Mike Flaum, known as Grain of Salt, is CEO of Log Scale Investments, a Bitcoin treasury advisory and research firm focused on capital structure, governance, and per-share value analysis for Bitcoin-backed public companies. He brings more than 20 years of enterprise technology experience at IBM, Dell, and Hewlett Packard, and is the author of a published book on Bitcoin treasury company analysis. Mike is a founding member of True North covering Federal Reserve policy, monetary theory, and macro forces shaping Bitcoin’s role as a treasury asset, and has published research on True North analyzing capital structure discipline in Bitcoin treasury companies.
Interviews & Appearances
Published Work
Flow-Adjusted Yield (FAY) for $STRC and $SATA
Grain of Salt introduces Flow-Adjusted Yield (FAY), a new metric that replaces volatility with market participation as the denominator — revealing that SATA delivers 35.6% more yield per unit of flow than STRC.
Michael Saylor Broke the Sharpe Ratio with $STRC
Grain of Salt explains how STRC's collapsing volatility mechanically breaks the Sharpe Ratio — and why that means the framework itself no longer applies to Bitcoin-backed preferred equity.
Strategy Breaks Bitcoin
Strategy isn't just buying Bitcoin — it's absorbing multiples of newly mined supply, triggering a structural shift from linear supply-driven pricing to reflexive conviction-driven repricing.
Balancing of MSTR and STRC
Grain of Salt builds a mechanical framework for projecting MSTR equity value across four scenarios — showing how STRC preferred issuance reduces common share dilution and amplifies Bitcoin per share growth.
Before Las Vegas: The Math Every Bitcoin Treasury CEO Needs to See
Grain of Salt demonstrates with four scenarios why some Bitcoin treasury stocks mathematically belong near $1 — and why the fix isn't narrative, it's capital structure discipline.
$4,000+ per share for MSTR in five years?
Grain of Salt builds a BTC-per-share compounding model for Strategy using only four inputs — and shows that even with assumptions below historical averages, $4,000 per share is the conservative case.
Bitcoin Maxims and Why They are Broken
Grain of Salt dismantles five core Bitcoin maxims — never sell, banks are evil, cash-only is freedom — and argues that Bitcoin doesn't eliminate banks, it recreates them on a Bitcoin Standard.
AI isn't the threat, Lack of Self-awareness is.
Grain of Salt reinterprets Snow White as a parable for AI — arguing the real disruption isn't automation, but what happens when an always-honest mirror confronts fragile identity.
Bitcoin Is Missing a Central Bank. Strategy Is Building One.
Grain of Salt completes the 3-part series by arguing that Strategy is not just a Bitcoin treasury — it's building monetary infrastructure on Bitcoin, functioning as a de facto central bank with reserves, digital credit issuance, and programmatic monetary policy.
Is the Federal Reserve Evil?
Grain of Salt argues the real problem isn't monetary policy — it's political reality. A civics lesson on fiscal vs. monetary policy, why the Fed ends up printing, and why this leads to Bitcoin.
Hiding in Plain Sight
Grain of Salt deconstructs Strategy's three-fuel-tank capital engine — Bitcoin as reserve, preferreds as digital credit, and cash as liquidity buffer — and explains why analyzing the system beats analyzing events.