1. Marc Andreesen and Chris Dixon on Bankless -
These two have built, followed, and reflected on the evolution of internet technologies since the 1980s. Coming up on the 5th anniversary of my time in crypto this fall, I feel that I have obtained some specific knowledge that comes from experiencing these events as they occur. The lessons of history are far more poignant when you’ve lived them, but without a time machine, your best bet is to listen to people who have.
One key takeaway (of many) - Joy’s Rule
Bill Joy was a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, an early Silicon Valley company that made big strides in computing. His rule was “No matter how many smart people work at your company, there will always be more smart people who don’t.” This references the benefits of Open Source software. Open Source means that the code is public and anyone can contribute to it. This often leads to a slower development process but a more resilient end product, because everyone is encouraged to look for problems in the code and make improvements. Bitcoin is a great example of open source software that has benefited from the contributions of thousands of individuals. In contrast, software developed by a company is kept private until it’s released often leading to issues with security. Think of all the viruses on your mid-2000s windows computer.
2. Stop Calling It a Wallet by Gaby Goldberg
Does language influence our perception of reality?
In Russian, there are multiple words for different shades of blue. Would having a word for light blue and another for dark blue lead Russian speakers to think of the two as different colors? Possibly.
If it does, then the words we use in web3 may have an unconscious influence on the applications we design. A wallet is a physical object which has certain properties. The word wallet means something to us. Crypto wallets share some of these properties but maybe calling it a wallet constrains our ideas of what it could be. Crypto wallets are being used to hold exponentially more items than they were even a couple of years ago. My digital wallet contains clothes, art, membership cards, game items, and financial instruments. Gaby thinks that we’ll see a world where wallets focus on specific asset types and have special features for them. Your music NFT wallet might allow you to make and share playlists. Your fashion wallet might have an avatar to try your clothes on. “But how can a “wallet” hold my music?”. Great question. Maybe it shouldn’t be called a wallet.
3. How Blockchain Technology Can Get Us Outside -
Outside magazine has been connecting readers to the outdoors through storytelling since 1977. They once transitioned from a physical magazine to a website/blog. They are now embracing web3 as a new way for adventurers and content creators to tell stories, fund trips, and get viewers more involved than ever before.
NFTs give people a way to get deeply involved in the stories they consume. Outside hopes that interactive storytelling, where people can vote on where their favorite photographer goes next or get a special edition print by funding an expedition, will encourage readers to go on more of their own adventures.
It isn’t easy. As Outside CEO Robin Thurston puts it, major companies like Disney, Netflix, and Instagram spend billions of dollars every year to get you to spend more time looking at your screen. Robin, who’s interviewed in this podcast, demonstrates an impressive understanding of the NFT space and how this new technological shift may affect his business. I don’t say that lightly, kudos Robin.
Chris Burkard, one of my favorite adventure photographers (partially for his surfing expedition to Iceland), is interviewed as one of the first creators that will release an NFT with the Outside Creator Studio. I am excited to see where he takes this.
4. Cobie and Chris Burniske on Unchained w/ Laura Shin -
Nobody can predict financial markets. What’s nice about Cobie and Chris is that they don’t pretend to. There’s a lot to be learned from 2 investors who have been in crypto a long time, made every imaginable mistake, and are still kicking. To me, they represent crypto’s better half, people who see the enormous financial opportunity but are deeply connected to the community because of their alignment with its values. They do their best to remove emotions and understand where others would criticize or praise. Laura asks great questions and frames them in a way that appeals to both newbies and seasoned vets. I love supporting high-quality independent crypto media and encourage you to as well.
My favorite takeaway:
Chris compares NFTs today to the ICOs of 2017. 99% of ICOs were scams, illegal, or amounted to nothing. Regardless, they were the first instance of decentralized finance. The only thing you could really do with tokens back then was raise money. In 2020 we saw “DeFi Summer”, where tokens found use in protocols that facilitated swapping, borrowing, staking, and other financial activities. Compare that to NFTs today and it’s almost exactly the same. In the past 18 months, NFTs have mirrored the ICO craze almost exactly. Retail investors hopped from project to project with the promise of incredible gains and little use for their assets. Like 2017, 99% of these NFT projects will amount to nothing. Many were probably scams and possibly illegal. What I’m excited about, and Chris points out, is the next phase for NFTs, when they get the equivalent utility of staking and lending in DeFi but applied to the brands, art music, and culture that people love. Markets may be down, but that’s when the cool stuff gets built.
5. Balaji Srinivasan on the Network State and How to Start a New Country w/ Tim Ferris -
Balaji, someone I consider “the smartest person in the room”, in the vast majority of rooms, came out with a book called the Network State (Free PDF). It frames the internet as the next frontier of humanity and poses the question: How can we reorganize society to form new groups governed by our beliefs and values?
Balaji says so many smart things in such a short time span that it’s hard to keep up but one big takeaway is how important the words we use to name and describe things are (a recurring theme). The predecessor to Balaji’s Network State are the Nation-States we have today. What is a Nation-State? The word nation though refers to people of a shared culture. The state is the governing apparatus of the nation. In countries like the US, minus the civil war, we’ve had one continuous governmental structure, so the nation and the state are basically the same. Countries like France have been through multiple changes and restructures of government and understand that the nation of French people and the French government are very separate. Nations like the Kurdish in Syria or Catalonians in Northern Spain are ethnic groups without their own state. They go unrecognized by the UN and other international groups because they lack a state apparatus that rules their borders, and there are many others like them. Through new technologies, like blockchain, groups like these and new ones will be able to organize and rule their digital borders in new forms of internet communities called network-states. There’s a lot more to unpack here. I’ll be reading the book and reporting back soon.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the creation and expansion of network-states. You and I forfeit physical and digital freedoms by virtue of living in the USA, but the costs of physical relocation, obtaining citizenship in a foreign country, and other related expenses are sufficiently high that we both choose to remain where we are despite potentially more attractive environments around the world. Would network-states have to make joining easy to encourage widespread adoption but simultaneously adopt high barriers to exit in order to prevent the flight of people who disagree with the rules implemented? Or would low barriers to exit serve to enhance adoption since potential netizens wouldn't be locked in to their initial decision?
I love crypto