The Asterisk

We all have those pivotal moments in our lives, when one big choice has the potential to send us in two vastly different directions. The most pivotal for me was when, lying on a hospital bed waiting for surgery, I decided to move to another province and accept a position in Canada’s burgeoning legal cannabis industry. 

Being through the rollercoaster of both the cannabis and crypto has been extremely challenging, but there’s really nothing like making two whole sets of once-in-a-lifetime memories. Since 2018, it seems like I’ve been living one fairytale experience after another, and that extends to both my professional and personal lives. 

Part of those fairytale experiences is something that emerging industries should be given kudos for, and that’s hiring through nontraditional methods. My last 3 positions were obtained through Twitter, and each one was truly a blessing that catalyzed rich professional and personal development. 

You might consider Twitter as a conduit for granting wishes (

). In 2018, I DM’d my friend Dan Sutton (

) on Twitter and told him he should hire me. A short 4 months later I was living in Vancouver. 

here’s why I’m awesome and you should hire me

’ Twitter thread and a month later I was officially a web3 degen. In both cases, I was in awe for the first few months of how 

 everything felt. Different, but so supremely comfortable. I have a certain set of Demonia boots that fit me better than any shoes ever have, and so too I felt that perfect fit in startup life.

Everyone who is startup-pilled has their own motivations, but I think mine center around building new institutions and structures that run 

to long established ones. This is something the American Dynamism movement talks about at length, with advocates like Balaji insisting we should build the new rather than modify the old. 

It’s a phenomenon that isn’t as new as a lot of people think it is. Web1 built something new in parallel to the existing telecommunications ecosystem, just like Web3 is currently doing in parallel to the existing systems of the Internet. 

The laws of the day followed the physical interpretation of possessing something, in that 

 something, he surely must have deprived someone else of its possession.

 The concept of digital files was so new, so 

) couldn’t properly work it into their existing systems. 

Web3 is building parallel financial and governance systems, which will run into the same issue of how legacy systems treat parallel newcomers. Web3 is also playing this game on 

 difficulty in its involvement in the financial system, which subjects it to far more scrutiny and regulation than the rest of tech. I’m intimately familiar with this uncertainty, and with the kinds of opportunity that exist within it.

I joined the legal cannabis industry shortly before recreational legalization, but was immersed in activism and the culture for many years prior. Legalization was a monumental achievement for Canada, but its implementation was perilous. Attempting to write legislation and regulations that would satisfy both drug policy reformists and those who were ‘

’ was hard, operating a business in so highly politicized an environment sometimes seemed impossible. 

I was overjoyed when I was eventually promoted to VP of Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations. To say I was thrown into the fire is an epic understatement, owing to what I soon learned to do on a daily basis:

Obtaining one of Canada’s first sensory testing research licenses is one of my proudest career accomplishments, and is the perfect example of the kind of opportunity that exists even in heavily regulated spaces. I saw one individual line in the 

 that indicated it was permissible for people to sample pre-release cannabis products outside of a clinical research study. 

The regulatory environment for cannabis had its share of bleak moments: The legalized medical regime that preceded recreational legalization was designed to fail by a very conservative government. Plants were treated like plutonium, and this legacy program was only slightly modified when something parallel should have been built. 

At one point, cannabis also had a massive PR problem. Decades of tireless, hard work by advocates changed public perception to an incredible degree. Pro-prohibition organizations changed their language to use the word 

While it’s questionable as to whether it’s used accurately, that kind of shift is monumental. I firmly believe an equally monumental shift will eventually happen with crypto. 

Vibes capitalism may be an endangered species in the bear market, but as with startups in general, the strong vibes survive. 

full disclosure: I am a current contributor / member

) is one of the most fulfilling communities I’ve ever been a part of, and one that has managed to navigate and shift through market conditions, even as the WAGMI corners of Twitter fell silent. 

Whether it’s just commiserating with other people in web3, working with them, or that special combination of the two that happens at conferences: I feel that same feeling of 

one that I thought I would never feel again after leaving the cannabis industry. Uncertainty and stress can run 

 high, but I think a lot of us have a common social contract that it’s worth it for the possibility of 

There are other personal reasons I’m still here. I’ve never felt as supported as I have in web3, especially from other women in the space. When I had challenging times both at 

) held incredible communal space for me. 

In particular, I have to give an incredible amount of thanks and love to Deana and Taylor(Ted) from Boys Club, they are truly amazing human beings in addition to being fantastic leaders in this space. 

