UpOnly: Chats with Crypto Experts

LinksJoe TwitterWebShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesIntroduction ⁃ Joe co-founded Ethereum and ConsenSys ⁃ Worked in robotics, machine vision, AI. Moved into the financial space and became depressed by that, the economy and geopolitics. Saw centralised systems as bankrupt politically and financially ⁃ Read the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2011. Met Vitalik in Toronto in 2014 and read the Ethereum whitepaper that night and it became clear it was the way to build a system better, faster and more expressive than on Bitcoin ⁃ Web3 vision resource: polynya.medium.com also /u/liberosist on Reddit ⁃ Vitalik did a great job of setting an intellectually honest tone of integrity along with the power of the ideas held them together vs differing opinionsMetamask ⁃ Metamask has a decentralised future ahead of it (Token confirmed?!) ⁃ Metamask is already an ecosystem and it will be more explicitly an ecosystemNFTs ⁃ Astonishing to see how many people are affected by the NFT phenomenon. Major crossing of the chasm – use of the technology without a real understanding of the underlying ⁃ Cobie: It converted a lot more people but it’s also there is huge hostility to NFTs starting with the climate narrative ⁃ Joe: People with entrenched or vested interest trying to slow things down. Can’t worry too much about naysayers, try to stay patient and educate ⁃ Ethereum and others have a solution for the energetically expensive PoW. Bitcoin energy burning is almost a religion but with renewable energy they may be able to stay the courseInstitutions and CBDCs ⁃ Multiyear agreements with financial institutions to enable Ethereum technology ⁃ NFT pipeline is also really big for projects right now ⁃ Regulation and liquidity along with matured technology the movement will be unstoppable ⁃ Nation state money is declining, looks like the end of a 80 year debt supercycle moving into a new era ⁃ Cobie: Governments have realised this, spinning up CBDCs per country. Not sure what they mean by it but they’ve accepted using these systems as the future ⁃ Joe: Depends on the country, China CBDC won’t be very decentralised. CBDCs will take a long time to figure out, don’t want to mess with systems billions rely on. ConsenSys have worked on multiple CBDC projects ⁃ Real time economy would shrink the duration between value creation events and be a growth driver for the economyMultichain ⁃ Seen a multichain future for a long time ⁃ Security is dominated by BTC and ETH. More projects are focused on Execution ⁃ Alt L1s are more like competitors to Ethereum L2s ⁃ Solana are spending a huge about for security, fees are an order of magnitude less than what they’re paying. May look to ETH rollups in future for a solution ⁃ Ethereum has a massively unfair advantage with the size and speed of the development of the ecosystem ⁃ Cobie: How does Ethereum retain the ability to make changes while people become more reliant on it? ⁃ Joe: Not a new problem, Vitalik and others have spoken about simplifying the lower layers. Need to continue to improve the chain and sharding. Can see Palm as an ETH L2, Gnosis as a L2 and L3Memes & New Economy ⁃ Everything is a meme now ⁃ Budweiser tweeting gm and wagmi ⁃ Moving from a previous economy which is very physical to an economy that is essentially all about creativity and living in virtual worlds ⁃ Things are going to get wacky and interesting in a creativity economyMEV ⁃ Didn’t specifically think of MEV back in the day but recognised fee mechanisms would have sophistication come to it ⁃ Wallet Extractable Value is also being paid attention to ⁃ Continually evolving set of systems designed to make communities, users and organisations happy with given choices. End up paying the users of the system out of the MEVIdentity ⁃ Wallet is your digital authority ⁃ MetaMask moving towards enabling increasingly granular security ⁃ Able to have multiple personas and bring them together e.g. personas may need to be brought together for a better loan⁃ Identity has been worked on from the start by ConsenSys and others from the start ⁃ As DAOs become increasingly politically important there will be a forum in which identity starts to ramify significantly ⁃ Thought DIDs would have been adopted quickly but it’s a deep set of problemsFinal Alpha ⁃ Be kind to the people around you, take care of themNotes by Kevin and LukeMusic by GiovanniPickle

