Making Markets

Today, we are re-sharing our conversation with Devin Finzer, CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, from October this year.

OpenSea is the world’s largest NFT marketplace. In a journey that started like many other founders in the space, Devin went deep down the crypto rabbit hole in 2017 and became particularly fascinated with the potential behind digital assets. During our conversation, we touch on the origin story of OpenSea, how Devin differentiates between the spectrum of NFTs in the market, and what he sees as the opportunity in the future for the industry. We also talk about the various risks within a blockchain, from security dynamics to market speculation. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with Devin Finzer.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Robinhood, Marqeta, Grab, and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.

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This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep's new Pod Pro Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at your perfect temperature. Simply add the Pod Pro Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. To embrace the future of sleep and get $150 off your new mattress go to eightsleep.com/patrick or use code "Patrick".

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag 

Show Notes

[00:02:56] - [First question] - When he first thought up the genesis of OpenSea

[00:06:00] - What is listed on OpenSea, assets and volume, and the scope of the platform

[00:07:26] - Thoughts on potentially becoming the current era “everything store”

[00:09:22] - How they managed to become the main NFT trading platform

[00:12:28] - What NFTs are, their various classes, and ways they’re stored on the blockchain

[00:15:25] - How much transaction and auction volume happens on-chain

[00:17:07] - Profile picture style NFTs and what’s exciting about them

[00:19:24] - ArtBlocks and the mass interest in AI-generated art

[00:21:22] - What he’s learned and seen about the emerging crypto gaming space

[00:24:38] - The user experience of buying an NFT on OpenSea

[00:26:45] - How the ownership transfer works between wallets

[00:28:04] - Whether or not they have plans to partner with other companies

[00:30:32] - How they think about what gets placed on OpenSea and why

[00:32:09] - Thoughts on take rate and their 2.5% take rate of transactions

[00:33:22] - Why their take rate is so low compared to other sale platforms online

[00:34:47] - OpenSea’s relationship with the Ethereum blockchain and other integrations

[00:36:50] - Perspective on wallets both as businesses and products

[00:39:16] - Potential risks and the dark side of the unregulated NFT space

[00:40:48] - The massive boom and bust cycles of crypto and the high prices of NFTs

[00:41:59] - Interesting areas of Web3 that are in development today

[00:44:19] - The project he’s enjoyed watching grow the most in the crypto world

[00:46:42] - What OpenSea might look like in the future if the best-case proves true

[00:48:59] - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for him

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Today, we are re-sharing our conversation with Jason Citron, CEO and founder of Discord, from October last year.

Discord is one of the largest and fastest growing social networks in the world. It started as a place for gamers to congregate online, but thanks to how easy it makes community building and its offering of text, audio, and video as means of communication, it has expanded far beyond gaming. It has the potential to become the default digital “third place” that we go to find belonging in a variety of online communities. With over 100 million active monthly users, it’s also one of the most interesting communication services since the original social networks rose to power.

Our conversation focuses on his background prior to Discord, Discord’s founding and growth, its business model, how it has evolved over the past 8 years, and what the future holds for Discord. As we talked, I had this sense that I’d be willing to go work for Jason, and I think you’ll see why. I hope you enjoy our wide ranging conversation.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out. 

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This episode is also sponsored by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick. 

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag 

Show Notes

(3:17) – (First question) – Lessons from his time as a video game developer

(7:58) – Going from game developer to game development platform

(12:23) – From his first startup to Discord

(16:33) – Expressing the hypothesis of discord

(20:10) – How to know what signal to build upon

(22:11) – Early adoption of Discord

(26:17) – Getting the word out about Discord in the early days

(30:43) – Creating more than just a platform, but creating a third place for people to congregate

(32:38) – The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community

(32:55) – The evolution and expansion of the types of community using their platform

(37:27) – Discord’s business model and how it’s evolved

(41:32) – Enhancing communication through Nitro

(45:05) – Big principles for company building at Discord

(51:22) – His thoughts around competitive advantage for the platform

(52:55) – Creating a holistic experience for the users

(55:45) – What bothers him the most when hiring

(57:47) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

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Today, we are breaking down DAOs. Our new host Eric Golden is joined by Aaron Wright, a law professor at Cardozo School of Law and founder of Tribute Labs, who literally wrote the book on Blockchain and the Law. There is no better person than Aaron to help explain the purpose and power of decentralized autonomous organizations, also known as DAOs.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag 

Show Notes

[00:01:39] - [First question] - How a lawyer ends up in crypto and early thoughts of what a DAO could achieve