I’ve spoken in the past about many of the effects of HRT, including my professional interests changing. I think I’ve always been more attracted to areas like business strategy and operations, owing to my time with TELUS and working across many facets of Optik TV. 

 is always one of the first ones, and being put more succinctly recently:  

 I always thought that was only in relation to engineering, but seeing the possibility in that one line of a cannabis regulatory document is something that has convinced me otherwise.

To me, being early to Web3 is less about taking advantage of opportunities before things get crowded and more about using this time and opportunity to make my own. I don’t fit into a lot of molds easily, and still struggle to succinctly define myself when meeting someone given all of these are true:

-Community leader and social entrepreneur

I have had precious few opportunities to go to crypto events and dialogue with speakers, but whenever I have someone has come up to me afterwards and said some combination of the above before we engaged in further conversation. 

Why I'm still all-in on web3, and why my experiences in another heavily regulated industry leads me to think web3 is going to make it. 

Why I'm Still Here : A Web3 Love Letter

DeFi Voyager

An update on recent progress in crypto projects, top threads, and recommended articles.

The X Crypto Brief #10 - 20.09.2023

Andrey Didovskiy

💎 Digital Asset Investor 🧙‍♂️ Crypto Content Wizard Laser focused on bringing incredible applications to Life 🌟

, a SWOT analysis framework provides excellent insight for establishing a high-level understanding of the state of a project’s well-being through the lens of a birds-eye view.

It can help formulate decisions around which areas require more attention, set performance goals, and organize a foundational understanding of where a project is headed.

Rarely (if ever) used in crypto, it is time to apply this timeless method of evaluation to the digital asset space.

, a layer one from the 2017 generation of projects with a glorious history and some marvelous on-chain engineering around consensus

While I am always hounding down projects that have perpetual inflation, Tezos has seemingly done a good job balancing all of the intertwined economic forces; emissions at 4.4%, staking at 6.4% yield, burning adding roughly 1% reductions from circulation. Creating a real yield environment (denominated in XTZ) of roughly ~1.5–2.5%.

Something that was not brought up in this evaluation was the history of Tezos. Through a series of legal shenanigans and internal debacles, XTZ has been rung through so much politicking that the simple fact of it thriving today is worthy of accolades.

There has been serious effort put forth to realize this project, and novel technical angles found (namely, the synthesis of on-chain governance and liquid staking) that give Tezos a strong foundation to contend for a position in the leadership circle of smart contract platforms.

For those who appreciate good stories behind the projects they get involved with, Tezos certainly has one of the most entertaining ones.

I tried to be as harsh as possible while maintaining a bullish bias.

I am a fan of Tezos and want them to win; at least to achieve some kind of permanence in the industry.

Tezos has the qualitative potential to become a dominating force in crypto. Not quite suited for retail degenerates, Tezos has a more sophisticated presence.

Something about XTZ makes me feel as though becoming a network validator (called a Baker, which requires >6,000 XTZ tokens) will ultimately be looked back on as a truly marvelous 80 or 180 IQ play.

If you know something that I don’t or feel as though I might have missed anything worth noting, please do share, I would tremendously appreciate some feedback.

I hope this serves you well on your journey.

SWOT Analysis: Tezos (XTZ)

The X Crypto Brief #9 - 19.09.2023

Crypto Sapiens

Art is as fundamental to human life as language, and as something so inextricable it seems we can barely express our understanding of it. Much like the human brain, we can recognize it and give general input regarding what we think is happening, but there's no real agreement about the inner workings and solid definitions within either field of study.

We see art as a subcategory of artifact, but in a way, any artifact can be considered art. In fact, naturally occurring objects (not artifacts) could be considered art. One would be hard-pressed to successfully argue that mountain ranges and complicated tree systems don't qualify. So if creator, intent, function, and content don't specifically define art, then what does? Art is maybe anything in the past, present, or future that could be viewed by any potential observer and qualified as art. Sneaky, here. We're not supposed to use the word in the definition of that word, but this is so hard-wired into us that we can't properly define it. Like love. What is love? It's what you have for something you love. 

An art collection is just a series of objects tied together in the mind of the observer(s), much in the same way that speech only makes sense when you know the language, or love only makes sense when you know what it feels like. By this train of thought, we can view art as a fundamental urge that exists only within the observer and in the presence of some context. As a species that has this urge hard-wired, we partake in art very differently from person to person, often disagreeing on what qualifies as art.