LinksJordi TwitterShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesCrypto Intro– Started off as a professional poker player– Then was working as a trader– Was in San Francisco during 2016, impossible not to hear about crypto– Was trading bonds and gold– Then went 80/20 gold/bitcoin, then 50/50, now just 100% Bitcoin– Gold is just always $1800 lolDOGE Debate– @gametheorizing debated Su Zhu on if Doge could be real money– main take – the centralization of ownership just makes it impossible– Liquidity has been a huge reason for these meme run upsLiquidity– Low liquidity changes everyones hopes– Once we’re in a bear market, everything will likely make more sense as low liquidity drives shitcoins way down– There will be backlash to extreme wealth inequality that’s created from crypto wealth– Like trillionaires based off of a new internet will not sit well with peopleCobie Wealth Talk– Humans create more wealth over time– Bitcoin creates a fixed supply of money– In the end, won’t people be incentivized to not work or invest and just hold?– game: “Cobie is absolutely right, in the end we’ll likely get something like inflation around 2%. Bitcoin will have to change”– game: “We have a saying in poker that a sucker will soon be parted from his money”– Cobie: “It may be a bit cynical but I feel like wealth always centralizes”– game: “You’re absolutely right. The wealth inequality is huge now and its growing. Something’s going to have to change”Regulation– Ledger: “It would be simpler if you could “call a spade a spade” and let these tokens be a security if that’s their best use case, instead of making founders pigeon hole their tokens utility into something that makes less sense”2022 Theses– game: “If you have any dog coins you should sell them”– “Come January we still have a bit more of a bull run”– “Only time the bull run stops is when there’s no more QE, rates get raised, which is maybe later next year”– so basically all this money gets sucked out, rates go up and holding cash feels better than it does now– The mid tier NFTs are not keeping a bidPonzis– Back when this started, people would say “Bitcoin’s a ponzi”– Some things are more ponzi than others– Basically, need real value creation for something to not be a “ponzi”– Cobie: “Can you explain how OHM works?”– game: “OHM is also a ponzi. The tokenomics is much more complex which hides it, so like it was a ponzi but now holds all these other coins”– Ledger: “Is governance enough?”– game: “absolutely”– Cobie: “Can you explain how HEX works?”– game: “HEX was ahead of its time. It’s a very complex ponzi.”– Cobie: “If you are early to a ponzi then its great right… what would you say to people joining ponzis now?”– game: “in a liquidity crunch, the ponzis go away, and they get closer to NAV valuation. There is real value in community and people will pay for that, so that’s an end game for some of them. Same with NFTs”Web3– Feels like there are a bunch of random VCs coming up– You don’t just “decentralize” everything like “decentralized Uber”– game thinks we get something more like web2.5 where celebrities and others start using NFTs as pfps and stuff– game: “crypto is the best casino. Like we have Bitcoin store of value, L1s with smart contracts, then casinos”– Web3 is kinda like companies just having tokens to incentivize and provide rewards– game: “Once you have an NFT world where you can use them it’s not a ponzi anymore”– Ledger: “Tokenization of communities, with VIP access and other stuff, is a good use of tokens and NFTs”Trading– Ledger: “There are people for whom this year has been absolutely stupid, just chasing the pump, marrying now bags and not holding any Bitcoin”– Shitcoins up or down by end of 2022?– Cobie: “idk. if it tops in march or may then maybe up, if it tops in january then probably down”Scenario That Extends Cycle?– realistically probably not– will likely trickle down to smaller caps– only thing that pushes it is if Fed keeps printing/ rates lowCT Drama– Su Zhu super dunking on Ethereum then buying it, using followers as liquidity, basically become a super villain – is this a pro or con for Three Arrows Capital?– game: “Completely depends on founders. Reminds me of Bobby Axelrod on Billions”Feds in Crypto– game talked with Su Zhu in depth about future of ETH if it was a $10T asset– it will become very political, countries forcing votes that benefits them, etc– only makes sense Feds are in crypto now lolETH as Money– Who cares what you call it?– The “ultra sound money” meme is awful– Why would you want deflationary money?– *insert various examples of why it doesn’t matter if you call it money e.g. if you buy a million dollar house is your house money? who cares!End Game of USD?– It’s honestly super strong– If there’s no geopolitical power change it just stays in controlBlow Off Top?– Thought there was gonna be one– Used to be 60% chance, now more like 20% chanceNotes by KevinMusic by GiovanniPickle

