It pains me to write a post about infra at a time when a complete and utter obsession around infra and degeneracy is crippling the blockchain industry while infra remains largely underutilized, but I’ll allow myself one post in a couple of months to clear away significant misconceptions. Vitalik’s latest roadmap is very similar to last year’s. This is the first time a year has passed with the Ethereum roadmap remaining stable, suggesting we finally have an endgame in sight with a sustainable ...

It pains me to write a post about infra at a time when a complete and utter obsession around infra and degeneracy is crippling the blockchain industry while infra remains largely underutilized, but I’ll allow myself one post in a couple of months to clear away significant misconceptions. Vitalik’s latest roadmap is very similar to last year’s. This is the first time a year has passed with the Ethereum roadmap remaining stable, suggesting we finally have an endgame in sight with a sustainable ...

The crypto industry has always been very detached from reality. It’s all about shilling and pumping tokens, with exuberant claims. These claims never come to pass, but the failures are quickly forgotten, and we move on to the next narrative to pump our bags. It’s easy to write off the entire industry as an embarrassing joke, and accept that degens are gonna degen. Warning, rant alert… Also, I’ll deliberately use hyperbole, because quite frankly more nuanced discussions have failed. But it’s a...

The crypto industry has always been very detached from reality. It’s all about shilling and pumping tokens, with exuberant claims. These claims never come to pass, but the failures are quickly forgotten, and we move on to the next narrative to pump our bags. It’s easy to write off the entire industry as an embarrassing joke, and accept that degens are gonna degen. Warning, rant alert… Also, I’ll deliberately use hyperbole, because quite frankly more nuanced discussions have failed. But it’s a...

Almost all DAOs that exist today operate like public companies: there’s a token, ownership and decision-making is derived by tokenholdings. Now, if the DAOs only purpose is to turn a profit for their tokenholders in addition to some CSR initiatives, this is perfectly fine. However, some DAOs may prefer to be more akin to a community, in which case a pure tokenholder DAO makes it a plutocracy where a few wealthy whales effectively control the DAO, which is the shittiest possible outcome for a ...

Almost all DAOs that exist today operate like public companies: there’s a token, ownership and decision-making is derived by tokenholdings. Now, if the DAOs only purpose is to turn a profit for their tokenholders in addition to some CSR initiatives, this is perfectly fine. However, some DAOs may prefer to be more akin to a community, in which case a pure tokenholder DAO makes it a plutocracy where a few wealthy whales effectively control the DAO, which is the shittiest possible outcome for a ...

The purpose of this post is not to enrage you or be negative or “bearish”; rather part of an ongoing attempt to discover the fundamental properties of blockchains from first principles, so that we can gain a better understanding, and get the very best of public blockchains. A lot of things are simplified as I’m trying to write a blog post, not a book. So, first, “decentralization” - what is it? According to Google’s Oxford dictionary, it is: the transfer of control of an activity or organizat...

The purpose of this post is not to enrage you or be negative or “bearish”; rather part of an ongoing attempt to discover the fundamental properties of blockchains from first principles, so that we can gain a better understanding, and get the very best of public blockchains. A lot of things are simplified as I’m trying to write a blog post, not a book. So, first, “decentralization” - what is it? According to Google’s Oxford dictionary, it is: the transfer of control of an activity or organizat...

In my previous post about the inefficiencies of monolithic blockchains, the responses can broadly be classified as:Ad-hominem attacksContradiction between demanding action around applications & discussing long-term infrastructureEven ardent monolithic chain fans agree that validity proofs and such are awesome, and they will add it and be non-monolithic in the future (OK, there are some semantic disagreements. IMO, integrating validity proofs & DAS to a monolithic chain makes it not monolithic...

In my previous post about the inefficiencies of monolithic blockchains, the responses can broadly be classified as:Ad-hominem attacksContradiction between demanding action around applications & discussing long-term infrastructureEven ardent monolithic chain fans agree that validity proofs and such are awesome, and they will add it and be non-monolithic in the future (OK, there are some semantic disagreements. IMO, integrating validity proofs & DAS to a monolithic chain makes it not monolithic...

Nothing here is new, and indeed, I’ve repeated all of this ad nauseum in 2021. Moreover, it’s completely absurd the industry is mostly obsessing over infrastructure in this day and age, when there are dozens, if not hundreds, of L1s and L2s alike which have barely any non-spam utilization after years of being live. Not to mention exponential growth of blockspace supply incoming in 2024, 2025 and beyond with basically an infinite supply of data availability (with different properties). The ove...

Nothing here is new, and indeed, I’ve repeated all of this ad nauseum in 2021. Moreover, it’s completely absurd the industry is mostly obsessing over infrastructure in this day and age, when there are dozens, if not hundreds, of L1s and L2s alike which have barely any non-spam utilization after years of being live. Not to mention exponential growth of blockspace supply incoming in 2024, 2025 and beyond with basically an infinite supply of data availability (with different properties). The ove...

