Devin Baker

Again this underscores my core premise, which is that Ethereum should maximize economic activity within its platform (including rollups) and ETH should position as a true permissionless, digital store of value (see related tweets from Doug & Sassal) more so than an interest-bearing capital asset.

For our purposes here, we will just draw a simple distinction between L1s and L2s:

• L1 – Network relies on its own dedicated operators.


• L2 – Network relies on the operators of another network. It may or may not have its own dedicated operators in addition to these.

When bitcoin is in a raging bull market, its market capitalization tends to stretch way beyond its on-chain cost basis. When that happens, it pays to be cautious. Nobody can tell you what market capitalization to cost basis ratio it will peak at for the cycle, and so it’s not a top-signal per se, but when it’s historically high it should cause an... See more

QE (quantitative easing) operations essentially involve asset swaps. The Fed balance sheet expands by the Fed buying securities in the open market and simultaneously injecting liquidity as payment. Balance sheets still balance, but the Fed’s balance sheet has grown larger and the private sector’s balance sheet has changed its composition and,... See more

When bitcoin surges to a new high, that’s like a “pioneer price.” That’s like the first couple houses on a street selling for new highs. And then over months and years, as more and more bitcoin trades hands at those higher prices, it raises the average cost basis and makes that price more real, more liquid, with a substantial market depth at those... See more

Which means we’re going to have high interest rates, but higher inflation, negative real yields, but higher nominal yields and will print the difference.

Fundamentally, I consider ETH to derive most of its value from being a global, permissionless store of value, and while it is engaging to discuss the value accrual story as it relates to scaling of the ecosystem, long-term user and developer growth should take precedent over short-term focus on token mechanics. The rollup-centric roadmap makes a... See more

On January 1st, the US debt ceiling will be reinstated (based on the amount of debt outstanding on that date). Until legislation is passed to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (yet again), the US Treasury will have to tap cash on hand in the TGA to finance its spending obligations.