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Long Reads Sunday #36.
This was a real “battle lines for the soul of crypto” kinda week.
+Will big players leech attention or inspire new adoption? +Where will we draw the line with ethical business practices?
+Oh, and, uh..who gets to print money?
Thread 👇
This was a real “battle lines for the soul of crypto” kinda week.
+Will big players leech attention or inspire new adoption? +Where will we draw the line with ethical business practices?
+Oh, and, uh..who gets to print money?
Thread 👇
2/ One of the longest running memes in crypto came to an unceremonious end this week as Coinbase finally listed XRP. While the immediate assumption was that Ripple had paid a listing fee, the company aggressively denied it.
3/ It wasn’t the XRP listing, however, that provoked the most ire towards Coinbase. Instead, it was continued fallout over the acquisition of Neutrino, led by former leaders of Hacker Team.
4/ In response, the #DeleteCoinbase movement was formed, with prominent voices in the community arguing that this was the last straw, and worthy of boycotting the company over.
5/ If history is any indicator, the number of accounts deleted through #DeleteCoinbase won’t really put a dent in the company’s user numbers. What the company should actually be concerned with is the poison pill of distrust they’ve now swallowed.
6/ In other words, people will read articles like this one by @lorenzofb and this by @la__cuen and, even if they don’t actually delete their account, they may not be able to help the bad taste they’re left with.
7/ I’m spending so much time on #DeleteCoinbase because I believe we all have to decide where we draw lines.
The beauty of markets is that, just as Coinbase is free to buy who they wish, we’re free to exert as much pressure as we wish to make that a bad financial decision.
The beauty of markets is that, just as Coinbase is free to buy who they wish, we’re free to exert as much pressure as we wish to make that a bad financial decision.
8/ Similarly, we’re free to support companies that make different decisions that *do* stand on principle, such as @CasaHODL putting their money where their mouth is with regard to customer’s data privacy.
9/ Speaking of principle, @jack continues to set the Bitcoin and Lightning community on fire with seeming disinterest in a "TwitterCoin" and instead his excitement about what he believes will become the native reserve currency of the internet
10/ If it feels likely (if not inevitable) that we’ll see BTC integrations on Twitter, another big social network is going the opposite direction, as ZuckBucks (aka “The Mark”) look ever closer to becoming a reality.
11/ When it comes to a possible Facebook cryptocurrency, there are about as many takes as their are people. In part of a longer thread on the permissioned blockchain trend, @AriDavidPaul demonstrates how FBCoin could drive Bitcoin adoption
12/ Former Facebooker @alexstamos, meanwhile, writes about the tightrope act of privacy/safety that a cryptocurrency integration into a billion+ user unified messaging service would require.
13/ @el33th4xor makes the point that Facebook’s dabbling is part of a larger architecture shift away from client-server architectures that require users trust providers and towards a peer-to-peer architecture.
14/ But of course, Facebook isn’t the only global giant exploring a native cryptocurrency. JPMorgan’s JPMCoin has been in the news for the past couple weeks, with @econoar catching some additional details from an investor day slide.
15/ In one of the spicier takes of the week, @APompliano argued that JPMCoin is the opening salvo in an attempt to create an alternative private Fed. This thread kicked off @KyleSamani gets iiiiiinto it.
16/ Then again, maybe we’ll be in the market for a non-USD coin sooner rather than later? @BMBernstein lights in to what he believes will come to pass as we get deeper into “Modern Monopoly Money Theory”
17/ While we’re on the topic of “who gets to print money,” @Melt_Dem and @_jillruth latest @WGMGpodcast is all about “Initial Country Offerings.”
Great way to raise funds, nearly limitless potential for abuse, or both?!?
Great way to raise funds, nearly limitless potential for abuse, or both?!?
18/ Alright, alright, that’s just about enough rancor for this Sunday. Let’s shift gears toward some good things happening.
Like, heyyo, we’ve got an Ethereum Constantinople hard fork/upgrade complete!
Like, heyyo, we’ve got an Ethereum Constantinople hard fork/upgrade complete!
19/ A couple people have asked lately about dedicated Ethereum resources and while there are tons, one of the newest and most valuable has to be @ethhub_io, who have more on Constantinople here.
20/ A staying within the ETH domain for a second, @MakerDAO continues its tear, surpassing 2% of the total ETH supply locked up in CDPs this week. Check out @placeholdervc @alexhevans Network Overview for more
21/ As #DeFi (#dopefi?) heat up, @max_bronstein looks at the strength of the space in terms of the resonance of the meme of Open Finance itself.
22/ Another layer 1 chain in Tezos is moving closer to its first set of on-chain upgrade proposals. Check out this article by @JacobArluck (h/t @Melt_Dem) and let the year of governance experiments continue!
23/ Hey, and here’s a contrarian perspective: crypto investors may have over corrected away from token deals and towards equity. That’s the argument in this latest essay from @cburniske
24/ Then again, as @krugermacro points out, a token project launched on @Binance launch pad was able to sell $6m in tokens at an implied market cap of $100m and did so in just 22 seconds so…. Viva la ICO?
25/ One of crypto’s most crypto-ass stories from the past couple months has been the saga of QuadrigaCX’s missing millions. @tayvano_ wonders whether it was ever really there
...while Kraken is incentivizing the sleuths
...while Kraken is incentivizing the sleuths
@tayvano_ 26/ With much attention on private chain coins, Maker and other stable coins, it’s worth checking out this piece by @jchervinsky on how the SEC & CFTC are likely to consider them - including in ways we might not like
27/ Criminally under followed @thedanigrant from @usv writes a great piece about why distributed compute is about competing on integrity, not price.
28/ Here’s a thought: just because media loves to run articles of Warren B shitting on Bitcoin doesn’t mean we have to put any stock in them. In fact, @avichal argues that him not wanting to invest is actually a POSITIVE sign
29/ This week’s award for quintessential long read *has* to go to @TaylorPearsonMe who wrote this tremendous piece on the transformation of transaction costs over time and the long-term trends that crypto is part of. Take your time with this one.
30/ And finally, a lil self shill. This week we dropped the first edition of the Liberty Crypto Reader, a newsletter focused on the global social crypto context & the battle for the internet's soul, a collaboration between myself and the crew at @coinmine
31/ At the end of the day, the big game for me is about how Bitcoin and crypto can increase liberty and sovereignty in the world. I’m incredibly stoked to be able to get some time each week sharing stories of how that happens. Check it out: coinmine.com/pages/liberty
32/ And there we have it! Another week down. What a doozy eh? As always, let me know what I missed and what you loved. To get LRS via email, sign up here: getrevue.co/profile/nlw