Crypto has been around for 15 years now - an absolute eon in the digital age. It’s now a valuable, maturing space, even if the loudest narratives are still maddeningly degenerate. In this post, I’ll offer my personal perspective of the various eras in crypto.2009-2013: Payments, reserve asset, and store-of-valueThe first impulse for Bitcoin was two-fold. First was digital payments or digital cash, and the second was a new reserve asset. The latter attracted anarchists, anarcho-capitalists, do...

Crypto has been around for 15 years now - an absolute eon in the digital age. It’s now a valuable, maturing space, even if the loudest narratives are still maddeningly degenerate. In this post, I’ll offer my personal perspective of the various eras in crypto.2009-2013: Payments, reserve asset, and store-of-valueThe first impulse for Bitcoin was two-fold. First was digital payments or digital cash, and the second was a new reserve asset. The latter attracted anarchists, anarcho-capitalists, do...

One of main reasons most people I know (incl. myself) do not use crypto is the lack of transaction reversibility. It’s a critical part of financial transactions, that greatly minimizes many negative outcomes like thefts, hacks, fraud, human error etc. However, to achieve transaction reversibility, you need a strong legal system with robust dispute resolution mechanisms. This is a difficult, complex task, and requires a lot of subjectivity. This is the main work and cost of financial intermedi...

One of main reasons most people I know (incl. myself) do not use crypto is the lack of transaction reversibility. It’s a critical part of financial transactions, that greatly minimizes many negative outcomes like thefts, hacks, fraud, human error etc. However, to achieve transaction reversibility, you need a strong legal system with robust dispute resolution mechanisms. This is a difficult, complex task, and requires a lot of subjectivity. This is the main work and cost of financial intermedi...

In my previous post examining crypto’s PMFs and their durability, for editorial reasons I kept the stablecoins section simple. However, there’s a lot more detail to it, which also informs a lot of other usecases in crypto. Stablecoins have three broad usecases:In countries with hyperinflating currencies and restricted access to USD/EUREvading capital controls cross-border, or to/from countries with poor financial infraTransferring between CEXs/DeFi etc.First, stablecoins have achieved product...

In my previous post examining crypto’s PMFs and their durability, for editorial reasons I kept the stablecoins section simple. However, there’s a lot more detail to it, which also informs a lot of other usecases in crypto. Stablecoins have three broad usecases:In countries with hyperinflating currencies and restricted access to USD/EUREvading capital controls cross-border, or to/from countries with poor financial infraTransferring between CEXs/DeFi etc.First, stablecoins have achieved product...

Before we begin, a bit of a rant, feel free to skip. For most of this year, I have focused on diving deep into the unique properties of public blockchains, while dismissing a lot of the overhyped things that don’t really make sense. Turns out, the deeper you look, the more obvious the true value of public blockchains becomes, and the more useless the narratives seem. This series of posts is now book length, and can be aptly titled “Blockchains and objectivity”. I don’t see people talk about t...

Before we begin, a bit of a rant, feel free to skip. For most of this year, I have focused on diving deep into the unique properties of public blockchains, while dismissing a lot of the overhyped things that don’t really make sense. Turns out, the deeper you look, the more obvious the true value of public blockchains becomes, and the more useless the narratives seem. This series of posts is now book length, and can be aptly titled “Blockchains and objectivity”. I don’t see people talk about t...

In this post, we shall examine crypto's product-market fit, established over the last 15 years. Why they have met demand, how durable said demand is, and how this can inform future development in the space. I’ll attempt to keep this post as streamlined and simplified as possible. I’ll also offer the perspective of the normie. There’ll always be a niche of “crypto natives” that’ll reject a lot of what I say, and that’s fine - I’m attempting to take a more objective view. Reality and evide...

In this post, we shall examine crypto's product-market fit, established over the last 15 years. Why they have met demand, how durable said demand is, and how this can inform future development in the space. I’ll attempt to keep this post as streamlined and simplified as possible. I’ll also offer the perspective of the normie. There’ll always be a niche of “crypto natives” that’ll reject a lot of what I say, and that’s fine - I’m attempting to take a more objective view. Reality and evide...

There’s nothing new here. I’ve been talking about applications for the last couple of years, but very few care - the industry is still mostly obsessed with infra and gambling. Some people told me “next bull things will be different” - but nothing has changed; indeed, I only see a greater indulgence in infra and degeneracy as speculation has returned. I have given up on things ever changing, but I’ll keep writing occasionally, repeating myself. I have written many times about how blockchain ap...

There’s nothing new here. I’ve been talking about applications for the last couple of years, but very few care - the industry is still mostly obsessed with infra and gambling. Some people told me “next bull things will be different” - but nothing has changed; indeed, I only see a greater indulgence in infra and degeneracy as speculation has returned. I have given up on things ever changing, but I’ll keep writing occasionally, repeating myself. I have written many times about how blockchain ap...