Kevin Mercer

Punk #0360 | Producer @BeaconLayerHQ | Taste is the new skill | Isaiah 41:10

[Kevin Mercer @punk0360]

🚨The Larva Labs digital sculptures that you’ve been sleeping on. $1.5B traded. Below 1 ETH. More than just 3D Cryptopunks.

Meet Meebits ❚ ❚ - John Watkinson & Matt Hall’s art that’s still early [thread 📷]

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

“What happens when someone inside one of the most iconic retail platforms of the last cycle sees its limits up close?”

@kenzi_mori speaks with @jayendra_jog, Co-Founder of @SeiNetwork, to trace the path that took him from the early days of @Robinhood in Palo Alto — through hypergrowth, the IPO era, and the shock of the GameStop moment — to building in crypto.

They discuss how witnessing the mechanics and constraints of traditional financial infrastructure firsthand reshaped his thinking, why the suspension of buys during one of retail’s most defining episodes left such a lasting impression, and how that experience ultimately pushed him toward systems designed to be more open, more resilient, and less dependent on centralized control.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

“High-performance infrastructure only matters if it expands what users can actually do onchain — and makes that experience accessible at scale.”

@sachitakamura sits down with @jayendra_jog, Co-Founder of @SeiNetwork, to examine why parallelized execution is becoming increasingly important for the next generation of onchain applications.

From trading and DeFi to high-frequency user activity that simply breaks in low-throughput environments, they discuss how lower fees and greater execution capacity can fundamentally reshape the user experience — especially for smaller participants who are otherwise priced out.

They also explore how this plays out in practice through projects like Bancor’s Carbon DeFi, where Sei has emerged as the ecosystem driving the strongest activity and volume, underscoring how performance advantages translate into real adoption.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

“Virtual machines are like cities — once they reach critical mass, they become magnets that are incredibly hard to displace.”

@dikshananduri catches up with @jayendra_jog, Co-Founder of @SeiNetwork, to unpack this idea at a deeper level — why systems with flaws can still dominate simply because that’s where the activity, liquidity, and people already are.

From New York and San Francisco to onchain environments like the EVM, they explore how network effects compound over time, why newer ecosystems struggle to pull users away even with better tech, and what it actually takes to break that inertia.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

This week’s episode features Jayendra Jog (@jayendra_jog), Founder of @SeiNetwork.

We dive into Jay’s journey from traditional finance at @Robinhood to building Sei Network, and unpack how his view of markets, users, and product feedback shaped the way he thinks about blockchain infrastructure.

The conversation explores the parallels between established cities and virtual machines: why dominant systems like the EVM are so difficult to displace, what makes developers stay, and what it actually takes for a new ecosystem to earn attention.

We also dig into the need for higher throughput in Web3, how parallelization can help solve today’s performance limits, and why scalability matters if crypto applications are going to serve real users at a much larger scale.

Jay also reflects on the role of memecoins, not just as speculation, but as community-driven movements that can reveal how culture, attention, and network effects form onchain.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

Selling crypto to cover expenses hurts: you trigger taxes and lose exposure.

DeFi borrowing fixes both. Instead of selling your ETH, lock it as collateral, borrow USDC instantly onchain, spend like cash, and stay long — no taxable event in the U.S.

And now, do this directly through Coinbase👇

~~ Analysis by @punk0360 ~~

This is an integration I can happily recommend to my family and friends, as @coinbase is one of the most trusted and easy-to-navigate crypto exchanges, while @Morpho is one of the most proven and dependable DeFi lending protocols.

With this integration, you can now borrow against your ETH without leaving the comfort of the Coinbase app. Assuming you already have some ETH holdings on Coinbase, you just:

1. Click on your ETH balance to bring up your Ethereum dashboard.

2. Scroll down to the "Borrow" tab and press "Start."

3. Review the primer info—your Borrow up to amount (based on your ETH deposited to Coinbase), the Variable rate (the fluctuating interest Morpho will charge on your loan), and the Liquidation LTV (the "loan-to-value" point at which your underlying ETH could be liquidated for repayment)—and then press "Continue."

4. Input the amount of USDC you want to borrow, then click "Review loan."

5. Check that your loan details are satisfactory. When ready, press "Borrow now," then "Accept and continue." Your loan will be submitted, though it may take a minute or two to finalize in Coinbase's UI.

