Messari 2.0 - Unqualified Opinions
we've fully integrated the onchainfx data dashboard
TL;DR:
We’ve launched a slick new site that advances our vision for building a company that offers “crypto intelligence, distributed.” It’s a comprehensive new source of curated news and analysis, markets and blockchain data, and token project research and disclosures. It’s a good milestone, but it’s only the start. What do you need from a one-stop shop for crypto information?
We’re launching it on one of the worst trading days of the year. The capitulation is in, so DYOR over the long weekend, and learn about the assets you liked when they were 3-5x more expensive. (I made a custom view that excludes price change if that makes it easier to take in the carnage.)
Messari 2.0
We still don’t think there are any reliable, independent, and comprehensive sources of information in crypto.
Sure, there are some terrific markets data companies working on cleaning up and standardizing crypto exchange data, like TradeBlock and Nomics. Interesting blockchain analytics upstarts, like Coinmetrics and Alethio. Impressive new content aggregators like TheBlock and TokenDaily. Even behemoths like Binance and Circle are starting to put pressure on token projects to make the disclosures we’ve been harping on to bring better transparency and consistency to crypto research.
In our eyes, though, no one has brought everything together in a nice neat package. Yet.
That’s why we’re thrilled today to share the next step we’ve taken towards realizing our vision to offer crypto pioneers a comprehensive crypto intelligence solution.
Messari has now fully integrated crypto data dashboard, OnChainFx. We encourage you to check out the site on mobile and desktop, create your own watch lists and custom dashboards, and use them for your own crypto research (and tweets).
All the content you see on Messari will be made available via API in December. Our curated news and analysis summaries, our OnChainFx markets and blockchain data, and everything from our Agora community research library.
In the months ahead, we’ll be contributing token project disclosures to a separate new entity (incubated under the Messari umbrella) called LUCA. The Liquid Universal CryptoAsset registry will serve as a single source of truth for token project diligence in the years ahead, and the disclosures we collect will be 100% open and free to use. Although we’re centrally collecting this information to start (stay tuned for details on early applicants), we’re taking steps to remove ourselves as curator throughout 2019.
From day 1, we haven’t been interested in creating new crypto information siloes. Instead, we’ve taken a collaborative approach to promoting transparency and smarter decision making within crypto.
There’s still a *ton* of work left to be done, but today we’ve taken a big step forward.
It’s crypto intelligence, distributed.
We hope you like the upgrades, and look forward to working relentlessly to get better and incorporate your feedback!
-TBI
P.S. Share. Subscribe. Spread the (rational) crypto love. Tweet at me or Messari for requests, feedback, comments, or questions.
Best of the Rest - What We Missed Last Week
Every weekend, we dig through the past week’s posts from crypto’s other great sources of content to see what we missed in our own weekend reads.
Here’s us curating the curators:
Visions of Ether- Felipe Gaúcho Pereira
(h/t to Block by Block)
Inspired by a similar post on bitcoin from Nic Carter and Hasu, Felipe outlines what exactly Ether should be, and opines on how our views on it have changed in the past five years? Ethereum development has evolved through seven major themes: “Bitcoin 2.0”, the “world computer” (dApp infrastructure); a platform for DAOs; a new fundraising paradigm via ICOs and STOs; a platform for digital resource tokens and collectibles; “Open Finance” 2.0; and finally “Radical Markets”. Felipe urges readers to acknowledge that the identity of Ethereum is varied, "The chilling uncertainty, while a central point of critique to detractors, is precisely what makes supporters so excited about the future of Ether.”
Bonus: Felipe creates an awesome chart detailing Ethereum's narratives over time.
Winds of Change: the Case for New Digital Currency - Christine Lagarde, IMF
(h/t NLW)
At the Singapore Fintech Festival last week, International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, gave a speech on technological change, and specifically on the changing nature of money. The “fintech revolution” questions the nature of coins and commercial bank deposits as well as the state’s role in creating money. As we transform into a fully digital economy, the most important question becomes “should central banks issue a new digital form of money? Lagarde believes the IMF should consider the possibilities. There may be a role for the state to supply money to the new digital economy.
Generalized Mining: the LPs perspective - Cambrial Capital
(h/t Token Economy)
The concept of generalized miming, or “mining 2.0” has become a hot topic in the crypto-sphere lately. This latest post from Cambrial Capital offers the investor perspective on Generalized Mining. For mining and validating, it won’t be a particularly high margin or interesting business (since it’s so easy to compete), but rather, it will become a winner-take-most business. Provisioning digital services to an end users across a network (e.g. Filecoin) isn’t that interesting either, as it looks like economic activity vs. an investment strategy. What is interesting is the ‘third party economy’ which focuses primarily on trading and risk-taking opportunities, such as market making on Augur. If the DeFi vision is to become a reality, we’re going to need a whole host of these participants to make the markets more efficient, and that’s where early stage VCs and quant funds should do well. (For those who need more reading on the topic, check out Messari’s Generalized Mining resource page.)
Did I miss something?
Send me the link, your twitter handle and your best imitation compression algorithm write up. If I like it, I’ll include your bit next issue (with attribution).
Podcast Recap
🎧 ICYMI on the Messari podcast, Katherine sits down with MyCrypto’s Taylor Monahan to talk product design. Taylor highlights the vast difference between intentions and outcome in product design vs. user experience and shares some of her experiences in building tools for crypto users. Katherine also discusses the recent Bitcoin Cash fork and reflects on the recent market volatility. (19 min for your lunch break)
BONUS: Qiao swung by Jeffrey Tong’s “Smartest Contract” podcast to chat all things crypto, and provide some updates on what we’re working on at Messari.
Listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts— on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here, and Google play here.
Shameless Plugs
We want your feedback!
We know Messari can feel like a couple different products right now, and we're working to unify our features into one overarching whole. To that end, We’ve made a Trello board to take in any and all of the feedback you have for us! Have at it 🛠
We're Hiring:
We need data engineers who want to bring transparency to crypto!
Join a fast growing team in NYC; work with crypto OGs, and former Bloomberg/Palantir engineers; & access a network that sets you up for the rest of your career. Apply here!
Upcoming Travel:
Hit us up in these locations:
Consensus Invest, New York, New York | November 27
Join Our Community:
If you are interested in helping us crowdsource token project details, or want to join our community to share your expertise, we’d love to have you on board! Take a second to fill out an application and we will get back to you soon.
Going forward, we’ll be capping new members at 15 each week to keep things running smoothly. If you haven’t heard back, you are probably in the queue.
Like what you read? Share it! Hate what you read? Let me know @MessariCrypto.