1/ Long Reads Sunday #8. Price crashes. The Decoupling. ETH Death Spirals. This week was exhibit A in the crypto market’s volatility and the reflexivity of narrative<>behavior. Luckily, if you peel back these price convos, a teeming world of vibrant longtermism awaits.
2/ Let’s start with some smart, shall we? Decentralization is one of crypto’s most important concepts, but tends to be weaponized either as explanation for everything or as an embodiment in of naivete. What it really means & why it matters:
3/ Another much-discussed, less-understood topic. Read and bookmark this 60+ tweet thread as *the* primer for understanding “base money” and the relationship between Bitcoin, gold, and fiat.
4/ Since we’re trying to understand fundamentals, check out this massive effort to provide some standardized terminology around distributed ledger technology (DLT). The paper can be downloaded here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… A good starting point is:
5/ Of course, the current market cycle *does* matter, and so to does finding insightful thinking about it. @cburniske points out that investors react to gaps b/n the speed of growth in price and utility even as that utility marches steadily up.
6/ @RyanSAdams shares a conversation provoking thread on 10 takes for the crypto bear market. Example: “programmable money and dapp platforms will diverge”
7/ @BMBernstein writes a convincing thread on the importance of price dips - arguing in short that cryptocurrencies require stress tests of conviction if they’re to have any hope of sitting alongside gov’t backed currencies
8/ @Melt_Dem reminds us that token financing is a new phenomenon evolving capital formation in a way that remains unresolved. Even as investors seek the growth story, the growth that really matters is growth in usage.
9/ The idea that usage, not hype will be the driver for long-term positive market activity is an emergent narrative. As you would expect in a week with such crazy swings, many narratives are competing to explain & predict - from Fat Monies to ETH Death Spirals and beyond.
10/ In such a reflexive market, it’s tempting to let shifting narratives shape our short term behaviors. I started a series on Token Economy arguing that market narratives are marketing pitches competing for our devotion. tokeneconomy.co/market-narrati…
11/ Another topic getting some serious airtime this week was airdrops and bounties. @katherineykwu flags that the SEC order around Tomahawkcoins (real name) was the first but likely not last look at bounties as potentially equaling securities distributions
12/ This thread goes deeper into the relationship between airdrops and securities, effectively arguing that if the asset being distributed isn’t a security in the first place, the airdrop can’t make it one
13/ Speaking of securities, crypto’s new preeminent provider of legal backgrounds (but not, of course, legal advice) @jchervinsky breaks down Ripple’s legal battle in CA to prove XRP isn’t a security
14/ Jake wasn’t just riffing on Ripple though. Because speculation will be speculation, here is a double pack on upcoming ETF considerations: + +
15/ Because all of that isn’t enough to keep you occupied, here’s a grab bag of more great stuff.
16/ One interesting narrative flip is the idea that it won’t be institutional demand, but consumer/retail demand built on new institutional plumbing that will drive the next bull run
17/ The economics incentivizing research & the creation of ideas are much worse than the economics for execution/commercialization. Can that be fixed? "A more effective division of labor between the best innovator and best executor can change the world.” medium.com/@glyphx/post-v…
18/ Another piece that relates to venture capital alternatives is this thoughtful deep dive on three open source ecosystem grant funds from Dash, Monero, and ZCash by @nayafia nadiaeghbal.com/grant-programs
19/ One of the challenges of open source software licensing is to find a model that combines wide adoption w/ incentives for creation. One of the benefits of this crypto moment is the flowering of thinking around this question, exemplified here by @lkngtn medium.com/hive-commons/h…
20/ There has been a ton of chatter about Bitmain’s upcoming ICO - including its ….complicated?...relationship with BCH. @real_vijay provides a summary:
21/ Venezuela continues to be ground zero for the role of crypto in the new politics of inflation, with a national crypto-currency on one side and a black market for global crypto on the other. Reading: +caracaschronicles.com/2018/08/17/red… +breakermag.com/venezuelas-bad…
22/ Simple but important concept: “governance” does not equal “voting.” Another great piece by @tonysheng tonysheng.com/voting-governa…
23/ When firms own data, they hoard it. When users own their data, they are incentivized to share in a way that is better for the economy as a whole. TL;DR for economics, not *just* privacy, people should own their data.
24/ And lastly, here’s 75 tweets from Vitalik on Ethereum Casper research. Say what you will, but in other business contexts this simply wouldn’t happen. I’m pretty g.damn excited we’re moving to a paradigm where open, as-it-happens sharing is the norm.
25/ Allllright, there it is! What else was great? What did I miss?