That's all it takes to get started!

If you open a loan, navigate to your Coinbase "Cash" tab and in the "Borrow" section you'll see a "Manage Loans" button. Go here for the "Repay" option to pay back the USDC you borrowed over time.

These ETH-backed loans have a flexible term, so you don't have to pay back specific amounts per a specific schedule. Just repay whenever in whatever amounts suit you, though keep a close eye on your loan health to avoid liquidation.

Also, keep in mind that USDC borrowed on Coinbase can't be used for buying crypto on Coinbase, so this particular avenue is meant for cashing out and spending.

As far as DeFi onramps go, this integration is about as simple and safe as it gets. If you or someone you know hasn't gotten around to borrowing against ETH yet, this is certainly a good place to start.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

It's been one month since Hyperliquid's HIP-3 went live, letting anyone stake 500K $HYPE can now launch custom markets backed by the platform’s deep liquidity.

The result is an exchange where you can long or short anything: stocks via Trade or Felix, commodities, bonds via Aura, pre-IPOs via Ventuals, even Pokémon cards via Trove.

Learn how HIP-3 works and how it make impact Hyperliquid 👇

~~ Analysis by @DikshaNanduri ~~

The upgrade works like this: a deployer stakes 500K
$HYPE (~$19.3M at time of writing). They can then list three markets for free before entering an auction process to secure additional slots.

For each market they launch, the deployer sets leverage limits, configures the oracle, and manages key technicalities. To ensure acceptable standards, deployers risk having their stake slashed, though Hyperliquid notes this mechanism is temporary and expected to fade as standards and tooling improve.

Once live, the deployer earns 50% of the fees from their markets, with Hyperliquid taking the other half. To balance revenue, HIP-3 market fees are set at double those of standard markets, keeping @HyperliquidX's take roughly equivalent.

While most deployers are still building, early activity from just one HIP-3 market already live — to the tune of $1.3B in volume — paints a positive picture that the upgrade's potential may match its hype.

What Will the Impact of HIP-3 Be?

As a result of how it's designed, HIP-3 introduces new supply crunches on $HYPE, additional revenue for buybacks, and potentially increases rewards earned by stakers and traders.

➢ Locking up $HYPE: Each deployer must stake 500K
$HYPE, effectively removing that amount from circulation. The result is persistent buying pressure as new deployers acquire $HYPE to secure their slots. For example, Trove raised $20M to purchase $HYPE for its launch. Further, Hyperliquid Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) like @HyperionDeFi and @HypeStrat have already begun exploring how to get involved in HIP-3, alleviating the threat of these vehicles dumping their tokens as we're seeing more DATs do.

➢ Additional revenue for buybacks: The 50/50 fee split on HIP-3 markets provides a new inflow to the protocol Assistance Fund, which uses 97% of all fees to buyback its token. Because HIP-3 market fees are set higher than standard ones, this stream will not be reduced by the split in fees with the deployer, potentially offering a significant source for $HYPE buybacks if even a handful of markets achieve sustained volume.

➢ Incentive Wars: A likely next phase is direct competition among deployers for trader flow, especially given the success of @tradexyz's XYZ100 HIP-3 market, which generated $100K in fees before it even reached two weeks. Expect escalating incentive programs — liquidity mining, fee rebates, staking boosts — as providers fight to draw and retain users. These will likely extend to $HYPE stakers too as validators vie for stake to participate in secondary economics like "exchange-as-a-service" models, where staking providers like @kinetiq_xyz essentially crowdsource $HYPE to lower the cost of launching a market.

Together, these dynamics tighten HYPE's supply, expand its buyback base, and create new competitive layers across the ecosystem.

How Could HIP-3 Fail?

HIP-3's success will depend on two things: quality markets launching, and those markets generating sustained demand.

Permissionless listings don't guarantee quality. A HIP-3 market is only as strong as its deployer — how they configure leverage, oracles, and risk parameters. Deploying non-crypto or thinly traded assets like stocks or bonds requires continuous data and stable pricing. Without that, markets face thin liquidity, wide spreads, and erratic execution that will quickly drive traders away.

Oracle providers like @redstone_defi are building hybrid systems that blend onchain and offchain data, maintaining live pricing even when the base asset isn't trading. HIP-3's architecture allows deployers to implement proper oracles into individual markets and tailor risk parameters accordingly.

