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Chris Burniske Profile picture
@cburniske
Sep 8, 2020 • 9 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
Having written about...

The Defensibility Of Middleware Protocols: placeholder.vc/blog/2019/2/14…

Fire Before Growth: The Likely Fate Of Ethereum Killers: placeholder.vc/blog/2019/10/2…

...I have to say the next 12+ months are going to be tense.

Middleware protocols may be the deciders 🧵
Middleware protocols provide a specific service to the interface layer, be they financial, social, or technological.

In 2019 @placeholdervc posited they would achieve cross-chain, winner-takes-most dominance in their respective services - we're seeing things move that direction
Meanwhile, many #EthereumKillers have gone through their "fire period" and are entering their "growth period."

While many will claim to not be focused on dethroning #Ethereum, make no mistake, the knives are out.
The biggest middleware protocols (@MakerDAO @AaveAave @compoundfinance @UniswapProtocol @BalancerLabs etc) currently all exist on #Ethereum, and are being hotly pursued by up-and-coming #EthereumKillers that have money to burn.
Middleware-protocols sit in a really tough position:

#Ethereum is currently high-cost to use, pricing out many users (centralizing)

However, the economics, governance, and ethos of Ethereum tends to fit well with the founding intent of many middleware-protocols (decentralizing)
#EthereumKillers are currently low-cost to use and tend to be faster, opening up access to users that are priced out of #Ethereum (decentralizing)

However, the economics, governance, and ethos of many Ethereum Killers reeks of Silicon Valley shareholdership (centralizing) 🤢
To complicate things further, there are a handful of quality layer-2 solutions on #Ethereum (@optimismPBC & @zksync stick out), which are racing to offer smart-contract functionality to entice the big middleware protocols.

Not to mention the race to ship ETH 2.0...
In the year ahead, large middleware-protocols have the power to cement:

-an #Ethereum layer-2 + ETH 2.0
-an #EthereumKiller

...as the winner-winner chicken dinner.

Once a few make the call, the rest will follow. #Ethereum will reign on, or face a real challenge.

Expect war.
As a (relieving?) sidenote: crypto will expand far beyond these feudal wars.

But these wars are bound to play out in the coming year due to the 1) relative smallness of the space 2) network effects of liquidity, composability, and developer tooling 3) 2017 over-funding.

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More from @cburniske

Chris Burniske Profile picture
Nov 27
1/ If your friends associate you with Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any part of crypto, you’re probably getting Qs about what to do. It’s tricky to guide someone from where we are currently ($BTC ~$100K), especially if they’re an inexperienced investor. Some learnings from 10+ years of watching this dynamic play out...
2/ Establish that every action they take is their responsibility. You may have more knowledge or experience, but that doesn’t make you infallible. No one knows anything for sure about markets. The only people you know for sure are lying, are those who say they “know for sure.”
3/ Try to give them context on where we are currently in the cycle. To me, we're 2 years into this bull market (bottom in the chart below is Nov/Dec 2022).

From the bottom 2 years ago, $BTC is up > 6x, $ETH is up > 4x, and $SOL is up > 30x. Image
Read 17 tweets
Chris Burniske Profile picture
Nov 16
In the last bear, one of the reasons @placeholdervc focused on @solana was a belief that it would be the normie-chain w/ its speed, low fees & smooth UX. That's playing out with memecoins & more.

But we've been @ethereum supporters since inception, and that hasn't changed... 🧵
This cycle, though @ethereum may lose "normie-share" to @solana (already is), the community should continue leaning into cementing the network @ the center of the Internet Financial System (IFS). The IFS will grow in relevance into the back half of this decade, onboarding even more normies than we currently see.
.@solana & others will come for the IFS too (already are), but @ethereum has a solid foundation as it's over a decade old, with brand awareness 2nd only to #Bitcoin, deep liquidity, and implementations like @base drawing corporate eyes.
Read 8 tweets
Chris Burniske Profile picture
Nov 15
If you're worried about this being a "memecoin only" cycle, you probably don't own enough $BTC.

Meanwhile, to those worried about "infrastructure-and-appcoins," everything is a pendulum... 🧵
Memecoins will force "infrastructure-and-appcoins" to show holders & stakers the revenue, aided by a more favorable regulatory environment.

Governance tokens will convert into cash flow tokens.
Memecoins as a forcing function, though wild, is ultimately a good thing for our industry.
Read 7 tweets
Chris Burniske Profile picture
Nov 8
People on CT showcase far too "mutually exclusive" an attitude when they approach investing -- perhaps it's a product of how social media rewards sensationalism. First it was either $BTC or $ETH. Now it's either $ETH or $SOL. Next year it will be something different 🧵
Much better imo to build a balanced portfolio where you cut losers when you realize they're losers, but then firmly hold winners and let them compound. Big winners are relatively easy to spot, and best to buy in a bear. Hence why I tell newcomers to start w/ $BTC $ETH & $SOL, and go from there.
Sure, sell some at tops to give yourself cash for bottom-feeding, but don't obsess with perfection, and instead stay generally long the big ecosystems that will keep winning. Ignore short term noise, for which X is notorious -- every ecosystem hits hiccups.
Read 4 tweets
Chris Burniske Profile picture
Sep 26
If you've been paying attention, as I know @ZoomerOracle has, you'll notice "shiny new coins" have been shining once again.
Market participants learn a lesson in one market environment, and then try to apply it to all market environments, instead of thinking critically about what works in a bull, versus what works in a bear.
The tragedy in this "momentum learning" is that we go from "bull to bear to bull to bear," and so the lessons of a bull get you rekt in a bear, while the lessons of a bear get you rekt in a bull.

One needs to layer the lessons and think critically.
Read 8 tweets
Chris Burniske Profile picture
Sep 19
Bottom trolls in disbelief.

If you were shook, internalize the lesson that bears have the most power near the bottom.

While social momentum & validation will encourage bearishness near the bottom, it pays the least to be bearish there, and pays the most to be bullish.
If you're publicly bullish through a downtrend, traders and reply-guys will come in with smart-ass comments about market timing not being perfect.

But the truth remains, it pays to remain bullish and active through bottoms as a long-term investor.

Use the ridicule as fuel.
When we near tops, all this behavior reverses - social momentum & validation will encourage bullishness, when it pays the least to be bullish.

Being publicly bearish when everyone is drunk off profits is a unique kind of torture -- not sure I feel like doing that again, so...
Read 4 tweets

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