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, ...

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, ...

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...

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...

In order to fully understand what a sovereign rollup is, we’ll need to first understand the different pieces of a blockchain:Data Availability and Consensus - makes sure data is available and that there is an agreed upon ordering of transactions. Example: CelestiaSettlement - writes transaction data to the DA layer while publishing new state to the settlement layer. Settlement layers maintain state roots and is a place for dispute resolution and proof verification to take placeExecution - pro...

In order to fully understand what a sovereign rollup is, we’ll need to first understand the different pieces of a blockchain:Data Availability and Consensus - makes sure data is available and that there is an agreed upon ordering of transactions. Example: CelestiaSettlement - writes transaction data to the DA layer while publishing new state to the settlement layer. Settlement layers maintain state roots and is a place for dispute resolution and proof verification to take placeExecution - pro...

Lately the endgame for web3 has been sovereign communities or network states, advocated widely between Balaji’s The Network State and investors in web3. The vision for a sovereign community is a group of highly aligned people with a capacity for collective action that eventually crowdfunds territory and gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states. Web3 infrastructure projects are seen as a ripe area for this kind of innovation. However time and time again we’ve seen this infrastruct...

Lately the endgame for web3 has been sovereign communities or network states, advocated widely between Balaji’s The Network State and investors in web3. The vision for a sovereign community is a group of highly aligned people with a capacity for collective action that eventually crowdfunds territory and gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states. Web3 infrastructure projects are seen as a ripe area for this kind of innovation. However time and time again we’ve seen this infrastruct...

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...

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...

some of them are serious, some of them are silly. all of them are valuable. not ordered in any special way. learned = relearned = sharpened = blahWhen you’re overthinking = write. When you’re anxious = walk. When you’re tired = sleep. When you’re sad = moveHaving a different location to work from vs. live from is a game changerThe key to working through lulls is to keep moving. Get up, get out, go out. I like to end my day at the parkSomeone finally/unironically called me “Sir/Ser” on CT, tha...

some of them are serious, some of them are silly. all of them are valuable. not ordered in any special way. learned = relearned = sharpened = blahWhen you’re overthinking = write. When you’re anxious = walk. When you’re tired = sleep. When you’re sad = moveHaving a different location to work from vs. live from is a game changerThe key to working through lulls is to keep moving. Get up, get out, go out. I like to end my day at the parkSomeone finally/unironically called me “Sir/Ser” on CT, tha...

First things first, big shoutout to Lisa who collaborated on this post with me and to Christina from Aave, who shared her experience and lessons learned from launching the Lens Grants Program. Much has been written about the importance of community in web3. A protocol community can support and accelerate decentralized protocol development, integrations, commercialization, user education, or globalization. As they’re forming, communities often need guidance from the protocol core teams to be m...

First things first, big shoutout to Lisa who collaborated on this post with me and to Christina from Aave, who shared her experience and lessons learned from launching the Lens Grants Program. Much has been written about the importance of community in web3. A protocol community can support and accelerate decentralized protocol development, integrations, commercialization, user education, or globalization. As they’re forming, communities often need guidance from the protocol core teams to be m...

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...

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...