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Secret Cities
February 25th, 2023
I’m a big fan of the idea that cities have several, distinct versions of themselves throughout the day, and that a city at 8am may feel completely different than one at 5pm. My favorite is the 1am-6am city, which I call the “secret city.”
February 25th, 2023
In 2022, crypto infrastructure advanced significantly. Blockspace is now cheaper, more abundant, and more connected than ever. Zero knowledge technology continues to improve scalability, transaction security, and user privacy. The Ethereum Merge exemplified how strong economic incentives can successfully coordinate major technical upgrades, conducted mid-flight without any negative impact to the end user experience.
February 25th, 2023
I love spending my time trying to generate ideas.
When to Launch a Token
February 25th, 2023
Tokens are an exciting new primitive that facilitate user ownership; they’re a novel tool founders can deploy to create healthier, more sustainable networks. But that newness also means there’s not a well-worn path for founders to follow. Launching a token too early risks skewing product-market fit, yet releasing a token too late might result in it not meshing well with the product or leave the project chasing its peers.
Designing Governance Tokens
August 17th, 2022
I’ve long struggled with the notion of liquid governance tokens. My mental model for protocols is to think of them as quasi-nation states, and thus I tend to view each governance vote as akin to voting in an election. Under this framing, the idea that you can buy votes by buying liquid tokens seems absurd – buying votes in elections is illegal, so why should it be the main method of acquiring influence in web3?
Public Goods in Crypto
May 21st, 2022
The concept of public goods in crypto is pretty popular. It’s discussed a lot with regard to layer-1s, protocol treasuries, and ecosystem growth. The term has also begun to pop up in investment announcements.
March 22nd, 2022
In crypto, people talk a lot about the concept of incentive alignment.
February 13th, 2022
The United States operates under a system of representative democracy. Constituents vote for Congresspeople, who in turn will vote on issues of governance. But when a citizen votes for a representative, are they voting for that rep because the rep best aligns with their individual views, or because they most align with that rep’s views?
January 23rd, 2022
Transportation provides an interesting mental model for thinking about components of crypto: