4 ms·

Crypto my dude The jack of all trades are making 7 figures building “DeFi” infrastructure You just deploy a smart contract that helps people simplify a more c

Crypto my dude The jack of all trades are making 7 figures building “DeFi” infrastructure You just deploy a smart contract that helps people simplify a more complex task and your code takes a few percentage points No overhead costs, incorporation, lawyers, banks etc necessary Never been easier to make money Basically the key concept that appeared this year is called “composability” where the outputs of one operation can be used as inputs of the next operation, so this is analogous to the interchangeable parts era of the industrial revolution Smart contracts are extremely limited in the kinds of operations they can do, with most data structures algorithms being too expensive so you never have to employ the bullshit technical questions or any academic knowledge But you probably should read a book like O’Reilly’s “Mastering Ethereum”. Ethereum introduces a concept called an “EVM” (like JVM) which is used on several more platforms that arent called Ethereum, so you should be familiar with that. Oh! You also dont need to be distracted by: “Consensus model ideology” “I could use a database for this” or any other self limiting thing. because “you could also make money” Lets be honest you were probably going to work for some ad tech startup anyway, all crypto projects have just as little utility for the world while possibly having the argument for much more utility, and you dont have to pretend like you are an investor that wont get zeroed out by VC liquidity preferences

cmuguythrow 6y ago
Could you recommend any resources for learning more about what you've discussed here?
- vmception 6y ago
  Not really, you have to learn by doing. Take $300 and spread it across various defi projects - not their tokens, their applications - and see how you are making or losing money, possibly all of it. See what existing tools help you see that better. Notice where they can be further improved. Otherwise you will be stuck in a youtube promoter rabbit hole, white papers and medium articles that still dont make it easier to understand what is going on. Usually the currently deployed code is very different from what is described.
  - vmception 6y ago
    To elaborate, go down the top 20 projects on DefiPulse.com and use each one. Forget about what each project’s website says, just figure out how to use them. Forget about their tokens except as for inventory to use their product, if the project has a native token remember that it is not a surrogate for you to express your excitement about the project, you are here to learn how to earn more things that can be exchanged for goods and services, food and shelter, not here to use your existing capital for trading. In fact, consider all of it as existing for entertainment purposes only. Say you work in entertainment to nullify the utility criticisms others might have when you utter the word crypto.
choxi 6y ago
> You just deploy a smart contract that helps people simplify a more complex task and your code takes a few percentage points Could you list some examples? I didn't realize there were practical use cases for Ethereum yet
- vmception 6y ago
  So “yield farming” is complex and expensive and can involve closer to 8 expensive transactions to get started. You can make a smart contract that lowers it to 1 transaction, automating an operation usually accessed between two or three websites. It likely wont make that much less expensive but it will save people time. What typically happens is that the services which already do this are a combination of being more expensive or inundated with combinations and wont pay attention to new things on the market, catering to only the largest most hyped up and engaged communities to provide conveniences to. So you can instead until you get to the same place!
bouk 6y ago
What a waste of talent to have the smartest people work on crypto. Waste of everything for everyone involved.
- vmception 6y ago
  Eh different people say the same thing about quants and fund managers in centralized finance And the solution? Another adtech startup in an industry that is incapable of identifying the smart/most flexible candidates
  - blueline 6y ago
    > people say the same thing about quants and fund managers in centralized finance both are true
    - vmception 6y ago
      right but the distinction - made specifically for crypto - just leads to an arbitrary pointless discussion about what things have value at all. The people working on a Google product that will be allowed to live for 9 months? The people at the adtech startup? The defense contractors? Its tiresome and unnecessary. Instead of talking about stacks, say crypto once and everyone loses their minds. The only distinction is something you respect verses something you dont. There isnt any underlying specific or accurate distinction from other industries to support it. The question is about employment or, by proxy, making money.
- wes-k 6y ago
  "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks." - Jeff Hammerbacher
  - pratik661 6y ago
    "The best minds of my generation are thinking about ways to get spices from the East for cheaper. That sucks" - Some pundit from the 1500s. There is nothing inherently wrong with talented, ambitious people chasing opportunities where there is the greatest profit. A lot of discoveries can be made in that pursuit that benefit other domains. This is a similar parallel to how space exploration led to discoveries that were used in other domains. Look at all the knowledge we as a society have acquired about making secure, reliable digital products due to engineers trying to make Google ads get more eyeballs (not to mention products like Google Translate, Google Maps, etc).
Nextgrid 6y ago
Is this satire? Reading your post I am still unsure about where the money would be coming from, or why would anyone pay it - what problem is being solved here? Can you give me an example of a "smart contract" that simplifies a complex task and that can't be done with conventional code and a SaaS?
- vmception 6y ago
  People in this market don't want SaaS because it's a black box you control, they want dependable functionality that won't change. The money comes from other people already using smart contracts. If you've been stuck on that argument for some time then its time to notice that the ship for your worldview sailed a long time ago. People that are doing multiple operations with separate smart contracts would like smart contracts that combine that functionality into one. You can take a cut of their funds for providing the service. Simple as that. There are more elaborate examples in sister and cousin threads on this post.
JamesSwift 6y ago
I'm ignorant to all this (well, I guess I already knew that ETH has smart contracts). Can you point to a basic rundown of what "DeFi" infrastructure even _means_?