But demand remains the harder part. As @felixprotocol's founder Charlie (@0xBroze) notes, the lion's share of Hyperliquid's volume comes from five markets, mostly composed of major assets like $BTC, $ETH, and $SOL.

Smaller assets tend to be left with little natural flow, meaning nascent, niche assets launched via HIP-3 will face a cold-start problem. Without early liquidity, traders hesitate; without traders, liquidity providers leave.

If simply introducing novel markets isn't enough to spark activity, deployers will need to experiment with market structures and pairs, introducing new collateral for perps or unique pair-markets like $BTC / $GOLD. Incentive programs should help smooth the initial launch, but in the end, these markets will have to stand on their own.

Ultimately, HIP-3's trajectory depends on the competence of its deployers. The framework is in place, but its outcome will hinge on whether deployers can build markets that trade well and sustain activity.

Final Thoughts

HIP-3 represents another structural bet on decentralization — a next step for Hyperliquid shifting responsibility for growth from the protocol to its participants.

Whether it succeeds will come down to the quality of the markets that launch, the liquidity they attract, and the flywheel effects that follow. If deployers can navigate those early hurdles, HIP-3 could define the next phase of onchain market design.

It doesn't need scale in the traditional sense to succeed. As Charlie noted, just a few high-performing markets could validate the model and materially impact both Hyperliquid's growth and $HYPE's price, with one firm, @FalconXGlobal, estimating $.8B in additional fees if HIP-3 captures less than one percent of Mag7 derivatives trading.

For the platform that keeps defying expectations, rising from a fully-bootstrapped team to become a protocol responsible for earning 35% of all blockchain revenue some months, the success of HIP-3 wouldn't be something I bet against.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

Dozens of teams are fusing social networking and onchain trading.

Farcaster with its in-app wallet, Zora with its tokenized posts and profiles, while pioneers like @interfacedapp and @checkrsocial offer copytrading and influence analytics, respectively.

But there's a surge of newcomers ramping up. The two main arrivals I've seen this week are Clicker and Share.

~~ Analysis by @punk1831 ~~

@clicker, which just launched and is now available on Android and iOS, is a new "social network for traders." Starting with support for Base and Solana, the app links trading activity and commentary via trade comments, letting you post your reasonings behind swaps and analyze others' trades.

@sharexyz, which also just launched to iOS users, is a new crosschain social trading app that supports Base, Ethereum, and Solana transactions. You can trade through any wallet, including new ones spun up via Privy, and every wallet automatically gets a dedicated Share profile so you can easily follow others and get instant trade notifications. 0.5% earnings on every copytrade is a nice touch.

More social trading releases are incoming. Thesis, being built on the new Base token launchpad @feyprotocol, is gearing up, while in Solana land the @moolah team is working on a new primitive and product combo.

There are peripheral opportunities too. Consider @MemoryProtocol, a data layer that lets you sync your various social accounts (X, Farcaster, ENS, Github, etc.) and get paid when external apps build on this data with the Memory API.

The bottom line is that trading is becoming a social medium in itself. This trend is undoubtedly here to stay, so now's a good time to explore the early apps shaping this culture shift!

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

“What if AI gives us a once-in-a-generation chance to rebuild the internet from the ground up?”

@kenzimori sits down with Karan Sirdesai @karansirdesai, Founder of @miranetwork, to unpack the founder journey behind Mira and the early conviction that AI would become far more than another tech cycle.

They trace Karan’s path from teaching himself to build, sending cold DMs, experimenting with crypto arbitrage, and working alongside figures like Balaji Srinivasan and Sandeep Nailwal, to spotting the AI shift before it became obvious to the broader market.

The conversation also explores why Karan has consistently chosen the unconventional route, how his time at Accel exposed him to frontier AI companies early, and why the pace of AI progress made one thing clear: this wouldn’t just change startups or software, it would reshape how humans work, think, create, and interact with the internet itself.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

“What if the most important AI infrastructure isn’t the biggest model — but the one you can actually trust?”

@sachimiyasaki sits down with Karan Sirdesai @karansirdesai, Founder of @miranetwork, to explore how Mira is approaching decentralized AI from a more focused angle: making machine intelligence reliable enough for real-world use.

They discuss why Mira is not trying to become a full-stack AI protocol, how its approach differs from networks like Bittensor, Ritual, and Sahara, and why focusing on trust and verification could make Mira a stronger fit inside the wider AI infrastructure stack.

