Bitcoin Lightning is mostly a meme used as a retort to people who say "Bitcoin doesn't scale", it's not a long term solution to anything. It's sad there are so few technically competent people left in the Bitcoin community to point this out, but its true. If Bitcoin had a hard fork to make ZK Rollups possible it would completely obsolete the lightning network (and be good for Bitcoins security budget!).What is the lightning network and how does it work?It's a state channel...

Bitcoin Lightning is mostly a meme used as a retort to people who say "Bitcoin doesn't scale", it's not a long term solution to anything. It's sad there are so few technically competent people left in the Bitcoin community to point this out, but its true. If Bitcoin had a hard fork to make ZK Rollups possible it would completely obsolete the lightning network (and be good for Bitcoins security budget!).What is the lightning network and how does it work?It's a state channel...

We still don't have digital cash, and no, the thing you are thinking of right now is not digital cash. Here's what digital cash means:No companyNo loginNo seed phraseNo address bookNo account numbersNo gatekeepersNo traceabilityIt's CASH. It should function exactly like cash. We have the tools to build it now, but nobody has taken the challenge. Here's how it could work: The initial home screen is your balance, nothing else. There is no account creation, no login, no seed ...

We still don't have digital cash, and no, the thing you are thinking of right now is not digital cash. Here's what digital cash means:No companyNo loginNo seed phraseNo address bookNo account numbersNo gatekeepersNo traceabilityIt's CASH. It should function exactly like cash. We have the tools to build it now, but nobody has taken the challenge. Here's how it could work: The initial home screen is your balance, nothing else. There is no account creation, no login, no seed ...

One of the most exciting ideas to come out of "tokenize all the things" is retroactive public goods funding (RetroPGF). It's one of the first good non-skeuomorphic ideas I've seen in the Web3 space. RetroPGF Is a way to encourage people to invest in charities as much as they do in startups / public companies. How? By ensuring that future donations to those charities reward early investors in them. Optimism kicked off this idea with their grants rounds - round two started this week. ...

One of the most exciting ideas to come out of "tokenize all the things" is retroactive public goods funding (RetroPGF). It's one of the first good non-skeuomorphic ideas I've seen in the Web3 space. RetroPGF Is a way to encourage people to invest in charities as much as they do in startups / public companies. How? By ensuring that future donations to those charities reward early investors in them. Optimism kicked off this idea with their grants rounds - round two started this week. ...

Something peculiar came out of the collapse of FTX that I have yet to see anyone talking about. Alameda created an investment glitch that allowed them to invest way more cash than they had available. I noticed this when REN project reported they had lost their treasury, because it was all on FTX. Why was it all on FTX? Earlier in the year Alameda invested in REN Project, giving them a large sum of money and enticing them to build on Solana. As part of the terms of this investment they were re...

Something peculiar came out of the collapse of FTX that I have yet to see anyone talking about. Alameda created an investment glitch that allowed them to invest way more cash than they had available. I noticed this when REN project reported they had lost their treasury, because it was all on FTX. Why was it all on FTX? Earlier in the year Alameda invested in REN Project, giving them a large sum of money and enticing them to build on Solana. As part of the terms of this investment they were re...

Before DeFi my biggest passion was decentralized social media (DeSo). Building a good social network is one of the worlds trickiest problems and can be done better with decentralization. What benefits does decentralization bring?You control your account/sAn account for each topicUser-centric moderationA separate data layerA flourishing app ecosystemFirstly you control your keys, so nobody can restrict your access because they don't like what you have to say. Because of this you can creat...

Before DeFi my biggest passion was decentralized social media (DeSo). Building a good social network is one of the worlds trickiest problems and can be done better with decentralization. What benefits does decentralization bring?You control your account/sAn account for each topicUser-centric moderationA separate data layerA flourishing app ecosystemFirstly you control your keys, so nobody can restrict your access because they don't like what you have to say. Because of this you can creat...

