By now, you’ve probably heard about the problems with inflation.

But did you know that governments actually WANT inflation?

Here’s why: Don’t get me wrong, high levels of inflation isn’t good.

It makes people poorer—their income and savings become worth less.

And inflation impacts everyone within an economy.

However, countries actually WANT some level of inflation:

After the market crash in May I reassessed my approach to investing.

One simple decision has made a massive difference.

Here’s what I’ve done: I started to simplify everything.

I realised I was spread thin over too many projects, protocols, and tokens.

This is exactly how I started to simplify:

7 crypto use cases that are actually revolutionary—explained by an economist.

(hint: it’s not about creating infinite tradeable tokens) You’re probably thinking:

“I live and breathe crypto—I understand its use cases”.

Sometimes it helps to take a step back.

Even the biggest proponents may not see the bigger picture.

E.g. Marc Andreesen, founder of A16Z, struggled to articulate the use-cases of Web 3.

The problem with DeFi last year?

Opportunists crowding out innovators.

THREAD: DeFi and the ‘Utility Question’ In this thread, I’ll discuss:

• Why many people misunderstood the utility of #BTC
• How they saw DeFi tokens as assets designed to make overnight millionaires
• How this led to abundant ‘junk’ protocols—without utility—designed to snap up dollars from these investors.

You’ve heard that an economic ‘hurricane’ is coming in the US.

And that we may be headed towards a depression.

But what does the DATA actually say?

Here’s the breakdown: Recessions can accompany aggressive interest rate tightening.

However, there are a few reasons why the US’s economy is looking in better shape than in 2007/2008:

1. Strong labor market
2. ↓ household debt
3. ↓ corporate debt
4. Insulated banking sector

Let’s unpack these.

How do you limit downside from bear markets and black swan events?

By taking profits.

But how should we think about profit taking?

Here are the best resources to get you up to speed on profit taking strategies:

🧵 An excellent article from @nateliason

He covers taking profits:

• When crypto investments are > than a certain % of your net worth,
• When it breaks your crypto asset allocation strategy,
• When a token hits a price target, and
• Using intuition.

crypto.nateliason.com/p/take-profit

Everyone’s talking about how the Fed is shrinking its balance sheet.

But what does this mean?

And will it actually make the bear market worse?

As an economist, I’ll break it down in simple terms

👇 In this thread you’ll learn about:

• Quantitative Easing
• Quantitative Tightening
• How bond yields impact financial markets/crypto
• Some surprising facts about inflation in the US

Don't let the technical terms scare you. I'll walk you through it.

What could you have done to save your portfolio?

George Soros made $1b by depegging a currency & shorting it.

His playbook was used in last week’s UST attack.

You’ll learn:

• What the play is
• How to spot it
• How to avoid it

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes:

🧵 In this thread we'll cover:

• The problems with artificially pegging currencies,
• How George Soros managed to depeg the British Pound and make > $1b in profit,
• How Soros’s play influenced the attack on the @terra_money ecosystem last week.

Let’s take a look:

8 lessons on organically growing your audience from 0 to 5k followers in 7 weeks:

🧵 I was humbled to recently hit 5k followers 7 weeks after my first tweet.

I did this without doing any giveaways, competitions, etc.

I wanted to share some lessons learned for other people just starting out.

More troubling news for the market from last week:

US Real GDP growth for Q1 2022 unexpectedly contracted by 1.4%.

It was:

• the first contraction since mid-2020, and
• driven by a growing trade deficit

👇 The economy was expected to slow down (due to higher interest rates), but it was NOT expected to go into negative economic growth.

This is stoking fears of stagflation.

Stagflation occurs when high inflation is accompanied by low economic growth rates.

6 under-rated Twitter accounts that will make you a better investor:

🧵 Each of these accounts have roughly 2.5k followers or less.

You'll learn about:

• the mechanics behind blockchain nodes
• how algorithmic stable coins works
• spotting rugs using simple tools
• innovation lifecycles

Let's take a look.

The crypto market is bad. Morale is low and portfolios are stuck.

What’s the cause?

How long will we be here?

The answers are where not enough people are looking:

The global economy.

THREAD: The REAL cause of the crypto bear market - explained in simple terms by an econ PhD The global economic environment in 2022 is looking troubling.

This is due to:

1. increasing debt,
2. inflation,
3. interest rate hikes, and
4. lower economic growth rates

Let’s unpack each of these to understand how this will shape the crypto market.

What is the biggest determinant of success for a protocol?

• Is it the quality of a team?
• Is it the size of the market?
• Is it the utility of the product?

