1/ Long Reads Sunday #3. This week saw it all: the web3 stack, crypto derivatives, trade-driven mining, on-chain security token disruption, privacy innovations and so much more: Thread 👇
2/ “The Web3 Stack” is the quintessential long read that demands reading, bookmarking, and reading again. @kylesamani's post serves as both guide to what’s being build as well as assessment of why developer attention is where it is multicoin.capital/2018/07/10/the…
3/ One of the most discussed posts this week was @MohamedFFouda’s explanation of trade-driven mining on Asian exchanges, where traders are reimbursed for fees in the native exchange token based on volume. @cburniske captured the good and the worrying:
4/ Speaking of trade-driven mining, we’ve only barely begun to experiment with investment structures in crypto. One limiting factor is that if we don’t know beta, it's hard to define Alpha. @aridavidpaul contributes some significant thinking to that here:
5/ One new way to seek Alpha that’s coming in hot is crypto derivates. In this absolute monster by @garybasin provides an overview of crypto derivates, the benefits to keeping them on-chain, how existing crypto lending markets relate to derivates and more. medium.com/@garybasin/cry…
6/ Staying on the topic of crypto instruments beyond the underlying asset, there was much, much hullabaloo this week about a new application for a bitcoin ETF co-signed by the CBOE. I tried to capture everything in a single thread here:
7/ On the question of “what to invest in” check out this look at how crypto index funds would have performed against BTC historically. Tl;DR, pre-2015, BTC wins. 2015-2017, Index funds (would have) over performed, in large part due to ETH. medium.com/@xoelop/what-y…
8/ Whatever investment strategies emerge, we’ve moved sufficiently away from the ICO boom so that “community” is not just # of Telegram followers but governance that organizes networks around shared values, captured in this exploratory thread by @jesswldn
9/ Speaking of moving away from the ICO boom, I wrote a post for @tokendaily about how we’ve left a period of easy 💰and are entering an age of “Execution Maximalism,” where projects are going to have to perform, publicly, at the highest levels to thrive.
10/ Performing in public is no easy task. Just ask @AugurProject, who launched with huge anticipation. No matter what one thinks about the launch, the fact is it’s a working dapp with money flowing. @cyounessi1 captured some of the early experiments
11/ It seems like for months we’ve been discussing “Ecosystem Funds,” added to this week by Kik announcing a $3m fund for Kin. @masonic_tweets uses Ethereum as an example to explain why the “ecosystem” part is more important in the long run than the “fund”
12/ One cryptotrap is to spend too much time on decentralized versions of things that happen now and too little time on new possibilities never before possible. Here @lwsnbaker explores how on-chain security tokens could “put business out of business”
13/ Speaking of security tokens, @ClayCollins has just released part 2 of a 3-part podcast documentary on the subject. It’s the best primer I’ve seen to date and is essential listening for this huge emergent part of the crypto space. blog.nomics.com/flippening/sec…
14/ Perpetually thoughtful @SarahJamieLewis has written a ton of great pieces on her Field Notes blog recently, but the simple clarity of “Decentralization isn’t a Synonym for Privacy” stood out to me. Must read, and a must follow on Twitter too. fieldnotes.resistant.tech/decentralizati…
15/ Staying on Privacy for a moment, @nopara73 provided this great threaded summary of the recent privacy work around Bitcoin specifically, pointing out how many projects are moving out of research and into implementation.
16/ Lastly, because Sunday morning is for deep, ponderous thoughts: @simondlr’s latest is on Harberger taxation models - which upend how we think about property valuation & sale and could be an interesting experiment in closed loop blockchain economies medium.com/@simondlr/what…
17/ What did I miss? What other great reads have captured your attention this week?
18/ Adding a couple more. @csheffield3 looks at sports betting and dapps digs into why a decentralized option might get traction relative to newly-legal centralized alternatives:
19/ From @mayazi - an addition to the growing body of conversation around how to design organizations for transitions to decentralization from day 1, with a focus on investor incentives. Really, really good stuff.
