Ben Simon
@benjaminsimon97
Followers
13,545
Following
2,320
Media
220
Statuses
2,717
“Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.” -Maimonides
Joined September 2012
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Send us removal request.
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Last Seen Profiles
“Israel is unwilling to give the people in Gaza and the West Bank more than an inch of freedom to live.”
Lots of people are retweeting this as an example of “great analysis.” In reality, it’s peppered with false moral equivalencies and half truths (if not outright falsehoods).
People ask me all the time if I am "pro-Israel" because I am a Jew who has lived in Israel, and my answer is that being "pro-Israel" or being "pro-Palestine" or being a "Zionist" does not properly capture the nuance of thought most people do or should have about this issue. It
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Yes, I waited an hour and a half outside the bank to open a new account, but hey these yields sure are juicy.
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My letter in the
@WSJ
responding to former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s op-ed, “America’s Future Depends on the Blockchain” and to
@SenWarren
’s recent comments.
In print tomorrow.
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Fitting day for the trade I made this morning: long crypto/short college.
Officially not going back to school this fall. This stuff ain't gonna build itself.
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Are you even in crypto if you've never been torched by an algoponzi?
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There is a reason Coinbase built a rollup—not a sidechain, not a parachain, not a subnet, not anything else.
The reason is that rollups are the superior blockchain scaling solution. Full stop.
I remember how unpopular this view was 18 months ago. Now it seems to be consensus.
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UNI rewards begin at 12am UTC. For anyone interested in farming, I made this spreadsheet with the APYs for different pool TVLs and UNI prices.
Hope it's useful!
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This is going to end well.
Some of the advice on how to cope with rising inflation includes: Spend your paycheck right away
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The fat protocol thesis has had a great run, but I think we'll see a reversion to the mean as the market comes to terms with the following:
Some dApps in the 100-500mil mcap range have 5-10x the protocol revenue of blockchains valued in the 10-100bn mcap range.
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(Crazy, dumb) idea now that Binance offer seems off the table:
grassroots movement to convince gov to use recently-seized $3b+ of Silk Road BTC to make FTX users whole.
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As a $UNI holder, $1.1B in net income is news to me!
I must've missed all of the past dividend payments...
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Thought about calling this piece, "I ♥️ rollups, and here's why."
In any event, excited to share this brief overview with all of you, (And thank you to
@transmissions11
and
@hasufl
for their valuable feedback!)
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I would say that I'm surprised by
@Tetranode
's blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon...
But then again, people have been scapegoating Jews after massive financial loss for thousands of years.
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How do you value a “0 Value” Token that has risen from $3 to over $43,000 in a matter of months?
@Rewkang
,
@Daryllautk
, and I explored some key valuation frameworks in our latest research article:
Here are a few of our main observations 👇
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Seeing so many “gm”s and “Wagmi”s from leading trad vcs, seemingly all at once.
Feels like there was some secret council that happened over the weekend where the they decided to go all-in crypto.
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Anyone else feeling utterly deflated after today's course of events?
Almost like a nasty hurricane swept through crypto and now we're going to be picking up the pieces for a little while.
This kind of "flush out" definitely needed to happen, but it was not pretty to witness.
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One of the most impressive things about
@arbitrum
's early success is that all of it has been organic—achieved without a token.
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My latest
@DeribitInsights
article lays out a distinct and provocative (I hope!) historical-philosophical thesis.
But, on a more personal level, this piece attempts to make sense of two parts of my identity that are in conflict: crypto and conservatism.
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Barring a paradigm shift, the dollar will eventually be crushed under the weight of the ballooning debt.
@nic__carter
is right: Americans should thank our lucky stars that the possibility of a non-yuan successor even exists—let alone harmonizes with many of our founding ideals.
Thiel is pointing out to the nation's elite that, far from being tulips or a speculative mania, Bitcoin has geopolitical and civilizational significance and will be pivotal in the rise and fall of fortunes and empires
$BTC
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@HusseinAboubak
Often the most astute observers of Jewish history and the Jewish people come from outside our ranks. Thanks Hussein.