cmuguythrow 6y ago

Could you recommend any resources for learning more about what you've discussed here?

vmception 6y ago
Not really, you have to learn by doing. Take $300 and spread it across various defi projects - not their tokens, their applications - and see how you are making or losing money, possibly all of it. See what existing tools help you see that better. Notice where they can be further improved. Otherwise you will be stuck in a youtube promoter rabbit hole, white papers and medium articles that still dont make it easier to understand what is going on. Usually the currently deployed code is very different from what is described.
- vmception 6y ago
  To elaborate, go down the top 20 projects on DefiPulse.com and use each one. Forget about what each project’s website says, just figure out how to use them. Forget about their tokens except as for inventory to use their product, if the project has a native token remember that it is not a surrogate for you to express your excitement about the project, you are here to learn how to earn more things that can be exchanged for goods and services, food and shelter, not here to use your existing capital for trading. In fact, consider all of it as existing for entertainment purposes only. Say you work in entertainment to nullify the utility criticisms others might have when you utter the word crypto.

choxi 6y ago

> You just deploy a smart contract that helps people simplify a more complex task and your code takes a few percentage points Could you list some examples? I didn't realize there were practical use cases for Ethereum yet

vmception 6y ago
So “yield farming” is complex and expensive and can involve closer to 8 expensive transactions to get started. You can make a smart contract that lowers it to 1 transaction, automating an operation usually accessed between two or three websites. It likely wont make that much less expensive but it will save people time. What typically happens is that the services which already do this are a combination of being more expensive or inundated with combinations and wont pay attention to new things on the market, catering to only the largest most hyped up and engaged communities to provide conveniences to. So you can instead until you get to the same place!

bouk 6y ago

What a waste of talent to have the smartest people work on crypto. Waste of everything for everyone involved.

vmception 6y ago
Eh different people say the same thing about quants and fund managers in centralized finance And the solution? Another adtech startup in an industry that is incapable of identifying the smart/most flexible candidates
- blueline 6y ago
  > people say the same thing about quants and fund managers in centralized finance both are true
  - vmception 6y ago
    right but the distinction - made specifically for crypto - just leads to an arbitrary pointless discussion about what things have value at all. The people working on a Google product that will be allowed to live for 9 months? The people at the adtech startup? The defense contractors? Its tiresome and unnecessary. Instead of talking about stacks, say crypto once and everyone loses their minds. The only distinction is something you respect verses something you dont. There isnt any underlying specific or accurate distinction from other industries to support it. The question is about employment or, by proxy, making money.
wes-k 6y ago
"The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks." - Jeff Hammerbacher
- pratik661 6y ago
  "The best minds of my generation are thinking about ways to get spices from the East for cheaper. That sucks" - Some pundit from the 1500s. There is nothing inherently wrong with talented, ambitious people chasing opportunities where there is the greatest profit. A lot of discoveries can be made in that pursuit that benefit other domains. This is a similar parallel to how space exploration led to discoveries that were used in other domains. Look at all the knowledge we as a society have acquired about making secure, reliable digital products due to engineers trying to make Google ads get more eyeballs (not to mention products like Google Translate, Google Maps, etc).

Nextgrid 6y ago

Is this satire? Reading your post I am still unsure about where the money would be coming from, or why would anyone pay it - what problem is being solved here? Can you give me an example of a "smart contract" that simplifies a complex task and that can't be done with conventional code and a SaaS?

vmception 6y ago
People in this market don't want SaaS because it's a black box you control, they want dependable functionality that won't change. The money comes from other people already using smart contracts. If you've been stuck on that argument for some time then its time to notice that the ship for your worldview sailed a long time ago. People that are doing multiple operations with separate smart contracts would like smart contracts that combine that functionality into one. You can take a cut of their funds for providing the service. Simple as that. There are more elaborate examples in sister and cousin threads on this post.

JamesSwift 6y ago

I'm ignorant to all this (well, I guess I already knew that ETH has smart contracts). Can you point to a basic rundown of what "DeFi" infrastructure even _means_?