Crypto Popcorn

I realize that most of you might not be as deep in crypto but are generally very curious about tech. Crypto Popcorn is the daily clash we see on twitter between Silicon Valley Crypto & Monetary Economics Crypto. I want to share very compelling overviews of both sides of this battle so that you all can enjoy the obnoxious crypto twitter too!

Here’s a quick explainer on what the tension is all about.

Here’s a strong case for tech crypto.

Read this, this, this and this for monetary economics case from various angles. I am sharing more for this side since you all likely encounter tech crypto ideas on twitter.

a16x recently published a post drawing parallels between crypto investing and equity investing from an institutional investor’s perspective just after we learned that Yale endowment fund has invested in two top tier crypto funds. Here’s a very good rebuttal to a16z’s line of thinking.

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

A downside of investors like USV, a16z & Yale getting into sketchy, nascent tech paradigm w instant liquidity, speculation, no trackable progress, scams, semantic battles & misguided understanding is that 100s of other investors who nw feel vindicated or encouraged to do the same

Keep in mind each side has very smart and informed people. Both have reputation and lots of money at stake. If you are interested in my snarky takes, here are some :

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

This "Bitcoin is too volatile. Crypto is unusable for coffee. Stable crypto is needed. Therefore, millions of stablecoins should blossom. Therefore, VCs investing in them is great!" simplistic narrative never grows old or less misguided.

Meltem Demirors @Melt_Dem

this article seems to *severely* miss the point. VCs are investing in stablecoins because they make money owning tokens that enable them to print money, not because they own dollarized crypto. please, writers, do better research. https://t.co/5TB6mDjVLU

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

We should draw a clear distinction b/w cryptocurrencies and ICO or private sale tokens. By conflating them and calling everything the "crypto" market, we are undermining the importance/validation of the former and overestimating the viability/PMF/tech-intent fit of the latter.

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

Core problem is we looked at what was never meant to be a tech platform and extrapolated its "stack", marketed the shit out of it, launched computing platforms with too many "apps" w private currencies and built a 24/7 financial market around all the garbage. What could go wrong?

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

I realize that we love to relearn lessons of basic finance & economics in crypto but I find it difficult to understand that how can we still think illiquidity of venture investments or LP stakes is some flaw waiting to be solved by some new tech after seeing ICOs play out so well

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

.@matt_levine snark is the best snark. It just hurts and cuts through all the bullshit. https://t.co/5ymRftbYkb https://t.co/58ffo7h6tx

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

“Blockchains dont create revenues, they destroy revenues” - @MustStopMurad I increasingly think this is very true. It is amusing to hear “crypto” and biz model and/or company in the same sentence. Monetizing OSS or token appreciation (it’s that even possible) != biz models

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

Crypto seems to have an expectations problem. We want tokens to act like equity w/out calling them equity. We want the teams to act like founders while calling them project leads. We want the products to grow like startups while ignoring they are more like shared resources.

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

We should draw a clear distinction b/w cryptocurrencies and ICO or private sale tokens. By conflating them and calling everything the "crypto" market, we are undermining the importance/validation of the former and overestimating the viability/PMF/tech-intent fit of the latter.

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

Core problem is we looked at what was never meant to be a tech platform and extrapolated its "stack", marketed the shit out of it, launched computing platforms with too many "apps" w private currencies and built a 24/7 financial market around all the garbage. What could go wrong?

Sar Haribhakti @sarthakgh

“Blockchains dont create revenues, they destroy revenues” - @MustStopMurad I increasingly think this is very true. It is amusing to hear “crypto” and biz model and/or company in the same sentence. Monetizing OSS or token appreciation (it’s that even possible) != biz models