Recorded 7 Dec 2022
Kevin

• Market thoughts: 
  • bought SOL - I like beaten down projects, agree with Burniske tweet on SOL v ETH, great Anatoly interview on Blockworks; consolidating more into ETH, sold some NFTs; DCA-ing a bit into BTC for Mom
• Content
  • Ungox: Is this parody? Keeping crypto assets safe can be extremely challenging
  • Link 1: Appears that Alameda made $4.1 billion in loans to cronies, mainly SBF, and MSM says SBF had nothing to do with that?
  • Link 2: AIs can be used to generate “deep fakes” while cryptographic techniques can be used to reliably authenticate things against such fakery... this reeks of real yin-yangery that extends to the roots of computing somehow

George

• Current market thoughts: no change on crypto position; watching what happens if stock market falls due to recession, impact on crypto and potential decoupling; yield curve inversion (10yr minus 3mo) in 00, 07,19, and now
• Parents said “SBF went from 26B to $100k, hope you are ok” - impressive how successful MSM is in spreading the narrative that SBF "lost" a fortune vs taking others’ fortunes
• Content
  • Zillow gone wild - fun twitter account that curates cool real estate
  • Kirsten dirksen - living off grid, alternative lifestyles

Steven (Co-founder @pressstartcap personal @StevenMeets)

• Current market thoughts: 
  • DCAing 50/50 BTC/ETH; Researching grail NFT projects that collectors will deem “historical” in 5+ yrs: artblocks, otherdeeds, world of women, adidas, murakami, etc
• Content
  • Jordi Alexander: Smoke and Mirrors part 1, part 2: 
    • “uses the time-tested strategy of fancy lingo to create an aura of sophistication... Use this sophisticated aura to convince these people that you are a giga-brain financial wizard, who’s figured out a money creating solution so incredible, it is too brilliant for others to fully understand.”
• Van Bush aka the “Forrest Gump of Science and Tech”
  • “An invention has some of the characteristics of a poem. It is said that a poet may derive real joy out of making a poem, even if it is never published, even if he does not recite it to his friends, even if it is not a very good poem. No doubt, one has to be a poet to understand this. In the same way, an inventor can derive real satisfaction out of making an invention, even if he never expects to make a nickel out of it, even if he knows it is a bit foolish, provided he feels it involves ingenuity and insight. An inventor invents because he cannot help it, and also because he gets quiet fun out of doing so. One has to be an inventor to understand this.”
• Starbucks blockchain loyalty program 
• predictions on what Elon will do with Twitter: transparent content moderation

Recorded  1 Dec 2022 Kevin's thoughts

• Market seems to have stabilized; selling some NFTs to move a bit more into ETH; I want to start making some degen bets soon, but not sure what / where (seems activity on L2s
• Deleted Twitter 3 days ago - adjusting to new info diet
• Content links
  • Haseeb thread: https://twitter.com/hosseeb/status/1590945514903965696
    • 13/ Crypto is about freedom, and that's why we're all here in the end. Freedom from what? Freedom from *other people*. Crypto frees you from having to trust others. Freedom from being under the thumb of another human being, a dictator, or a corrupt financial institution.
  • Book of Satoshi: https://kevinhabits.com/highlights-from-the-book-of-satoshi/
    • I think the traditional qualifications for money were written with the assumption that there are so many competing objects in the world that are scarce, an object with the automatic bootstrap of intrinsic value will surely win out over those without intrinsic value. But if there were nothing in the world with intrinsic value that could be used as money, only scarce but no intrinsic value, I think people would still take up something.
  • Jon Stokes on AI / content: https://www.jonstokes.com/p/how-big-content-will-win-the-generative 
    • An entire alternate branch of the evolution of consumer internet hardware, software, and services was simply wiped out, like a meteor wiping out the mammals instead of the dinosaurs. Again, this didn’t happen because the experience of running your own file server sucked or required specialized expertise — it absolutely did not suck, and in fact, the nascent P2P ecosystem was quite painless from a user admin point-of-view. Rather, it happened because without a centralized authority that the RIAA could sue or the feds could threaten with prison, people would have just shared whatever the heck they wanted with whoever the heck they wanted, /and we just couldn’t have that/
  • Bukele doubling down: https://time.com/6236899/el-salvador-bukele-bitcoin-crash
    • At home, Bitcoin is a key part of the narrative that Bukele is pushing, both of El Salvador—as a rejuvenated, innovative country, delivering new opportunities for young Salvadorans—and of his presidency. He presents himself not as a classic strongman, but as a provocative young visionary challenging the Western financial elite.
  • Misc: Edge of Tomorrow; all you need is kill - manga