LinksAdam TwitterTraderSZ TwitterCryptoISO TwitterShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesTrading– abetrade – making case for leverage if you’re at least decent at trading– Cobie: “Is there a reasonable path for someone who’s new to crypto to becoming profitable within 6 months to 1 year?”– abe: “Yeah I mean I started on legacy markets…took me like 2-3 years before I became reasonably profitable”– abe just sticks to BTC and ETH– SZ traded 10 years of FX, but then 1 alt run can just make him more– SZ thinks the dollar top is in– iso used to leverage trade a lot– thinks everyone should go through that phase to figure out what they’re good at– did mostly TA, trying to catch bids on the pain points in the market– now mostly buy and holds, finds good projects and invests in fundamentals– saw this coming for metaverse and gaming tokensMetaverse– ISO has a strong thesis there and is holding a lot of metaverse and gaming tokens– iso sees that the metaverse already exists – his nephew spends so much time on Fortnite and Roblox. That’s where he hangs out with his friends and trades things in game– saw that crypto had an obvious intersection there and the assets would be on chain– sold AXS way too early lol– but has a long term thesis that crypto gaming will be HUGE– ISO: “This is inning 1 of crypto gaming”– Much more narrative trading now– Cobie: “Adam, do you think the metaverse is a real thing?”– Adam: “No I think it’s gonna be huge…I think its the next step”– Cobie: “ISO – how do you position for these trades?”– mostly relative trades based on users/ large caps and small caps– ISO: “Video games transitioning to p2e will make people see that this is not a waste of time, and its a source of income”Moar Trading– “I think we go higher”– the alt L1s never pump at the same time– gotta catch the rotation– Cobie: “Bitcoin culture is almost cringe within crypto now”– it used to be cool and dangerous and Silk Road and stuff, but now its just cringey– Cobie: “I think I’m philosophically against EIP 1559, economically for it”Macro Outlook– Ledger: “You gotta look for ways to justify your positions so when price action goes against you ya need macros to justify it” lol– by the time everyone’s saying it its priced in– some stocks talk and macro somethings– SZ thinks 52k then maybe 60kPersonal Max Pain– Ledger: “Zcash under $200”– Sam coins are absolutely crushing Barry coins– Sam coins just go up, Barry coins get crushed lolBack to Metaverse– ISO: Wilder World had great fundamentals and kept hitting their milestone– Next wave is potentially gaming on AVAX– Also, NEAR protocol has an $800M fund pushing their ecosystemL1 Rotation Trade Dead?– Tough to tell, def not going to 0, but maybe relative momentum– Cobie: “I mean SBF might literally have infinite bid for Solana with like a few bps of FTX”– Bullish unlocks?– Cobie: “People get scared of unlocks, but with the ‘bullish unlock’ meme, most of the locked coins are sold OTC on a trust basis, so the people holding aren’t up 10,000x, the new holders are really only up like 2-3x”– There are bearish unlocks when FDV is high, volume is low, investors are up, etcFINAL ALPHA– ISO: “Really important to keep an open mind – a lot of success in life will come from surrounding yourself with the right people”– SZ: “Take somebody less fortunate that’s in the space and try to change their life. 1 at a time”– Adam: “There are so many things you can do – spend less time arguing about what is the best way to make money and spend more time following your own curiosity”Notes by KevinMusic by GiovanniPickle

Linkshttps://twitter.com/blknoiz06https://twitter.com/HentaiAvenger66Show PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesIntro - Ledger refusing to say Hentai Avenger - Will go with “Bob Avenger” for the stream lolHentai Avenger  - “From last year to now made like a good sum of money. Then idk how I got here”  - Sold the top and bought the bottom this year   - Scaled account from $20k to $50M over last 5 years   - 21 y/oZ   - Started crypto back in 2017   - Best trade was Solana at $1.50   - Went on a hot streak with alt L1s   - AXS —> AVAX —> SOL —> Harmony   - “If you just buy in and wait then you can get stuck being in old bags”Avenger Before Crypto   - Avenger was an esports Rocket League pro   - Summer 2016 made $20k in Rocket League, threw it into biotech stocks, made a little over a mil in 3 years   - Then 2020 came and made it all back on the covid bounce   - First intro into crypto was DeFi summer   - Has a lot of money in metaverse shitcoins atmZ’s Crypto Experience   - When he’s hitting a lot in a row he gets cocky, then when he gets cocky he’ll make a wrong call and slow down   - Leverage? Not worth it because he doesn’t wanna blow his account up   - Leverage keeps all your focus so you miss the gems that are coming upp2e Gaming   - Z: “When I was young I’d play WoW like hours and hours a day”   - Hadn’t found a fun p2e game yet   - Really liked DeFi Kingdom   - TSM partnered with Aurory to play pro esports there   - Cobie: “I have some thoughts”   - Ledger: “I was gonna try to set up here for you lol”   - Cobie: “So I dunked pretty hard on this first person shooter game that I thought looked like shit”   - This was my (https://twitter.com/cmsintern) tweet last night   - Thinks that these games aren’t good but people only wanna play them to earn and that’s a bad strategy   - The really good games that come where you play to own will be the best   - Z: “I actually haven’t made any money playing DeFi Kingdom yet I’ve prob spent more than I should have on heroes” lol   - Ledger: “Cobie do these games have to be better than traditional games?”   - Cobie: “If they aren’t as good then its not a game its a job. If it’s primary salary then it just turns into like serfdom”p2e Gaming (cont’d)   - Ledger: “I don’t know I take the reverse. Like if I kinda like a game and I get paid to play then I’ll probably choose that game over the slightly better game”   - Ledger: “Like if I can play Halo 1 and get paid, vs Halo 3 and not get paid, then as the every man I’ll probably take Halo 1 and earn a few bucks”   - Ledger: “Like I saw CMS Intern’s tweet and was like holy crap I didn’t know they had 1st person shooters as p2e I thought it looked cool”   - There’s an incredible future for fun games that can incorporate the p2e element   - Ledger: “Do you think there will be a crypto game that’s top 10 or top 20 games in the world in the next 5 years?”   - Z: “I think so”   - Cobie: Cobie had some good points here, but I have to cut them out as a 1-time clap back for publicly dunking on me last night    - Jk here is basically what he said:   - Cobie: “I think there will be a game that’s really good, and then it will transition to an NFT-based game with an in game currency”Current States   - Avenger: “We’ve gone from DeFi to GameFi to some metaverse plays, but we are not close to the top for these metaverse coins until like Gary Vee is dumping all his money into these”   - Ledger: “FLUFs are my back door metaverse play”   - Ledger: “Theres some like metaverse stuff like AI”   - Cobie: “AI!!! lolllllllll”   - Avenger: “Most bullish thing is inversebrah tweeting the same coins as me”   - Avenger: “Any metaverse play listed on KuCoin is like an easy 10x from here”   - IT IS KUCOIN SEASON   - Z: “All the alts that popped off in November were on KuCoin”   - Avenger: “Basically anything that gets listed on KuCoin immediately does a 2-3x”ETH/BTC Chart   - Z: “It’s going to infinity bro”   - Does ETH/BTC get to 0.12 ?   - Cobie: “If it gets to 0.12 then you get the flippening” (happens at .165)   - No reason it will stop if it takes .12   - January 2018 ETH/BTC got to 0.105   - Cobie: “0.1 is the last line of defense”Bear Market Scenarios?   - Z: “I don’t think we get a multi-year bear ever again”   - Avenger: “Yeah I don’t think we do either”   - Cobie thinks we could have another 4 year bear marketNext Stops   - Avenger: “Metaverse coins!”   - Z: “What did Sandbox do like a 6-7x in a month?”   - Ledger: “CMS Intern shilled that live on air when he came on UpOnly last summer”   - Cobie: “I think there are a lot of reasons to be cautious right now”   - Ledger: “I can see if there are a bunch of Hot Ball of Money rotations shoutout Dan Matuszewski for that term” whaddup CMS leggoChat Qs- How’d you get in early on all these runners?   Z: For Axie, finding higher lows when everything else bottomed   Avenger: built out own risk signaling metrics   Avenger: “StunLikes on twitter, he’s like some private billionaire, I think he sold an algorithm to the government for like a couple million dollars”Positions   - Avenger: “After $100k [BTC] I prob sell it all and I’m set man”   - Avenger: “You think we get to $100k BTC Cobie?”   - Cobie: “It has undeniably been the year of smart contract platforms. Been the year of SOL and AVAX and AXS more than its been the year of ETH”   - Ledger: “Are you diversifying at all?”   - Z: “Yeah I’m not as risk on as I used to be”   - Avenger: “I have a lot of real estate in Lithuania”   - Z: “Bro wtf” lmaooo   - Z goes on to shill Cosmos pretty heavily, kinda sounds good tbh   -Cobie says he’ll get some nowAnyone Smart Long-Term Bearish?   - Avenger: “Light?”   - Cobie: “He’s like short term bearish tho he’s just a trader”   - Avenger: “Then idk anyone”   - Z: “Yeah idk anyone smart that’s macro bearish”   - Cobie: “I have a few trad tech co founders who are smart but macro bearish”Moar Chat Qs-Is college a scam?   Avenger: “I like college I think college is cool”   “Where else can you find groups of fatherless women just roaming around?” - AVAX top target?   Z: “$200” - SOL top target?   Z: “0.1 ETH” - BTC top target   Avenger: “$180k”   Z: “I think 69k for Q1 2022”   Ledger: “2022” - Best airdrops   Avenger & Z: “zkSync” - Flippening (within 12 months)   Avenger & Z: “yes”FINAL ALPHA   - Avenger: “Be very careful who you tell good news to”   - Z: “Maintain a balance between crypto and the other parts of your life – will help your real life and also help your crypto trading - and also journal regularly” Notes by KevinMusic by GiovanniPickle

