Jason Badeaux

This Tesla plant provides the equipment, space, and technology needed to manufacture everything the company provides. That includes electric cars, lithium-ion battery cells, solar panels, and much more. The Gigafactory allows for faster production and eliminates extra costs of shipping parts to different locations for assembly. As Tesla’s own... See more

The consequences of the existence of blockchains are thus that, for the first time in human history, we have a real alternative to governments and legal systems for the enforcement of promises. What are the effects this will have on the world?

A system is self-sustaining if it would continue to function normally in the indefinite absence of its creators.

Delphia is the classic example of a network-effect based business model: as more users contribute data, the returns for funds using the data should theoretically improve. This creates a flywheel, in which more users are incentivized to provide data because hedge funds and other businesses (who benefit from crowdsourced data at scale) are willing to... See more

An example of Tesla’s manufacturing innovation is its use of giant mechanical presses that can save substantial manufacturing time by forging single car bodies and individual car panels alongside its near-fully automated production with little human handling from beginning to end. Tesla’s different approach to auto manufacturing starts with single... See more

We refer to this thesis as “proof of physical work.” Protocols that fit this thesis incentivize people to do verifiable work that builds real-world infrastructure. Relative to traditional forms of capital formation for building physical infrastructure, these permissionless and credibly-neutral protocols:1. Can build infrastructure faster—in many... See more

I found something else surprising about previous energy transitions. Each one later enabled new modes of transport and new materials which were very hard to conceive of during its early phases. In each of the past transitions, the energy source unlocked new distribution technologies and materials that helped drive more adoption for the energy... See more

Every one of these questions refers to a system that is complex, in the sense that a great many independent agents are interacting with each other in a great many ways [...] the very richness of these interactions allows the system as a whole to undergo spontaneous self-organization. Thus, people trying to satisfy their material needs unconsciously... See more