George's thoughts

• Content
  • January 10, 2021: On Reflexivity & Imitation, Part 2 https://insights.deribit.com/market-research/on-reflexivity-and-imitation-part-2/
    • "Imitation is a form of communication. Humans are built to imitate. As stated in the first part of this essay, imitation enables reflexivity to shape the world according to our will. Humanity could not exist without imitation." Act accordingly

Recorded Nov 22, 2022

Kevin's links

• Current portfolio thoughts: FTX aftermath; Genesis / DCG $1B capital injection; 90% in BTC / ETH; beginning of the end of the Fed’s tightening cycle
• Content
  • Eric Voskuil’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoeconomics-Fundamental-Principles-Eric-Voskuil-ebook/dp/B08VJ1F9Q8
    • Also his talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMVcjQ_-mGo
    • Because Bitcoin membership is permissionless and therefore not fixed, there is always complete agreement, as implied by membership. In this model consensus refers to the size of the membership (economy), not a condition of agreement
  • Russell Napier on Hidden Forces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWhGsWaXI7o
    • https://kevinhabits.com/russell-napiers-interesting-macro-views-what-does-it-tell-you-when-central-banks-speak-loudly-perhaps-that-theyre-not-carrying-a-big-stick-anymore/
    • I think we’ll see consumer price inflation settling into a range between 4 and 6%, a level that the gov't can get away with. Financial repression = stealing money from savers and old people slowly
  • https://datafinnovation.medium.com/3ac-dcg-amazing-coincidences-c14eec941c06
    • 3AC borrows BTC from Genesis as a lender with some small amount of collateral, passes this BTC to Genesis as a Authorized Participant to create GBTC shares. Genesis duly locks the BTC in the trust via Grayscale and returns shares; These shares are trading at a premium so this represents “free money” to 3AC. 3AC then pledges these shares back to Genesis for a USD loan. If the premium was large enough this loan is worth more than the BTC they borrowed at the beginning.
  • Reading lists:
    • https://twitter.com/nosleepjon
    • https://twitter.com/0xsmac/status/1593290199626301443 

George

• Current portfolio thoughts: CZ SBF twitter feud causing uncertainty in market; Dollar stabilising; market consolidating perhaps for ~3-9 months before up; 70% cash
• Content
  • Rumors about Alameda solvency from Coindesks article: https://twitter.com/DylanLeClair_/status/1587890966580658177
  • Alameda had $14.6 billion of assets as of June 30, according to a private document CoinDesk reviewed. However, much of it is the illiquid FTT token created by FTX... 
  • Nov 3, META announces Instagram will be building on Polygon, Elon acq of Twitter closes end of Oct, Doge pumps 2x
  • Nov 3, SG Minister Foreign affairs: ASEAN won’t take sides; wise to seek a balancing strategy:   https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1587900612708274176
  • This increasingly common perspective on marriage and consequences for society: https://twitter.com/StealthQE4/status/1587445311060033536
  • Degenspartan strategy on next cycle: https://twitter.com/DegenSpartan/status/1587778408187977728

Recorded Oct 13 2022 
Kevin

• Current portfolio thoughts
  • BTC strength
  • Cosmos 2.0 - concerned about inflation, Jae Kwon’s fork proposal (Atom One)
  • ETH turning deflationary despite bear market
• Chainalysis global adoption report
  • https://kevinhabits.com/chainalysis-crypto-adoption-report-europe-as-leading-hub-emerging-markets-growth/
• Tweet thread: https://twitter.com/foldablehuman/status/1579540609215647744
• 
  
