Here are all my secrets We cover crypto, AI, and the machine economy. The weather changes but the stars point in the same direction. Really enjoyed this conversation with @francescoswiss

6 Updates on #Crypto Startups I'm Advising -- an example of operating progress in the blockchain world @SelfKey @_trustedhealth @hut34project @DebitumNetwork @xtradeio @GimmerBot linkedin.com/pulse/6-updates…

1/ I had a great time recently talking with Carson Cook - the founder of @TokenReactor and Fractal.

My core bet at @genventurecap is that machines will be the largest financial actors within a decade. They will have the most identities, move the most money, create the most transactions, and power the most GDP. $PEAQ is our first core bet on this theme. Their TGE is around the corner and I want to reflect on why we invested. @Peaq builds for a future where vehicles, machines, and devices become participants in the economy, capable of transacting autonomously while ensuring privacy, security, and efficiency. DePINs offer real world, practical applications demonstrated by usage and adoption. They are not lost in financial nihilism or the mistaken idea that everything is a meme. Tokens are used to bootstrap networks, incentivizing contributions of real-world services through physical infrastructure. This model lowers the financial barriers to entry and bootstraps large-scale infrastructure that typically requires significant capital outlays. As a result, DePIN applications are diverse – ranging from peer-to-peer electric vehicle charging networks where users earn rewards for making their charging stations available, to community-operated decentralized ride-sharing services. In the past, most were organized as “coin networks”, standing up their own Layer 1 network in order to avail the project to the bootstrapping capital needed in the early crowd-funding phase. However, running the entire network for a single use-case is less valuable once the project is bootstrapped. Now, we expect more mature DePINs to look like token-powered applications, similar to those of the DeFi sector, rather than to focus on maintaining validators and blockchain security. Therefore, to unlock the DePIN economy, a specialized player like Peaq will build a strong industry position as a DePIN-focused chain. This is exactly what the excellent team there has done. Let's make Web3 real!

I'm excited to share the next step in my career and the evolution in thinking about our industry. After 4 years at @Consensys , where I worked on tokenized digital assets, crypto wallets and DeFi, macro investing, and token economics, and over a decade in fintech, I remain deeply committed to innovation and the promise of technology in financial services and in our economy. With that, I am thrilled to announce that I am building a venture capital fund called @genventurecap as a founder with several fantastic partners. The thesis is focused on the rise of the machine economy, which is the synthesis of new economic activity accelerated by AI, powered by fintech, and settled on Web3 blockchain networks. I wrote a little more about our thesis and what you can expect over the upcoming months. linkedin.com/pulse/launching…

New investment framework + old investment framework

Excited to see @TheEtherMachine launching with $1B+ in ETH in treasury $DYNX joins $SBET and $BMNR as a GIGANTIC vehicle to buy and deploy ETH onchain through staking and DeFi I look forward to when the banks start acquiring ETH treasury companies to secure their stablecoins

These 2 guys became Estonia’s first-ever billionaires. Kristo & Taavet founded WISE to make international fund transfers cheap and easy. In 12 years, WISE has/is: - 10M+ users with $1.1B revenue - London's biggest tech IPO The Breakdown of how they did it 🧵

I was at Lehman Brothers when the 2008 financial crisis hit. At 23, I watched thousands of talented people lose their dream jobs and go broke. But over the last decade, I founded 3 startups and exited to several big companies. Here are 5 lessons for every entrepreneur (🧵)

I turned 39 with the new year. Here’s 39 lessons learned the hard way 🧵🎉

I recently had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts on why Ethereum's price is built on stronger ground than Bitcoin with @CoinDesk coindesk.com/why-ethereums-p…

Here's what I've been working on good people! Check out the article "Why ConsenSys Codefi is the bridge to blockchain-based manufacturing for commerce and finance" @consensyscodefi @ConsenSys #blockchain #fintech #art linkedin.com/pulse/why-conse… via @LinkedIn