[00:05:09] - Why the first DAO failed and what convinced him to push forward anyway

[00:08:28] - Forming the LAO several years after Ethereum and why it was his starting point

[00:11:46] - The original state of LAO and the goals it set out to achieve

[00:14:21] - What it is about Silicon Valley that led to having such a blindspot

[00:16:03] - Launching Flamingo and achieving such high multiples on returns

[00:18:05] - Defining the hive-mind that makes a DAO so special and powerful

[00:20:51] - Their investment process, making decisions, and monitoring investments

[00:22:47] - Comparing the speed of decision making to traditional VC funds

[00:24:18] - Why they own 242 crypto punks and 22 bored apes 

[00:26:31] - Internal voting on how to decide which NFTs to buy and how many

[00:29:15] - Whether or not they sell their NFTs to rebalance the portfolio or raise liquidity

[00:30:56] - How Rage Quitting a DAO works and the implications of leaving 

[00:32:12] - Encoding incentives and course-correcting negative behavior

[00:34:11] - Varying levels of dedication and freeloading within a DAO 

[00:36:36] - A maximum amount of people that could function efficiently in a DAO

[00:37:52] - How many DAOs should one person be a part of?

[00:38:45] - Thoughts on DeFi DAOs like Compound and Uniswap

[00:41:41] - Differences between a DAO and a Wrapped DAO

[00:44:02] - Is it possible to achieve this level of organization with fiat currencies?

[00:45:34] - Where we are in regards to securities laws and regulations with DAOs

[00:47:48] - How far we are from buying tokenized shares of DAOs

[00:49:07] - Where to start when building your own DAO

[00:51:03] - Other possibilities DAOs could unlock

[00:52:30] - The best way to get involved yourself 

[00:53:41] - What he’s most focused on building over the next 6 months and 10 years 

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Today we are re-sharing our September Breakdown on Solana with Kyle Samani.

Founded in 2017 by an ex-wireless engineer from Qualcomm, Solana is a layer one blockchain like Bitcoin and Ethereum that has been built to process transactions as quickly and cheaply as possible. Where Bitcoin can process about ten transactions per second and Ethereum around 30, Solana can handle over 60,000 transactions per second, and it can do so at a fraction of the cost. Unsurprisingly, Solana’s network has attracted huge interest from developers, users, and investors alike over the last year.

In this breakdown, we cover the killer app for decentralized ledgers, the history of on-chain transaction speeds, and the fundamental difference between software and blockchain technology. We then delve into the architecture that has enabled Solana’s speed unlock and look at the platform’s potential to become a huge piece of the world’s financial infrastructure. To help me break down Solana, I’m joined by Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner at Multicoin Capital.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. We created Business Breakdowns to uncover the lessons and frameworks behind every business, and that's what makes Tegus our perfect launch partner. Much of the foundational prep for these episodes starts with research on the Tegus platform.

With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 20,000 calls on Coinbase, Hinge Health, Farfetch, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. If you're ready to go deeper on any company and you appreciate the value of primary research, head to tegus.co/breakdowns for a free trial.

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:02:49] - [First question] - How Kyle views the opportunity set of blockchain technology  

[00:06:37] - The evolution of transactions-per-second from Bitcoin to new cryptocurrencies

[00:13:43] - Why does decentralized finance matter versus centralized finance

[00:18:34] - What is Solana and the scope and scale of it today

[00:20:31] - Reintroducing costs with DeFi software compared to prior zero marginal costs

[00:24:13] - How to go from 30 transactions a second to 30,000 and make the system work

[00:31:03] - What about Solana’s design code allows it to take advantage of parallelism

[00:33:05] - Differences between proof of history and proof of work

[00:39:05] - The tokenomics of Solana, their distribution setup, and what owning SOL offers

[00:46:24] - What Solana’s blockchain will enable for application development

[00:55:15] - The emerging adoption and creation of social tokens  

[00:57:40] - Thoughts on regulation and security in regards to Solana

[00:59:41] - Competition that Solana may face and layer one blockchains in general

[01:04:54] - What has him most excited about Solana and the landscape writ large

[01:08:11] - Lessons for builders and investors when studying the Solana story

[01:11:23] - Leaning into your differences and the team behind the project 

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Today we are re-sharing our Business Breakdown from September 2021 on Axie Infinity and its creator, Sky Mavis.

Sky Mavis is the company behind the NFT-based game, Axie Infinity. Built by a team with a long history in gaming, Axie Infinity was launched in 2018 with the idea that a blockchain-based “play-to-earn” model could create more aligned incentives between game creators and game players long-term.