A banana duct-taped to the wall of a museum or a Banksy piece freshly sold at auction being shredded immediately post-sale may seem like travesties of capitalism more than art-- but couldn't such a travesty also be considered art? The banana is an arrangement of items within context, and the Banksy shredding could prove a simple act of destruction to be art within appropriate context. So art can be a moment? Would it then follow that art can be a personal record of action providing context to an outstanding moment?

Yes I am leading up to something here, and that something is digital art. Is it "real" if I can't hold it? Does viewing it on a phone or TV screen or projector wall qualify as experiencing it, and does holding it in a blockchain wallet qualify as ownership? Digital art may just be the ultimate art form combined with an also ultimate form of ownership. Blockchain storage is by no means fool-proof, but its quite secure when secured properly. And while our first concern may lean toward thievery of expensive art pieces, the list of concerns is actually much, much longer.

When we store conventional art pieces, we have to worry about damage from light, sound, humidity, and vandals. To move pieces from one place to another requires tedious care and tremendous resources. To display them we need the perfect angle and color of lighting. To create them we need expensive materials that are potentially toxic and harmful to us and our surroundings, and in order to know the context properly we have to rely on long-standing lists run by people or businesses verifying that the art is what we think it is- and we all know how reliable humans tend to be. 

Digital art is degradation free, instantly transferable anywhere in the world, displayable on any medium to match lighting conditions or purpose, only produces as much waste as the blockchain on which it exists, and proves its own provenance having been traced its whole life immutably by the software & hardware on which it is also stored. No, you can't technically hold digital art in your hands, but I would argue that very few pieces of art require such, and if they do, then i say continue on and do not convert to digital for these instances. This isn't an either-or situation, and I'm not trying to argue for the triumph or either. Physical and digital art can co-exist happily and absolutely ought to.

Art is not a thing, it's a viewpoint that we get to share with others. It seems we may gain clarity by recognizing that art is in our minds, not out in the world, and its inherent subjectivity is what makes it such a captivating topic. Could digital art be paving the way for a revolution in the way that we interact with this primal urge within us?

Don't Say NFT ep. 11

Art [dsNFT]

What is L0 technology and Layer Zero as part of this technology; Chainlink's CCIP and comparison with Layer Zero; IBC Cosmos; comparison and difference of all these protocols.

Blockchain Bridges Part 2: Cross-Chain Communications - LayerZero, Chainlink CCIP, Cosmos IBC

The X Crypto Brief #7 - 17.09.2023

The X Crypto Brief #8 - 18.09.2023

BlogChain by Adil Kazani

Delivering interesting content every single week on Web3, Security, Crypto, NFTs and AI. It's FREE, Takes less than 5-minutes to read, and you are guaranteed to learn something. Let's front-run the opportunity!

Delivering interesting content every single week on 

Web3, Security, Crypto, NFTs, Privacy & AI

, and you are guaranteed to learn something. 

Subscribe to get valuable News, Useful Resources and Insights every week to your Inbox!

Presearch is a decentralized search engine that protects your privacy, rewards you with cryptocurrency and delivers great results. Built for We the People.

Switch to Presearch and protect your privacy!

 is a groundbreaking platform that transforms internet searching. It operates as a decentralized search engine, aiming to empower users, safeguard their privacy, and enhance the search process. 

This system relies on nearly 70,000 user computers (nodes) across over 100 countries.

In an era dominated by large-scale Big Tech search engines, 

 distinguishes itself as a user-centric, privacy-focused, and community-driven alternative.

Conventional search engines face censorship risks and engage in extensive user data collection, compromising privacy. They also track and profile users for profit, essentially controlling global access to information.

, emphasizes the need for a search engine crafted by and for the people. Such a system must prioritize privacy, resist censorship, and operate on decentralized infrastructure to ensure resilience. This is the vision guiding Presearch's development.

Presearch is a search engine built on blockchain technology, committed to preserving user privacy and autonomy while offering incentives. Unlike traditional search engines, Presearch does not monitor your online behavior or trade your data to advertisers. Instead, it empowers you to shape your search experience by selecting your preferred search engine and tailoring your results.

In contrast to centralized search engines where users are commodified and traded to the highest bidder, Presearch adopts a different approach. Here, Presearchers retain ownership of the value generated from their web searches, a concept known as "

, the currency underpinning the Presearch ecosystem.

Moreover, these PRE tokens serve as incentives for individuals worldwide who operate Presearch's node software. These nodes, fueled by decentralized computing resources, power the search engine, departing from the model of large data centers employed by conventional search engines.

