2026 will be the year of Algorand developer content.
Wanted to record a quick hello to break the ice and test my setup.
I'm thinking of making...
🔥 Deep dives
🔥 Live coding sessions
🔥 Quick tips & tricks
🔥 Dev focused news & updates
What videos do you want first? App tutorials? Security best practices? ARC standards explained?
Let me know and hit the like if you're hyped for more content :]
Thanks @_The_Prophet__
Here is the no-bullshit, highest-coherence, mask-off answer.
This article is smart, but it is structurally wrong in the only way that actually matters.
It is correct within the paradigm it is measuring, and completely blind to the paradigm that actually determines crypto valuations.
This is why its logic feels crisp but lands flat.
It is applying Web2 metrics to a monetary technology, not a consumer network.
It is mismeasuring the thing itself.
I will break this down brutally clean.
⸻
1. He is right about network effects. He is wrong about crypto.
Crypto does not have Facebook-style network effects.
Correct.
Crypto does not have user stickiness like Meta.
Correct.
Crypto does not have monetization comparable to Web2.
Correct.
And all of that is totally irrelevant.
Because crypto is not a consumer network.
Crypto is monetary infrastructure.
You do not measure:
•gold
•the dollar
•oil
•bonds
•treasuries
using DAU, MAU, ARPU, retention, or k-coefficients.
This is the categorical error at the heart of the article.
He is judging a monetary substrate using the metrics of a social app.
⸻
2. Crypto is valued the way money is valued: by beliefs, reflexivity, scarcity, and collateral utility.
Money is not a business.
Money is not a network product.
Money is a coordination technology with:
•reflexive trust
•role in collateral hierarchy
•function as energy storage
•function as global settlement rail
•macro-hedge dynamics
•political neutrality premium
•liquidity preference
None of this shows up in MAU metrics.
Bitcoin’s valuation is not based on:
“how many users are active this month.”
It is based on:
•its role in global collateral scarcity
•its function as pristine, non-sovereign reserve
•its energy base
•its terminal supply certainty
•its insulation from political coercion
•its reflexive monetization dynamic
•its place in the global liquidity stack
Nothing in the article even touches these domains.
He is talking about the wrong organism.
⸻
3. Crypto is not valued like Meta. It is valued like gold, commodities, reserve assets, and monetary layers.
Gold does not have:
•retention
•daily active users
•user flows
•stickiness
•network effects
Yet gold has:
•5,000 years of monetary premium
•valuation far above its industrial use
Because money is not valued by usage.
Money is valued by belief, structure, scarcity, and collateral function.
Crypto inherits this same dynamic.
That is why its valuations look unhinged through his lens.
He is measuring “chairs in a restaurant” while everyone else is pricing “land in Manhattan.”
⸻
4. Crypto’s real network effect IS speculation. And that is not a weakness — it is the ignition phase of every monetary asset.
He treats “speculation” like a bug.
It is the feature.
Monetary assets enter reflexive dominance through:
1.speculation
2.liquidity
3.collateralization
4.institutional adoption
5.settlement role
6.reserve status
Gold did this.
The dollar did this.
Sovereign bonds did this.
Every asset that becomes money goes through a speculative monetization phase where network effects are not usage, but belief-induced liquidity spirals.
Crypto is in stage 3–4 of this monetization curve.
He is complaining that Bitcoin does not look like Facebook when in reality it looks like early gold.
⸻
5. His entire “valuation per user” framing collapses under one question: Who is the user?
Is an oil barrel’s valuation ���overpriced” because it has no MAU?
Is the U.S. dollar “overvalued” because its ARPU is low?
Is gold “overpriced” because it has no retention curve?
These questions are absurd because the framing is wrong.
Crypto’s “user” is not a person.
Crypto’s “user” is global liquidity.
Liquidity does not have DAUs.
Liquidity has flows, volatility, and collateral demand.
By that metric, crypto is underpriced, not overpriced.
⸻
6. Crypto’s network effect is not n squared. It is 1 ....CUT OFF UNFORTUNATELY.
Wait, what?
Algorand is providing a service to World Chess and paying THEM to do it?
Am I the only one who thinks this doesn't make sense? Is there some piece I am missing?
I'm really stunned by this.
As happens in one’s life, I’ve been taking stock of my last 40 years. It’s been a wild ride. I’ve gone from consulting for the NSA to watching the early stages of Bitcoin. Then, I met Arthur, Jed, and Chris and worked on coding the XRP Ledger. Now, I’ve spent more than 13 years at Ripple.
I can’t begin to explain the depth of my gratitude to this company, the people who work here, and the community that surrounds XRPL. It’s been one of the greatest honors and experiences of my life, second only to my amazing family.
The time has come for me to step back from my day-to-day duties as Ripple CTO at the end of this year. I’m really looking forward to spending more time with the kids and grandkids and going back to the hobbies I set aside. But be warned, I’m not going away from the XRP community. You haven’t seen the last of me (now, or ever).