Axie is one of the most incredible examples of speed-to-scale I’ve seen, with the game reporting $100,000 of revenue in January, over $190,000,000 of revenue in July, and over $360,000,000 in August.

In this breakdown, we cover the basics of Axie and how gameplay is similar to classics such as Pokemon. We dive into the economic model, how Sky Mavis generates revenue, how players earn money, and how this is all enabled by the blockchain. We discuss the importance of gameplay vs. the economic ecosystem and examine the sustainability of Axie from various angles.

To help break down Sky Mavis, Patrick O’Shaughnessy is joined by Aleksander Larsen, co-founder of Sky Mavis, and Stephen McKeon, Partner at Collab+Currency, an early investor in Sky Mavis.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. We created Business Breakdowns to uncover the lessons and frameworks behind every business, and that's what makes Tegus our perfect launch partner. Much of the foundational prep for these episodes starts with research on the Tegus platform. With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 20,000 calls on Coinbase, Hinge Health, Farfetch, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. If you're ready to go deeper on any company and you appreciate the value of primary research, head to tegus.co/breakdowns for a free trial.

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:00] - [First question] - How many people are playing Axie and how quickly it’s grown

[00:04:03] - What play-to-earn means and how money flows through a digital ecosystem

[00:05:03] - A basic overview of the user experience of playing Axie Infinity 

[00:07:23] - What an Axie is, its features, how they’re generated, and how many exist

[00:09:32] - Monster NFTs and the fungible SLP in-game currency

[00:15:00] - Converting the SLP to fiat currency and how low-friction the process is

[00:16:40] - Are people actually playing the game or just speculating on the game’s assets

[00:23:14] - The AXS governance token, how to earn it, and what it enables for token holders

[00:27:08] - What the opportunity set looks like for Axie from an investor standpoint

[00:33:29] - Mystic Axie and what they are generally worth today

[00:34:42] - How much the community will have to expand and build on top of the game

[00:38:48] - Overview of the plots of land in the Axie metaverse and what they might unlock 

[00:41:57] - What a sidechain is and how the Ronin wallet works 

[00:48:53] - Defining a bridge and how it differs from an exchange

[00:50:24] - Lessons learned about good tokenomics and token design 

[00:55:04] - The biggest potential risks to the future of Axie Infinity and its growing popularity 

[00:57:13] - What an ideal future looks like for the metaverse and Axie infinity

[01:04:03] - Asset ownership inversion and how big this could become in the future

[01:09:19] - Where you can go to learn more about Axie and dabble in the game

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Today we are re-sharing our Business Breakdown on Ethereum. This episode was originally released in May 2021 and became the inspiration for Web3 Breakdowns.

Launched in 2015, Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based platform with a native cryptocurrency, Ether. Today, ETH stands as the second most valuable cryptocurrency to Bitcoin, and Ethereum is the preferred platform for blockchain projects.

To help me break down Ethereum, I am joined by Justin Drake. Justin is a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. During our conversation, we cover what differentiates Ethereum from Bitcoin, the increasing number of projects being built on the Ethereum platform, and what a shift from proof of concept to proof of stake means for Ethereum. I particularly enjoy Justin’s framework for defining money and various analogies to better conceptualize the blockchain. I hope you enjoy this breakdown of Ethereum.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Tegus. We created Business Breakdowns to uncover the lessons and frameworks behind every business, and that's what makes Tegus our perfect launch partner. Much of the foundational prep for these episodes starts with research on the Tegus platform. 

With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 20,000 calls on Coinbase, Hinge Health, Farfetch, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. If you're ready to go deeper on any company and you appreciate the value of primary research, head to tegus.co/breakdowns for a free trial.

-----

Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:02] - [First question] - What a blockchain is on a fundamental level

[00:04:36] - A core overview of Bitcoin and the Bitcoin blockchain

[00:06:40] - Proof of work and why security is so important

[00:08:38] - How much miners spend to secure the network

[00:10:20] - Early days of Ethereum and what separates it from Bitcoin

[00:12:02] - Vitalik’s role in the rise of Ethereum

[00:13:14] - What can currently be built on top of the Ethereum blockchain

[00:16:28] - Gas fees and an overview of ETH as a triple point asset

[00:19:42] - What generates ETH and decides its value

[00:22:36] - Defining proof of stake, how it works, and staking incentives

[00:25:10] - Yields from staking ETH in the form of newly minted tokens and tips

[00:29:15] - Load to power ratio of the Ethereum network

[00:33:38] - Terms for staking your ETH and how much is expected to be staked

[00:39:19] - Sequence of events when using ETH to buy an NFT

[00:43:13] - Transaction fees how they’re calculated when buying and selling ETH

[00:46:11] - Pros and cons of high network demand while trying to scale the Ethereum blockchain