I've been interested in decentralized technology for as long as I can remember, exploring any new products as soon as I heard about them:Bitcoin in 2011IPFS in 2015Ethereum in 2016Mastodon and Scuttlebutt in 2017DeFi in 2020Empowering individuals to create and work together to build a better world really resonates with me. I'm constantly frustrated by how inflexible and centralized the current web is. I enjoyed when people built on Geocities, customized their Myspace pages to their ...

I've been interested in decentralized technology for as long as I can remember, exploring any new products as soon as I heard about them:Bitcoin in 2011IPFS in 2015Ethereum in 2016Mastodon and Scuttlebutt in 2017DeFi in 2020Empowering individuals to create and work together to build a better world really resonates with me. I'm constantly frustrated by how inflexible and centralized the current web is. I enjoyed when people built on Geocities, customized their Myspace pages to their ...

DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, is an open sourcing of finance. If Finance is Windows - centralized, corporate, and opaque, DeFi is Linux - open, transparent, and community built. After working with DeFi on Ethereum for a while I've realized its primary killer feature, and reason it will out-innovate traditional finance, is very similar to Linux's: Permissionless Composability. Having one neutral platform, controlled by no one, with standardized API's and immutable open program...

DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, is an open sourcing of finance. If Finance is Windows - centralized, corporate, and opaque, DeFi is Linux - open, transparent, and community built. After working with DeFi on Ethereum for a while I've realized its primary killer feature, and reason it will out-innovate traditional finance, is very similar to Linux's: Permissionless Composability. Having one neutral platform, controlled by no one, with standardized API's and immutable open program...

In my previous article I talked about composability hypothetically, and wanted to show a concrete example to help you understand the concept. Balancer, a company I work at, is a decentralized exchange like Uniswap, but with much more flexibility and cutomisability. While Uniswap only allows 50/50 pools, Balancer allows highly configurable pools of many different assets in many different ratios, and even allows changing those ratios over time. This changing ratios is an interesting upgrade, bu...

In my previous article I talked about composability hypothetically, and wanted to show a concrete example to help you understand the concept. Balancer, a company I work at, is a decentralized exchange like Uniswap, but with much more flexibility and cutomisability. While Uniswap only allows 50/50 pools, Balancer allows highly configurable pools of many different assets in many different ratios, and even allows changing those ratios over time. This changing ratios is an interesting upgrade, bu...

Most people have a very shallow view of Web3, they see it as a way to speculate and get rich quick, when this is merely the tip of the iceberg. What's it actually about?FreedomDisseminating PowerExperimentationCollaborationCommunitiesFirst and foremost Web3 is about individual freedom and liberty. It's a place where you choose where to spend your money and time, and there are no moderators or gatekeepers to stop you. This causes a dissemination of power. Because everyone has individ...

Most people have a very shallow view of Web3, they see it as a way to speculate and get rich quick, when this is merely the tip of the iceberg. What's it actually about?FreedomDisseminating PowerExperimentationCollaborationCommunitiesFirst and foremost Web3 is about individual freedom and liberty. It's a place where you choose where to spend your money and time, and there are no moderators or gatekeepers to stop you. This causes a dissemination of power. Because everyone has individ...

Moderation is the number one concern I've heard about DeSo. It's incredibly important as almost every protocol and platform on the internet has issues with spam. Moderating DeSo requires a completely different mindset compared to traditional social media. Here are three of my favorite options, in increasing complexity:Friends-only social mediaOpt-in moderatorsReputation SystemsFriends-only social mediaBy default your app could only show you posts from friends and/or friends of frien...

Moderation is the number one concern I've heard about DeSo. It's incredibly important as almost every protocol and platform on the internet has issues with spam. Moderating DeSo requires a completely different mindset compared to traditional social media. Here are three of my favorite options, in increasing complexity:Friends-only social mediaOpt-in moderatorsReputation SystemsFriends-only social mediaBy default your app could only show you posts from friends and/or friends of frien...