tl;dr: Messari Governor is creating a new software category…and bringing Web3 one step closer to reality. I really love software that integrates disparate systems into a unified interface. Sprinklr does this for social media. Gtmhub does this for business systems of record. So I got very excited when I saw the preview video for Messari Governor. Messari built its reputation as the premier data provider on Web3 platforms. What they have done with Governor is to take this one step further and a...

tl;dr: Messari Governor is creating a new software category…and bringing Web3 one step closer to reality. I really love software that integrates disparate systems into a unified interface. Sprinklr does this for social media. Gtmhub does this for business systems of record. So I got very excited when I saw the preview video for Messari Governor. Messari built its reputation as the premier data provider on Web3 platforms. What they have done with Governor is to take this one step further and a...

I had a disturbing vision the other day when I was talking to a friend about the “doom loop” of increased interest obligations alongside increasing interest rates, requiring more borrowing. His answer was: “Look, the US is the big dog. If you are anyone in the world and looking to park your capital safely, where you gonna go?” “Until there’s a reasonable competitor to the US Treasury, the US can borrow as much as it wants. It’s not China. No one trusts them. It’s not the EU. They can’t grow. ...

I had a disturbing vision the other day when I was talking to a friend about the “doom loop” of increased interest obligations alongside increasing interest rates, requiring more borrowing. His answer was: “Look, the US is the big dog. If you are anyone in the world and looking to park your capital safely, where you gonna go?” “Until there’s a reasonable competitor to the US Treasury, the US can borrow as much as it wants. It’s not China. No one trusts them. It’s not the EU. They can’t grow. ...

I have been making my way through Simon Singh’s excellent book, The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography . It plays to my geeky side in helping me understand how the crypto underlying crypto actually works. The story began thousands of years ago and traces its way up to modern times. I’m currently in the section that discusses the invention of RSA encryption and PGP encryption. These were really the first “digital ready” encryption systems designed to p...

I have been making my way through Simon Singh’s excellent book, The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography . It plays to my geeky side in helping me understand how the crypto underlying crypto actually works. The story began thousands of years ago and traces its way up to modern times. I’m currently in the section that discusses the invention of RSA encryption and PGP encryption. These were really the first “digital ready” encryption systems designed to p...

There was a line in Simon Singh’s The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography , that jumped out at me for its brilliance and its obviousness at the same time. One of the challenges in cryptography was to develop a one-way function that could be part of the solution to the key distribution problem…namely, how can you ensure that someone can read your encrypted message without physically giving them the unlock key, while ensuring that no snoopers can read it...

There was a line in Simon Singh’s The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography , that jumped out at me for its brilliance and its obviousness at the same time. One of the challenges in cryptography was to develop a one-way function that could be part of the solution to the key distribution problem…namely, how can you ensure that someone can read your encrypted message without physically giving them the unlock key, while ensuring that no snoopers can read it...

Had an article go viral the other day. Well, viral, within my little corner of the world. Still, it was fun to see it happen. More importantly, however, was the topic…the power of Atomic Composability. The idea that any piece of software can interact, permissionlessly, with any other piece of software on a decentralized ledger….well, that’s really powerful. So many of today’s Layer 1 blockchains focus on the issue of scalability, but they are making a big trade-off when it comes to the compos...

Had an article go viral the other day. Well, viral, within my little corner of the world. Still, it was fun to see it happen. More importantly, however, was the topic…the power of Atomic Composability. The idea that any piece of software can interact, permissionlessly, with any other piece of software on a decentralized ledger….well, that’s really powerful. So many of today’s Layer 1 blockchains focus on the issue of scalability, but they are making a big trade-off when it comes to the compos...

There was a year or so, around 1999, when all anyone would talk about was “corporate Intranets.” The “Internet” was nice, but it was the power of the technology behind the Internet, namely the ability to network machines together, that would revolutionize businesses, allowing them to communicate far more effectively internally. Intranets were the rage and plenty of companies started on this premise. Yesterdays’ WSJ article, As Crypto Slumps, Goldman Sachs Aims for a Wall Street Built on Block...

There was a year or so, around 1999, when all anyone would talk about was “corporate Intranets.” The “Internet” was nice, but it was the power of the technology behind the Internet, namely the ability to network machines together, that would revolutionize businesses, allowing them to communicate far more effectively internally. Intranets were the rage and plenty of companies started on this premise. Yesterdays’ WSJ article, As Crypto Slumps, Goldman Sachs Aims for a Wall Street Built on Block...