May the God of Israel bless you.
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Is there anything like an onchain PE fund that does leveraged buyouts of underperforming DeFi protocols?
Or at the very least some sort of DAO that takes activist minority stakes a la Icahn/Singer?
If not, I certainly know some protocols that could use a jolt. Let’s start one.
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@NateAFischer
@SohrabAhmari
The border is the most pressing national security interest right now. It’s always been bad, but now it’s terrifying.
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At a “DeFi summer” event with a bunch of tradfi suits. Send help.
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"Introducing Coompound by Goldman Sachs"
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Told some friends before
@GMX_IO
's debut on
@avalancheavax
that it would soon be the most liquid place to trade AVAX on-chain.
Wasn't expecting this to be within 72 hours of launch.
@paraswap
@matchaxyz
, reminder to follow
@SlingshotCrypto
and get GMX pools integrated!
Already ~12M of liquidity on AVAX within hours.
$GMX launch going well, bringing the oracle priced spot swaps and margin trading to Avalanche.
@SynapseProtocol
can help you bridge to AVAX or Arbitrum.
Read my recent thread on GMX below.
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1/18 After 3 months,
@saffronfinance_
is no longer new on the scene. Now that the kid has climbed the ranks, it's time to see if he can hang with the big boys.
Below are some updated thoughts on potential integrations, improvements, and innovations for Saffron moving forward. ⬇️
1/11
@saffronfinance_
($SFI) is DeFi's new kid on the block with its tranched yield product that is already live with DAI on
@compoundfinance
.
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No, Sequoia realized that there was an order of magnitude mismatch of capital to well-priced opportunities in this sector.
Insult Sequoia all you want, but I don’t think they just woke up and decided that they don’t have a “unique advantage” here, as if such a thing existed.
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Seems like we need a robust political, economic, and philosophical defense of DeFi.
Who wants to write one with me?
Unregistered DeFi markets may be illegal in the U.S.,
@CFTCberkovitz
said in a speech Tuesday.
@nikhileshde
reports
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Shocking how easily people who toss around offensive shit like it's nothing get offended themselves.
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@lawmaster
Lawsuits......because Vitalik was sent tokens without asking for them and then later on decided to sell them on the open market? Seems a bit far fetched to me.
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Thrilled to be joining
@DeribitInsights
!
Looking forward to the writing, but even more excited to continue learning from and collaborating with my brilliant colleagues and friends:
@hasufl
,
@zhusu
,
@SplitCapital
,
@AviFelman
, and
@mrjasonchoi
.
We’re excited to announce some major changes at
@DeribitInsights
.
Starting today, we welcome four new permanent contributors to our team:
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.
@Daryllautk
isn't just a colleague. He was also my first real friend in crypto and still one of my closest.
Here's a memory that I want to share from that insane downturn in May, which happened to be on his and
@Darrenlautf
's bday.
Daryl doesn't just preach WAGMI. He lives it.
Been a pleasure working with
@Daryllautk
whose boundless energy, sharp intellect, & desire to do right by others inspires me. Wish I had 1/2 of this "when I was his age"
You know I'm a people maxi, so whether we "work" together or not, you're squad & WAGMI
PS: 33 is boomer now
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"...and who's worth the most? Projects before mainnet.
Dfinity? XRP? No mainnet.
Cardano has been around since 2015 without working smart contracts and that Hoskinson motherf**ker is the king!"
I think about this scene from
@SiliconHBO
all the time when founders are raising:
"If you show revenue, people will ask how much and it'll never be enough"
-Russ Hanneman
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I’m thrilled to announce that I have joined
@MechanismCap
as an investment analyst and researcher.
A few brief thoughts below.
After years of analyzing cryptoeconomics, exploring value accrual, and experimenting with magic internet money applications, we decided this year to commit full time.
Excited to support great projects with
@Daryllautk
&
@benjaminsimon97
at
@MechanismCap
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The ethical debate over Miner Extractable Value (and MEVA) is not just theoretical.
@optimismPBC
and
@arbitrum
are taking diametrically-opposed approaches to this problem w/r/t the sequencer's MEV capabilities.
