Thread by @WarcMeinstein

1/ Back again this week with Relaynode SoCal Edition. Proud member of the Relaynode squad started by @mccannatron including @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks, @dgogel & a few others around the globe. You can sign up here: relaynode.io.

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel 2/ This week as we celebrated America's war for independence, my attention turned to another war - the Smart Contract Platform War of 2019.

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel 3/ At the end of last year, I wrote @wave_financial LPs that 2019 would be the year of the smart contract platform war, and this is shaping out to be true. wavegp.com/media/wave-fin…

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial 4/ Algorand recently launched its mainnet via dutch auction. Polkadot, Hashgraph, and Solana are all expected to launch mainnets this year. However, as @coreyj_miller asks, are valuations of these “ETH killers” justified? bit.ly/2YGbyLT

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller 5/ To decide, it’s important to 1st understand how distributed consensus works, then to identify the various trade-offs of different distributed consensus systems. @danzuller from @visionhill_ does an excellent job explaining this all: bit.ly/2xE5Jmw

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ 6/ Once you understand the differences, then ask whether a specific mix of these features is enough to drive adoption & steal $ETH's market share?

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ 7/ Open source is messy & 1st mover advantage is highly valuable.@cdixon believes network effects & adoption first start w/ the developer community, then w/ users: bit.ly/2O9y1uO

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ @cdixon 8/ Given developer adoption & the power of composability @Shaughnessy119 asks whether $ETH has already generated enough momentum that new smart contract platforms will be unable to “out evolve” it? bit.ly/2Jq3B8J

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ @cdixon @Shaughnessy119 9/ As investors continue to bet on the hot new Layer 1 platform, have they overlooked the potential of Layer 2 scaling solutions like @Skalelabs?

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ @cdixon @Shaughnessy119 @skalelabs 10/ Are sidechains even Layer 2 anyways?bit.ly/2LdrUbU Cc: @gakonst Regardless, these protocols may be massively undervalued relative to new Layer 1s many of which were essentially created to solve the same engineering problem.

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ @cdixon @Shaughnessy119 @skalelabs @gakonst 11/ Investors like @placeholdervc & @cburniske have moved onto middleware investments.bit.ly/2LbQ0nt It’s possible that these can become more valuable than their underlying platforms. Does Layer 2 scaling might fit this investment thesis?

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ @cdixon @Shaughnessy119 @skalelabs @gakonst @placeholdervc @cburniske 12/
Finally, @spencernoon asks if the smart contract platform war is really just a race towards one pSOV? bit.ly/2XBgeBk The network effects of money are even stronger than those of open source; combine the two & this could lead to an end game w/ only 1 winner.

@mccannatron @mrjasonchoi @EleniThinks @dgogel @wave_financial @coreyj_miller @danzuller @VisionHill_ @cdixon @Shaughnessy119 @skalelabs @gakonst @placeholdervc @cburniske @spencernoon 13/ No wonder it’s such a heated topic!