• Josep Borrell, EU rep for Foreign Affairs, speech @ EU Ambassadors conference
  • https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/eu-ambassadors-annual-conference-2022-opening-speech-high-representative-josep-borrell_en
  • prosperity has been based on cheap energy coming from Russia. Russian gas – cheap and supposedly affordable, secure, and stable. It has been proved not [to be] the case. And the access to the big China market, for exports and imports, for technological transfers, for investments, for having cheap goods. I think that the Chinese workers with their low salaries have done much better and much more to contain inflation than all the Central Banks together
• NFT art - https://foundation.app/@xmioart/bluecollection/3

George

• Tweet thread: https://twitter.com/davidmarcus/status/1578795041719750663:
  • "It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But @PayPal ’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity."
  • Here he is referring to a policy PayPal enacted where they can deduct, take $2500 from a user if the user violates term of service, says something PayPal does not like.  Just another example where crypto will become more and more important as an alternative to what alot of people feel is institutional overreach. 
  • The concept of freedom, personal/financial freedom, agency is still important as ever.  Public figures getting deplatformed, the Canadian trucker protest, civil asset forfeiture, etc. Not only is crypto a lifeboat from ruinous monetary policy across nations, but necessary to express your own opinion without fear of immediate financial devastation. 
• Article Throwback Classic: https://www.citadel21.com/why-the-yuppie-elite-dismiss-bitcoin this article answers a question I had always wondered about - why many highly educated and successful peers have shunned crypto throughout the past years. 

Oct 11 2022 Self intros

• Kevin / Habits - been in crypto for 3 cycles now, first cycle focus was bitcoin, second cycle was altcoins, went big into Rare Pepes then, third cycle it’s just amazing where we are now
• George - been in crypto for 3 cycles; bitcoin, eth/alts, and then bitcoin eth/alts again
  • Most recently focused on CitaDAO bringing real estate on chain & general investing, previously co-founded an early Ethereum dApp in 2017
  • Prior to crypto: engineer by training, consulting, tech, startups

Kevin’s links

• Article - https://blog.bitmex.com/contagion/
  • 5 big CBs: BOJ, BOE, ECB, PBOC, Fed; 3 of 5 are printing again, and soon 4 of 5
  • The EU is an artifice – a political ploy of France to keep Germany down, which the Germans only went along with due to their guilt over WWII. The US shares France’s interests, standing ready to prevent any real alliance between Germany and Russia. A weak EU serves the political interests of America quite well
• Article - https://dergigi.com/2022/10/02/bitcoin-is-digital-scarcity/
  • Virtual can be copied; Digital can’t
  • Studies game economies including Second Life, Diablo 2, and Ultima Online - all of them broke because of either centralized failure or player hacks
  • In short: bitcoin can’t be printed because it is automatically issued over time. The system can’t be cheated because energy can’t be copied. 
• Twitter - @urbankaoboy, former GS trader, fund manager, writes lots of really good threads on global macro
• TV show - check out Narco Saints - could take this Narcos template and apply it to any culture / geography
• Random - @mrlovenstein - cartoonist with a dark sense of humor

George’s links

Throwback Classic:  ELI5 bitcoin

https://medium.com/free-code-camp/explain-bitcoin-like-im-five-73b4257ac833
Article uses analogy of giving your friend an apple directly, while sitting on a park bench, without an ‘official’ intermediary – but imagine you can now do that with digital items.

The use of real imagery was visceral and I feel it is a good reminder to the simplicity and power of this idea/ technology, and what it has and can enable. We’ve uncovered maybe 5% of the potential, and there is so much more to be created. I feel it’s always important to go back to the fundamentals of why we’re here. Go back to the first principles to determine why this ecosystem/ industry is so amazing. 

cool to see how incentives can be used to drive behavior, this is what crypto can enable across jurisdictions: https://twitter.com/wrathofgnon/status/1577576345600593920 - 

Good movie： 人生大事 Lighting Up the Stars, came out in summer 22’