[00:50:41] - Defining money and why Ethereum’s design makes it optimized to become an economic engine

[00:55:11] - Defi Pulse - The Decentralized Finance Leaderboard

[00:55:47] - Ethereum’s rigorous decentralization standards and best in class proof of stake

[00:58:57] - Overview of Bitcoin Wrapped and ETH as the native currency writ large

[01:01:16] - A further in-depth analogy to better understand the Ethereum network

[01:05:19] - Potential competitors and new DeFi blockchain innovation

[01:08:27] - Key lessons for builders when studying Ethereum and decentralized finance

[01:11:03] - Bankless, Epicenter.tv, Zeroknowledge.fm, Into The Ether

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Today we are re-sharing my Invest Like the Best conversation with Jesse Walden from March 2021. 

Jesse is the founder of Variant, an early-stage venture firm investing in crypto networks and platforms building the ownership economy.

With all the hype surrounding NFTs, I wanted to talk to Jesse about them, given his background in the music industry and his focus on the creator and ownership economy. The conversation did not disappoint. We discuss the basics of what an NFT is, what new creative paradigms they might unlock, and where we are in the NFT hype cycle. I hope you enjoy this discussion with Jesse Walden.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.

With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 20,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:04:19] - [First question] - Simple definition of an NFT

[00:05:22] - What distinguishes NFTs from each other

[00:06:24] - The value chain of a song, and who owns it

[00:12:07] - Monetization and royalties on traded tokens

[00:15:02] - Consumer incentives for purchasing NFTs

[00:19:19] - Long-term passive income and media legos

[00:22:23] - Technical breakdown of minting, hosting, and storing tokens

[00:24:28] - Verification of token ownership on the blockchain

[00:25:58] - NFT marketplaces and aggregators

[00:27:06] - Opensea.io 

[00:27:21] - Foundation.app 

[00:29:46] - Innovations inspired by the NFT explosion

[00:31:01] - Mirror.xyz 

[00:32:26] - NBA Topshot

[00:32:57] - Crypto Punks

[00:23:24] - Nifty Gateway

[00:34:30] - Physical cultural assets in the digital landscape

[00:36:02] - Legacy brands exploring digital goods and tokenized ownership

[00:38:37] - NFTs becoming the port of entry of all media

[00:39:39] - An ownership economy in second generation internet platforms

[00:41:02] - Uniswap

[00:42:41] - The “hype cycle” of NFTs and incoming market correction

[00:44:18] - Lessons for investors in the NFT space

[00:45:15] - Lessons for buildings in the NFT space

[00:45:54] - Resources to continue learning about NFTs

[00:45:54] - NFTs make the internet ownable by Jesse Walden

[00:46:20] - NFTs and a thousand true fans by Chris Dixon

[00:46:13] - A beginner’s guide to NFTs by Linda Xie

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Today we are re-sharing our Invest Like the Best episode with Chris Dixon from April 2021. Chris is one of the leading minds in Web3 and a must-follow for anyone in the space.

Chris is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and a prolific investor and thinker, having been both an entrepreneur and angel investor. He is now focused on investing in the crypto and blockchain space for Andreessen. Our conversation focuses on Chris's overall thesis for investing in the cryptocurrency space, the opportunities and limitations of blockchain applications, and why this is the most interesting area for investing and building over the next ten years. What's exciting to me is blockchain technology's ability to help us re-imagine old business models and catapult them into the 21st century – and we cover a lot of them. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Chris Dixon.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.

With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 20,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.

------

Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:56] - [First question] - His overall crypto investing philosophy

[00:06:37] - New opportunities presented by blockchain technology

[00:15:31] - Permanent limitations and shortcomings of blockchains

[00:18:32] - Evolution of DeFi and crypto currencies

[00:21:11] - Whitepapers: Bitcoin, Ethereum, MakerDAO 

[00:22:08] - How to take out a loan using the Maker protocol

[00:23:22] - Utility of Dai and stablecoins

[00:29:14] - How the DeFi network will reinvent the future

[00:39:53] - Uniswap, tokens, and fundamentally redefining leverage

[00:36:29] - The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea

[00:38:00] - Developer and entrepreneurial incentives for building blockchain technology

[00:39:46] - BitClout, Rally and the early days of social tokens

[00:46:38] - Demand curve and value creation efficiency in a digital creator economy

[00:47:24] - NFTs and a Thousand True Fans

[00:54:49] - Polkadot, Solana, Cosmos and programmable blockchains

[00:58:03] - The most exciting moment for him in the last year

[01:00:19] - Decentralized autonomous organizations

[01:02:46] - The single thing that has him most excited about the future of this space

[01:05:18] - The Next Big Thing Will Start Out Looking Like a Toy

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Today, we’re breaking down Bitwise. Founded in 2017, Bitwise is known for managing the world’s largest crypto index funds with over $1.2bn in assets under management. In this breakdown, we cover the value proposition of Bitwise, how the business compares to traditional asset managers, and why there is a lack of competition today for crypto indexing. 