The episode also breaks down Mira’s reliability architecture, from its core verification layer to node-level consensus, and why the next evolution of AI APIs may not be about simply accessing more models, but about knowing whether the answers you receive can actually be trusted.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

“What happens when AI stops being a tool and becomes the operating layer of the internet?”

@dikshawells sits down with Karan Sirdesai @karansirdesai, Founder of @miranetwork, to explore a future where AI is no longer just answering questions, but taking action, making decisions, and handling large parts of our cognitive workload.

They discuss the upside of this shift: the rise of “infinite hires,” a world where most knowledge work can be automated or amplified, and a productivity wave that could completely reshape how companies, teams, and individuals operate.

But the conversation also gets into the darker side of that future. As AI becomes more capable, the risks grow with it: blind dependence, high-stakes failures, malicious autonomous agents, and the possibility of humans sharing the world with a new kind of intelligence we are not fully prepared to control.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Karan Sirdesai @karansirdesai, Co-Founder and CEO of Mira Network @miranetwork.

We cover Karan’s path from his university days and early crypto experiments to building Mira, an infrastructure layer focused on making AI more reliable, verifiable, and safe to use at scale.

The episode goes deep into one of AI’s biggest unsolved problems: hallucinations. Karan breaks down why unreliable outputs are such a major blocker for real-world adoption, especially in high-stakes areas like finance, healthcare, and other trust-sensitive industries.

We also discuss the early “aha” moment behind Mira, shaped by experiments with GPU rentals, AI workflows, and the insight that multiple models could work together to verify outputs through consensus.

Karan also shares how working with Balaji Srinivasan, his unconventional founder journey, and Mira’s AI + crypto-native team influenced the company’s mission: building decentralized infrastructure that helps make artificial intelligence more trustworthy, dependable, and useful in the real world.

[BeaconLayer Podcast @BeaconLayerHQ]

After 7 years, Aztec’s Ignition mainnet is live.

Yet zero transactions or apps work yet. The chain is deliberately empty – because true protocol-level privacy can’t be rushed.

Here’s how this phased, decentralization-first launch positions Aztec as the leading private L2 on ETH👇

~~ Analysis by @punk1831 ~~

What's Actually Running

Think of Ignition like Ethereum's beacon chain from 2020. The governance and consensus infrastructure is operational, but the execution layer remains offline. The team is running what amounts to a live stress test with real money on the line.

Each sequencer staked at least 200K $AZTEC tokens to participate. They're producing blocks, provers are generating validity proofs, and the whole system is settling on Ethereum, just without any transactions.
The goal of running Ignition with real economics for 2-3 months will (hopefully) surface any remaining issues before transactions go live in early 2026, while setting the network up to be decentralized from day one.

The Decentralization Push

In Aztec's eyes, launching an L2 with a centralized sequencer from the get go rarely translates to decentralization down the road.

Centralized sequencers generate $40-150M annually in fees. Once you're locked into those cash flows, decentralization means making transactions slower and more expensive. The tension never resolves.

Instead, @aztecnetwork will launch fully decentralized from day one across three dimensions:

➢ Ownership is decentralized through $AZTEC token holders who control network parameters, fee schedules, and protocol upgrades.

➢ Block Production runs through 617 decentralized sequencer nodes using proof-of-stake. These nodes order transactions and produce blocks. To prevent any single party from gaining control, a small committee of sequencers is randomly selected to validate blocks before they are submitted to Ethereum.

➢ Proving is permissionless from the get-go. Provers generate the zero-knowledge proofs that cryptographically confirm all transactions in a batch are valid. They aggregate blocks and submit a single, final proof to Ethereum for verification, guaranteeing the integrity of the entire rollup.

When transactions go live, Aztec will qualify as a Stage 2 rollup, the highest decentralization tier for L2s. Most chains have pushed boundaries in one direction. Hitting all three pillars simultaneously is rare.

In Aztec's eyes, decentralization isn't optional for privacy. Centralized sequencers would face pressure from governments to install backdoors. Privacy requires cryptography plus decentralization, not one or the other.

What Happens Next

There are two major upcoming events, one technical and one token-related.

