Reza Jafery explains why he believes, “Tokenized Assets and Security Token Offerings will spark adoption and legitimize the space.” I happen to think there’s something beautiful about the idea of fractionalized, tokenized & tradable assets, but I still have questions. If you’re interested in this too, talk to me about my monthly blockchain breakfast! | learn more
Category: on the blockchain
The crypto fund landscape.
Regan Bozman put together a Google Doc of the top 100 funds in the crypto space. | learn more
Interview with Chris Dixon.
The a16z partner who led early investments into Ripple, Coinbase and other leading crypto companies shares his views in this interview with columnist Kevin Maney. | learn more
ConsenSys announces details on its first cohort of accelerator companies.
All the companies in the Tachyon accelerator seem very “early”, but innovation must start somewhere! | learn more
0x + Harbor partner to tokenize real-world assets.
I’ve grown more bullish in recent months on the real benefit of tokenizing all sorts of assets that are illiquid today. Imagine being able to easily buy/sell a stake in the apartment building you live in or any other asset where you might have specific and unique knowledge. I’m not suggesting a free-for-all on letting everyone invest in everything (yet), but I love the idea of at the very least creating liquidity for assets that have governance and income streams. This partnership seems to bring that reality closer by allowing tokens to also maintain regulatory compliance for issuance and transfer. |learn more
Ben Horowitz discusses crypto.
This is a short video clip shared by Fred Wilson of a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz discussing blockchain technology. It was worth a few minutes to watch! | learn more
About the NYAG’s crypto report.
Messari’s Katherine Wu wrote a great commentary about the New York Attorney General’s recent report on crypto exchanges. “The NYAG report on crypto trading platforms is the most comprehensive investigation released to date by a regulator. It contains a wealth of information. But to understand it, you need some context.” | learn more
Winklevoss brothers’ exchange launches new Gemini dollar.
I’ll skip the link to the article about the launch, and instead share an analysis by Preston Byrne. My view: seems like a great move for them (good PR + being “in it”), even if it doesn’t work out long-term. | learn more
Silvio Micali on Algorand.
This video, recommended by Fred Wilson, is a great one to watch for anyone interested in blockchain technology. Silvio’s style is really entertaining! | learn more
Andy Warhol painting tokenized and sold on blockchain.
How interesting! The painting’s ownership has been fractionalized and tokenized, allowing partial interest to be bought via smart contract. The contract was powered by the blockchain platform Maecenas. “Approximately US$1.7 million was raised in the cryptocurrency auction for a 31.5% stake of the artwork whose total valuation was US$5.6 million.” | learn more
40 Ethereum apps you can use right now.
It’s a common narrative these days that the next wave for crypto will require actual applications with real users. Consensys put together this list of apps that are live right now. | learn more
Someone won the Fomo3D prize!
This is my 3rd, and final, post about this blockchain game. Someone managed to win the prize (worth about $3MM) that was thought to be unwinnable with some clever strategy and a careful attack. SECBIT Labs dissects exactly how that happened. |learn more
Ether as a store of national security.
Cuy Sheffield puts forward an interesting theory for why Ether might retain value long-term without becoming a “Store of Value”. With enough tokenized securities on the blockchain, its security becomes worthy of defense spending. | learn more
Minimum viable economy.
Nick Grossman from Union Square Ventures thinks through factors that affect the difficulty to get a token economy off the ground. | learn more
ETH report 2018.
“We’ve interviewed 100+ developers to showcase the biggest opportunities in the Ethereum ecosystem” | learn more
Methodologies for measuring project health.
Nadia Eghbal discusses the different approaches to measuring the health of open-source projects. She goes well beyond the basics of # of commits and pull requests. |learn more
Zero knowledge proofs: an illustrated primer.
This is not an easy topic to grasp, but I think it’ll be an important one in the future. Cryptographer Matthew Green does a nice job of simplifying the concepts involved and stepping through them slowly. Still, maybe don’t read this hung over. |learn more
Venezuela to tie new physical currency to the Petro (their new cryptocurrency).
I guess we’re all spectators of this train wreck in slow motion. Their currency is expected to see a million percent inflation this year. 🤦♂️ | learn more
The game theory behind FOMO3D.
Last week I shared a link about this ponzi-like crypto game. This Hacker Noon article discusses the interesting game theory behind it, with a specific example from a Harvard class that went crazy. | learn more
Bear thesis for ETH.
I’m not thoroughly convinced by this analysis by Tetras Capital, but I welcome the contrarian opinion. | learn more
FOMO3D: A ponzi-like Ethereum game that might never end.
I had two reactions upon reading this. 1) Wow, this is both clever and interesting. 2) OMG, I want to play. I had to suppress my gambling instincts (#2) and hope you’re able to do so also :). | learn more
Ready for a public argument about Tether and Kraken?
First, read this Bloomberg piece, then read Tether’s response (complete with two Ron Burgundy memes).
78% of crypto ICO projects in 2017 were scams.
Well, what did you expect? | learn more
Can you insure your cryptocurrency against theft?
Yes, but insurance companies don’t like to talk about it too much – yet. | learn more
The crypto commons.
Commons are a shared resource for use by multiple people. Individuals’ rational actions often end up destroying the resource (you may have heard this phrase: “the tragedy of the commons”). Can we create a scalable governance model for commons with blockchain? If so, what could that do to unlock economic growth? Mike Maples, Jr. from Floodgate Fund explains. | learn more