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2 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Fund! You invented a fund!

This technical illiterate is typical of tech journalism today. Comparing a smart contract to a fund is like comparing a website to a printed book.

This is why tech is building its own media. Hear from iPhone inventors, not gadget reviewers.
Smart contracts vs hedge funds:

1) can be coded by anyone, vs expensive lawyer
2) can be diligenced & used by anyone in any country
3) can be deployed in minutes, vs days to incorporate
4) blockchain enforces payouts, not legal system

As different as website & printed book.
Btw, hedge funds don’t “hedge their bets against one another”. The name is a legacy and many are actually high-risk vehicles.

It’s one thing for these people to know nothing about anything. It’s another to *not know how little they know*. And then to be snide about it!
It’s sarcasm, all right, of the “bus, you invented a bus” genre.

Namely, it seeks to equate a technological advance with some legacy analog to argue the advance really isn’t innovative.

Later they switch to arguing it’s too disruptive

It’s all predictable & passé at this point

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More from @balajis

balajis.com Profile picture
1 Feb
Old model: hire former writers as PR people. They’ve worked for media companies and have the relationships.

New model: hire social media influencers as first party content creators. They’ve built audiences from scratch and have a following.
You don’t outsource engineering via an IT department, you start with a founding engineer and end up with a CTO.

You don’t outsource media coverage via a PR department, you start with a founding influencer and end up with an editor-in-chief.
Many traditional PR folks have realized that a PR person without a following is like an engineer that can’t code or a salesperson who can’t sell.

The main skill is no longer working through legacy media, it’s building your own outlet. Not just a blog, a real content operation.
Read 4 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
30 Jan
Don’t be Google

Google has lost touch with their roots. What they did today is the equivalent of banning a web browser because it could access unapproved sites.

Unfortunately, the only effective appeals process is raising a stir on social media.
Must be emphasized how mainstream Element is. It’s used by many companies that don’t want to keep their chat logs on a proprietary server!

We are sliding down the slippery slope of censorship at breathtaking speed. First Parler, ok. But then Discord censoring WSB. Now this?
There are still many executives at Google that I know believe in a free and open internet. Please ping them.

There are obvious antitrust implications as well for banning a chat app like Element that is an alternative to proprietary Google Chat.
Read 4 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
29 Jan
Today showed us that the SEC has had it wrong. The problem isn’t that some cryptos may be securities. The problem is that all securities aren’t yet cryptos.

Now is the time to draft a bill that legalizes security tokens.
If all securities were represented on-chain:

- all users have self-custody of certificates
- brokerages can’t stop you from trading
- trading runs 24/7
- and settlement happens in minutes, not days

Basically, root cause is the antiquated financial backend. On-chain fixes this.
The stockchain

What we just observed was a technology problem that is being cast as a human problem. It was basically a Slashdotting of the legacy financial system, an unexpected workload that it isn’t prepared to handle. Putting stocks on chain really does fix this.
Read 9 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
28 Jan
We don’t know all the facts yet. It is quite possible Robinhood was leaned on by the SEC, a banking partner, or one of many other regulators / regulated entities they are beholden to.

We’re seeing the limits of fintech vs crypto in real-time. Not your rails, not your stocks.
OK, here *may* be why Robinhood & other brokerages shut down trading.

Not because evil. Because they can't afford the cost!

Due to the volatility of these stocks, their partners now (understandably) want cash up front. No one wants to be holding the bag. finance.yahoo.com/video/heres-wh…
This is plausible to me & similar to the kinds of thing that happen in crypto when there is an unexpected surge in price.

If true, it's a supply chain issue due to slow settlement times. No one wants to take principal risk on a ton of highly volatile assets.
Read 9 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
28 Jan
FYI

1) Reddit did not shut down r/wallstreetbets

2) The mods shut it down bc they were overwhelmed

3) It’s now back, for now at least:
reddit.com/r/wallstreetbe…

Source: senior Reddit administration official
The r/wallstreetbets & #defi crossover is coming.

I expect a pseudonymous founder to set up a contract-for-difference engine in some country. Maybe legal in some places, do your own diligence!

But that would allow *uncensorable* on-chain exposure to the price of every stock.
Basically, the way MakerDAO works is by putting the exchange rate of ETH/USD on chain. Through some transformations, that gets you a USD stablecoin called DAI.

But the same approach can be used to put ETH/GME, ETH/TESLA, ETH/ANYSTOCK on chain.

Which means multiple exchanges!
Read 9 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
27 Jan
☀️ The city of Miami just posted the #Bitcoin whitepaper on their website! This is a simple but powerful move that any jurisdiction can make to show they are in favor of technological progress. Who will follow Miami's example?
Boom! Here's @RepTomEmmer, chair of the Congressional Blockchain caucus posting the Bitcoin whitepaper on the House website. Clean URL!
Here is Representative @PatrickMcHenry of the House Financial Services Committee standing up for open source innovation in finance by posting the Bitcoin whitepaper!
Read 7 tweets

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