why i am so bullish on crypto, in "defense of the ideological"-
i recently watched the video of the first public appearance for jensen and elon together, which was at GTC 2015 more than ten years ago. by this time, jensen had already made his iconoclastic bet on parallel graphics processing for over twenty years, and on CUDA since 2006. musk had his hassabis moment in 2012. yet openAI was not yet founded (would be ~9 months later), and GDX-1 would be announced at GTC the following year too
this is that narrow window where a revolution is visible to some but not others, in which both of these geniuses had early inklings of recognizing AIs pervasive potential, but the broad public was not yet made aware. it would take another 10 years for it reach mainstream applications of course
i broadly think of the crypto industry being the same place today. just as there were brilliant minds who understood the revolution that would come from the GPU paradigm, there was simply no large scale consumer demand that required its objective superiority for decades to come. instead, it was picked up by hobbyists (ie gamers) who enjoyed a sense of self-determination by pushing the boundaries of their passion, tinkering, sharing, and researching. in a rather strange way, gamers subsidized AI's development, just like early defi subsidized the institutional tokenization development.
during the GTC 2015 interview, elon tells jensen something interesting: the 0-10 mph autonomous driving is very easy to solve because the car can be stopped. the 50+ mph zone is also easy to solve because there are rules of engagements at that speed that dont have as many randomness. the hardest part to solve is actually the 10-50mph, what i call the "the middle game" where a car in an urban setting with bikes, children, cones, manholes, create all kinds of need for precision and speed that sensors today need to develop further. it's fundamentally solvable, but this is the most challenging portion of fulfilling the dreams of autonomous driving
this is where crypto is today. the 0-10mph was easy because people can understand why permissionless money is useful from a practical sense to start developing. the 50mph+ will also be really easy because by that point, onchain capital markets is going to be so obvious that you could never go back with all the benefits of self custody, capital efficiency, money velocity/rest optimizations. but its the 10-50 thats hard, where money in a pre-internet financial infrastructure is hitting AML/KYC, offshore capital conduits, discretionary bank risk models, lagging reporting regimes create all kinds of need of need for precision and speed that institutional infrastructure today needs to develop further. its fundamentally solvable, but this is the most challenging portion of fulfilling the dreams of onchain capital markets
i love bitcoin. but contrary to some opinion, i believe its possible to love crypto too, because bitcoin is a monetary experiment enabled by the evolution of technology, while most of crypto is the inverse: a technology experiment enabled by the evolution of money. they are fundamentally solving different problems, though rooted in one ideal: to make its access as much of a public good as possible
this is why crypto is going to be such an important force for the future during this "narrow window" for those can can see it. and while most early pioneers got into the game because of the ideology behind decentralization, it's time to admit that the winning ideology is technological financialization: it is hyperfinancialization with elements of decentralization that exports sovereign finance as a public good, decentralizes agentic rails for humanity as a public good, promote self-determination as a public good.
this is worth fighting for, and im excited to recommit my focus to these ideals that began my crypto journey. this "middle game" period will be remembered as the most critical juncture for the industry and for anyone who is doubting the industry at this time, i hope reading this helps you reanchor your beliefs for what you are actually fighting for, and more importantly, know that you can play a meaningful part in the revolution too
the future belongs to those who recognized it was always ideological
Agree with @RyanSAdams that a deep bench of leaders and developers are ready to ensure $ETH remains the future settlement layer of finance and AI
- to me, much of bearish sentiment reflects the disdain and despair seen at the nadir of crypto winter (finger pointing at the lows)
Blockchain is arguably the only way agentic AI interacts in commerce. And blockchain vastly improves the profit profile of the financial system
$ETH @BitMNR
$BMNR
Today, the Senate Banking Committee will vote to advance the CLARITY Act.
I am proud of the countless hours that my team, Treasury, SEC, CFTC, and Senate Banking staff and members have put into shaping this product. On every issue, we put forward real solutions to address stakeholder concerns or Democrat demands. It often required us to get creative; sometimes, it required us to get uncomfortable. But we did it in the spirit of bipartisanship.
Make no mistake: Whether today’s vote is partisan or bipartisan will depend entirely on politics, not policy. The CLARITY Act is not only good policy, it is necessary policy for the United States to maintain our leadership position in global financial markets. Not to mention the robust consumer protections and anti-illicit finance provisions it contains, without which, there are none.
This morning’s vote will reveal whether Democrats have genuinely moved on from their war on crypto, or whether they remain cowed by Elizabeth Warren. The choice is theirs.
Quick takeaways from LA (Milken and @NetworkMedici):
-Rising optimism around Clarity Act. Both crypto and banks don’t love the compromise. That’s a good sign
-Genuine allocator interest. Particularly in BTC and market neutral. Very little alts discussion from this group, which could be bullish…
-Forcing function for tokenization is real and powerful. 2026 inflection coming together
-Growing talk of need for Proof of Humanity and $WLD. Think recent Moonshots podcast increased visibility @PeterDiamandis
-Stablecoins expected to be everywhere
As some of the earliest backers of @sethginns & @perkinscr97 ... and huge admirers of #SandyKaul, we cannot be more thrilled at this combination... the PB&J, surf & turf, bourbon & branch of digital assets: Institutional Power & Forward-Facing Conviction
WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS LETTING SAM ALTMAN SCAN YOUR EYEBALLS?
Brett Winton says:
- Posting your face on social media is 10,000x more dangerous than signing up for World ID.
- Regulators want to own consumer data. That's the real reason they're blocking it.
- World ID is banned in Brazil, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Spain and Kenya.
- One $200M wire to the wrong person and every bank changes their mind fast.
Look at these headlines from past 24hrs…
Goldman Sachs launching btc-related ETF.
Morgan Stanley’s most successful ETF launch ever is btc ETF.
Charles Schwab rolling out direct spot crypto trading.
New York Stock Exchange all in on crypto.
Wall Street has literally arrived.
a16z's Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg speak with Alex Blania, co-founder and CEO of Tools for Humanity, to cover deepfakes, proof of human, what AI means for identity, and more.
They cover the technical challenge of proving human uniqueness at scale using iris biometrics, the privacy architecture behind World ID, why platforms from social networks to dating apps to video conferencing will soon require proof of human verification, and more.
Introduction
Three big ideas people were interested in
The Orb verification piece
Social media bots: Psyops and propaganda
We had proof of personhood for the longest time
US go-to-market
Levels of verification
@alexblania@tfh_technology@bhorowitz@eriktorenberg
Congratulations to @perkinscr97 and @sethginns on this exciting announcement.
Expect to see a lot more headlines like this as digital assets are brought into the regulatory fold. CLARITY would supercharge this.
Congrats @coinfund
Now backed by a renowned @FTI_Global and a sizable balance sheet
Great way to be positioned for the ‘end of crypto winter’ ❄️
@sethginns@perkinscr97
Some news on convergence between tradfi and crypto:
https://t.co/UyZOB6F3Vv