On the technical side, Ignition will remain live for 2-3 more months with sequencers producing empty blocks while the team monitors for issues. Early 2026 is when transactions flip on. Users will be able to send payments, deploy smart contracts, and interact with applications. By the end of 2026, block times should drop from the current 36-72 seconds down to 4 seconds, faster than Ethereum's 12-second blocks.

On the token side, the pre-allocation for the $AZTEC token sale is currently live, with the sale beginning December 2nd and running for 4 days. The sale uses @Uniswap's continuous clearing auction mechanism, meaning if you bid early, part of your bid clears at early prices and part clears later. This levels the playing field between early and late participants while letting price discovery happen naturally. When the auction ends, it automatically creates a Uniswap V4 liquidity pool at the final clearing price.

To participate in the sale, you must register prior to December 2nd.

For compliance, Aztec is using @ZKPassport, enabling people to prove cryptographically that they're from allowed jurisdictions and not on sanctions lists without traditional KYC. The sale is open to US retail and nearly every country worldwide, with the exception of sanctioned countries on the standard OFAC list.

The current 500 sequencers already staked $AZTEC tokens they purchased in a whitelisted genesis sale. They're earning rewards in $AZTEC right now. However, all tokens, whether from the genesis sale, the current public auction, or insider allocations, are non-transferable until Token Generation Event (TGE).

There is no set date for when TGE occurs, rather the community votes on it. However, the earliest date it can go live is February 11th, 2026. Once TGE happens, tokens purchased in the public auction unlock 100%.

7 Years in the Making

Overall, Ignition and the $AZTEC token sale demonstrate both the complexity of successfully executing privacy, as well as the extent to which Aztec is going to get this right.

First you have the need for decentralization from the get-go to ensure privacy endures, a feat unaccomplished by countless L2s launched so far. Then you have the tension between privacy and compliance, which the token sale's integration with ZK Passport helps solve.

Regardless of how mainnet goes, and I'm hopeful all goes well, this launch process shines as a testament to diligent design, demonstrating that forces like decentralization, privacy, and compliance can all coexist

[Kevin Mercer @punk0360]

@NagNaggerto 🤡

[Cozomo de’ Medici @CozomoMedici]

Strong punks collection here

[Eric Pan @pandelic]

A long-awaited, mind-bending, broadsheet-clad double-issue of the latest Meme Maxis newsletter is now out AND piping hot, covering weeks 198+199!

Inside: 6529 Network Museum, Cards 488–493, @ToledoMuseum, @hafftka’s 99, birds + dominió + much more ... and leaps futureward🔮

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Pleased to announce that @ethereumJoseph and @Consensys are joining the DeFi United recovery efforts with 30,000 ETH to fully back rsETH and help restore confidence in DeFi.

This is substantial support in the spirit of strengthening the DeFi ecosystem. Grateful for the participation from the leading Ethereum stewards.

[DCinvestor @DCinvestor]

AI companies are making it REALLY hard for users to trust them. even the ones which seem different are not

they routinely throttle the service they offer you without providing any notice or disclosure

they’re using your data in unspecified ways

private chats are apparently not private and can be subpoenaed, despite all of them saying logs of your chats will be deleted

yet we are apparently expected to trust all of our data and perhaps the fate of humanity to these corporations

[@aaronjmars @aaronjmars]

holy fuck, a hair dryer at a Paris airport broke Polymarket weather markets & made someone $34,000 richer

- polymarket was settling Paris temperature bets on a single Météo France sensor sitting near the Charles de Gaulle runway perimeter - basically unguarded

- the guy bought the long-shot outcome (like "22°C" when everyone expected 18°C) for pennies, since nobody thought it'd hit

- then he walked up to the probe and briefly heated the air around it with a portable heat source, spiking the reading just long enough to register as the daily max

- temperature snapped back to normal in minutes, the market resolved in his favor, and he cashed out - twice, on April 6 and April 15, before Météo France caught on and filed charges

hyperstitions.

[Art Blocks @artblocks_io]

This week on Art Blocks Studio

A new series of infinitely variable expressions in code from @piterpasma: 

"about half a page of inscrutably esoteric incantations with no external dependencies, running in the browser."

Here's your sneak peek at MASKS.
Coming April 23

[piterpasma @piterpasma]

The 3824 characters of code on the left can generate all the faces on the right, and infinitely more!!

MASKS releases for minting Thursday the 23rd on @artblocks_io, but you can already explore variations using the link below!!

#generative #genartclub