1) Fun fact: there are ~280 payment companies today building on cryptorails (!)

I've written a piece explaining the current financial system, major use cases for cryptorails, adoption challenges they're facing, and what the future might look like.

paragraph.xyz/@archetype/cry… 2) The vision of using cryptorails for payments is finally becoming a reality in 2025. Why now?
- Stablecoins are mainstream
- DeFi is robust and scalable
- On/off ramps are globally available
- Blockspace is fast & cheap
- UX is simplified
- Regulations are clearer

1/ Verifiable Compute is as important of a technological revolution as blockchain itself.

I've written a piece on the tech, including:
- an overview & history
- an outline of the use-cases
- a framework for evaluating verifiable compute projects



🧵👇archetype.mirror.xyz/Lov-dI8FOueUt4… 2/ Verifiable Compute allows external parties to run computations on your behalf while providing assurances around the validity of the computation’s inputs, outputs, and methods used.

It encompasses various cryptographic techniques for ensuring computational integrity.

1/ Most people think about a (blockchain) bridge as a monolithic piece of software or a set of smart contracts, but @arjunbhuptani elegantly breaks down the concept into a modular framework.

Here's what happens under the hood when you relay a message across chains: 2/ Transport: You take data from a source chain and post it to a destination chain.

This can happen using any relayer network.

This can also happen using native rollup bridges (i.e. the sequencer).

This part of the stack is highly commoditized since it's easy to implement.

1/ Application-specific blockchains ("AppChains") are back with a vengeance.

I've written a piece on AppChains and their:
- History
- Pros & cons
- Future market structure
- Design space
- Current solutions

medium.com/1kxnetwork/app…

+ a thread to accompany it 👇 2/ What's an AppChain?

Simply put, an AppChain is a blockchain that dedicates its blockspace to a specific application.

Importantly, they *do not* only refer to monolithic L1s because "layers" are mostly just trust-minimized blockchains w/ two-way trust-minimized bridges.

1/ Market timing is arguably the most important factor that determines the success of a company.

Here are three mental models for determining whether it is the right time for what you're building:
- Prior failures
- Ingredients for success
- Awareness & acuteness of pain 2/ Prior failures:
- Who else has tried something similar to what you're building and failed?
- Why did they fail (e.g. competition? no demand? bad UX)?
- Have those reasons been solved by the market (e.g. better tech)?
- Can you solve any of those reasons (e.g. better GTM/team)?

1/ Fun fact: there are around 100 public blockchains and *over 40* bridge projects today (!)

I've written a piece explaining why bridges are important, how they are designed, who is building them, and what the future landscape might look like.

medium.com/1kxnetwork/blo… 2/ Interoperability unlocks innovation.

Bridges enable:
- Greater productivity and utility for existing cryptoassets
- Greater product capabilities for existing protocols
- New features and use cases for users and developers

1/ #DeFi enables software economics for financial services.

This is something that traditional banks and FinTechs cannot achieve because they continue to be built on antiquated rails. 2/ What does "software economics" mean?

Building software is a mostly fixed-cost effort but provisioning additional copies are ~free.

In other words, there is ~$0 marginal cost per additional user.

This enables software companies to have unprecedented scale & profitability.

1/ The last four months have seen *dozens* of protocols launch liquidity mining programs.

I've written a piece explaining what liquidity mining is, what has worked well, and what could be improved:

medium.com/bollinger-inve… 2/ Liquidity mining (LM) is a network participation strategy in which a user provides capital to a protocol in return for that protocol's native token.

1/ @YamFinance was a fascinating social experiment to watch unfold in real-time.

It's not ideal to test in production with large amounts of capital at risk, but we've learned a lot.

My takeaways 👇 2/ DeFi is an MMO with money at the center of the game design.

Users had to figure out how to maximize yield in a time-constrained and reflexive environment (e.g. which pools are most profitable, whether to sell before/after rebase).

1/ The Financial Stability Board released today a consultative report on stablecoins:

fsb.org/wp-content/upl…

Here are their recommendations to address the regulatory, supervisory and oversight challenges identified for stablecoins: 2/ Authorities should have and utilize the necessary powers and tools, and adequate resources, to comprehensively regulate, supervise, and oversee a stablecoin and its multi-functional activities, and enforce relevant laws and regulations effectively.

1/ It was a pleasure being on the selection committee for the @BB_Xcelerator

The latest cohort is *impressive*

Summary below👇 2/ @AcalaNetwork: First-of-its-kind decentralized finance consortium, with a vision to create a cross-chain open finance infrastructure for the Polkadot ecosystem, bringing interoperability, stability and liquidity to the crypto world

acala.network

1/ ETH Denver gets better every year. Here's a summary of my takeaways and project highlights.

Key themes this year:
- Leverage & derivatives
- BTC on ETH
- Bonding curves
- Public goods funding
- Security 2/ 1x.ag - Leveraged positions on ERC20 tokens

Uses Compound, Aave, MakerDAO, and bZx as lending providers, Aave flash loans for leverage, 1split.eth as the on-chain dex aggregator, and ChainLink oracles for price verification.

#moneylegos

1/ There have been *nine* new zero-knowledge proof systems released in 2019 alone.

A list 👇 2/ Scalable zero knowledge with no trusted setup

link.springer.com/chapter/10.100…

Who are the smartest people you know who transitioned from traditional finance (e.g. investment banking, asset management) to crypto? To start: @ianjohnlee

1/ Sound is like open source code. Producers decide whether to use a sound in their songs, just as engineers decide whether to use code in their software. 2/ The 808 kick drum produced a new and distinctive sound which was used on more hit records than any other drum machine.

1/ "Bullshit is everywhere" - @tonysheng

More specifically, the crypto ecosystem continues to suffer from: 2/ Direct incentive to do things that make coin prices go up (bullshit is created)

1/ openlibra.io hit the nail on the head:

"Where would OpenLibra be used? I mean, you don't have 2 billion users...

Worse, we have no users (not just us, crypto generally). That's why Facebook is a formidable force. 2/ The first orbit we need to hit is single player mode: that is, being a store of value for many people in the world is enough. That means ensuring hardness and liquidity of the currency.

1/ Summary thread on what I think are the most important points and questions from today's House hearing with David Marcus on #Libra: 2/ The intention for Libra IS for Facebook to compete with Alipay and WePay.

1/ Summary thread on what I believe are the most important privacy, legal, and governance points from today's Senate hearing on #Libra: 2/ Privacy: In his testimony, Marcus states "Calibra will not share customers’
account information or financial data with Facebook unless people agree to permit such sharing."

Is it the case that traditional venture capital wisdom doesn't apply to cryptonetworks, or are crypto investors ignoring 30 years of lessons?

Examples: VCs: "How will the company generate revenue?"
Crypto investors: "How will the token accrue value?"

1/ To my surprise, the sentiment is that gaming & collectibles will be widely adopted before money/finance. When it comes to consumers, this might be true. Here's the case for the first 100 million blockchain users coming from this use-case:

https://twitter.com/dberenzon/status/1059265292159700992

2/ Fortnite made $318 million in *a month* selling in-game items, and is on track to generate $2 billion in revenue in 2018. It's without a doubt that people find value in digital goods, whether for utility, reputation, or other personal reasons.