jer979Purpose Struggle
Yesterday, I decided that my blogging career should come to an end. I was doing myself a disservice. I told myself that the goal of the posts was to dig deeper, peel back the layers, get down to the core. But by publishing online (or on-chain as the case may be), I was subconsciously writing for others, even if I told myself that I didn't care if others read. So, in an effort to be more authentic, I figured I'd stop publishing and start doing a private journal. Within 2 hours of that decision...
jer979Value. Happiness.
I feel happy. It's fun, it's light, like a feather floating at the beginning of Forrest Gump. But, like the feather, it's not grounded. It can flitter and float away. Value is also ephemeral. We know it when we see it. We feel it, somewhere deep inside. Something connects to us, saying "yes, this is worth it." The "it" that it's worth is energy. Energy in the form of time, attention, money. The things of which our possession is limited. There's a reason why all the great traditions point to "...
jer979Coffee with AI
Every day for the past month, I’ve had a coffee date with AI. I literally sit down, with a cup of coffee, with an appointment on my calendar that says “coffee with AI”. During that time, AI (I’ve used ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Venice) and I literally have a chat, the way I would with a friend. It’s not “write this letter for me” or “do this or that.” No, it’s a chance for us to have a conversation about whatever topic I want. Many days, recently, at least, it’s been about quant...
www.twitter.com/jer979
jer979Purpose Struggle
Yesterday, I decided that my blogging career should come to an end. I was doing myself a disservice. I told myself that the goal of the posts was to dig deeper, peel back the layers, get down to the core. But by publishing online (or on-chain as the case may be), I was subconsciously writing for others, even if I told myself that I didn't care if others read. So, in an effort to be more authentic, I figured I'd stop publishing and start doing a private journal. Within 2 hours of that decision...
jer979Value. Happiness.
I feel happy. It's fun, it's light, like a feather floating at the beginning of Forrest Gump. But, like the feather, it's not grounded. It can flitter and float away. Value is also ephemeral. We know it when we see it. We feel it, somewhere deep inside. Something connects to us, saying "yes, this is worth it." The "it" that it's worth is energy. Energy in the form of time, attention, money. The things of which our possession is limited. There's a reason why all the great traditions point to "...
jer979Coffee with AI
Every day for the past month, I’ve had a coffee date with AI. I literally sit down, with a cup of coffee, with an appointment on my calendar that says “coffee with AI”. During that time, AI (I’ve used ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Venice) and I literally have a chat, the way I would with a friend. It’s not “write this letter for me” or “do this or that.” No, it’s a chance for us to have a conversation about whatever topic I want. Many days, recently, at least, it’s been about quant...
www.twitter.com/jer979
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jer979The Ecosystem Trilemma
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jer979The Ecosystem Trilemma
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The ‘blockchain trilemma’ was identified as a series of trade-offs required for the growth of blockchains by Vitalik Buterin.
Basically, it posited that you could have security, scalability, or decentralization, but not all three.
Since then, every major blockchain out there has run into this conundrum.
Radix has addressed the trilemma by going around it, since it’s not a blockchain (though it is a public ledger).
That’s a big leap for many people to make since most people think that all public DLTs=blockchain, but that is like saying “all cars are Teslas.”
The “blockchain trilemma” is an engineer’s problem and, well, since it’s not a problem any longer (as far as Radix is concerned), I’ve started to turn my attention to the thing that will really impede the growth of a network over the long-term.
Ecosystem health.
And that’s where the new trilemma exists.
For a crypto network to successfully grow and thrive, it has three big inputs.
infrastructure that doesn’t inhibit the rapid growth of network usage
a developer experience (DevEx) that is both fast and secure
a user experience (UX) that is intuitive, allowing for rapid adoption by increasingly non-technical folks
Typically, what happens as networks (especially blockchain-based ones) grow, is that they run into the aforementioned dilemma, so they look for ways to scale. Now, if they compromise on security or decentralization, those are both going to impact the long-term DevEx and UX.