LinksHaralabob TwitterShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesBetting– Big betters work hard to conceal how and where they are betting– You don’t just roll up to MGM and place huge bets usually– You do it through a bot that places bets on different websites instead– Then hope they pay out lol– Got rugged heavy in 2009 for like 7 figures then the guy made off to Panama or wherever– Books will refuse really good gamblers, but will accept “fish” as long as they sign that they aren’t addicted lolCrypto– First saw it on Wired magazine when Bitcoin was around $1– Didn’t jump in at first– Started using Bitcoin in 2012 to get paid– Ledger: “Did the process in how you thought about gambling transfer over to crypto?”– Hara: “Yes I think the fact it was governed by math”– Could insulate yourself from idiotic government policies and ideologies– Gotta think about how the dollar gets manipulated since Bitcoin will remain constant– Hara thinks at some point people will decide to increase the supply of Bitcoin– This is a flaming hot take sir – I respect it– We’re gonna be old bags of dust and these kids are just gonna be living in the metaverse– It is so native and built into these kids– Ledger: “We’re just gonna go away its gonna be like the blow off top of humanity”Metaverse– Cobie: “How do you think about NFTs?”– Hara likes 2017 era NFTs– Loves CryptoPunks – all about the narrative and the story– Likes the old stuff, some of the new stuff is just super out there– More of a Bitcoin maximalist even though Hara finds Bitcoin Maximalism super toxicBitcoin Maxis– A lot of them might’ve gotten burnt in 2017 and now just think everything is a scam– Calling anything that isn’t Bitcoin is a shitcoin means that mentally there is something wrong with you– Cobie: “Part of the toxic maxis is that they missed out, then they join a cult and they have friends now and chant the same words and chant shitcoins and say “Udi you’re wrong!” and then go somewhere else”– Hara: “The bullish case for me is when nations put Bitcoin on their balance sheet – they aren’t gonna put Ethereum or Solana on there”Next Steps– Ledger: “What’s next in your life?”Hara: “I think its about sovereignty”– Has always been an individual, wants to be protected instead of looking for gains– Crypto is the #1 way to preserver your wealth– Goal before was always to buy a basketball team (need about $1B) but once he got close he was like “idk i don’t really wanna sell my Bitcoin for a basketball team” lolllllBasketball and NFTs– Ledger: “How’s it feel to see these guys getting into NFTs? Does that worry you about where we are in the cycle?”– Not at all– Thinks that’s not indicative of a top, we are nowhere even close to euphoria– People are out here protesting racism and other things– Thinks people might/ should be protesting the dollar, is surprised its not bigger yet– Hara likes the penguins! LFG– Hasn’t bought NFTs in a long time– These athletes aren’t buying punks cause they’re always looking for a deal!Twitter NFT Integration– Cobie: “How is this going to go down with the furies”– Ledger doesn’t get why these are so controversial– Hara wants to create an NFT project for all these furies– Ledger: “They already exist they’re called FLUFs – I can give you a good deal on some if you want”– *Cobie and Hara making fun of FLUFs– Ledger: “Y’all just aren’t gonna make it”Constitution DAO– Hara didn’t do it, didn’t get it– Thought it woulda been cool to get in then like burn it– Ledger: “That’s a really good way to get regulators to pay attention to crypto” lolForks– People trade on FOMO so hard– Like there’s some random ass ohm fork people ape into– ETH can get myspaced, all of this stuff can probably get replaced– Bitcoin can never get replaced– Bitcoin Diamond and Gold and Cash and all that stuff just no chance at allThe Flippening– If ETH gets to like 0.08 I’m probably a net seller of ETH– I don’t like to say ahead of time because its so hard to know the context for the move– It probably signals a time to be cautious even when people are dancing in the streetsChat QuestionsSports world guys we need?– Steven A Smith– NFTs are the gateway drug of cryptoAnon account?– NoBitcoin volcano bond?– Interesting, can just buy El Salvador bond or Bitcoin though, don’t need this although it is cool and interesting– Saylor will end with fireworks either way*The Winklevoss are the only people to ever refuse coming on UpOnly. What an outrageous decision.If you’re 25 with 100k what do you do?– Would do crypto, trying to build something, tracking different wallets– Prob not Bitcoin would do something more aggressive, L2s, track engagement, wouldn’t do leverageFINAL ALPHA– Hara: “Success = responsibility. Think about what is truly valuable and finite which is your time. Be mindful of your time and what you want to accomplish.”Notes by KevinMusic by GiovanniPickle