As an economist, I'll break it down for you.

🧵 2/ Many would argue it’s the team.

This is because:
• An ethical team won’t rug,
• An experienced team anticipates the pressure of running a protocol,
• A talented team will have plans for every element: programming, security, marketing, budgeting, leadership, etc.

StrongBlock’s model was the inspiration for the DaaS movement.

Can StrongChain continue leading the way and inspire Passive Income Projects?

Or will it fall short?

Let's find out.

PART 4: Examining StrongChain’s Bull case and Bear Case

🧵 2/ This is the FOURTH and FINAL part of my series on StrongBlock, DaaS & PIPs.

See previous parts below:
Part 1:

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1512397402673713154?s=21&t=7p5DP6Or_dCVZ5OXqYbBkg

Part 2:

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1513848932912320513?s=21&t=7p5DP6Or_dCVZ5OXqYbBkg

Part 3:

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1514943436008402946?s=21&t=7p5DP6Or_dCVZ5OXqYbBkg

In this part I return to Strong to examine StrongChain's bull & bear case.

You shouldn't be concerned if protocols are innovating across multiple areas.

It's entirely normal.

Here's why:

A short 🧵 2/ A short follow up to my last thread, where I examined how protocols are innovating across many (seemingly unrelated) areas to try and find product-market fit.

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1514943436008402946?s=21&t=j8Eb1TYP4jIq5fa9ky9KUA

Protocols like Thor & Power are actually NOT DaaS.

• Weren't they Ring forks?
• What are they?
• How are they different?

I've spent 100+ hours looking into this.

Here's what I learned.

The answers will surprise you.

PART 3: From Rugs to Resurgence - the evolution of DaaS 2/ This is the THIRD PART of a multi-part series on Strong & DaaS protocols.

This series covers:

• The origins of Strong & its model
• The origins of DaaS protocols & the evolution of its models

PART 1:

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1512397402673713154?s=21

Part 2:

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1513848932912320513?s=21

We now understand the business model of Strong.

But how are DaaS protocols different?

Are they:
• more sustainable?
• more accessible?
• more problematic?

I spent 100+ hours looking into this.

I’m sharing what I found.

PART 2: Ring Financial and the origins of DaaS 2/ This is the SECOND part of a multi-part series.

The aim of this series is to examine:

• How node protocols were born
• How DaaS protocols emerged
• The difference between these protocols
• How sustainable they are

You can read PART 1 here:

https://twitter.com/economiserly/status/1512397402673713154?s=21

Most of us are getting $strong wrong.

It’s not a DeFi protocol.

What is it then?

I spent 100+ hours researching this.

Here’s what I found out.

You won’t look at $strong and DaaS protocols the same.

PART 1: The History of @Strongblock_io & The Origins of Node Protocols

🧵 @Strongblock_io 2/ This will be the first part of a multi-part series.

The aim of this series is to examine:

• How node protocols were born
• How DaaS protocols emerged
• How sustainable nodes are
• Why StrongChain makes sense

Let’s dive in.

A token is aiming to 3-4x its price over the next few weeks.

Is it a:

• Node?
• DAO?
• Unicorn?
• NFT?

No.

In fact, you may even have heard of it.

How can a token increase its price so deliberately?

As an economist, I’ll answer that question.

Read on and find out.
👇 2/ This thread will expand on some of the upcoming developments from @_2omb.

$2OMB & $3OMB are forks of $TOMB.

They are algorithmic tokens that are supposed to be pegged to the price of $FTM.

However, there's a problem.

$2OMB is currently trading at 1/4 of the value of $FTM.

Here’s a riddle:

Everyone sells a token, but it goes UP in value instead of dropping.

Everyone buys it, and it ALSO goes up.

• What?
• How?
• Why?

As an Econ PhD, I’ll break it down for you.

MEGA-THREAD: @WANDinvestments explained in simple terms. @WANDinvestments 2/ Wand has some of the most original tokenomics I’ve seen.

It’ll be launching in June.

The purpose of this is to walk you through Wand’s complex tokenomics.

I’m aiming to distill this complexity into simple terms.

I hope this information helps kickstart your own research.

The term “ponzi” is thrown around a lot in DeFi - particularly for protocols like $strong.

It's a concept we all need to understand, and which has nuances that are typically not explained well.

Here's what you need to know about ponzi schemes & ponzinomics in simple terms:

🧵 1/ The name “Ponzi Scheme” comes from Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to the US.

In 1920, Ponzi launched a money-making scheme involving postal reply coupons (PRCs)

When post was sent overseas, a PRC could be attached to pre-pay for reply mail.