Unqualified Opinion #8 - Updates from Messari
We briefly interrupt your (soon-to-be daily) above-the-fold features to share some updates from the Messari team. Full news blurbs are still below-the-fold…
Growth can’t stop, won’t stop. We’ve hired some great people over the past month and are looking to expand our engineering team. The only downside to growth is that KWu may soon have to go full Khaleesi (dragons included) to conquer some of our adjacent WeWork space.
On the research side, we made two fantastic hires in September. We were lucky to grab a promising analyst before he made the tragic decision to go to law school, and we nearly convinced our summer intern to drop out of college (he’s part-time for now).
Spenser Huang
Spenser will join us as a research analyst while finishing up his final year of college. He is finishing up his B.A. in philosophy, design and entrepreneurship at Northwestern, where he’s also co-president of the Northwestern Blockchain Group.
Zack Voell
Zack is joining us full-time in New York as a research analyst. Prior to Messari, he held a research fellowship at the Institute for Justice, a non-profit civil liberties public interest law firm, and worked for Berman and Company as an economic policy analyst focused on labor law reforms. Zack holds a B.A. in Political Science from Grove City College where he studied Austrian economics. He’s got a great podcast voice.
Expect more and better above the fold features, more data, and more pretty charts from our internal research team in the months ahead.
The Messari team is currently at 13 (!), but operates like a small army given our community of research analysts, who we’ll give (justified) props to every Tuesday. (You can check out our previous community updates here, here , and here.)
🏆 This week’s must follows from the community...
Jack joined us recently and hit the ground running with not one, not two, but three profiles of some of the largest assets in crypto: Steem, Stellar, and EOS. Check them out, and get ready for API access to this data (and improved design) in the months ahead. And a special shoutout to Steve for helping to edit our asset profiles while working on a beast of an addition to the Ethereum entry.
We’ll be tweeting out our next profile tomorrow.
🎉 Messari Community Meetup
We are hosting a party! (Sort of.)
If talking about data tools and transparency standards is your definition of a rager, then you bring the molly, we’ll bring the data and self-regulatory juice.
This shindig kicks off on October 16 in NYC from 6-8PM. There is limited space, but if you’d like to come and learn about what we are doing and meet other cool people in the crypto space, shoot Katherine an email: katherine@messari.io!
Messari paid newsletter subscribers are guaranteed admission. We’ll take others on an invite-only basis.
As always, if you are interested in helping us crowdsource token project details, or want to join our community to share your expertise, we would love to have you on board! Take a second to fill out an application with your details and we will get back to you soon.
Hasta luego.
-TBI
P.S. If we miss an issue or five at some point these next couple of weeks, I’m in the hospital chasing around a toddler big brother. Stay patient and HODL that subscription. We’ll take care of you.
P.P.S. Smash those share and subscribe buttons, and spread the love. Tweet at me or Messari for feedback, comments, or (more?) questions.
News & Analyses
Messari Compression Algorithm
Content and thoughts from around the web as summarized by the Messari team.
👀 Alleged collusion in EOS exposed by Huobi leak
A spreadsheet detailing mutual voting and sharing of proceeds from producing blocks in EOS ($EOS) has been leaked, allegedly by a Huobi employee. Titled “Huobi Pool Node Account Data 20180911” the document shows Huobi votes for 20 Block Producers (miners) in EOS with 16 of them voting for Huobi in return and numerous other arrangements that allegedly earn Huobi 1,116 EOS per day, currently worth about $6,000 a day. (Messari | Source) [Update: Huobi has released a response statement here.]
Quick Bits (Don't read that, I read it for you)
Choke Points (Exchange News)
🏛 Everbloom, a decentralized exchange for cryptocurrencies, is seeking to become a licensed broker-dealer in a bid to attract institutional investors. The startup recently registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and submitted an application for a license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for securities dealers. (Messari | Source)
Startup Signals (ICOs, Cryptos, and Startups)
👾 Monero community creates malware response workgroup to battle unwanted in-browser mining enabled by the Monero network. The workgroup is a self-organized set of volunteers that maintains resources about malicious unwanted in-browser mining, system mining, and ransomware and also provides live support. (Messari | Source)
The Powers That Be (Legal/Reg/Policy)
🇲🇹 At the UN General Assembly, Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat states that blockchain technology will allow crypto to inevitably become the future of money— and that is why Malta is seeking to be the “blockchain island”. (Messari | Source)
💰 A group of SF-based financial technology companies is banding together to lobby lawmakers and regulators on cryptocurrencies -- and they plan to pay their Washington advocates partly in crypto. Among officials’ concerns: are massive price swings in the crypto markets, a spate of fraudulent public offerings involving the coins and their use in criminal activities like drug dealing. (Messari | Source)
"Celebrities" (Crypto Influencers)
Our favorite crypto signal aggregator, Nathaniel Whittemore (aka NLW) launches “Long Reads Live”. In the inaugural episode, Nathaniel chats with Travis Kling, Myles Snyder, and our own Katherine Wu about the upcoming Bitmain IPO, Pixelmaster, market manipulation, and a host of other issues. Watch the hour-long discussion here.
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).
Community Updates
Podcast Recap
🎧 ICYMI, we also host & produce our own podcasts on Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play.
In our latest episode, we had on Eric Meltzer to talk about the latest bitcoin bug, and also give you the most interesting statistics about Bitmain's latest disclosure documents for its IPO application on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Listen on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here, Soundcloud here, and Google play here. Happy learning!
Shameless Plugs
💼 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:
Crypto Springs, Palm Springs, October 3 & 4
EthSF, San Francisco, October 5-8th
Money 20/20, Las Vegas, October 21-24
DevCon, Prague, Czech Republic October 30–November 2, 2018
🗣 Join Our Community!
If you are interested in helping us crowdsource token project details, or want to join our community to share your expertise, wed 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.