It's inspiring to see tens of thousands of community members secure life-changing wealth as part of the Hyperliquid genesis event. Importantly, none of these people were insiders. They:
1) believed in the vision for a better financial system when no one else would
2) acted on that conviction by using and building upon the nascent technology, bootstrapping an unstoppable financial network
The Hyperliquid genesis pays homage to the original ethos of Bitcoin: ownership goes to the believers and doers, not rent-seeking insiders.
For all you early believers, thank you for the unwavering faith and support. Hyperliquid would be nowhere without you all. I'm grateful and honored to be building alongside you.
--
Looking back, we've come a long way. But looking ahead, there's so much further to go.
Finance is humanity's greatest invention. It is the only effective way to coordinate human effort across time and space. Yet, the legacy financial system contradicts its underlying goal of empowering individuals:
- it is opaque and centralized
- it is owned and operated by privileged insiders
- it doesn't embrace technological innovation to better serve users
Hyperliquid is the evolution of finance. And Hyperliquid has not succeeded until it houses all of finance. If you're reading this now, you're still early. The new financial system welcomes you with open arms.
BIG NEWS: Federal appeals court says Treasury overstepped its authority when sanctioning immutable smart contracts deployed by the @TornadoCash devs because they are NOT property of a foreign person or entity.
"The immutable smart contracts at issue in this appeal are not property because they are not capable of being owned. More than one thousand volunteers participated in a “trusted setup ceremony” to “irrevocably remov[e] the option for anyone to update, remove, or otherwise control those lines of code.” And as a result, no one can “exclude” anyone from using the Tornado Cash pool smart contracts. In fact, because these immutable smart contracts are unchangeable and unremovable, they remain available for anyone to use and “the targeted North Korean wrongdoers are not actually blocked from retrieving their assets,” even under the sanctions regime. Simply put, regardless of OFAC’s designation of Tornado Cash, the immutable smart contracts continue operating. And furthermore, because the software continues to operate regardless of the sanctions, and the blockchain technology “allows peer-to-peer transfers . . . without requiring the recipient to consent to transfer,” some users may become liable whenever someone transfers them digital assets via Tornado Cash, even without their knowledge or consent."
Further, OFAC's longstanding practice of including "contracts" and "services" as property doesn't apply here, because these smart contracts aren't contracts or services. On the services point, "No human effort is expended by the immutable smart contracts.
And even by the Department’s definition, the immutable smart contracts, which are nothing more than lines of code, are less like a “service” and more like a tool that is used in performing a service. That is not the same as being a service.”
Moreover, they aren't ownable, so even under OFAC's own regulations they aren't property that can be sanctioned.
In sum, they cannot be blocked under federal law. They certainly can't be blocked as an exercise of OFAC's discretion.
This does NOT mean that the rest of Tornado Cash is out of bounds for Treasury/OFAC too. The issue was about smart contracts with no admin key.
A good win. One which the Supreme Court would be unlikely to reverse. Another case where Loper Bright helped because the court wasn't required to defer to a permissible reading by the agency.
Kudos to @coinbase (@iampaulgrewal) for being a big driver of this.
To someone (like me) who grew up under communism, every book set in America was an emphatic endorsement of capitalism.
Take Killshot by Elmore Leonard, which I read as a kid. This construction worker owns a two story house!? His wife is a real estate agent? 1/x
1/ Why are the US dollar & Treasury securities so dominant as global reserve assets? You might think it's just inertia or a lack of good alternatives, but a new paper by Dr. Hendrickson argues there's a fascinating deeper story here that goes back centuries.
Summary thread:🧵
The Renaissance didn't emerge in a vacuum.
It was meticulously crafted by visionaries who bridged the gap between the medieval and the modern, challenging humanity to see beyond the horizon.
Let us take a look at these visionaries. 🧵⤵️
W
"I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties. First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper. Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgment. I will extend time for filing any appellant's notice until 21 days after the form of order hearing, which will be appointed following the hand down of my written judgment and I ask the parties to seek to agree an order giving effect to what I have just stated."
COPA vs CSW - The trial is now over
COPA won and CSW lost.
The final words from Judge Mellor below:
"Having considered all the evidence and submissions presented to me in this trial, I've reached the conclusion that the evidence is overwhelming. Therefore, for the reasons which will be explained in that written judgment in due course, I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties.
First, that Dr Wright is NOT the author of the Bitcoin White Paper.
Second, Dr Wright is NOT the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011.
Third, Dr Wright is NOT the person who created the Bitcoin System.
And, fourth, he is NOT the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software.
For any further information, you'll to wait for the written judgment."
Today is a very special day for me and Bridgewater Associates because I transitioned my control of Bridgewater to the next generation and I feel great about the people and "machine" now in control. This transition moment is the culmination of a 47-year journey (1/11)
I went from 0 coding experience to landing a job as a developer in 6 months...and spent $0 doing it
Here are the topics I focused on and some FREE resources you can use to do the same (warning: 100s of hours of content)
1/ Wealth is a claim on other people's time
There are a lot of theories on what money is, on what wealth is.
Economists have written very long books on this. It is debt, it is the evolution of barter, it is an information system, etc, etc.
All of these are true in their way
Contradiction between my desire to see Ethereum become a more Bitcoin-like system emphasizing long-term stability and stability, including culturally, and my realization that getting there requires quite a lot of active coordinated short-term change.