Over 8.1k subscribers
Cheryl Douglass
g to the m,
my circadian rhythm has synchronized with EF announcements, causing me to bolt upright each night around 3am with hallucinations of eth as the global reserve currency. suddenly the vibes have shifted from "cryptic posts about communism" to "hey, let's actually talk to people" in a transformation so jarring i nearly spilled my ceremonial matcha across my keyboard for the 2nd time this year.
meanwhile, the girl tech conference (formerly known as ethdenver) formed a triumvirate of hope with chipped, shefi, and boys club drawing crowds that suggest we've entered an alternate reality where people have finally actually started to acknowledge all 3 women in crypto. the markets continue their bipolar tango, one day threatening economic collapse, the next promising zero taxes on capital gains for all. i've started measuring my emotional wellbeing not in terms of traditional metrics but in "distance from checking portfolio" units. currently at 2.3 days, a new personal best, though that timer resets every time someone dms me "is it over" —a pavlovian response my therapist calls "concerning," although given the state of the markets, it's unclear how much longer i'll be able to pay her for her "concerns."
this week i'll be covering flynet from blackbird, the future of restaurant payments and potentially the only technology that can help tech bros finally land a date. tribute labs unveiled ADIN which is sure to send every 20-something junior VC analyst into an immediate quarter life crisis (rip). and the SEC dropped suits against all the big bois. very crypto-native of them to make a roadmap and never finish it.
a special shoutot to alli for inspiring this week's intro musings.
enjoy some mostly accurate reporting below.
xx, c
Tribute Labs launched Adin, an autonomous investment network; Blackbird introduced its Flynet restaurant transaction layer. Pump.fun is working on their own AMM. The EF welcomes Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stanczak as co-Executive Directors. Zora announces their token ($ZORA) to be launched in Spring 2025. The SEC dismisses lawsuits against Consensys, Gemini, and Coinbase—including a 'with prejudice' closure against Coinbase (meaning the case is permanently closed and cannot be refiled)—signaling a potential shift in the agency's approach to crypto regulation. The SEC also stated that memecoins are generally not considered securities under federal law
Trump org has officially filed a trademark for 'TRUMP' with intentions to venture into metaverse and an NFT trading platform. Trump issues an Executive Order for a Crypto Strategic Reserve including XRP, SOL, and ADA. Base introduced upgrades at ETHDenver, including Flashblocks that reduce transaction confirmation times to 200 milliseconds and Base Appchains providing dedicated blockspace for apps. The platform's innovations, such as Smart Wallet Sub Accounts, aim to make the chain faster, more scalable, and more accessible for developers and users alike. Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, has joined Frank McCourt's bid to acquire TikTok's US operations with plans to integrate blockchain technology into the platform. Devconnect, an Ethereum-focused event, is set to occur in Buenos Aires from Nov 17-22, 2025.
Tribute Labs has unveiled ADIN, an autonomous investment network that radically reimagines early-stage funding through AI-powered tech. Powered by multiple intelligent agents, the platform can evaluate startup potential in minutes, conducting "superhuman diligence" that democratizes investment by removing traditional gatekeeping barriers. Unlike conventional VC models that rely on personal networks, ADIN creates a meritocratic approach that focuses on the pure merits of a project, aiming to fund innovative ideas that might otherwise be overlooked.
The platform's approach combines collective intelligence with human oversight. Multiple AI agents analyze potential investments, compile comprehensive reports, and democratically vote on opportunities, while dao members review and validate the recommendations. This hybrid model theoretically creates a more transparent and accessible investment process that can evaluate projects across various stages, risk appetites, and focus areas.
Looking ahead, Tribute Labs envisions ADIN as a platform that extends far beyond traditional investment models. The team plans to expand capabilities including direct founder interactions, generating detailed research reports, code review, portfolio management, and even handling complex tasks like tax prep and legal analysis. By bridging AI x crypto, ADIN is a bold reimagining of capital management—faster, more transparent, and fundamentally more accessible to a global pool of builders and investors.
At its core, Flynet is a blockchain-powered upgrade for the restaurant industry—a purpose-built Layer-3 network on Base. Born from a team genuinely obsessed with restaurant culture, Flynet tackles the industry's most painful problem head-on. Credit card companies have been extracting up to 3.75% from every transaction, leaving restaurants with razor-thin margins. Flynet flips this script with a flat 2% fee that immediately returns 1.5% directly back to restaurants, transforming a predatory fee structure into a collaborative economic model.
The beauty of Flynet goes beyond transaction fees as well. It's a comprehensive reimagining of restaurant-customer relationships, powered by a two-token ecosystem. The $FLY tokens serve as a loyalty mechanism, while F2 tokens provide governance and ownership in the network. In 2024, Blackbird has already distributed 242,097,729.05 $FLY tokens across 107,568 wallets, with an average of 6.2 transactions per wallet. More importantly, the platform solves a critical data problem: instead of customer insights being locked away by banks and payment processors, restaurants now gain direct visibility into their customer relationships, with customers fully controlling their own data.
The future of restaurant payments starts now.
Read more from our…
What makes Flynet interesting is its vision of a decentralized, user-controlled network. Unlike traditional restaurant systems, this platform is designed to be controlled by its users—the restaurants, workers, and diners who are its lifeblood. By creating a seamless dining experience that eliminates card fumbling and check-waiting, while simultaneously building a loyalty ecosystem that rewards participation, Blackbird is doing more than building a payment network. They're creating a new economic infrastructure for the restaurant industry, one that aligns incentives, reduces friction, and gives restaurateurs the tools to build deeper, more meaningful connections with their customers. The future of dining isn't just digital—it's collaborative, transparent, and onchain.
Live & online Fridays at 10am PT / 1pm ET.
33
a critically acclaimed weekly consumer crypto roundup @seedclub ft. flynet from blackbird, adin from tribute labs, $zora from @zora, EF in wartime mode?, SEC abandons their roadmap, tiktok going onchain? and more!! special guest appearance @alli https://paragraph.xyz/@seedclubhq/sec-pulls-out
“sec abandons their roadmap” 💀
the title, lol
https://paragraph.xyz/@seedclubhq/sec-pulls-out