Messari’s Unqualified Opinions

TL;DR:

• First day back from a brief paternity leave, and last day of my dereliction of above-the-fold duty for these Monday missives. I’ve got a piece on the history of accounting (it’s actually interesting), as well as some technical posts I’ve been iterating on in the weeks ahead. (I’ve already started angry writing my 96 theses for 2019, too.) Besides, that, there is lots more coming out from our broader team this month, but stay tuned for more features tomorrow.

• Since I just wrapped up an amazing week (mostly) off, but didn’t have time to do final edits for today’s feature, I wanted to instead share two of my favorite posts from Tim Urban, the world’s actual best blogger. Both posts put things in perspective in a way only Tim can.

• Your life in weeks. This is one reason why I end every Monday all hands with the phrase “this is the most important week at the company.”

• The tail end. Many of our deepest relationships are already at their “tail end.” Make them count.

• Back to regularly scheduled features tomorrow.

If there’s anything you want to see covered as a feature that we haven’t explored yet, let us know! We’re always looking for good new ideas.

- TBI

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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:

Staking as a Service- Arianna Simpson
(h/t Token Daily)

Arianna muses about the boom in “staking as a service” business model as the trend towards “Proof of Stake” systems continues to proliferate. This is likely due to the fact most individuals and funds don’t want to manage the day-to-day complexity of staking, and are willing to take a haircut on their staking income if they can outsource the process. There will be significant margin for these new SaaS providers, but that might be temporary: we’ll see plenty of competition amongst staking providers, margin compression due to increased staking participation, and competition from custodians.

On Cryptocurrency Communities- Nick Tomaino
(h/t NLW)

Nick writes that community is the most important characteristic of any cryptocurrency, and says most projects are underestimating the importance of community. In the crypto world, users and stakeholders are very much one and the same; and users actually care a lot about the leadership, ownership, governance and execution of the project because their financial incentives are tied to the use of the product. Nick points to Bitcoin as an example and highlights Satoshi’s skill for communication and community building. (Bonus: an entire section about how “a good meme” can be an incredibly effective way to build an initial community.) Ultimately, the approach to community should be just as important as the approach to product.

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword? - Erik Voorhees
(h/t Coindesk Weekly)

On the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin white paper, Erik writes a thought-provoking piece about Bitcoin and its design for what would become the foundation of the world's future monetary and economic systems. Erik calls out the “delusions” of fiat currency (and central bankers) and explains how Bitcoin exists to separate the essence of value from the control of any particular person or group of people. Despite frequent condemnation by “professionals”, Erik says Bitcoin stands as proof that money can emerge through decentralized market forces, with no institutional prerequisite…no fiat diktat. In the end, “[Bitcoin] must be considered, at minimum, one of the most fascinating human phenomena ever witnessed.”


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 last week, Katherine was at DevCon in Prague and chats with Erik Vorhees (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 subscribe— 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 proecess), #6 (Jake Chervinsky’s primer on federal & State crypto regulators), #4 (Nic Carter on data integrity in crypto), and #8 (Conversations on the ground at CryptoSprings).

Find our podcast series on Apple here, Google Play here, and Spotify here.

Shameless Plugs

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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 also want your opinions on how this newsletter can be improved. Give us your thoughts here!

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