(I much favor Arbitrum's fair-sequencing approach over MEVA)
@tarunchitra
There will probably be more popcorn and I highly encourage participation in its consumption, because I think this is one of the most important philosophical debates in the space.
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Woke up to the terrible news that my friend Or Brandes הי׳׳ד was killed in Gaza yesterday.
I wanted to share a few words about Or, who was my friend, Hevruta (study partner), and tennis buddy during my year in yeshiva in Israel.
There was no one like Or. His smile lit up
Sgt. First Class (res.) Or Brandes 🕯️
Staff Sgt. Aschalwu Sama🕯️
Two IDF soldiers lost their lives fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. They gave their lives in defense of the state. May their memories forever be a blessing.
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1/11
@saffronfinance_
($SFI) is DeFi's new kid on the block with its tranched yield product that is already live with DAI on
@compoundfinance
.
I like the idea of tranching risk that
@saffronfinance_
(working product) &
@barn_bridge
focus on
Higher yields + risk for apes
Lower yields + risk for normies
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Anon:
@arbitrum
is just a cheap knock-off of
@optimismPBC
.
Me:
...
[proceeds to show video of 2014/2015 class project for a Princeton undergraduate seminar taught by prof.
@EdFelten
, months before Ethereum mainnet]
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Brilliant.
Let's put a global file titled "seed phrase" on every person's google account.
This way, any computer you might accidentally log into and forget to sign off on, or any scammy app that asks you to "sign in with google" and reads your files, can steal your coins.
Instead of yelling at our users to be better, we again did something radical: We made our wallet better instead
Login on a DeSo app like , and you will see "Login with Google"
This still uses a seed phrase, but backs it up securely to your Google Drive
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@JMilei
@damianpachter
Oro para que el Altísimo los bendiga y les dé la victoria en dos semanas. 🇮🇱🇦🇷🇺🇸
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0. How much does it cost to buy $LINK on a Decentralized Exchange (DEX)?
A thread comparing price slippage on
@Bancor
and
@UniswapProtocol
.
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If you read one thing today, make it this
@hosseeb
essay from March 2020.
I agree with every major point the author makes—and even if you happen to be a decentralization purist, this piece should help you interrogate your biases.
H/t
@WarcMeinstein
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Sending prayers to the people of Ukraine. 🇺🇦
And I can't help but wonder what this great man would be saying and doing if he were still alive.
The free world needs some of his courage and moral clarity right now.
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The more I've learned about rollups, the more of a rollup maximalist I've become.
Check out my latest on ZK vs OR in
@DeribitInsights
.
Many thanks to
@jadler0
@sgoldfed
@transmissions11
for some very helpful technical guidance and to
@hasufl
for his incisive editorial feedback.
Finally, to kick things off,
@benjaminsimon97
has written an excellent discussion on Optimistic vs ZK-rollups. He compares the two approaches on security, UX, and -what I consider most underrated- their ability to onboard Defi protocols today.
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Why are many former web2 VCs incapable of articulating core use cases for web3?
Because they view crypto as apolitical tech, categorically similar to the software revolution that preceded it.
In reality, it is inherently political.
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Part two of my
@DeribitInsights
mini series on rollups is out!
The subject? Optimistic Rollup dispute resolution 🏛️
This (admittedly technical) piece builds on part one:
For a non-technical intro to rollups, check out my primer:
The ability to challenge fraudulent state transitions is at the heart of the Optimistic Rollup design. In his new article for
@DeribitInsights
,
@benjaminsimon97
compares how the two dominant players, Arbitrum and Optimism, resolve these disputes.
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L2s (rollups) are NOT "databases replicated by single parties."
Yes, rollups don't rely on democratic consensus, but that's because tx processing is not *final*—each batch of txs must either be proven (ZK) or allowed to be disputed (OR) before being included in the base chain.
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Imagine thinking "Etherium" is a database like
@matthewstoller
does. 🤡
I have no idea why the "blockchain as DB" meme has persisted for as long as it has.
For clarity's sake, I hope it fades away soon.
