Sam Blumenthal

Bitcoin is currently not a medium of exchange other than in a few niche cases. The declining number of Bitcoin transactions per day and the spikes in execution costs bear no resemblance to any functioning fiat currency. As a result, a Bitcoin valuation thesis based on it being used as a medium of exchange makes little sense, at least as Bitcoin... See more

The promise of capture-resistant governance is managing shared resources in a way that prevents capture of those resources by bad actors. In so doing, it also unlocks a new frontier of what is possible together. The amazing fluidity, flexibility, and adaptability exhibited by early web3-native communities is testament to what’s possible when our... See more

Tophatter’s games are reminiscent of the mini-games that have appeared for the past few years on Chinese e-commerce apps. One of the earliest examples is Alipay’s “Ant Forest,” which was launched in 2016, and gives users points that they can use to plant virtual trees each time they pay for, say, public transit. Most other mini-games, however, have... See more

Some are skeptical about the ability of digital currencies to emerge as a viable store of value in just a few years since it took thousands of years for gold to do so, and only after gold had been used for its intrinsic value for centuries before that. I don’t agree; such logic is too rooted in the past and does not account for rapid behavioral... See more