1/ Long Reads Sunday #20. Wowow, 20 weeks of curated crypto madness on the books. With the SEC getting enforcement frisky & calling into question just how decentralized decentralized projects have to be, it was a big one. Pump some ☕️ into your beerhat, it's Long Reads time.
2/ On Thursday, news broke of an SEC enforcement action against Zachary Coburn, the previous CEO of decentralized exchange EtherDelta. CryptoTwitter’s amazing legal squad was on the case.
+@jchervinsky:
+@msantoriESQ
+@jchervinsky:
+@msantoriESQ
3/ With usually clarity, @katherineykwu cut to the quick of the question: are DEX’s fucked? After a convo with a NYAG, she also put the action in larger context of regulators trying to balance enforcement w/ enterprise formation.
4/ For most of us in the peanut gallery, the interesting question was the re-evaluation of “decentralized” in the context of decentralized exchanges.
@jamesspediacci breaks down the challenge
@valkenburgh wrote more here: coincenter.org/entry/what-can…
@jamesspediacci breaks down the challenge
@valkenburgh wrote more here: coincenter.org/entry/what-can…
5/ One of the most interesting points is whether this sort of SEC enforcement against a founder will prompt more DEX and crypto project leaders to anonymity. This was the dominant sentiment when I asked CT people what they thought would happen next.
6/ Speaking of pseudo-anonymous, everyone’s favorite wizard-led privacy project Grin had its first GrinCon this week. For those of us muggles who weren’t able to make it
+Video recap: grincon.org
+Just released privacy primer github.com/mimblewimble/d…
+Video recap: grincon.org
+Just released privacy primer github.com/mimblewimble/d…
8/ ZCash was also part of a couple interesting bits of news. The first was the @ZcashFoundation announced its latest grant winners z.cash.foundation/blog/q2-grant-…
The second was post-DevCon rumblings of Ethereum’s growing look at zk-snarks as a scaling solution coindesk.com/as-plasma-stal…
The second was post-DevCon rumblings of Ethereum’s growing look at zk-snarks as a scaling solution coindesk.com/as-plasma-stal…
9/ A bit more from the news column, courtesy of @TheBlock__.
+@BitMEXdotcom now has a VC arm: theblockcrypto.com/2018/11/08/bit…
+@binance launched a research arm for project transparency, following in the @MessariCrypto model theblockcrypto.com/2018/11/08/bin…
+@BitMEXdotcom now has a VC arm: theblockcrypto.com/2018/11/08/bit…
+@binance launched a research arm for project transparency, following in the @MessariCrypto model theblockcrypto.com/2018/11/08/bin…
10/ The Block’s @lawmaster also summed up an interesting nugget from the beginning of the week - a planned $125m airdrop of Stellar’s XLM to Blockchain wallet users. This will constitute the largest crypto airdrop to date.
11/ Following up on news that @Bakkt plans to launch in December, @jchervinsky goes HAM explaining the major anticipation and corresponding concern. Key line: "Bakkt's launch has become a full-fledged narrative for when & how the bear market will end.”
12/ Bakkt is part of a larger conversation about the growing participation of the existing financial sector. On that front, @nic__carter shared observations from DC Fintech week at the IMF. TL;DR they look at it like technology, not fiat competition.
13/ Speaking of central banks, @DoveyWan highlighted that, for the first time, the People’s Bank of China had published direct comments on crypto and blockchain - echoing what Nic found - that it was viewed more as a technology, not a threat to fiat money.