These 2 college kids made a $50B company from their dorm room. Stripe is Silicon Valley’s most valuable Fintech with quarterly sales of ~$1B. They started it all with just 7 lines of code. Here are the top 8 takeaways for every entrepreneur 👇 1. Keep Product Simple 📱 Stripe aims to be the "economic infrastructure for the internet". Before they entered the game, integrating payments was a BIG coding challenge. Their API is extremely easy to integrate with websites. Its integration takes a max of ~1-3 months and supports: - 135+ currencies - 47 countries Their core offering is the "Payments" business. What's that? Basically, an API to accept online payments. But, they went one step ahead. Launched "Stripe Checkout". A prebuilt checkout page to ingest this information is hosted on Stripe’s servers & works for both desktop and mobile. It gives the business a prebuilt checkout page that: • Works on desktop & mobile in 30+ languages • Automatically avoids common checkout flow errors • Is extremely customizable with custom colors & fonts Here is the page👇 2. Design Strategy from User Feedback 💁🏻‍♂️ In an interview, one of their employees said that building products at Stripe was easy. Why? "Because users always told them what they wanted to see next" From the very beginning, Stripe has been built with close communication with their customers. Now, one thing that works in Stripe’s favor is their customers are often technical engineers building companies or managing payment systems. Such an audience is very well-suited to provide pointed feedback. This is encouraged by great leadership. Patrick consistently responds to user requests himself, asking genuine questions on how to help them. Look how Patrick responded👇 3. Be 100% Transparent ✅ In Stripe’s early days, every employee was blind copied on every SINGLE mail📧 "This meant that every employee could see what Patrick said to John and inversely, Patrick could see what a customer sales rep sent to a customer." This form of painful transparency not only maintained pristine standards of work but also made them open to A LOT of feedback. Employees would correct each other’s grammar, delivery, and even their spelling. They follow the same rules for their pricing. Stripe charges a uniform fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction with no monthly fees or service charges. Paypal also charges the same amount but it has a complex fee structure (including service charges, cross-border fees, etc) which makes it much more expensive. On top of that, there are no additional charges for failed transactions. *rare in the industry* Such transparency keeps things simple to understand for the consumer and makes the onboarding process as smooth as butter. The fewer questions a customer has to ask, the better. 4. Smartly Acquire & Expand 🤝 They have been smart in acquiring companies to improve their offerings. "Stripe has acquired ~14 companies and used funding strategically" - OpenChannel: Helped launch Stripe App Marketplace - PayStack & Touchtech: Helped expand global reach - BBPOS: Improved point-of-sale hardware They have been AGGRESSIVE acquirers. Here is how they integrated the acquisitions👇 And not just acquisitions, Stripe has partnered with many large, industry defining businesses. It is now used by companies like • Amazon • Shopify • Zoom • Slack & many more... 5. Have a LARGER Vision 🌍 Stripe’s dream is much bigger than just themselves. Their vision: “To increase the GDP of the internet". A company with this industry role needs a leader as strong as its ambition. Patrick, before founding Stripe, already had $5M on his hands from selling his company “Automatic”. He had great connections from Y Combinator and even knew Paul Graham. In fact, the very first funding came from Y Combinator. Before the worldwide success, Elon Musk was ready to invest in Stripe in 2011. This does not happen no matter what company you run. It's a matter of HOW you run it. Patrick’s view on the company's mission? “Stripe is not just a capitalist enterprise, but an endeavor to drive humanity forward.” The intent behind what you do matters! If someone was in it to make a quick buck then they would have exited the market as soon as they got $5M on their hands. This need for Patrick to constantly innovate is what keeps the made them Number 1 in the business. He still interacts with users on social media, responding to support issues with invitations for customers to email him directly. Ultimately, this “no job too small” mentality is what makes a difference between a dead startup and a successful one. 6. Innovative GTM 📈 Stripe didn't have traditional outbound sales. In the starting, they didn't sell to companies. Instead, they were selling to *developers*. They knew the problem and they knew who was facing the problem. It was the tech guys. Interestingly, it worked for them because purchasing decisions, just like picking a payment provider, were increasingly made by developers. One founder puts it like this: “Stripe offered an alternative to PayPal and Authorize that was so much easier to implement that developers around the world were naturally inclined to use it.” 7. Adding more Services 🛠️ They also went on to add multiple services. They wanted to add on everything related to financial infrastructure to increase market dominance. Stripe had launched 2 products in its first 5 years; it has launched way more in the last 5! "Once customers purchase Stripe payments, Stripe’s other services make sure that the customer never has to go to anybody else for their payments again" They have so far launched a total of 20 solutions *as per their website* 8. Prioritizing Data Security 🔐 Stripe understood the MASSIVE need for fraud detection, card issuing, financing, and more... They eventually started introducing ways that solved all these problems. What did they do? i) Used the highest level of encryption for all transactions to prevent hijacking Ensured browsers & web apps interacting with Stripe's website or products used an HTTPS connection to prevent breaches. ii) Stored transaction data so companies don’t have to worry about data security They allowed the users to control their own data by: • Requiring explicit consent before data sharing • Letting them view and delete their data iii) Encrypted sensitive data both in transit & at rest Stripe’s infra for storing, decrypting, and transmitting sensitive data is completely separate! They don't share any credentials with the rest of their services. That's how they've been dealing with the security of massive payment data... When you bring together this alchemy of fintech entrepreneurship, $100B is just the start.