The thing that scares me about the following analogy is that I can’t tell how much of my ego is intertwined with it. On the one hand, it would prove that I was right about fiat and crypto. On the other hand, I kind of don’t want to be right about it because of the pain and suffering that is going to come with it. But just because I don’t want to be right doesn’t mean I’m not. Here’s the analogy. Right now, sovereign governments are sitting on a pile of debt. That debt amount is increasing as ...

The thing that scares me about the following analogy is that I can’t tell how much of my ego is intertwined with it. On the one hand, it would prove that I was right about fiat and crypto. On the other hand, I kind of don’t want to be right about it because of the pain and suffering that is going to come with it. But just because I don’t want to be right doesn’t mean I’m not. Here’s the analogy. Right now, sovereign governments are sitting on a pile of debt. That debt amount is increasing as ...

I get a lot of questions such as: “Hey, I thought Bitcoin was a hedge against inflation. We have ridiculous inflation, but Bitcoin is going the wrong way. What gives?” It’s a fair point. Very fair point. And I don’t have a great answer, but I do point out…”look, gold is supposed to the world’s most proven anti-inflation hedge. It’s been flat for years. What’s going on there?” And I’m not saying that to be defensive about Bitcoin. I genuinely cannot understand why gold is flat. That fact, howe...

I get a lot of questions such as: “Hey, I thought Bitcoin was a hedge against inflation. We have ridiculous inflation, but Bitcoin is going the wrong way. What gives?” It’s a fair point. Very fair point. And I don’t have a great answer, but I do point out…”look, gold is supposed to the world’s most proven anti-inflation hedge. It’s been flat for years. What’s going on there?” And I’m not saying that to be defensive about Bitcoin. I genuinely cannot understand why gold is flat. That fact, howe...

One of the things I’ve been hearing a lot is a comparison between what people expect the Fed to do today to curb inflation versus what Fed Chairman Paul Volcker did in the late 70s and early 1980s. During that time, inflation hit 14% and Volcker raised interest rates to 18% to slow things down. It worked. Here’s the question I was asking myself this morning…What was the total US debt at that time?What was the US gov’t deficit at that time?What were the debt and deficit to GDP ratios?So I look...

One of the things I’ve been hearing a lot is a comparison between what people expect the Fed to do today to curb inflation versus what Fed Chairman Paul Volcker did in the late 70s and early 1980s. During that time, inflation hit 14% and Volcker raised interest rates to 18% to slow things down. It worked. Here’s the question I was asking myself this morning…What was the total US debt at that time?What was the US gov’t deficit at that time?What were the debt and deficit to GDP ratios?So I look...

If you want to get a glimpse into the future of finance, you may want to watch this presentation from the CEO of Radix, Piers Ridyard

If you want to get a glimpse into the future of finance, you may want to watch this presentation from the CEO of Radix, Piers Ridyard

I’m sure I’ll get flamed by some of the ETH maximalists out there, but I’ve been thinking about the history of smart contract platforms. Given that the space is about 6 years old, that’s a bit rich, I know, but the pace of tech innovation is so rapid that I think it’s ok to do that. And, yes, I have skin in the game on being right about this, so take it with a grain of salt, but here’s the deal. The more I study the Ethereum Virtual Machine model for a “world computer,” the more impressed and...

I’m sure I’ll get flamed by some of the ETH maximalists out there, but I’ve been thinking about the history of smart contract platforms. Given that the space is about 6 years old, that’s a bit rich, I know, but the pace of tech innovation is so rapid that I think it’s ok to do that. And, yes, I have skin in the game on being right about this, so take it with a grain of salt, but here’s the deal. The more I study the Ethereum Virtual Machine model for a “world computer,” the more impressed and...

I sent a letter to the editor of the WSJ the other day, following up on the article about DeFi’s “Existential Problem.” I’m glad I did. My first draft was too wordy and a bit clunky, but as I refined it, the ideas started to take shape. The basic point I was trying to make (not publishing it here b/c I don’t want to blow what little chance I have of it getting printed) was that Crypto/blockchains are like the Internet in that both are platforms for new business models. I’ve said this thousand...

I sent a letter to the editor of the WSJ the other day, following up on the article about DeFi’s “Existential Problem.” I’m glad I did. My first draft was too wordy and a bit clunky, but as I refined it, the ideas started to take shape. The basic point I was trying to make (not publishing it here b/c I don’t want to blow what little chance I have of it getting printed) was that Crypto/blockchains are like the Internet in that both are platforms for new business models. I’ve said this thousand...