Status, and the path forward
I just came back from Devcon in Bangkok and upon landing back in SF, I had some immediate realizations I wanted to share. This analysis extends Eugene’s original concept of Status as a Service, but the implications stretch beyond his original framework.Economic and technological advancements have ensured that the basic necessities of life—food, shelter, safety—are accessible to the majority of America's population. This leaves Americans free to pursue the only thing left: status. Think o...
Status, and the path forward
I just came back from Devcon in Bangkok and upon landing back in SF, I had some immediate realizations I wanted to share. This analysis extends Eugene’s original concept of Status as a Service, but the implications stretch beyond his original framework.Economic and technological advancements have ensured that the basic necessities of life—food, shelter, safety—are accessible to the majority of America's population. This leaves Americans free to pursue the only thing left: status. Think o...
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Wallet Enshrinement
Here we are in 2024 and people are still largely building underlying protocols/infrastructure vs. apps. There’s been a bigger movement towards building apps, but the space is still heavily infra leaning. While VC dynamics play a role, the crux lies in the anticipations of where value will accrue. We’re actively seeing value capture at the transactions layer - particularly when wallets are enshrined into applications. There are already various threads on this, between talks of enshrining accou...
Wallet Enshrinement
Here we are in 2024 and people are still largely building underlying protocols/infrastructure vs. apps. There’s been a bigger movement towards building apps, but the space is still heavily infra leaning. While VC dynamics play a role, the crux lies in the anticipations of where value will accrue. We’re actively seeing value capture at the transactions layer - particularly when wallets are enshrined into applications. There are already various threads on this, between talks of enshrining accou...
Shifts in Product Dynamics
There’s been some clear shifts in how product is being built in web3 since the onset of the bear market.Velocity is the new constant: We're not just moving quickly, we're at lightspeed. The pace of what is getting built in the space is a constant change of new technologies & UX patterns (eg. bridging directly into Base on Friendtech, AA/MPC, zkEVMs, etc). Interestingly the platforms where the discourse is taking place is highly fragmented this cycle, especially given the onset of al...
Shifts in Product Dynamics
There’s been some clear shifts in how product is being built in web3 since the onset of the bear market.Velocity is the new constant: We're not just moving quickly, we're at lightspeed. The pace of what is getting built in the space is a constant change of new technologies & UX patterns (eg. bridging directly into Base on Friendtech, AA/MPC, zkEVMs, etc). Interestingly the platforms where the discourse is taking place is highly fragmented this cycle, especially given the onset of al...
A Very Delayed 2022 Reading List
Below is a list of the top books I read in 2022. The themes range from America’s political evolution, psychology, and tech history/futurism. My biggest recommendation in this list is How the Internet Happened, it’s a must read for anyone in tech. For 2023, I’ll be going deeper into political economics and China.Talent – Tyler Cowen and Daniel GrossThe Network State – Balaji SrinivasanHow the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone – Brian McCulloughThe Billionaire’s Folly: The Untold S...
A Very Delayed 2022 Reading List
Below is a list of the top books I read in 2022. The themes range from America’s political evolution, psychology, and tech history/futurism. My biggest recommendation in this list is How the Internet Happened, it’s a must read for anyone in tech. For 2023, I’ll be going deeper into political economics and China.Talent – Tyler Cowen and Daniel GrossThe Network State – Balaji SrinivasanHow the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone – Brian McCulloughThe Billionaire’s Folly: The Untold S...
On Trust and Sovereignty
It’s been a year since I started getting interested in rollups and scaling. I started writing + being more public about my thoughts to crystallize my own thinking and build connections in the rollups + infrastructure space. Over the past year, the space generally got a better sense of optimal scaling strategies – and a lot of interesting projects are thinking about and implementing them. Before 2021, a lot of scaling efforts like sidechains or rollups were purely research initiatives. Today, ...
On Trust and Sovereignty
It’s been a year since I started getting interested in rollups and scaling. I started writing + being more public about my thoughts to crystallize my own thinking and build connections in the rollups + infrastructure space. Over the past year, the space generally got a better sense of optimal scaling strategies – and a lot of interesting projects are thinking about and implementing them. Before 2021, a lot of scaling efforts like sidechains or rollups were purely research initiatives. Today, ...
