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16 Jan, 7 tweets, 3 min read
This article is making the rounds. It’s well-written and makes a good case. And I should say up front that I have zero info about whether Tether really has 100% backing of every USDT.

However, a few thoughts. 🧵
crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-…
First, the crypto ecosystem has survived Silk Road, Mt Gox, the DAO hack, the Bitcoin civil war, the Chinese crypto crackdown of 2017, and countless BTC obituaries.

From 2017: bbc.com/news/business-…
Second, the tech is real. Look at defipulse.com, epns.io, Zcash, starkware.com, ens.domains, NFTs, Uniswap, rollups, and all the new L1 chains just to start. There is genuine computer science here.
Third, the demand for decentralized and private systems has never been higher. It's apparent today just from the tens of millions of Signal signups alone. As usable crypto replacements for corporate tools become available, they too will be adopted.
Fourth, I understand but disagree with the author’s premise that regulation would make the system internationally trustworthy. Cryptographic proof-of-reserve is a far better approach. niccarter.info/proof-of-reser…
Fifth, the amount of USDT printed by Tether is dwarfed by the amount of USD printed by the state. Even if USDT fails or is subject to haircut (eg 70 cents on the Tether), I think the abundance of printed USD will drive up the price of BTC in USD terms. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Finally, it’s totally possible that there’s a price hit if USDT fails. But other stablecoins exist, and we've seen at least four 80-90% crypto drawdowns. Long term crypto people are in it for the long term, to advance freedom, privacy, and decentralization. That doesn’t change.

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More from @balajis

balajis.com Profile picture
18 Jan
Dubai is important to study because it disproves many of the myths circulated during the 2000s about what the Middle East was capable of doing.

Of course it has its flaws, but it's moving in the right direction in terms of economic diversification, the Abraham Accords, and tech.
Follow @WamdaME to see what the future of the Middle East may look like, beyond the stereotypes. There's a global, positive-sum tech community there as well. The Careem exit in 2019 was a big moment for the region! menabytes.com/fadi-ghandour-…
That's also why the $200M Paystack exit was huge for tech in Africa. That's real money for anywhere, and goes even further in Nigeria on a PPP basis. We need 10 more like this, which is why I backed @buycoins_africa and am looking at more in the region.
techcrunch.com/2020/10/15/str…
Read 7 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
17 Jan
Did we forget that California burns to a post-apocalyptic orange every year now?
theguardian.com/world/gallery/… Image
As Miami sea levels rise, there are engineering solutions. Take a look at what Dubai has done. fircroft.com/blogs/engineer… Image
Miami is already the cruise ship capital of the world. It may become the land reclamation/seasteading capital too, as sea levels rise and tech minds with the right mindset take on the problem. Like pursuing nuclear energy rather than giving up. @patrissimo @rabois @shervin
Read 4 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
17 Jan
Strongly disagree.

1) There were 272M international emigrants in 2019. The vast majority of those people were not rich.

2) Emigration reduces inequality as people move away from ultra-wealthy cities like SF/NY to the rest of the country and the world.
un.org/development/de… https://www.un.org/developm...
Indeed, it's the wealthy landed aristocracy — like the NIMBYs of California — who have the most control over local politics and the least need to move.
Let's remember that the right to emigrate is an absolutely foundational human right, part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by people from all over the world, translated into every language.

Exit is the last resort of the powerless.
un.org/en/universal-d… Image
Read 5 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
16 Jan
CEO of the city

In a remote world, talent is mobile. Mayors no longer need to run for higher office — they can level up just by recruiting talent to their city. On the other hand, they can also *lose* talent if the city doesn’t perform.

More upside and downside than before.
The acceleration of remote has changed the world in more ways than people realize.

Politicians must deliver results, or else an instant vote of no confidence is called as people emigrate out. More like a parliamentary system, except you choose between cities rather than parties.
No legislation was passed, but remote will change the job of every politician just as much as social media did. The best ones like @FrancisSuarez have already recognized this.

The medium-term consequence is the rise of competitive government. Deliver results or lose citizens.
Read 4 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
15 Jan
The deeper point is that India doesn’t need to look up to Harvard. Indians are CEOs of trillion dollar companies, soon-to-be VPs, and of course (real) professors at Harvard.

We can build a wholly digital replacement. Declining US institutions aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
In the same way China ascended from a mezzanine level of skill to becoming the factory of the world, India can ascend from providing a shadow academia on YouTube to producing genuinely world class digital learning institutions.

As the meme goes:
ifunny.co/picture/lFZIX5…
India becomes a media superpower.

It’s capable of building digital alternatives to Harvard, Hollywood, and the New York Times. Indeed the people in these institutions often hail from India.

The v2 would lean on modern technology: online learning, AI video, cryptographic truth.
Read 6 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
14 Jan
If we zoom out of current events or Russia/US for a second, think about the run-up to the Iraq War. Are we sure the US wouldn't invent a narrative about some foreign leader, technologically deplatform them, invade the country, and then say "mistakes were made" a few years later?
That's the kind of not-too-unlikely scenario that has other sovereigns concerned about US tech companies. After Tonkin Gulf, babies-in-incubators, and Iraq WMD, quite a few wars were started by false narratives. Now imagine a national leader couldn't even rebut these.
If you buy (say) iron ore from a country, that's "decentralized". The vendor can't hit a key to melt the iron after they've sold it to you.

Software is very different. US tech companies retain root access and can kill-switch your communications grid if USG tells them to.
Read 5 tweets

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