Peaq is the Worldcoin for robots Every robot needs to be real. @peaq is where they get their identity and $peaq is how the spend their capital

1/ We closed an exciting $200MM round at ConsenSys I’m an early fintech founder (2010), and it was a brutal desert for a while to be in the industry So having this experience is sort of … fantastic and strange theblockcrypto.com/post/1246…

We put together this handy guide to naming your #crypto hedge-fund, one among 55. Check it out - next.autonomous.com/thoughts…

1/ I recently had the great pleasure of talking with @sandeepnailwal Co-Founder & COO at @0xPolygon about their mission to reach a global audience.

If you’re always cranked up 110% into work or money as a goal, you’re trying to squeeze dopamine from a rock. It’s physically impossible for your body to reward you any more, even if great things happen. Switch to another happiness curve. It feels better & you find gratitude

Huge day for @Consensys! Thrilled to announce that we acquired the Ethereum-based Quorum, and received an investment from JP Morgan to continue to grow the codebase, our products, and the ecosystem. This is the long game. #WelcomeQuorum bit.ly/32nJct1

Crypto splits into (1) the casino and (2) the computer says @cdixon Same point also well made by @BillHughesDC who calls it (1) money crypto and (2) tech crypto If you can’t tell them apart, you’ll stay hopelessly confused

Totally — glad to connect and explore. Let’s DM!

Thrilled to join @ConsenSys to focus on FinTech and DeFi. Best space to be in. Thanks @mdudas @i_woodford @TheBlock__ for covering! And to @fintechfrank by shout out

Programmable blockchain as global computing paradigm Economic and legal property rights secured by free software Open source financial infrastructure better than much of Fintech in the long run Puts people’s choice first

Thrilled to share the 78 page @AutonoFinTech primer we wrote on $1B+ of #ICO and #Cryptoeconomy. Grab it here: next.autonomous.com/download…

Fantastic step forward.

The most expensive mistake one can make is failing to prioritize the things that matter for the future over the things that used to be important but won't be anymore

In the last decade, I have built 3 fintech businesses & had exits to big financial firms. A sustainable business model is a must for any startup. But many are getting this wrong. Use my fintech model playbook (🧵)

DePIN network @peaq is hosting the genesis auction for the robot DAO, @xmaquinaDAO At Generative Ventures, I am really excited to see what kind of projects come of out of this Crypto is robot money, and there will be only more and more economic robots

Sorry #fintech mafia, we were never popular

The feeling of being productive and actually producing things of value is not the same

Being good at something doesn't mean you should do it.

You are drinking from the chalice of human experience I too don’t like the flavor

1/ I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with @chainyoda, Head of Institutional Business at @AaveAave and former colleague of mine @Consensys, and what a conversation it was!

A small team pulling in one direction A large team pulling in different directions Your pick

$200MM for @RobinhoodApp to acquire @Bitstamp Volume is $230MM per day, or about $50-100B per year If fees of 10-50 bps, then revenues of $100-500MM What am I missing?

Binance saw this coming years ago. Launchpad onramps projects into BNB Chain. It’s a full-stack capital formation engine. And it works. But it’s not just about where you launch...

DeFi lending protocol Aave details its decentralization bid, outlines swap process for new token 🕸⛓🏆 #blockchain #smartcontracts buff.ly/307rOc6

Stop it Stop faking followers, users, trading volume, accounts, stablecoin supply, engagement, and TVL. Stop faking it. Blitzscaling all this vaporware is wrong. Your fraud chains have set us all back another 4 years. Build something that exists.

1/ What if you could have a horizontal layer for all DeFi emissions and yield, balanced out in some fashion by a decentralized investment committee that was financially motivated to get it right? Enter, @TokenReactor.

Fintech multiples getting a tiny bit better Consumer and crypto still crushed 2-3x

Ok #fintech and #defi friends for long take next week, should I do @OlympusDAO @TokenReactor analysis, defining DeFi 2.0, or Bitcoin ETFs and USDT paying off fines to the CFTC as signs of institutional adoption

DAOs are a case study in the economic incentive problems with public goods Free riding, tragedy of the commons, externalities Exciting to see how we get it fixed up through incentives

1/ Had a great time talking with Gene Hoffman, Chief Operations Officer and President at Chia Network. Formerly CEO & co-founder Vindicia, eMusic, PGP, PrivNet.

Investing is dangerous. It doesn't become safe just because you don't understand how markets work. It becomes less dangerous when you start to figure out how to assess risk, manage your emotions, and identify your goals before pulling the trigger.

