The accumulated fruits of human agency and creative problem-solving are so ubiquitous today—in the form of agriculture and modern medicine, electricity and air conditioning, Uber and Amazon, Google and iPhones, widespread literacy and constitutional government, bank loans and credit cards, Zoom and Facebook—that we tend to assume them as the natura... See more
None of this is to say we shouldn’t regard chronic illnesses or pandemics as the scourges that they are, nor that we shouldn’t fight them with everything we’ve got. On the contrary, remembering that “death is the default” should mobilize us to fight them with everything we’ve got—recognizing that the one thing we’ve got, in the fight against entrop... See more
Celo is a carbon-negative EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed to make it accessible and usable by anyone with a smartphone, anywhere in the world. It’s unique among blockchains in many ways, including the fact that it has its own native stablecoins in different denominations and in that it plans to back those stablecoins with 40% natural cap... See more
ReFi is a beautiful idea – a re-imagining of the financial system using the tools humanity now has at its disposal to better account for the needs of all stakeholders, current and future. It puts a price on externalities, charging those who create negative externalities and rewarding those who create positive externalities.
In-group Cheems is particularly pernicious because of the strength of peer effects. If you are surrounded by like-minded, ambitious, will-to-act-havers, you are unlikely to find yourself much affected by In-group Cheems.
First, most venture capital firms use antiquated business models that prevent them from being able to move quickly, reach scale, and establish strong competitive moats. Most venture firms are built on a partnership model, like law firms.
At events like last week’s PactDAO panel, there is a noticeably differentiated and nuanced conversation happening. Between the polarized cheerleading from crypto maximalists and the straw-manning from leftist tech skeptics, there is a cautious yet optimistic embrace of crypto as a frontier for constructive experiments, with plenty of design space t... See more