Devs won’t trust a platform that isn’t secure and they will feel vulnerable if there’s not sufficient decentralization.
Users will be in the same boat.
Ok, so what if the blockchain network compromises on scalability? Well, then, the network will be slow. Again, poor UX and poor DevEx.
All of those hinder the long-term ecosystem health of the network.
And, as they way, “but wait, there’s more.”
Most, if not all, blockchain-based Layer 1 networks have either implemented, or will implement, scaling solutions which break one of the “4 Superpowers” of Web3…Atomic Composability (AC).
AC is the ability for any application or component on a network to connect directly and without permission or friction with any other application or component on a network.
However, when a blockchain-based Layer 1 implements a “Layer 2” solution to help with scaling or when it “shards” its chain so that app 1 lives over here while app 2 lives over there, AC is broken.
AC is a magical weapon in the hands of developers, so breaking it as part of an infrastructure scaling solution is going to lessen the overall DevEx.
That, in turn, will give users less choice, which is a reduction in UX.
So, networks that don’t compromise on AC will ultimately have a better DevEx and a better UX, key drivers of ecosystem health.
The trilemma that most L1s face is that they can’t square this circle and figure out how to ensure a thriving ecosystem where infrastructure growth is unimpeded without affecting either UX or DevEx.
The L1 that can will have a strong competitive differentiator.
The ‘blockchain trilemma’ was identified as a series of trade-offs required for the growth of blockchains by Vitalik Buterin.
Basically, it posited that you could have security, scalability, or decentralization, but not all three.
Since then, every major blockchain out there has run into this conundrum.
Radix has addressed the trilemma by going around it, since it’s not a blockchain (though it is a public ledger).
That’s a big leap for many people to make since most people think that all public DLTs=blockchain, but that is like saying “all cars are Teslas.”
The “blockchain trilemma” is an engineer’s problem and, well, since it’s not a problem any longer (as far as Radix is concerned), I’ve started to turn my attention to the thing that will really impede the growth of a network over the long-term.
Ecosystem health.
And that’s where the new trilemma exists.
For a crypto network to successfully grow and thrive, it has three big inputs.
infrastructure that doesn’t inhibit the rapid growth of network usage
a developer experience (DevEx) that is both fast and secure
a user experience (UX) that is intuitive, allowing for rapid adoption by increasingly non-technical folks
Typically, what happens as networks (especially blockchain-based ones) grow, is that they run into the aforementioned dilemma, so they look for ways to scale. Now, if they compromise on security or decentralization, those are both going to impact the long-term DevEx and UX.
Devs won’t trust a platform that isn’t secure and they will feel vulnerable if there’s not sufficient decentralization.
Users will be in the same boat.
Ok, so what if the blockchain network compromises on scalability? Well, then, the network will be slow. Again, poor UX and poor DevEx.
All of those hinder the long-term ecosystem health of the network.
And, as they way, “but wait, there’s more.”
Most, if not all, blockchain-based Layer 1 networks have either implemented, or will implement, scaling solutions which break one of the “4 Superpowers” of Web3…Atomic Composability (AC).
AC is the ability for any application or component on a network to connect directly and without permission or friction with any other application or component on a network.
However, when a blockchain-based Layer 1 implements a “Layer 2” solution to help with scaling or when it “shards” its chain so that app 1 lives over here while app 2 lives over there, AC is broken.
AC is a magical weapon in the hands of developers, so breaking it as part of an infrastructure scaling solution is going to lessen the overall DevEx.
That, in turn, will give users less choice, which is a reduction in UX.
So, networks that don’t compromise on AC will ultimately have a better DevEx and a better UX, key drivers of ecosystem health.
The trilemma that most L1s face is that they can’t square this circle and figure out how to ensure a thriving ecosystem where infrastructure growth is unimpeded without affecting either UX or DevEx.
The L1 that can will have a strong competitive differentiator.
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