To help break down Bitwise, I am joined by co-founder Hunter Horsley. Hunter shares his journey with the business, key lessons launching a business within the crypto space, and some interesting data points around investor adoption of crypto. I hope you enjoy this breakdown of Bitwise.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:02:14] - [First question] - The history of Bitwise and what they do 

[00:04:29] - Some of the structures of their available funds

[00:05:47] - Why use a fund oriented structure compared to something like Coinbase

[00:07:09] - The governing investment and management philosophy of Bitwise

[00:09:07] - Are the yields distributed back to the customer?

[00:10:33] - Keys steps in a transaction chain of $1 invested in the Bitwise 10 fund

[00:12:43] - Overview of the OTC system and their trading volume currently

[00:14:12] - Cold storage, security, and his thoughts on self-custody

[00:16:12] - His thoughts on valuation and what makes a particular project worth holding

[00:19:13] - Managing the business below the topline and whether it’s similar to other asset management companies

[00:20:52] - Their sales, core customers, and go-to-market strategy

[00:22:43] - Ways advisors are using crypto and working in exposure for their clients

[00:25:25] - Lessons learned about selling to and acquiring RIAs

[00:28:40] - Being an educational company with index funds attached

[00:29:54] - Why are there seemingly no Bitwise competitors

[00:31:59] - Some crypto assets that might become index worthy in the future

[00:35:19] - Driving forces behind who will win and lose in this space

[00:36:54] - A major lesson learned while being an operator in the crypto market  

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Today we are re-sharing our Hash Power documentary. This series was originally released in September 2017 when 1 Bitcoin hovered around $4000 US Dollars. While so much has changed in the years since - these episodes are a great introduction into the technology, the power of decentralization, Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICO's, cryptography, and hashing. You will hear from a variety of industry experts throughout these episodes - please enjoy.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. 

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Original Intro (10.10.17)

In episodes one and two of Hash Power, we explored blockchain technology and cryptocurrency investing. In this episode, we discuss the current and potential future states of the crypto world. We cover new forms of cooperation, regulation, security and storage, and why blockchains allow systems to evolve at such a rapid pace. 

Be sure to listen until the end, where we close with some advice about conducting ourselves in a new world where creativity reigns and repetitive jobs disappear—a trend that may only accelerate thanks to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

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Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

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Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes:

[00:00:05] – Intro to episode 3 and what to expect

[00:04:00] – Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of Polychain, on how the funding and investing in cryptocurrencies could easily get out of hand

[00:05:00] – How people are creating holding companies to fund cryptocurrencies protocols

[00:06:45] – Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and how they will replace the aforementioned holding companies

[00:08:32] – Could fully decentralized organizations replace other more traditional organizational structures, even outside of cryptocurrency

[00:09:59] – How can DAO’s impact everyday lives

[00:12:39] – Why your skills and accomplishments will become more important than who you are or where you are from

[00:16:09] – Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angellist, on the way humans cooperate and build new entities

[00:17:51] – When people will demand oversight and regulation over cryptocurrency

[00:20:42] – Peter Van Valkenburg, Director of Research at Coincenter on the current state of regulation

[00:26:06] – Jameson Lopp on security needed to protect your cryptocurrency

[00:27:51] – Ari Paul, co-founder of Blocktower, on how nail polish is used to protect their crypto wallet

[00:30:03] – Juan Benet explains the Filecoin Protocol

[00:35:52] – Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Blockstack, on how his team is planning to provide basic tools that will allow the broader developer community to build apps that the cryptocurrency population will use

[00:38:01] – Comparing blockstack to the analogy of creating a city

[00:40:17] – How the blockstack token fits into everything

[00:43:15] – Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on forking in blockchains

[00:47:52] – Naval Ravikant on how the idea of work will change in the future, and how that change helped to produce the idea of a blockchain in the first place

[00:49:31] – Why curiosity should govern what you do in life

[00:53:22] – Naval’s framework for making money

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