Negative Externalities, Incentive Re-Engineering, and the Perennial Perils of Decentralized Systems — Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Introduction MEV, or Maximal Extractable Value, is a uniquely DeFi phenomenon that emerges as a byproduct of blockchain design. At its core, MEV is simply an instance of profit-maximizing behavior, whereby the validators that operate a blockchain seek to maximize their profit on their task…

Exploring the Coalescing of Narratives in Liquid Staking Derivatives, the Shanghai Upgrade, Eigenlayer, and Beyond — Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Key Takeaways “Multi-dip staking” refers to earning multiple yields on a single staked principal (such as ETH) Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs) are the oldest and most mature form of multi-dip staking, using IOUs to allow for “double-dipping” in DeFi of staked assets and increase capital efficiency…

An Exploration of the Different Conceptions and Approaches to Privacy in Web3 — Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Introduction For Web3, privacy is the elephant in the room. It is at once crypto’s biggest selling point, going hand in hand with the principles of decentralization, anonymity, and trustlessness, and its biggest pain point, with excruciating KYCs, easily trackable PII, and an ever-suspicious gaze…

Technologies and Implications of Appchains Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Introduction Ethereum is great — for most people at least. But one of the key problems of Ethereum and other public-facing blockchains is that there’s not that much customizability. Sure, you can write and deploy smart contracts, but as a…

Catalyzing Education, Inspiration, and Iteration Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Introduction Like many others, my mind was absolutely blown away by ChatGPT’s capabilities. Though I had played with GPT-3’s playground API before, and have written about newer image models such as DALLE 2 before, I was not prepared for the…

How zk-ASM may deliver a secure and trustless Internet Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Note: This article is a fairly technically-dense piece, and assumes basic conceptual familiarity with zk-Proofs and/or zk-Rollups. A more general introduction to these principles can be found here. Introduction Zero Knowledge Proofs, in particular zk-SNARKs (Succinct…

Post FTX: How can you trust a CEX? — Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Introduction The past few weeks have been a mess in the world of crypto. With FTX’s collapse, there has been an industry-wide reckoning, calling for centralized exchanges to prove that they hold user funds — a so-called “Proof-of-Reserves.” …

An Overview of Crypto Insurance DeFi Security In October, the security of on-chain assets regained much attention since well-known protocols such as BNB Cross Chain Bridge, OmniX NFT Platform, and Team Finance were getting hacked. It seems that the endless hacking attacks in crypto have long been commonplace. Early this year, Chainalysis…

A Critical Analysis of Sui — Web3.com Ventures Original Research Analysis 0xFishylosopher Introduction The Sui blockchain is one of the major new L1 projects utilizing the Move language, and has gathered major media and capital attention in its technological developments [1]. Compared with many other new L1 blockchains, particularly with Aptos, Sui boasts a whole set of…