledger. It is not a stream of income, it is not a plot of land that we can occupy, and it is not yet money.

If you read a stack of books on Bitcoin, these are the intangible benefits that are proposed in the valuation:

Absolute Scarcity- “There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin, unlike gold, dollars, or corporate stock, no person, government, or corporation can create more”:

This statement is locally true, but globally false. We highlighted earlier that there are millions of different cryptocurrencies in existence. Bitcoin just happened to be the first. Yes, Bitcoin will likely only have 21 million coins, but there are an unlimited number of close substitutes available that may offer better speed, accuracy, and security. This argument requires you to hold faith that Bitcoin is special among cryptocurrencies. It asks you to assume something of unknown durability and persistence: how people will feel about Bitcoin in the future.

Monetary Sovereignty- “Bitcoin allows users to process transactions without relying on any bank, government or custodian. Ownership is controlled solely by the possession of the private key”:

Again, something that is theoretically true, but practically implausible. Most people transact via third party facilitators, hold their coins on an exchange, use a processor to transact, or even hold an ETF or other derivative security to gain exposure. Most ownership and transactions in Bitcoin are not sovereign in nature.

Network Security- “Bitcoin is protected by the largest proof-of-work computing network ever assembled. The enormous energy expenditure and decentralized validation make altering the ledger economically impractical”:

This argument brings up an important point. Not only does Bitcoin not generate income for owners, but the network itself has an enormous cost to maintain. It is estimated that $14 billion a year is spent on energy and computer equipment to mine Bitcoin. This cost must come from somewhere, and it is only payable in dollars, not in Bitcoin itself. There is a constant drag on Bitcoin because it generates negative internal cash flow. Miners must either insert dollars into the network when they pay their power bills, or they must sell Bitcoin to keep the lights on. When the price of Bitcoin rises, they may find it advantageous to pay cash, but when the price is falling, they may be more likely to convert the newly created coins into cash adding to selling pressure.

Monetary Network Effects- “Bitcoin becomes more valuable as individuals, institutions, corporations, and governments adopt it as a monetary standard. Its usefulness increases with the size of its network”:

Again, we are being asked to have faith in the future. In this statement, however, is an admission that success depends on more people being converted into the fold. Early adopters are rewarded because eventually this argument assumes everyone will have to be involved. This simply is unknowable, and certainly not an asset that can be reasonably valued without making assumptions about decisions other people will make in the future.

 Credible Monetary Policy- “Bitcoin’s issuance schedule is transparent, deterministic, and cannot be changed without overwhelming consensus”:

This one also contains an admission. The schedule can be changed. Even the hard limit of 21 million coins can theoretically be changed in the future based on consensus of miners and network nodes. Not likely, but also not impossible. We are asked again to have faith and trust that people in the future will make predictable decisions based on today. Further, this is not an asset that can be valued.

In summary, the list of assets produced to prove the value of Bitcoin are all leading back to one single necessity: Faith.

Bitcoin does not possess value in the investment sense; it is assigned a price by the market based on supply, demand, liquidity, and belief. Price is observable, but value must be derived from an economic benefit, and Bitcoin provides no such benefit to its owner, it produces no cash flow, represents no claim on productive assets, provides no consumable utility, and cannot be discounted into a present value. What it has is a market price, assigned by buyers and sellers through supply and demand. That price may rise or fall dramatically, but a quoted price has no value of its own.

 Conclusion-

"No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all of your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future."

--Howard Marks

This article ends exactly where it began, in 1752 with David Hume: “but only the instrument which men have agreed upon to facilitate the exchange of one commodity for another”. Have people agreed upon Bitcoin yet as money? It doesn’t satisfy any of the requirements of money. It is not an income-producing asset. It is not useful in any tangible sense. It cannot keep you warm or fed in a blizzard. It is simply an agreement among some men. All the arguments are “more people will accept it, jump on before it’s too late!” This has never been an effective investment strategy. It does not mean that Bitcoin will fail, but it does mean that there will need to be significant action by others for it to continue to succeed.

Any attempt to calculate what that is worth today is futile. It is just as much a mistake to say that Bitcoin is going to $0 as it is to say that it is going to $1,000,000. The future price is completely unknown. But, as we weigh the evidence, it is more likely that Bitcoin will not become a global value storage system because the network is slow, it is expensive to maintain, and because it requires the adoption and trust of people to continue gaining value. This is simply something that we cannot predict with reasonable certainty.

In the meantime, we can continue buying securities that generate cash flow, hold money that is convertible into goods and services, and is currently agreed upon as legal tender, and selectively accumulate commodities that appreciate with inflation because they provide tangible benefits. This is how investing works.

The important thing to notice is that we do not have to have an opinion on every asset available in the investment universe. Every investment decision is a choice between opportunity and the unknown. There are things that cannot be calculated. A password controlling an entry in a public ledger that does not generate any income and that depends on other people wanting it to prosper is not an investment; it is speculation. Hope and faith can influence the prices at which assets trade, but they cannot themselves be properly valued because they provide no independently measured economic benefit. That does not mean that it is impossible for Bitcoin to succeed; it means that Bitcoin’s success or failure is impossible to predict. This is why we will continue to abstain unless the facts change.

Warm Regards,

Allen

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities or instruments named or described in this report. The charts, graphs, and formulas included are not intended to be used by themselves to determine which securities to buy or sell, or when to buy or sell them. Such charts and graphs offer limited information and should not be used on their own to make investment decisions. Decisions to buy or sell a position should be based on an investor's investment objectives and risk tolerance and should not rely solely on this report.  Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.  Be sure to first consult a qualified financial adviser before implementing any strategy discussed.  Supporting information related to the recommendation, if any, made in the research report is available upon request. Past performance may not be indicative of future performance. 

The information in this report has been obtained from sources believed by Basepoint Wealth, LLC to be reliable and accurate. We cannot guarantee its accuracy, completeness, and validity and cannot be held liable for any errors or omissions.  Any opinions or estimates contained in this report represent the judgment of Basepoint Wealth, LLC at this time and are subject to change without notice.