Just gonna leave this as a reminder If your market timing strategy works, you are the exception Take care of yourselves

AI scammers just pulled off the most humiliating heist in cybersecurity history. Last week, 50 fraud prevention experts got scammed at their own security conference. All 50 experts fell for the same fake QR code. Here's how AI made this scam undetectable:

Interesting development in memecoin land. ZynCoin Meme Token Patches Things Up With Tobacco Giant Philip Morris The Fortune 500 firm initially demanded an end to the crypto named for its nicotine pouch, but backed down after realizing there was no entity to sue. coindesk.com/business/2024/0…

Burn the boats, anon There is no way back

Sorry to be celebrating the $100,000+ Bitcoin price. Sorry to be continuing to write about AI and Crypto to a fintech audience. Sorry I couldn’t stick to spreadsheets of private neobank economics. I know that’s what everyone wants, and I just want to keep singing this other song. I feel like I have to apologize because I grew up on Wall Street, and was socialized into its hierarchies and value systems. It is important to wear a suit every day at the esteemed Lehman Brothers. It is important to go to grad school and get an MBA, and maybe a JD. It is fancy to work in private equity and LBOs, that’s where the smartest people go. Institutions imply prestige, and so on. You are probably here because in some way you believe these things, were taught that thinking these things is how to be accomplished and successful. But remember, time changes everything. This is how success looked 500 years ago. So why do we still have to celebrate this? If we are being honest — like really honest about who is running the system — they look like this. We don’t have to like the kings to know who they are. Let the counter-reaction and the revolutions come. Of course they will come, as they do for everyone who pushes too much at the world. I know that to celebrate art, chaos, and anarchy is to invite ridicule from the Warren Buffets of the world. And that the heroes of our public stories are so often the villains in many private ones. When we swim about in the beautiful drunken stupor of the bubble, drowning in hallucinatory songs of the science fiction future, it is easy to celebrate what may come. When the bubble bursts and we have to pick up the pieces, explain what went wrong, and hide our tails, it is hard. The Luddites celebrate our defeat. But let’s be real — there is no worse trade than betting against the resilience and creativity of humankind.

Breaking: Your bank account is a donation to bank shareholders Meanwhile money market funds are yielding 4%+ Be smarter with your cash Move it to brokers Stop subsidizing banks Also, stablecoins are money markets.

This tech startup suddenly had $1 billion—and no bank account to put it in. No legal protections. No insurance. No safety net. Gnosis raised $15M in 2017, which ballooned to $1B—all stored outside traditional banking. What they did next changed everything about how you store your money :

Glitch art is a subversive response to the overwhelming dominance of technology. It's a window into understanding where digital disruption can break down In this thread, we explore the art of the glitch 🧵

1/ Why is the $ETH price going up? You don't need the meta narratives about whales or institutions or whatever. Just look at the fundamentals. 130 million addresses

Huge wasted opportunity Nobody benefits from the bureaucracy and politics of envy

The one chart to rule them all for those of you in #fintech and #crypto Revenue to Enterprise value for fintech down from 25x to 3x. 90% capital loss, without fundamentals moving. h/t @mikulaja

$20 Billion in #ICO funding leading to institutionalization of the #crypto ecosystem. But how and by whom? Our @AutonoFinTech 124 page analysis answers all and available for free. And @lathamwatkins put in a great regulatory overview! next.autonomous.com/crypto-u…

It’s like there’s a corporate bond refinancing wall coming

Excited to support @david_enim and @autonolas in their quest for fundamentals driven innovation across Crypto AI We are in the first inning of this game.

What drove @rleshner to create @compoundfinance, a multi-billion dollar DeFi lending protocol? In my latest podcast conversion, we about talked innovation under constraint, his original fascination with Ethereum smart contracts, and much more.

Financial advisors waste 15 hours per week on paperwork that adds zero value to clients. They don't want AI making investment calls. They want it to kill the meeting notes, compliance checks, follow-ups, and CRM hell. Here's the unglamorous AI shift that frees up your workweek:

What are the overlaps between generative AI and Web3?

Fintech as a core innovation trend is dying It’s the tech that drives disruption, not the fin If you’re a founder sketching out an idea in 2024 that has finance in it, but not crypto or AI rails, or targeting some other platform shift, then you’re building a PE multiples asset

1/ How did MetaMask become the entry point for many getting into crypto? In our latest podcast conversation, I talked with Daniel Finlay – a former Apple software developer, co-founder and co-lead developer on MetaMask.

