A bright spot in an otherwise bad year — It’s undeniable that momentum around cryptographic Proofs of Reserve is gathering. This is a genuine silver lining from the FTX debacle. We may well yet emerge from this crisis with a major step forward in exchange credibility. But there remains a huge amount of confusion around Proofs of Reserve, and…

As part of President Biden’s executive order, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) conducted a study into the climate impacts of crypto mining. You can find it here. I have annotated the study in full. …

Why utility is the hottest trend in NFTs — You get a push notification. Your favorite designer is releasing a new limited-edition pair of sneakers. No need to worry about waiting in line, clicking furiously to catch the drop on a buggy website, or dealing with scalpers. You cryptographically, provably own two items from this designer already, so your…

Or: a eulogy for bitcoin maximalism — So yesterday I was the subject of controversy on Bitcoin Twitter over my firm Castle Island’s investment in Dynamic, a wallet-based sign on company. This was quite surprising to me. I figured that people knew what it was that I did for a living. There is nothing on the face…

How the NYT wields junk science in their attacks on Bitcoin — I want to thank the formerly eminent New York Times. I read their latest article on Bitcoin at 5:30 am this morning and I was immediately jolted into a state of alertness — no coffee needed. Their latest missive on Bitcoin’s climate footprint is so poorly-researched that once I read…

A response to Noah Smith — The Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith has a lot of thoughts on Bitcoin. Some of them are really solid and engage with the reality of the protocol itself, which is rare for a member of the mainstream media circuit. He also discloses that he owns Bitcoin, which is impressive for an…

An excellent account of a revealing epoch in Bitcoin’s history — Sometimes a text comes along that you feel a powerful obligation to read. Jonny Bier’s The Blocksize War ($22 for the paperback on Amazon) is one such book. Bier is the rarely-seen face of BitMEX Research, arguably the most insightful research desk in the industry. BitMEX Research consistently produces original…

A disambiguation — I keep seeing the pro-NFT crowd complain about Bitcoiners “not getting it.” Bitcoiners are to NFTs as nocoiners are to Bitcoin, the saying goes. The argument is an endless circle: “How can you not see the value of digital scarcity? You’re a bitcoiner!” This is invariably met with the retort…

A few years ago, I realized that I was writing for myself rather than others. As a kid, I had a bit of a reputation as a writer, having written short fiction stories from a young age. These were mostly rip-offs of books I was reading at the time. From…