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yield farming 2.0
Stepn. A “walk to earn” app that pays you money the more you walk, but the deal is you have to buy in first, by purchasing a pair of virtual sneakers that you pay for in the app’s native cryptocurrency.
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Told a big founder to his face that his [redacted] was a ponzi.
Oops.
(But I told him it was a beautiful ponzi!)
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Did you know that
@gmoneyNFT
has extensive political experience?
Now he's running for
@PleasrDAO
board.
Eventually he'll be the first ape in Congress.
#gmoney2024
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While most Bitcoiners will be celebrating tonight, others will be undergoing painful, self-inflicted procedures.
Godspeed John, and see you on the other side.
@CryptoNewsPlus
There you have it. We win in any case. If Bitcoin is not at $1 mil by Dec 31, 2020, I will eat my dick.
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1/12 Last week, Andrew and I put out some research we'd been working on for a while. (Thanks to
@jackshaftoes
and
@FTX_Official
for publishing it!)
Unlike most of my past writing, this piece is explicitly intended to aid teams/communities designing LM programs.
A summary 👇
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Friends I spot on this epic cover:
@CL207
,
@Rewkang
,
@ChainLinkGod
,
@inversebrah
,
@TheCryptoDog
,
@santiagoroel
,
@zhusu
/
@kyled116
(3ac)
@Tetranode
,
@bantg
.
Plus the protocols themselves:
@AaveAave
,
@SushiSwap
,
@Uniswap
,
@compoundfinance
,
@MetaMask
, etc.
Great stuff
@pplpleasr1
hi CT
just wanna thank
@FortuneMagazine
for letting me put a bunch of pepes and anons on their August/Sept cover lmao
the digital version is already live but you can also find the physical magazine on news stands globally next week!!
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@Cernovich
Israelis are incredulous that their leadership—political and military—could have allowed this to happen. They are demanding accountability.
This is a world apart from conspiracy theories (pro Hamas or otherwise) that Bibi + gov knew about or orchestrated the attacks.
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Narratives, like prices, seem to overcorrect after stretching too far in one direction.
Last month's hymns about DeFi's virtues have become this month's Jeremiads against its irredeemably speculative nature.
Avoid one-dimensional narratives and half truths.
Nuance prevails.
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Excited to be speaking about
@GMX_IO
's explosive
@avalancheavax
growth in Barcelona in a few weeks!
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Worth noting that when
@Rewkang
says his DMs are open for job inquiries, he actually means it.
In late June, I randomly cold-messaged Andrew a clarifying question about a thread of his on impermanent loss mitigation...which eventually turned into an amazing gig at
@MechanismCap
.
.
@MechanismCap
is hiring!
Currently recruiting for CTO & Data Analyst/Scientist but will consider all potential talented contributors
DMs open
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@martyrmade
Sure, but if you spew mealy-mouthed both-sidesism and historical relativism instead of drawing clear moral distinctions that must be drawn, then you're also thinking like a child, not an adult.
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@aziz0nomics
You know it’s funny. When I read this, as a proud Zionist Jew, I see it and go hmm yeah that’s actually not good, you’re right, Israel should do better. And I think that would be the reaction of most Jews across the political spectrum (and in Israel, even!).
But I feel that
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Officially retiring this meme after last night
Last night, our team at
@Delphi_Digital
threw a last minute house party in Miami and got
@disclosure
to play.
It ended up being the best party during crypto week despite coming together in less than 48 hours
Story + fomo vids 👇🏽 (posting this on 0 sleep fyi so sorry in advance)
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Some 5-star perspective from Quoc, my Uber driver, this morning:
- Life is complicated. Be grateful for the simple things.
- Don’t get hung up on what’s out of your control.
- As a host, welcome strangers into your home (or car) as friends. As a guest, be polite and thankful.
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Good token econ doesn't make a project, but bad token econ breaks it.
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@hyperbtcoiniz8n
@VitalikButerin
@PrestonPysh
@tim1546
@adam3us
@Excellion
Preston I love you man and have learned a lot from your investing podcasts. But this kind of ill-conceived attack on Ethereum betrays something not so dissimilar to the kind of close-mindedness you so revile in TradFi BTC naysayers.
