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Missing out? This week our subscribers got a look into Uniswap and how it compares to other DEXs as well as some thoughts on crypto efforts from Facebook and Telegram (plus the most bullish chart on Bitcoin that TBI has ever seen).
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Finding a good product-market fit is one of the most common struggles for crypto-preneurs, but some projects reach theirs. Earlier today, Ryan identified a handful of protocols that have (or nearly have) done so: $BTC, $ETH, $MKR, $BNB, and $LTC. (Dan wasn’t thrilled about that last one.)
One good take wasn’t enough though. Ryan needed to take a page out of Zack’s “bad takes” playbook and floated the idea that Bitcoin’s capped supply doesn’t matter because, as John Maynard Keynes put it: “We’ll all be dead.” (At least it’s Friday!)
Please pile on to Ryan’s takes on Twitter and afterward enjoy these top-notch reads we’ve collected for your weekend. Cheers!
- The Messari Team
📚 Messari’s weekend reads:
An Introduction to Blockchain Finality - Raul Jordan
The Digital Trinity: Technology, Markets, and Policy - Christopher Giancarlo
Overcoming Disagreement - Hal Finney
Blockchains are not companies - Dean Eigenmann
Status as a Service (StaaS) - Eugene Wei
Zether: Towards Privacy in a Smart Contract World - Benedikt Bunz, et al.
A Human Rights Activist’s Response to Bitcoin Critics - Alex Gladstein
What Happens When Bitcoin Takes Over - Andreas Antonopoulos
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Messari Compression Algorithm
Content and thoughts from around the web as summarized by the Messari team.
💣 [Analysis] Bitcoin Has a Branding Problem — It’s Evolution, Not Revolution - Ryan Radloff
CoinShares CEO Ryan Radloff opines on the potential negative effects of radical anarchy enthusiasm propagated by many Bitcoin investors. Also, he examines the default human condition of trending toward convenience and dependence on intermediaries instead of radical independence and autonomy. Radloff also views the trend from physical to "digital" over the last few decades, locating Bitcoin's place in this progression. Ultimately, he exhorts Bitcoin enthusiasts to "do us all a favor" by stop "screaming anarchy and revolution", and instead to focus on Bitcoin as the next phase of monetary and financial evolution, which could considerably expedite mainstream adoption. (share or read more)
✍🏽 [Analysis] The Constitution Protects Software Developers and Users - Coin Center
In a comprehensive report from Coin Center on constitutional law and anonymous cryptocurrencies, Peter Van Valkenburgh explains why the evolution in payment and currency technologies toward anonymous financial infrastructure could easily trigger significantly more aggressive financial surveillance policies from lawmakers and how this response would be flatly unconstitutional. Regulating cryptocurrency software developers under the Bank Secrecy Act, for example, would be unconstitutional under Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless search and seizure. Regulating cryptocurrency software developers, moreover, via rigid occupational licensing or compelling alterations (e.g. backdoors) would violate Fourth Amendment protections for speech. (share or read more)
Quick Bits (Don't read that, I read it for you)
Choke Points (Exchange News)
🐂 eToro has launched its cryptocurrency trading services in the United States, according to a company press release. The social investing platform has already registered 10 million total users and will start trading 13 yet-to-be named digital assets in addition to offering a multi-sig cryptocurrency wallet to customers in 31 U.S. states. (share or read more)
🎬 Kraken, one of the largest digital asset exchanges in the U.S., announced its hiring of Matt Mason as the first chief marketing officer. According to Kraken, Mason started his professional career as a “pirate radio and club DJ in London”, subsequently working at companies like Warner Music, Saatchi & Saatchi, Mediacom, and an “innovation lab” in Los Angeles funded by Sony Pictures. (share or read more)
Startup Signals (ICOs, Cryptos, and Startups)
☕️ According to previous reporting form The Block, Starbucks agreed to install Bakkt software to allow coffee purchases with bitcoin. But these crypto-for-coffee transactions could be incredibly burdensome under existing tax regulations, says James Foust, senior research fellow at Coin Center. Neeraj Agrawal also notes that anyone who buys coffee at Starbucks with crypto "you will be required to calculate capital gains on every cup of coffee you buy". (share or read more)
⏲️ Tom Jessop, President of Fidelity Digital Assets (FDAS), said that the firm will take its time adding support for Ethereum ($ETH) in context of the protocol's fork, adding that their framework looks for, among other things, “peculiarities about the protocol” that would make listing a digital asset abnormally difficult. FDAS does have plans for listing more assets though, and Jessop said they "will probably go in market cap order". (share or read more)
The Powers That Be (Legal/Reg/Policy)
😅 Canada’s tax agency is reportedly sending questionnaires to digital asset investors and traders probing their crypto activities over the past decade as part of an effort to more strictly monitor and regulate cryptocurrency investors in the country. Canada is not the first country to launch such a probe, and it certainly won't be the last as retail and institutional interest in digital assets continues to accelerate. (share or read more)
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).
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