Messari's Weekend Reads đ - Unqualified Opinions
self care, sleep, and good content (plus GDF's Simon Taylor on the podcast!)
Messariâs Weekend Reads
Itâs Friday, which means weâre keeping things light and teeing up our weekend reads and listens.
This week on the Messari podcast, Katherine breaks down the latest SEC order against EtherDeltaâs founder, and what its implications are for DEX broadly (more in the Quick Bits as well). We also talk to Simon Taylor, founder of Global Digital Finance, about the importance of building a knowledge base and setting best practices for the crypto industry. (Ryan is an advisory board member, and Messari is a big supporter.)  (17 min for your evening commute.)
Listen and subscribe to all of our podcastsâ on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here, and Google play here.
đ Messariâs weekend reads:
5 crypto-native indicators to enrich your market cycle analysis -Â Felipe GaĂșcho Pereira
Bitcoinâs Existential Crisis - Nic Carter
Morality of the Future - Hal Finney
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs): The Class of 2017, one year later - EY
Introducing Continuous Organizations - Thibauld Favre
Dispelling Myths about Ethereumâs Disk Space - Jonathan Otto
Fireside chat - Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Naval Ravikant
Did we miss a topic our broader community should know about? Let us know!
Have a good weekend, yâall.
- The Messari Team
P.S. Share. Subscribe. Tweet at Messari for feedback, comments, or questions.
P.P.S We so appreciate you for being a subscriber and reading our daily newsletter. Please let us know how we can do better by taking the survey here. Thank you!
News & Analyses
Messari Compression Algorithm
Content and thoughts from around the web as summarized by the Messari team.
đ„ [Analysis] Infura: defeating the point of blockchain? â Alison Berreman
Alison Berreman argues that the whole promise of Ethereum is that it offers secure, decentralized, p2p transactions ; however, ConsenSys spoke Infura has become a potential single source of failure and is raising concerns in the Ethereum community. Since it is difficult to run a full archival node, most dApp users and developers are using Infura, whose blockchain infrastructure has become ubiquitous. An Infura security breach could have catastrophic effects to the entire Ethereum network and dApp ecosystem. Infura is solid, but alternatives need to be built. (Messari | Source)
đ [Analysis] Blockchain archipelagos â Tony Sheng
The problem with todayâs digital archipelagos is that theyâre constructed upon the rulesets of the few companies that own the internet. These behemoths keep users inside their walled communities, where sub-communities can form but are often fragile. On the other hand, the ideology of public-blockchain-based systems is free and open. These networks can resist the influence of external political pressures, so even if blockchain networks don't become mainstream, they are a net positive for creating free and open communities. (Messari | Source)
Quick Bits (Don't read that, I read it for you)
Choke Points (Exchange News)
đ± Crypto exchange Poloniex eliminated trading fees for the stablecoin, USD Coin, on its platform to boost volume. Poloniex was acquired in February by Circle, which launched USDC earlier this year. (Messari | Source)
âïž Coinbase announced support for the Ethereum-based Basic Attention Token on Coinbase.com and related mobile applications starting Thursday. However, it will not be available for residents of New York initially. (Messari | Source)
Startup Signals (ICOs, Cryptos, and Startups)
đ Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has launched a new division called Binance Research, which will release in-depth reports detailing specific cryptocurrency projects, similar to what Messari is doing with Agora. Two reports on Loom Network and GoChain have already been released. (Messari | Source)
â BTCCÂ is shutting down its mining pool business, BTCC Pool Limited, after four years in operation. It will shut down all mining servers on Nov. 15 and will cease operations indefinitely from Nov. 30. (Messari | Source)
The Powers That Be (Legal/Reg/Policy)
đžÂ The total amount of Bitcoin seized or confiscated by the U.S. has reached nearly 453,000, about 2.6 percent of the total circulating supply. Of that amount, 85.6 percent came from just two cases â Silk Road and SELEC, most of which has been sold at auction. (Messari | Source)
âïžÂ The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced settled charges of operating an unlicensed exchange against Zachary Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta, a digital token trading platform. Without admitting or denying the findings, Coburn consented to the order and agreed to pay $388,000 in total. (Messari | Source)
Did I miss something?
Send me the link, your twitter handle and your best imitation compression algorithm write up. If I like it, Iâll include your bit next issue (with attribution).
Podcast Recap
đ§ ICYMI last week, Katherine was at DevCon in Prague and chats with Erik Voorhees (Founder & CEO, Shapeshift) about the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper. Later, Ari Paul (CIO, Blocktower Capital) shares what he is excited about and what he wants to learn more about in the crypto space. (8 minutes long for your evening commute.)
Listen and subscribeâ on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here, and Google play here.
Some other great episodes are #11 (Samson Mow on sidechains), #10 (Spencer Bogart on fund performance and tokenization), #9 (Tony Sheng on his writing process), #6 (Jake Chervinskyâs primer on federal & state crypto regulators), #4 (Nic Carter on data integrity in crypto), and #8 (Conversations on the ground at CryptoSprings).
Find our entire podcast series on Apple here, Google Play here, and Spotify 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, Weâve made a Trello board to take in any and all of the feedback you have for us! Have at it đ
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, weâd love to have you on board! Take a second to fill out an application and we will get back to you soon.
Going forward, weâll be capping new members at 15 each week to keep things running smoothly. If you havenât heard back, you are probably in the queue.
Like what you read? Share it! Hate what you read? Let me know @MessariCrypto.