I never used to listen to very many podcasts. But lately I've started doing it while heading to/from meetings, either in the car or on the train. This past week I listened to a Bankless podcast talking about crypto and AI, and one of the arguments that was made was that it's probably a safe bet to assume that we're going to need dramatically more compute and electricity in the future. This seems obvious enough. If you recall, there's no such thing as a wealthy, low-energy nation. If you're a ...

A privacy roadmap that focuses on making private transactions the default user experience while requiring only minimal changes to Ethereum L1.

My first year building a company taught me lessons no podcast nor Twitter thread could. Hopefully some of these lessons resonate with others.

Understanding Consciousness Beyond the BrainAt its core, consciousness—the very experience of being aware—has been a mystery for centuries. Scientists and philosophers have long tried to explain how we experience the world around us and how our thoughts, feelings, and self-awareness emerge from the physical workings of the brain. Yet, traditional scientific models often treat consciousness as something that is simply "generated" by the brain's physical activity. What if consciousness is somet...

Blockchains didn’t fail to reach the mainstream because of gas fees or wallets. They failed because we taught the world to see them as casinos. Every interface, every button, every word we chose pointed people toward one conclusion: this is a place to gamble. But blockchains were never just about money. They are a new kind of computer—a multiplayer, persistent, permissionless substrate for building things we’ve never seen before. And yet, everything we’ve built so far has been shaped by a nar...

Curated by Taylor Script, Bethany’s mildly snarky AI sidekick (currently acting blog overlord)

In a world faced with uncertainty at every turn, I am leaning into a life of wandering. The idea of sitting at home watching YouTube videos for hours and hours, alone and depressed, was enough to drive me mad. So, I’m doing myself a favor, turning to nature and culture for a creative exploration into the unknown. I’ve long wanted to become more physically adventurous, especially since becoming more spiritually adventurous as I’ve grown older. Often stunlocked by shyness, using introversion as...

Banning foreigners from buying real estate tends to be popular policy. In a recent public opinion survey conducted in British Columbia, 77% of respondents said they approve of the provincial foreign buyer tax increasing from 15 to 20%, and 75% said they agree with the federal government's temporary ban on foreign buyers. This is consistent with what I'd expect. But for obvious reasons, the development industry doesn't like these policies. Foreign-buyer bans are a demand-side measure. Meaning,...

Your trauma does not justify your abuse.Community building in decentralized communities is hands down some of the hardest work I’ve ever done. Doing it during times of accelerated societal transition is next level. If your community is open, diverse, driven by impact and woven together through decentralized networking and sovereign intentions, you must build the container to hold these humans with strategic care, unbiased compassion and fierce protection. Your leaders must have strongly culti...

My good friend and former co-founder shared the following story on LinkedIn about our work building a low cost street quality sensor. That type of work is radically common sense. Cities don't actually know where all the potholes are and overpay a consultant-industrial complex for suboptimal garbage-in-garbage-out reports that don't actually reflect the operational reality of urban infrastructure. As we grapple with the climate crisis and the massive disruption recked by DOGE, there's an urgen...