Devin Baker

Not only have finance and economics lately drifted even further apart, it gets worse: rather than economics (or economic expectations) driving finance as the textbooks tell us, finance seems to increasingly drive economics . Bitcoin and crypto, for example, fit badly into the traditional framework because they lack conventional ‘fundamentals’.... See more

For almost 16 years now, Bitcoin has been the dominant cryptocurrency network despite thousands upon thousands of competitors and several forks. Anyone can copy it, but like copying Wikipedia or Ethernet or any of these other examples, those copies start with a nearly infinite disadvantage due to not sharing in the existing network effect.... See more

But the most interesting teams in our view are those that either deeply understand where the demand-side is and how they can solve their problems in practice, or those who are building on a longer-term thesis toward something not widely appreciated today.

Institutional capital is in its infancy within alpha token investing. DCG’s subsidiary Yuma and less than a handful of emergent liquid funds like Contango Capital and Unsupervised Capital are playing a mixed role of ecosystem evangelist, VC, incubator, and liquid token investors. These teams are working with early subnet teams to adopt a long-term... See more

Clarity matters: Being specific and consistent and clear in what you do and what you stand for is challenging work, but worth it. It requires less compromise and a willingness to walk away from all the soft edges that the committee might be insisting on.

We know what the Bat Signal means. We know who’s going to show up, what he’s going to be... See more

Undateable Pricing. Pricing of a subscription contract can now be updated for any tier at any time.

Inactive Status. For supply-capped subscriptions, you can now mark particular subscribers “inactive.” This allows them to maintain possession of their token while opening up a spot for a new subscriber to join.

Subscription Duration. Creators can now... See more

This framework implies a return to patronage – we are not paying for utility, we are funding the story, the taste, the culture, and its support and proliferation.

Ironically enough, patronage is an even older media business model than advertising or subscriptions. During the Renaissance, patronage was symbiotic – it afforded patrons cultural capital... See more

The institutional ETFs are here en masse and there is now regular traditional media coverage of the crypto startup scene. It mostly lacks nuance but it’s permeating the mainstream zeitgeist. The maturation of market structure also helps here as liquidation cascades are simply less prevalent given the enormous liquidity provided by these traditional... See more