Advertisers participate by paying for ads in PRE tokens, closing the loop on the project's value ecosystem. The ultimate aspiration is for Presearch to become a platform characterized by resilience against censorship, independence, and antifragility, akin to 

: Your Presearch searches remain private and untracked, ensuring that your data isn't utilized for creating personalized profiles or targeting advertisements.

: Presearch provides users with the convenience of selecting from over 100 diverse search providers via a single click. This flexibility empowers you to obtain the results you desire.

: Presearch incentivizes users with PRE tokens for active engagement on the platform. These tokens can be staked, traded, or utilized to access additional benefits within the ecosystem, including AI-driven search capabilities.

: Presearch is driven by community funding and actively involves its user base in governance through the Presearch Foundation.

: Built upon blockchain technology and user nodes, Presearch operates on a decentralized infrastructure. As the project evolves, it will transition to full open-source status.

: Presearch's latest offering, PreGPT AI, currently harnesses the capabilities of OpenAI. However, the project is actively developing a decentralized AI solution designed to operate on the Presearch nodes.

: The Search API empowers other search engines, applications, and AI systems to utilize Presearch results, expanding its reach across various digital experiences.

: Search staking enables users to earn enhanced rewards for their Presearch searches. By staking a minimum of 1000 PRE tokens, you can access elevated rewards for up to 25 searches per day.

: Introducing a concept unique to Presearch, keyword staking allows companies to increase their website traffic by staking PRE tokens. The advertiser with the highest token stake has their ad displayed when their chosen keyword is searched. Advertisers retain the flexibility to withdraw PRE tokens at any time, making traffic acquisition cost-effective. The minimum amount for keyword staking is 100 PRE. 

: Nodes play a pivotal role in powering Presearch search results by providing computing resources. Node staking permits individuals to contribute to request processing within the Presearch ecosystem and earn rewards in return for their node operation efforts. The minimum staking requirement for nodes is 4000 PRE per node.

Founded in 2017, Presearch's mission is to deliver a user-centric, decentralized search engine that prioritizes privacy, choice, and community involvement. This platform is underpinned by blockchain technology and driven by a dedicated global community of users and developers.

Imagine getting paid for asking Google a question...

Introducing Presearch.com | The First Decentralized Search Engine

If you're enjoying today's newsletter, why not share it with your friends? They might find it just as informative and entertaining as you do.

Sharing is caring, and by spreading the word about this newsletter, you're helping to support ME and ensure that more great content gets produced in the future. Plus, you'll get to have even more conversations with your friends about the interesting topics covered in each edition.

There are three ways to show me that you enjoyed reading this article:

Protect your privacy, defend online freedom and earn cryptocurrency rewards. (5 mins read)

Router Protocol

Router Protocol is a secure, scalable, modular, composable framework for cross-chain interoperability

We are here to announce the 9th edition of Voyage, a journey that has been incredible for our community and us. After eight successful editions, we’re back with the highly anticipated Voyage 9.0, and we couldn’t be more excited to introduce our partner for this edition, Rootstock! Rootstock is a secure smart contract network that enables decentralised applications to be secured by the Bitcoin Network.

As you already know, we’ve partnered with 

, and you just need to simply bridge $USDT from any supported networks to Rootstock via Voyager (

)! It is going to be as seamless as it sounds, and through on-chain measurements, we will identify the wallets associated with the biggest bridging volumes and duly recognise and reward them.

And what are the rewards we’re looking at?

​​The top 150 addresses with the highest total volume bridged to Rootstock will be the lucky recipients of the rewards. Here’s a breakdown of the same:

But how do you participate? Are there any eligibility criteria?

Yes, there is an eligibility criterion — bridge a minimum of 

 from any supported network to Rootstock using our 

18th of September 2 PM UTC to the 29th of September 2 PM UTC.

Furthermore, to take part in Voyage 9.0, follow these steps:

Voyage 9.0 is your chance to embark on a rewarding journey, bridging the gap to a world of opportunities. Get ready to participate, earn rewards, and be part of something remarkable. We can’t wait to see you on this exciting voyage!

A Cross-Chain Voyage to the pool of $4000

The Voyage is back with its 9th Edition

Due to the huge amount of attacks, please check out my old post, I've added new tips there! 

Please spend some time on your financial security. Stay safe!

https://t.co/xR3nNYVgdK

A curated list of 15 books about blockchain, investments, tech, and innovations by a16z ↓

Bookmark and RT for your future reference.

⊹ Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience by Herman Narula.

⊹ Algorithmic Game Theory edited by Noam Nisan,… https://t.co/CW4qHgs85j

[Thread Compilation] #4

Discover the top 25 must-read threads from this week in this carefully selected and curated compilation, just for you.