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Tell me you're an emotional trader without telling me you're an emotional trader
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Rationalism vs. empiricism as it relates to early stage startups and the path to product market fit.
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We lack a forum to productively debate critical ethical/philosophical issues related to crypto.
I've wanted to start a podcast on this for a while. This reorg nonsense might be just the push that was needed.
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**Brief thread**
(1/6) Rollups *preserve* Ethereum's decentralized security. Rollups only "push" txs to Ethereum, which can still be rejected by eth consensus.
In political terms, Ethereum is the sovereign "branch" with the final say—think SCOTUS after Marbury v. Madison.
L2s (rollups) are NOT "databases replicated by single parties."
Yes, rollups don't rely on democratic consensus, but that's because tx processing is not *final*—each batch of txs must either be proven (ZK) or allowed to be disputed (OR) before being included in the base chain.
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If crypto is going to be widely adopted, it needs some rules of the road & a cop on the beat to enforce them.
To be clear, I am technology-neutral.
What I'm not neutral about: Investor protection.
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Seeing a lot of mixed sentiments from the top traders/investors I follow. Some calling for BTC pullback to 20k + eth/alts nuke. Others saying BTC is going to range and we're going to have a full-blown alt szn. Still others who think BTC rips much higher.
Not much consensus.
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Was trying to pay someone in Europe.
PayPal charges at least 5%—five percent!—for international transfers.
PayPal is worth, what, $100 billion?
This is why I���m skeptical of the crypto skeptics who say “sure there’s a use case but it’s <$5B market opportunity.”
Plain false.
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Where do I find this shirt
@haydenzadams
Coinbase, which has made billions running cryptocurrency markets, is facing competition from a new breed of upstarts that look less like the New York Stock Exchange and more like Napster
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Lol I feel like if you had invested 10k in some crypto funds during 2019 you’d be sitting on $6.4m right now.
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1/8 It's no secret that I love
@fraxfinance
's design. Even today, when FXS price plummeted, Frax remained stable
But there remain some design flaws that need shoring up—maybe one of the most obvious of these is the fact that Frax is (partially) collateralized by USDC.
@nithinkrishh
@mrinconcruz
@mrjasonchoi
The question then becomes whether there is a viable alternative that isn't vulnerable in the same way to demand falling off a cliff
I've become more convinced that fractional reserve stablecoins like FRAX are the way forward, and I think the evidence so far bears that out.
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It's become fashionable to romanticize DAOs as revolutionary for most/all existing org structures.
I think this view is exaggerated. DAOs are useful for some purposes, unsuitable for others.
Might write something on this. If so, what should I make sure to read beforehand?
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Trying to understand the strongest *non scaling* practical use cases (blockchain and non blockchain) for ZKPs where ZKPs are the only or most optimal solution?
Will track best responses in a thread.
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Have been working on this in stealth for the past few months.
Excited to finally share our vision.
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@paulg
It’s awash in false moral equivalencies. If you’re looking for history, pick up an actual history book on the conflict and the many attempted peace processes. If you’re looking for “thought experiment” analysis, start here:
This is a pertinent clip from Sam Harris on the moral difference between Israel and her enemies.
The moral difference comes down to understanding the answer to this question: what would each side do if they had the power to do it?
TRANSCRIPT:
The truth is that there is an
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On the train from New York to Boston.
Conductor says: “Two minutes to Back Bay. Two minutes…” Then adds after a brief pause: “Walking distance to Fenway Park (Paaahhhk).”
Nearly the entire train gets up and starts collecting their bags.
Nothing beats Sox-Yankees in October.
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Standing on the shoulders of giants.
Congrats to a legend on a great run.
Can’t wait to see what you cook up next,
@hasufl
.
After 1.5 years of writing and another six months as general editor, I am ending this chapter of my crypto life and taking my leave. Deribit Insights is in great hands with the amazing
@AviFelman
,
@benjaminsimon97
,
@mrjasonchoi
, and
@SplitCapital
.🤝
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