PinnedValuing Bitcoin and EthSome ways to think about pricing BTC and ETH — Summary A “market” allocation to crypto would be about 0.1% of net worth. Above that and you’re bullish on crypto. High Bitcoin holdings (e.g. 10–20%) imply even higher (e.g. 50%+) confidence in Bitcoin reaching the valuation of gold. …Bitcoin7 min read
PinnedFARMers losing sight of selling shovelsThis post is kept up to date here. Summary: We are in the growth stage of DeFi where new protocols are showering participants, and themselves, with governance tokens. Rewards from one protocol are re-invested in another protocol to earn more rewards, and so on. The system is multi-layered. The value…Defi8 min read
1 day agoWhat is the safest dollar-backed stablecoin?Tether Tether is backed by a very wide range of securities, and isn’t subject to US regulations as it is domiciled abroad: You can read the latest (March 2022) report here. It’s pretty flexible what Tether hold as collateral, which allows them to earn profits, but to earn profits one…3 min read
2 days agoSaturday Reading and Listening(Very technical) Issues with Bitcoin Lightning by Shinobi. Payments with lightning are quick and cheap, but traction seems weak (value locked is only in the hundreds of millions). The biggest issue I see is that Bitcoin as a currency is too volatile to use for payments, which is not uniquely…2 min read
5 days agoL1 opportunities emerging from this crypto crashA market crash focuses organisations to revisit their mission. The point of a blockchain is to offer an open platform that is always-on, always secure, and that one person (or small number of people) cannot control. …3 min read
6 days agoStablecoin Spotlight on Liquity USD (LUSD)Summary: — LUSD is a simpler version of DAI and can only be collateralised by Ether, not by USD or WBTC or anything else LUSD just has one standardized offering, with liquidation thresholds at 110% and 150% collateralisation A note on smart contract security LUSD is a simpler version of DAI DAI is a crypto backed stablecoin issued by…3 min read
May 16Which blockchain is cheapest and safest?Summary — Bitcoin is likely best today Arbitrum and Optimism are perhaps next Outlook Bitcoin is likely best today “Cheap” is relative, but with transaction fees of $10 and above I don’t consider Ethereum to be cheap, although I think it is quite secure. Today, Bitcoin is the cheapest and most secure blockchain: It’s not really cheap…3 min read
May 15Concerns about EthereumSummary: — PoS is suffering from greenwashing PoS Ethereum looks like it may be very centralised There’s a big opportunity for alternate L1s PoS is suffering from greenwashing The over-simplified argument in crypto is that Bitcoin is bad for the environment because it uses so much energy, and that proof of stake (whether via the Ethereum Beacon…3 min read
May 15Blockstream’s Solar Bitcoin Project seems UneconomicSummary: Blockstream and Block (formerly Square) and Tesla have partnered to build a Bitcoin mining facility powered solely by solar plus batteries. Bitcoin miners compete based on their energy costs, and new mining projects target energy costs of less than $0.03/kWh. Based on 12 MWh of batteries, 3.8 MW of…2 min read
Published in Coinmonks·Mar 4How many people really use DeFi?Hype or HODL? SWIFT is not what you think it is. Plus! Off-topic: Catch the Wave — Howdy, it’s Pinotio from Pinotio.com! This week I spent some time digging into how many users actually make use of DeFi — and I’ll share some cool charts right here in this post. …Ethereum4 min read