In this episode of UpOnly, Ledger hosts a charity debate between Udi Wertheimer and David Hoffman about decentralization and moral prerequisites in blockchain design. CMS Holdings very kindly donated $300,000 to the development of Bitcoin to sponsor this debate. https://twitter.com/cmsholdingsPresented by FTX: https://uponly.tv/ftx Udi & David:https://twitter.com/udiWertheimerhttps://twitter.com/TrustlessState

LinksMatt TwitterFred TwitterWebShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesHow’d You Meet?– Coinbase pitched Sequoia– Fred pitched the basis of the metaverse on the blockchain when Matt was at Sequoia– Then Matt and Fred emailed back and forth, then the rest is history– This was 2017Metaverse– Fred: “People don’t yet realize that crypto is the metaverse”– It’s not just some VR world– Cobie: “How do you think this plays out over the next 15 to 20 years?”– Matt: “To state the obvious people are spending more time in these digital worlds. As people spend more time there they are also spending money”– Blockchain can enable property rights in the metaverseNext Levels of Crypto– Crypto will not be fully decentralized at every level that is the wrong way to think about it– Think gaming companies might be able to make the jump to crypto– Social media probably not– Matt: “all monarchies are dictatorships” (quoting someone else)– Network effects based businesses have a chicken and an egg problem– Overcoming is hard– Crypto presents the first real solve to potentially getting new network effectsPlay-to-earn– Play to earn has been around for a very long time– It’s just been under the table– Play to earn games present it in a transparent way with an open economy– People see work as purpose – this could fall into line with play to earn games– Cobie was skeptical, but what made it click for him was thinking about old Halo gameplay when he spent ages trying to earn a special helmet– Cobie bullish on interoperable assets for p2e gaming– Fred: “I played WoW for thousands of hours and all i cared about was how my character looked”– To the parents who always say you’re wasting your time playing video games – the founder of Paradigm did the same thing!– You can have multiple identities in the metaverseParadigm Now– In 2017 all the big internet companies had already be built– Crypto felt like the next frontier– Tried to make Paradigm a place where brilliant, curious people would want to spend their time– Didn’t care about roles just wanted the best talent– Talented young people are the people that actually create the future – 20yrs ago it was Goldman etc., 10 years ago it was Google etc., today it is crypto– FOLLOW THE TALENTED YOUNG PEOPLE– The quality of crypto investors has gone up– Crypto will be a powerful movement that takes over the worldHow to Keep Talent?– Help the most ambitious people keep building– Getting to work on multiple projects at once is very attractive– How many anons on Paradigm?– At least Samczsun and Hasu, another joining soonDeFi– Matt: “I think we’re super early. If we’re building a financial system from the ground up there is still so much left to build”– Cobie: “What takes us from 100Bs to multi-trillions?”– Matt: “I think it just takes time”– This is the progression of new tech– Institutions will like a middle man at first to help use– Ledger: “It reminds me of when elevators came out and there was an attendant just cause it made people feel safer”– Laughing thinking about Ledger being 190 years old and around when elevators came outSmartest Person Bearish Crypto?– Struggle to think of an example of someone who is very well informed and still bearish– Only people who are worried about regulation– Ledger: “What about Charlie Munger?”– Matt: “I mean he also missed the internet”– DUNK!New Paradigm $2.5B Fund– “We are looking at the growth over the next 10 years”– Trying to orient vision out there instead of shorter term– Cobie: “It makes it easier if you think in 10 years – if you’re thinking 10 years from now you might be seed investing in the main L1 today lol”– Fred: “We’re finally getting to a place where people can build and create mainstream applications with crypto”– Matt: “We are wired as humans to underestimate what exponential growth looks like”Future of Web3– Top level framing – there’s an iPhone bundling moment that’s happening with crypto– Fred: “The same way the iPhone put all mp3s, email, a telephone, etc into one thing, crypto is bundling all of your internet identity into your wallet”– Ledger: “Can we do this and maintain any type of financial or personal privacy?”– Fred: “Zero-Knowledge Proofs.”– Privacy will be really importantQuickfire QsPunks – overvalued vs. undervalued?– Fred: “So we don’t give out investment advice”Biggest mistake/ worst investment?– Prediction marketsHow to work for Paradigm?– Always interested in thoughtful/ energetic people– “Send us something cool you made on the internet”FINAL ALPHA– Matt: “It’s easy in life to sweat the small stuff. Zoom out and find the 1 or 2 things that really matter (for life, investing, etc). If you get those right everything else works out”– Fred: “All the people that do things that really matter think through things for themselves. They think from first principles and think what makes sense for them”Notes by KevinMusic by GiovanniPickle

