As we move into 2023, our first year since early 2020 with almost no restrictions on travel and mask mandates globally, I wanted to take a moment to appreciate what the pandemic has done for me and perhaps broadly for us as a society. …

What crazy things will people do to combat rising temperatures? A book suggestion for the holidays Termination Shock is the latest addition to Neal Stephenson’s oeuvre of futuristic escapades. The centerpiece of the book is climate politics, with a strong dose of Great Man Theory. If a climate change novel…

Adventures in going crosschain with LayerZero’s Stargate DEX and Axelar’s Satellite bridge Preamble: I have been studying crosschain systems and came across ZetaChain during my research. ZetaChain, a new L1 blockchain built for omninchain interoperability, commissioned me to do a review of popular crosschain solutions to better understand the state…

Security suggestions for Devcon in Bogota ===== HELLO PARANOID FRIENDS For those of you who thought twice about going to Bogota for Devcon due to security concerns, and then decided to go anyway, this is written for you. …

I *really* enjoyed the MasterClass series by Madeleine K. Albright (RIP) and Condoleezza Rice It’s labeled a course in #diplomacy, but really it’s about #leadership, highstakes decision-making, and being a trailblazing woman https://www.masterclass.com/classes/madeleine-albright-and-condoleezza-rice-teach-diplomacy Some top takeaways 👇🧵 ======================================== Leadership is: 1) having vision — what future are you all working…

In July, some friends and I spoke on a panel at Hope.net, the biennial hacker conference held by the underground-computing magazine 2600 that began in 1994. The title of our panel was “Plausible Deniability and Cryptocurrency Privacy.” …

Groking DeFi mechanics by modeling in Excel Overview I wanted to dig into synthetic assets on DeFi and landed on Synthetix, unsurprisingly. While not new today (January 2022), it’s an interesting primitive to explore due to its complexity. Synthetic assets provide benefits like avoiding significant slippage on AMM-based DEXes when you…

A tongue-in-cheek take on a day in the life of a woman in crypto, with blunt takes for people who care about gender diversity. Fundraising call: Engineering call:

A proposed structure by Andreessen Horowitz I’ve followed developments in DAO-world through headlines and tweetstorms, but as I don’t operate a DAO treasury, the legal/tax issues related to operating one have been opaque to me. In October, a16z published a proposed legal framework for DAOs, attempting to illuminate a path…