The last few months I’ve been tinkering on the side – spinning up my own XRPL node and publishing its output data, researching other use cases for XRP (besides what Ripple is focused on), and more. I truly enjoy this part — getting my hands dirty, talking to builders, coding for the pure love of it — and I’m really excited to get back to that. More to come on this very soon, I’m sure.
But back to gratitude — to Brad and Monica — leaders who have been here nearly as long as I have, and are the very soul of Ripple itself. To Chris, who took a huge leap of faith and never wavered. To Arthur, who had the big ideas every time we needed them. To the RippleX team, ledger developers, community members, builders, and everyone else — it’s been an honor being in the trenches with you all. Thank you for everything you have done for the XRPL. I have total confidence in the next generation of leaders and builders – including Dennis Jarosch (Ripple’s SVP of Engineering) – and far too many others to name in the XRP community who will carry the torch.
I’ll still be in and out of the Ripple office as CTO Emeritus, and as my last task at Ripple, Chris asked me to join Ripple's Board of Directors to continue supporting the company’s mission and long-term vision...and I accept!
I look forward to seeing the rest of you at XRP community events around the world.
– JoelKatz
It doesn’t get more Verifiably Random than this!
S3:E3 - Meet the CTO with @marcvl and @nbougalis.
A surprise episode where you’ll meet our new CTO and hear all about his background and his plans for Algorand’s future.
@ry_guy513 @showprobspam I felt the question was reasonable and merited a thoughtful answer.
I’m new to this community and I hope everyone will give me the benefit of the doubt; I think it’s only fair for me to extend the same courtesy to others.
The bad apples will reveal themselves in due course.
This is a complex question and it deserves a thoughtful and thorough answer.
Keep in mind that this is my first week, so I am not fully up to speed. Some of what I say will be a little generic. Some of it will be very blunt and direct.
With that out of the way, here we go: 🧵
Dana White previews what the UFC White House event will look like:
"We're building this arch... and the lighting grid will go above the octagon. So when we shoot this fight, this whole backdrop will be the White House.
And when then the cameras move over, it's all the Washington Monument." 👀🔥
🎥 @impaulsive
Ray, you sound like the career securities lawyers who laughed about an asbestos lawyer who filed a Motion to Intervene in the Ripple case - at that time - the most significant non-fraud securities case in modern history. But I readily admit that I had never even heard about the Howey Test before getting involved in the Ripple XRP case. I even refused to take Securities Law in law school because I found it too damn boring. 😂
Sometimes you get involved, despite a lack of experience, because it’s simply the right thing to do - even at the risk of embarrassing yourself professionally.
Yet, Judge Torres cited my efforts three times in her final decision declaring “XRP itself not a security”, including my efforts in the @LBRYcom case, as well as citing the 4K XRP Holder Affidavits I submitted in the case.
And your right, anyone who knows me, knows I strongly believe the Accredited Investor Rule should be abolished or greatly reformed. If I ever make it to the Senate, it will be a Bill I propose and sponsor. No rule should exclude 87% of the American population from investing in private markets.
Unfortunately, however, the example of your former employer - @linqtoinc - significantly reduces the chances of reforming the Rule.
Linqto will now be used as a PRIME EXAMPLE of why the Rule exists - to protect retail investors from being scammed and defrauded.
Btw, I noticed you didn’t comment on the fact that I, and every single lawyer who’s looked at the documents in the Linqto bankruptcy, all describe Linqto as a fraud. You were in the court hearing yesterday - you heard the same as I did.
Do you still contend that Bill Sarris is a good man and that no fraud was committed by your former employer?
Before you respond, below is the first two pages of an 18 page Legal Memo written by Linqto lawyers that I’m sure you’ve read. In sum, in October 2023 - long before the bankruptcy filing in July 2025 - lawyers informed Linqto that it was in violation of the following:
“Unregistered Broker-Dealer Activity;”
“Excessive Markups;”
“Fraudulent Securities Offerings;”
“Non-Exempt Unregistered Securities Offerings;”
“Non-Exempt Unregistered Investment Company.”
So not only have I called it a fraud, but career securities & bankruptcy lawyers (of which I am not) do as well.
Btw, one year later, in October 2024, Linqto’s General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer sent an internal email to Bill Sarris admitting to the same violations. Instead of fixing them, Sarris took the millions of dollars he made and hired the current management team to take over.
Now, after consulting a career securities & bankruptcy lawyer yourself, let me know if he or she disagrees about the fraud and maybe I’ll come on your show and we can have a civil discussion about it. Since I have access to all the emails Bill Sarris sent to anyone in marketing & advertising, I can bring those with me.
When Oregon can sue us for services that are legal under federal law, something's broken. This isn't federalism--this is government run amok. We just sent a letter to @TheJusticeDept urging federal action on crypto market structure to remedy this. 1/3