This is the first episode of the Looks Rare miniseries, hosted by Fitch and Deeze. Today, they interview Art Blocks CTO Jack Rockland (known as Purphat) about his journey into NFTs, Art Blocks, tech, and more.  Presented by FTX: https://uponly.tv/ftxDeeze: https://twitter.com/DeezeFiFitch: https://twitter.com/FitchinversePurphat: https://twitter.com/purphatArtblocks: https://www.artblocks.io/user/0xd6dd6961d3224958fcd306b76a991ab974ec1ebc

LinksTwitterShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesIntroduction– Ari bought first Bitcoin in 2014– Really dove into crypto 2016– Friend emailed him in 2011 asking to check out crypto, Ari said it won’t retain value, not backed by guns like fiat– Ari: “For crypto you kinda gotta know a little bit about a lot of things”– Got involved with crypto through crypto twitter– Cunningham’s Law – “The fastest way to get an answer on the internet is not to ask a question, but to state something wrong”Ari’s Headspace– Long term mostly thinking about the future of crypto– BlockTower bets on where the world will be in 1-3 years, not 10-20 years– Fascinated by the big picture– Huge believer in giving people defensive tools for overbearing statesVC Stuff– BlockTower is a trading firm by nature, so they invest in projects that they can actually be power users in– Ari: “Evaluating seed stage teams is its own skillsets, very different from evaluating something like Microsoft”– Cobie skeptical of a16z’s success in crypto, followed like 4 deals they did and got crushed– A lot of the time, timing is much more important than vetting skill– Ari: “If you were trading NFTs 2 years ago, it almost doesn’t matter if you were good it just matters that you were doing it”Privacy– Ari: “There’s a whole tech stack for privacy that’s missing”– Countries can control the internet very easily– People think the internet is super hard to control – there is literally a bundle of wires that delivers the internet to an entire country– Ari: “zk-rollup chains where you can shield the mempool… there is some super cool math we’re building into the system now that could change everything”– You could fork Ethereum and add it as a rollup chain to Bitcoin– Ledger: “Is there really a market for that?”– Ari: “It seems likely in the next 2 years that we’ll get a soft fork to implement this”– Ari: “There are bitcoiners who are pitching this as humanitarian technology but against adding privacy technology that exists…borderline unethical”Making ETH Maxis Mad– Ethereum is a risky startup competing on tech– The odds it is a market leader in 10 years is under 20%– Facebook didn’t need a single Friendster user or dev– If you have an industry that’s going to 20x, you don’t need to take existing users– Ari: “Solana has something like more than 10,000 active developers now”– Ethereum does not have much of a moat, it has a little bit of brand recognition, a little bit of regulatory head start, some dev moat, but largely the moat is very small– Ethereum cannot move as fast, cannot take as much risk. It’s hard to maintain its lead– Cobie: “Do you think Ethereum should have a canary network, kind of like Kusama?”– Ari: “(pause) I actually haven’t thought about that”– Seems to be a real, good ideaSolana– Ari has been recommending Solana for the last 2 years– Well intentioned team, real project, very cool innovation at the communication layer– *Ari still has a long Solana position to be clear*– It’s quite centralized, depends on the team to stay up, has a real path to decentralization– It’s a highly speculative early stage betBNB– Exchange coins are basically sold as equities– There are tons of regulatory actions which could likely be negative for $BNB– Would not hold the coinCardano– Ari: “Cardano I actually know very little about”– The only thing he really believed would stick around for 5 years was Bitcoin, DeFi and NFTs– Ari: “I worry that in 5-10 years the winning metaverse will be Facebook or Fortnite, some centralized entity, which scares me because I want a decentralized world”– Ledger: “so Cardano” lol– Ari: “I am deeply skeptical of Cardano”– Ledger: “Dump it”2017 Bull Market– Ari bought $50k calls in 2017– Did it to maintain upside exposure while not keeping material risk on– Went onto CNBC to talk about it, they mid-curved his thinking– Ari: “Options are a bet on volatility, not the direction, because you can always hedge the direction with the underlying”– Ari: “If you can’t define skew and kurtosis then you probably shouldn’t be trading options”Crypto Investing– Ari: “If you’re investing with a lot of small bets in alts, it almost acts as a call option”– Ari thinks vol is about fair today– Basically every time Bitcoin vol gets below 60, Ari buys it– Ari: “The crazier the bull market the crazier the retrace”– Ari: “My basic thesis now is DeFi 5-10x’s here and then retraces 80-90%”– Ari: “The biggest value add from crypto over the next 12-18 months is connecting DeFi to real world lending”FINAL ALPHA– Ari: “It doesn’t matter how much money you make, if you don’t keep yourself healthy you won’t enjoy it”– Focus on your health!Notes by KevinMusic by GiovanniPickle

