What is Ethereum
Ethereum is the settlement layer for global finance. It is the only blockchain that can be this. If you're surprised by the above statement, this article is for you. Other chains will still host many useful apps, and play niche roles, but the global financial system will run on Ethereum.What is a settlement layer?Rather than being a chain where consumers go to use apps and trade with their friends, a settlement layer is a chain that other chains build upon. It specializes in 5 things:Sec...
Why Bitcoin Lightning Sucks
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...
The Alameda FTX Infinite Money Glitch
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...
Head of Crypto Research at BlueYard Capital
What is Ethereum
Ethereum is the settlement layer for global finance. It is the only blockchain that can be this. If you're surprised by the above statement, this article is for you. Other chains will still host many useful apps, and play niche roles, but the global financial system will run on Ethereum.What is a settlement layer?Rather than being a chain where consumers go to use apps and trade with their friends, a settlement layer is a chain that other chains build upon. It specializes in 5 things:Sec...
Why Bitcoin Lightning Sucks
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...
The Alameda FTX Infinite Money Glitch
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...
Head of Crypto Research at BlueYard Capital
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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. They are giving away 10M OP tokens to open source projects that are improving the Optimism or Ethereum ecosystems.
There are two big differences between this and a normal charity donation:
Instead of giving to projects who say they will do good, they only give to projects which have already done good.
These projects have DAO's with their own token. When they receive OP tokens their own token increases in value. This happens because of speculation they'll swap the OP token to their own, or because the projects token gives governance power and now the project has more funds to be governed.
So now everyone knows the best open source projects will get some funding, and this funding will increase the projects token value, what do they do? They speculate!
Why not front-run Optimism by looking for open source projects doing good work, and buy their token? That project gets some funding now, and if they receive a donation you make money! It's win-win.
This creates what we call a Regen Cycle, where more funding goes to projects that are helping make the ecosystem (or world!) a better place, instead of only startups looking to make a profit.
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. They are giving away 10M OP tokens to open source projects that are improving the Optimism or Ethereum ecosystems.
There are two big differences between this and a normal charity donation:
Instead of giving to projects who say they will do good, they only give to projects which have already done good.
These projects have DAO's with their own token. When they receive OP tokens their own token increases in value. This happens because of speculation they'll swap the OP token to their own, or because the projects token gives governance power and now the project has more funds to be governed.
So now everyone knows the best open source projects will get some funding, and this funding will increase the projects token value, what do they do? They speculate!
Why not front-run Optimism by looking for open source projects doing good work, and buy their token? That project gets some funding now, and if they receive a donation you make money! It's win-win.
This creates what we call a Regen Cycle, where more funding goes to projects that are helping make the ecosystem (or world!) a better place, instead of only startups looking to make a profit.
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