1️⃣ Perspectives
2️⃣ Useful Tool &amp; Strategies
3️⃣ Narratives &amp; Alphas
4️⃣ News &amp; Catalysts
5️⃣ Education
6️⃣ Others

🧵 (0/25) https://t.co/8qGzdXQuzJ

Weekly Sunday liquid staking update 🔟

A 🧵on all things liquid staking.

3.9 -&gt; 10.9

1/22 https://t.co/fUzIniN9jP

ToE's Weekly Highlights #41

DMH's spotlight, new concepts and narratives, guides & more!

Alpha issue #57

Let's see how this trio can solve issues like high costs & slow transfers pertaining to cross-border payments.

How Can Ripple, Stellar, And Chainlink Solve Cross-Border Payment Issues?

Over the past year, Chainlink has undergone a transformation, marked by the introduction of Chainlink Economics 2.0. This strategic shift has elevated Chainlink to a pivotal position within the web3 landscape, spanning critical layers such as LayerZero (interoperability), L1s, and L2s.

Chainlink - Analyst Insight | Revelo Intel

How Liquidity Impacts Market Crashes

A Position of F*ck You

Some Hard Truths About Crypto

SOL is up nearly 100% since FTX declared bankruptcy. And up 30% since Gensler labeled it a security. Some people love SOL. Others hate it. But today, we are going to score it. TOKEN TLDR

Token TLDR #2: Scoring Solana

The Relentless Rise of Stablecoins

What to learn from the worst rugs of all time

Top 10 Rug Pulls on Bankless

Monthly Community Report, August 2023

Genesis Incentives(4%) are allocated to community members that contribute the most to the early stages of Aark Digital. Genesis Incentives will be used for various purposes as below: *Trade Mining...

Aark Digital Tokenomics- Genesis of the New Chapter

The X Crypto Brief #6 - 16.09.2023

Trade crypto, forex and commodity with up to 1,000x leverage simply and safely from your wallet on Arbitrum.

HMX - Decentralized Perpetual Exchange

Trade crypto on the MUX protocol with zero price impact, up to 100x leverage and no counterparty risks.

Reputation Score allows you to assess and leverage your onchain reputation by minting it as an SBT.

LayerZero Reputation Score by Nomis

Multichain Reputation Score by Nomis

Premia Blue is a decentralized platform for trading DeFi options and earning yield.

Premia Blue

Interest rates are teetering 🤮

Inflation is persistent. Eurozone in peril 😱

7 must-know economic indicators👇🧵 https://t.co/VrG5ImLJ2o

#RWA has been gaining considerable attention recently.

In just a month, it has jumped from being the 10th largest sector to the 8th.

A thread with everything you need to know about #RWA. ⬇️

🧵(0/29) https://t.co/zG5OECSptW

Grinding is the only way to make it!

I've dedicated countless hours to spotting new projects and market inefficiencies. 💎

Here are 7 projects that have the potential for significant returns! 👇 🧵 https://t.co/QpeQ23qlEN

𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝘾𝙪𝙗𝙖𝙣 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙢𝙚𝙙 $𝟖𝟕𝟎 𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙧𝙮𝙥𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙩.

People think it's because of metamask.

Truth is, it's because of carelessness.

Here's how he could have simply avoided… https://t.co/R5kAlb4sKF

How the ecosystem around Curve has evolved: Curve Wars; L2 Convex; bribes and infrastructure around bribes; protocols to improve yield; comparing the trajectory of the Curve ecosystem with LSDFi.

The Saga of Curve Finance 2: Curve Ecosystem as a Template for LSDFi

FPIS Buyout, Convex Fee Changes, Frax Monthly Report, FPI + Base and more...

This Week in Frax - September 15, 2023

In this note, I'll give you some quick tips that will help you sleep better at night when using Telegram!

Telegram Security Best Practices

Velodrome is the undisputed liquidity hub of Optimism Mainnet, boasting 2x the TVL and 5x the tokens of every other major DEX combined. By combining the best of UniV2, Curve, and Convex into a single...

Velodrome Slipstream

Welcome Panoptimists to the first edition of the Panoptic Newsletter!

Panoptic Insights: September Newsletter | Panoptic

Stabilization in real estate prices MTD in September

Market Update: September 15th

Y2K could have earned 162 ETH ($260K) over the last nine months by optimizing their protocol owned liquidity ("POL"). This report presents the findings of the backtesting and research Sector Finance...