LinksTwitterWebShow PartnerThis episode is presented by FTX. Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftxShow NotesTom Intro ⁃ Partner at Dragonfly Capital (@dragonfly_cap) ⁃ Owner of elusive Gauntlet x Nike hoodie ⁃ Formerly product at 0x and PM at InstagramDragonfly Capital & Tokenomics ⁃ East/West focus. Crypto is very different from Web2 in that you can’t really launch locally, you’re global from day 1. Dragonfly help bridge the East/West gap for teams and products ⁃ 2019 was harder to do deals remotely, people would meet snd pitch in person. Not really a thing anymore – your reputation precedes you online ⁃ Day to day work is 25% team calls, 25% portfolio support, 20% research and staying on top of what’s going on in the space ⁃ Cobie: How much of your previous product experience has helped in your VC Role? Tom: It was a bit of learning curve from IG to 0x. A lot translates over but the token aspect changes how you think about product, it can be the growth mechanic, the same product but with different tokenomics can have a huge difference in outcome ⁃ Cobie: Even having a token as a defence mechanism is a requirement now ⁃ Tom: Prefer the method of building a great and sticky product then adding the token on top of that otherwise you run into leaky bucket theory once the incentives run out ⁃ Dislikes revenue to token holders early on, ideally it should be used to make the product better and grow but treasuries have gotten so big that teams probably don’t know how to spend itAirdrops & Sybil Attacks ⁃ Divergence Ventures farmed 10% of RBN airdrop ⁃ Returned following being found out and the following drama ⁃ Tom farmed it personally long before the airdrop email, continued to farm after that point and so has since voluntarily returned all farmed RBN from his account ⁃ An individual exploiting via sybil isn’t as bad as an investor that then also dumps day one ⁃ Teams are experimenting with different ways to achieve fair distribution but there’s still a lot to work out, it’s a really interesting design space ⁃ Need to hold people to a high standard to self-regulate in the industryTrends in the next 6-18months? ⁃ Product structure ⁃ Derivative products ⁃ DAOs & DAO toolingEthereum Scaling ⁃ ZK-rollup maximalist ⁃ For some applications and purposes even the rollup won’t be cheap enough and so maybe there will be room for other chains ⁃ You can also rollup a rollup e.g. Mina. Cobie: “Inception was a warning, don’t go too many rollup’s deep or you’ll get stuck there forever” ⁃ Heterogeneous blockchain future but unsure what path it will take ⁃ Cobie: Should L2s have tokens? Tom: Decentralising the L2 could rely on having a token and also it’s a case of trying to protect against forking or a competitor ⁃ There will be a fee for L2s but unsure who will pay it, token holders, users, maybe the L1? ⁃ Solana has been surprising with the amount of developer activity happening there ⁃ Cobie: When chains are EVM compatible you get a lot of copy-paste projects to grab money over and over. Potentially means that the teams are less sticky, opportunity over legitimate drive. Solana is more novel, the product designs maybe aren’t all novel but there’s a lot of work there being done to make things sticky. Those ecosystems that do that are much more likely to perform in the next cycleWhy won’t my 0x go up? (– Ledger) ⁃ It’s structured as a gas rebate which doesn’t really scale proportionately to the size of a trade ⁃ Reworking a token is a sensitive topic ⁃ 0x we’re extremely early on a lot of things like governanceBitcoin Projects? ⁃ Lightning network seems like a real path forward for Bitcoin, they’re building a real developer network ⁃ It’s not incentivised the demand to use it is natural either by need or by people who love BitcoinWorking in Crypto? ⁃ It’s a great time to be a founder, raising funds is super competitive right now ⁃ Passion about the space and research is desired when hiring ⁃ Crypto is much more exciting and intellectually interesting than traditional tech jobs ⁃ Taipei is a solid place for crypto in Asia alongside Singapore⁃ 2017-2019 had SF as a central crypto hub but it’s not really the case anymore and teams are becoming more geographically spread outFinal Alpha ⁃ Invest for strength, not for a lack of weakness ⁃ Focus on your sleep and getting high quality sleepNotes by LukeMusic by GiovanniPickle