Essays on Expedition, 1

Everything I’ve wanted to write but haven’t (yet)

Essay — Everything I’ve Wanted to Write

4900, 7500, 8200 — these were the readership numbers for some of Topl’s blog posts in 2017. Back when Topl was barely more than an idea, we blogged a lot. My team and I used the blogging process to introduce and refine some of the novel ideas that were driving us. Putting ideas to paper helped us capture some of our big ideas, and sometimes led us to new perspectives. We published our early thoughts on stablecoins, discussed the application of prediction markets to innovative finance, and even launched a tirade about the flaws of the Solidity programming language.

These early blogs were crucial in helping us understand our own ideas, and even led to some of our most important partnerships we’ve formed to date: I believe we need to get back in the habit. There are so many topics and things we’re working on that are without a doubt even more exciting than what we were writing more than a year ago. But unfortunately the endless tasks, travel, and time commitment of running and growing Topl naturally pushed blogging to a back-burner.

I travel a lot; in the first few months of 2019 alone, I will have traveled at least once to Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, London, Tunis, New York City, Austin, and Houston. While These trips are crucial to connect with our partners and those looking to leverage the Topl Protocol, but so far I haven’t found a great productive use for the actual travel time.

So here’s what I’m going to do:

Travel time is now going to be writing time. My goal is to marry each trip I take — an expedition — with a blog post — the essay. This way I can share how Topl is progressing, who we’re looking forward to working with, and get back to putting pen to paper to share some of the ideas driving our strategy and architecture. Over the coming months you can expect to see posts detailing:

• Things I’ve learned as a 25 year old CEO who never expected to be an entrepreneur;
• The evolution of our thinking on decentralization — and how achieving it in the long term might mean sacrificing it in the short;
• A primer on our awesome (seriously it’s pretty cool!) new stablecoin;
• And anything else that might come up!

Expedition — Amsterdam and London

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but while living in Europe I’ve developed a bit of a fascination with Brexit. Maybe it’s the political drama and high stakes, or the collision of legitimate criticism of one of the largest bureaucracies in the world and negative nationalism. Maybe it’s just nice to follow something other than my own head of state’s latest tweet. Still, I was eager to travel to the UK and see if I would notice any real world effects of the political mayhem yet.

The answer to this query — at least from a foreigner in town for less than 24 hours — was a resounding no. But my trip to the UK was extremely productive in far more productive and positive ways. I was privileged to spend the afternoon with Falcon Coffees, who are bringing a truly inspiring level of sustainability, inclusivity, and transparency to their industry. These conversations immediately followed a meeting with a group in Amsterdam developing cacao juice, an industry that allows cacao farmers supplement their income by capturing value from what has previously been considered waste. And no — it’s not just chocolate milk. Having both of these conversations in less than 48 hours has left me in seat 12F, extremely excited about the future of agricultural sustainability and inclusion — and especially what it all means for Topl.

As always thank you for taking the time to read, and if you haven’t already done so follow us here on Medium and everywhere else so you can keep up with our latest news and ideas. If you like the idea of using new technology and economics to make a more sustainable and inclusive economy, then write a comment or send us an at info@topl.me. We’d love to hear from you!