14/ Going even deeper into the existing infrastructure, @APompliano wrote up how a consortium of 15 banks is working with the DTCC (who process 95% of all credit derivates globally) to experiment with a blockchain system of trading credit derivates. offthechain.substack.com/p/the-dtccs-in…
15/ Connecting the dots back between institutional engagement and Bitcoin, @timevalueofbtc wrote about the business of Bitcoin storage in the context of Fidelity’s new @DigitalAssets medium.com/@timevalueofbt…
16/ Meanwhile, over in the build part of the world, @tayvano_ shared this awesome presentation on the unintended consequences of design, such as people not saving their private keys when crypto wallet creation was too easy. medium.com/mycrypto/the-u…
17/ Speaking of wallets and mass user on boarding, check out this phenomenal project from @austingriffith designed to make crypto transfer incredibly easy in developing markets where crypto assets can be a literal lifeline. More of this plz.
18/ Ideas like the burner wallet - with real implications for real people in the real world - are the sort of things @tylercowen is “modestly optimistic” could emerge in this put up or shut up moment outside of the blinding focus on asset price. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
19/ Speaking of ideas, @KyleSamani wrote a phenomenal piece on @LivepeerOrg’s unique token distribution strategy, arguing that it has significant potential to increase the equitability of token distro as compared to ICOs or airdrops.
20/ Another interesting piece from the investor perspective is @cburniske’s essay arguing that both supply-side productive capital (miners) and investment capital is necessary, but that many projects in 2017 over-emphasized investment. medium.com/@cburniske/pro…
21/ What we measure dictates what actions we take. In yet another seminal piece, @nic__carter argues against the transaction count metric popular especially with would-be Bitcoin competitors, in favor of total economic throughput. medium.com/@nic__carter/t…
22/ On the topic of Bitcoin, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this week saw the one year anniversary of the defeat of Segwit2x - perhaps the most important community struggle for the identity of Bitcoin in the protocol’s 10 year history.
23/ Interestingly, as that anniversary rolls around, the BCash community that forked away from Bitcoin last year over incompatible visions for prioritization is itself in the grips of a civil war. It is…not without intrigue.
24/ Holding aside the internal drama, one of the more interesting parts is that the Poloniex exchange is allowing advanced trading of the upcoming BCash forks. Two observations:
+@ljxie:
+@matt_odell
+@ljxie:
+@matt_odell
25/ Meanwhile, as BCash’s payment-centric vision for Bitcoin is increasingly troubled, @saifedean reaffirmed the argument that Bitcoin’s most important initial role is as an int'l settlement layer addressing currency devaluation and hyperinflation. spectator.co.uk/2018/11/the-pr…
26/ While we’re on the topic of “problems Bitcoin solves,” a quick check in with Venezuela shows that crypto continues to grow in significance in the countries volatile economy. The latest numbers suggest that citizens traded more BTC than ever last month bitcoinist.com/venezuela-reco…
27/ Here’s another use case that hasn’t made it to the cover of Bloomberg: anonymous crowdfunding for the victims of sexual assault. For less heralded but massively important uses for crypto w/n vulnerable populations, follow @La__Cuen coindesk.com/sexual-assault…
28/ How we speak about crypto and Bitcoin - how we contextualize it and frame its importance - matters. I was reminded of @hasufl / @zhusu post from earlier in the year re:BTC evangelism medium.com/coinmonks/evan… when I read this thread by @misir_mahmudov
29/ A couple last notes on the other big event this week: the midterms. First, it was interesting to see Augur political prediction action: Second, couldn’t help but notice that we got two Bitcoin govs in @GavinNewsom & @jaredpolis
31/ Lastly, the undisputed Tweet of the Week goes to @crypto_bobby.
32/ And there we have it! 20 LRS down, ? to go! One more week off LRL, back 11/19.
Get LRS:
+email: getrevue.co/profile/nlw
+Long Reads Live - 7pm EST Mondays: youtube.com/c/nathanielwhi… …
+LRL on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lon… …
+LRL Podcast home: nlwcrypto.libsyn.com
Get LRS:
+email: getrevue.co/profile/nlw
+Long Reads Live - 7pm EST Mondays: youtube.com/c/nathanielwhi… …
+LRL on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lon… …
+LRL Podcast home: nlwcrypto.libsyn.com
