Tag: Crypto
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Communities All the Way Down
In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari argues that what separates man from beast is the ability to tell stories. The ability to speak about fictions is the most unique feature of Sapiens language. It enables us not simply imagine things, but to do so collectively. We can weave common myths such as the biblical creation story,…
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Diversification-as-a-Service: An Assortment of Crypto Correlations
There is only one free lunch in investing… and that is diversification. It is one of the only known ways to consistently improve the risk-reward equation of a portfolio. In today’s equity-centric world, bonds have typically been relied upon as the primary offset, providing diversification benefits to the everyday investor. This is particularly true when…
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The Conveyor Belt of Finance and the Evolution of Alternative Investments
Today, it is hard to write about business without any mention of technology companies. From Apple to Amazon to Facebook, today’s tech giants are arguably the largest and most impactful organizations ever built. But when it comes to understanding this broad category, I’ve found myself asking: what exactly is a technology company? According to Investopedia,…
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Crypto Inception: A Theory of Mainstream Adoption from NFTs to Institutional DeFi
Crypto is LOUD. Headlines, trials, frauds, scams, degens, lambos, WAGMI, million dollar jpegs, maxis… the last wave of crypto was brash and ‘in your face’. Every industry headline seems to come with an exclamation point next to it! That’s a feature, not a bug. Early days-crypto was on a mission to replace money itself and…
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Quality Control: A Mental Model for Regulation
Regulation has a bad rap. It is regularly vilified as a barrier to innovation and as a contributor to costs. But every so often, we are starkly reminded of the important purpose it serves: to protect consumers and ensure industries operate as they are supposed to. There is a large part of the crypto industry…
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Money Crypto, Tech Crypto, Culture Crypto
In 2018, Village Global published a simple framework that split crypto into two factions: Money Crypto and Tech Crypto Money Crypto: Maintains that the point of cryptocurrency is to redefine how money works by (re)introducing ‘sound money’. Sound money is money that: has either a fixed supply or a predictable inflation rate; doesn’t appreciate quickly, and;…
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Why Staking Matters
Question: Why does staking matter? Answer: Financial asset productivity. Let me explain. What is Staking? Staking is a process by which a crypto asset owner can lock up their coins in order to participate in running a blockchain and maintaining its security. Of course, this is only true for blockchains that use a proof-of-stake (POS) consensus…
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Online Brokerage Goes Crypto: How the Past Informs the Future of Regulated Crypto Trading in Canada
[Update: This post was originally written on November 1st, ten days before FTX filed for bankruptcy. Subsequent to the fallout, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) strengthened its approach to oversight of crypto trading platforms by expanding existing requirements for platforms operating in Canada. This included strong words for unregistered trading platforms (including those located outside…
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Bitcoin as an Inflation Hedge: Is it as Simple as This?
Bitcoin’s uses cases are many (self-sovereignty, payments/money movement, social signaling, etc.), but two perhaps float to the top of the narrative pile when you talk to enough people about it: bitcoin as an inflation hedge and bitcoin as a speculative asset. While both are reasons to invest, the reasoning is very different. Bitcoin as an…
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Crypto Rewards: A Formula Fusing the Superpower of Digital Assets with Traditional Products
Crypto digital banking firm Juno has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round to expand products and operations and launch its first tokenized loyalty program… -CoinDesk This is eye catching. Juno, for all intents and purposes, is the world’s most crypto-friendly checking account. Backed by Evolve Bank & Trust, like a traditional…
Paper & Blocks 