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As someone not in crypto, I was really surprised to learn how excited people still are about the space. Three podcasts that a) have me wondering if this is whol

by Dwolb 8y ago

As someone not in crypto, I was really surprised to learn how excited people still are about the space. Three podcasts that a) have me wondering if this is whole thing is real or fake and b) if it’s real, will it really be huge 1) Chris Dixon from a16z’s crypto fund discussing how crypto aligns both user and investor interests (and why Google and Facebook don’t). Expands the discussion on Twitter’s alternative fate if crypto existed when it launched. Also highlights there will be an inflection point in which your digital life will matter more than real life: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z/id842818711?mt=2&i=1000420311247 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z/id842818711?mt=2&i=... 2) CZ from Binance (mentioned in this article) actively dismissing the US market and any locations with regulatory uncertainty (e.g. the US) or negative regulations toward crypto: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-binance-became-the-most-popular-crypto-exchange-in-5-months-ep84 http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-binance-became-the-most-popul... 3) Travis Klinger, a former equities trader, discussing quant funds as big as DE Shaw using their traditional trading techniques on nascent crypto exchanges to destroy unsophisticated retail traders: https://player.fm/series/off-the-chain-2428336/travis-kling-the-secrets-of-a-crypto-trader https://player.fm/series/off-the-chain-2428336/travis-kling-... I haven’t fully clarified my thoughts on everything going on other than it’s absolutely fascinating. It seems like there’s a whole world getting built and is globally attracting all sorts of traditional players while creating entirely new applications, infrastructure, and needs.

dylkil 8y ago
its very exciting to be a dev within crypto right now
wslh 8y ago
The problem with this space is the signal vs. noise ratio which makes very difficult to distill the reality. The fundamentals are that Bitcoin (and other decentralized blockchains) were a breakthrough but if there is no concrete utility / network effect (beyond speculation) it will not work or be reduced to a very limited set of use cases. Regulations is or will be an important issue if KYC/AML/accredited-investor regulations are enforced (for exchanges supporting fiat money) almost everywhere because at the end a centralized or federated service can have the same user experience features. I think in the worst case these blockchains could end like Torrent, a super interesting protocol that never caught up and services like Spotify reduced ther impact even more.
csomar 8y ago
> 2) CZ from Binance (mentioned in this article) actively dismissing the US market and any locations with regulatory uncertainty (e.g. the US) or negative regulations toward crypto I'll answer this one: They are serving US customers through VPN and begged crpyto (usdt, true usd, etc...).
splintercell 8y ago
Being in crypto I have created my own signals to differentiate signal from noise. One of the most exciting things are the sheer activity in Ethereum ecosystem. I use Gitcoin [1] (which is a crypto based bounty app built on Ethereum itself) where I look at the kind of issues for which projects are issuing bounties. I presume that if you are issuing a bounty on an issue then that is a demonstrated preference (rather than mere stated preference) about what you are doing. Then I use AngelList's [2] job search, if a project is hiring (and also for what) it indicates and demonstrates their claim backed by action. Like from this I learned about FOAM [3] trying to build a secure GPS (which is basically a cryptographic signing wireless beacon which would sign your request, thereby demonstrating that you were at a certain physical location) by hiring an electronics engineer. The only problem with these signals is that if they become too popular then people might start faking it, though the gitcoin one is hard to fake. If you are a developer, then you can always look at their codebase to see how much of real work is actually going into it. 1. https://gitcoin.co/explorer https://gitcoin.co/explorer 2. https://angel.co/ https://angel.co/ 3. https://foam.space/ https://foam.space/

by Dwolb 8y ago

dylkil 8y ago

its very exciting to be a dev within crypto right now

wslh 8y ago

The problem with this space is the signal vs. noise ratio which makes very difficult to distill the reality. The fundamentals are that Bitcoin (and other decentralized blockchains) were a breakthrough but if there is no concrete utility / network effect (beyond speculation) it will not work or be reduced to a very limited set of use cases. Regulations is or will be an important issue if KYC/AML/accredited-investor regulations are enforced (for exchanges supporting fiat money) almost everywhere because at the end a centralized or federated service can have the same user experience features. I think in the worst case these blockchains could end like Torrent, a super interesting protocol that never caught up and services like Spotify reduced ther impact even more.

csomar 8y ago

> 2) CZ from Binance (mentioned in this article) actively dismissing the US market and any locations with regulatory uncertainty (e.g. the US) or negative regulations toward crypto I'll answer this one: They are serving US customers through VPN and begged crpyto (usdt, true usd, etc...).

splintercell 8y ago

Being in crypto I have created my own signals to differentiate signal from noise. One of the most exciting things are the sheer activity in Ethereum ecosystem. I use Gitcoin [1] (which is a crypto based bounty app built on Ethereum itself) where I look at the kind of issues for which projects are issuing bounties. I presume that if you are issuing a bounty on an issue then that is a demonstrated preference (rather than mere stated preference) about what you are doing. Then I use AngelList's [2] job search, if a project is hiring (and also for what) it indicates and demonstrates their claim backed by action. Like from this I learned about FOAM [3] trying to build a secure GPS (which is basically a cryptographic signing wireless beacon which would sign your request, thereby demonstrating that you were at a certain physical location) by hiring an electronics engineer. The only problem with these signals is that if they become too popular then people might start faking it, though the gitcoin one is hard to fake. If you are a developer, then you can always look at their codebase to see how much of real work is actually going into it. 1. https://gitcoin.co/explorer https://gitcoin.co/explorer 2. https://angel.co/ https://angel.co/ 3. https://foam.space/ https://foam.space/