Hey @cliza_ai launch this anonymous token. The OG hacktivist collective. Name: Anonymous Ticker: $ANON

1/ For those of you looking for evidence of a DeFi bubble, @BasedProtocol, provides good fodder. I think much deeper social, cultural, economic forces are at play extending from embedded finance to the very nature of the Internet. lex.substack.com/p/long-take…

Now that the dust has settled, what really happened when Robinhood suspended GameStop trading? Great recap by @CoinDesk coindesk.com/what-really-hap…

Institutions vs retail on Coinbase Blue is institutional Name your takeaway

Crypto lost $2.2 billion to hackers last year - it was the best thing that ever happened. Every theft exposed a weakness. Every collapse revealed a flaw. Every hack forced evolution. Now those painful lessons guard $4 trillion on-chain. Chaos taught crypto what 400 years of banking never discovered:

The emerging problems in banking-as-a-service, with Lex Sokolin and Will Beeson A 🧵

@0LNetwork lives on

1/ Let's explore an overarching framework for the M&A activity in the #fintech, big tech, and crypto ecosystems. In the article, we discuss acquihiring, horizontal and vertical consolidation, as well as the differences between growth and value oriented acquisition rationales.

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF Hits $1B AUM in One Week IBIT’s holdings consist of 99% bitcoin, and nearly $60,000 in fiat, data shows. via @CoinDesk coindesk.com/markets/2024/01…

This is the best evidence for robot lawyers Human minds cannot scale with the law. Robot minds will be the law.

Why did X turn off NFT profiles Why do I have to pay a subscription Why is engagement farming the core strategy here Why can’t I plug in my wallet and transact in app?

Exciting but deadly. Google is indexing #finance B2C What is left for #fintech ? For now, #defi, but for how long ? @efipm @UrsBolt @SpirosMargaris @psb_dc @RyanSAdams theverge.com/2020/11/18/2157…

The world is getting reordered The fruits of labor are powered by mathematics feeding on data, which is powered by hardware which eats energy Follow energy Follow data Follow hardware And watch what @peaq is doing

JPMorgan Sees Significant Capital From Existing Crypto Products Pouring Into New Spot Bitcoin ETFs The newly created ETFs could attract inflows of up to $36 billion from other crypto products like Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a report said. h/t @CoinDesk coindesk.com/markets/2024/01…

1/ The opportunities in the Web3/DAO CFO tech stack, compared to its Fintech counterparts In this week's Long Take we look at the analogy between the CFO technology stack and the potential tooling needed to run DAOs.

Wall Street just bet BIG on crypto's master plan. They've invested billions in crypto IPOs. Not despite the losses, because of the infrastructure play. These companies aren't just trading coins. They're building the future of money. Here's how crypto got Wall Street to fund its own extinction:

This is one of the most important takeaway charts for anyone working in financial services, fintech and and crypto. It comes from the excellent @FPrimeCapital report.

People say to be authentic But the more I speak in my own voice, rather than punchy algorithmic haikus, the less engagement there is The more complex the point or fine the argument, the less the machine cares to spread it Either I’m doing it wrong or there’s a gravity to make everything dumber

1/ Big week for enterprise #wealthtech. I pause to reflect on the sales of (1) @AdvisorEngine to Franklin Templeton and (2) the technology of @MotifInvesting to Schwab. lex.substack.com/p/long-take… @UrsBolt @efipm @SpirosMargaris @psb_dc @richardturrin

1/ Facebook is building towards a Metaverse version of the Internet, in both its hardware and software efforts. What are the implications?

1/ Software contracts and composability unlocking economic growth, with @agoric CEO @DeanTribble #podcast

Look at the numbers: • 1.4B unbanked globally • 70% smartphone penetration in emerging markets • Near-zero infrastructure costs for DeFi • No legacy systems to maintain Traditional neobanks can't compete with this math. DeFi is eating their lunch in real-time.

JPMorgan is developing a ChatGPT-like A.I. service that gives investment advice cnbc.com/2023/05/25/jpmorgan…

YouTube just turned Shorts into a playground for AI. Video ideas, Dream Screen, instant dubbing. Not replacing creativity, but scaling it to a global stage. Check out the latest on the Future Blueprint for the full breakdown.

Who are the experts at managing DAO or crypto fintech treasuries that you know? Want to start getting a crypto native investments group going for major participants Get better at understanding risk together

Crypto's UX is so broken that Stripe almost walked away. Seed phrases. Complex sign-ins. Confusing wallets. Now, billion-dollar fintechs are forcing the entire industry to rebuild. Here's the UX revolution happening right now:

1,800 criminals just got exposed using the scam that will explode in 2025. They cloned a CEO's voice with AI and stole $499,000 in one call. But when police raided them, they found something horrifying: The scammers were slaves, trapped in compounds, forced to steal. Here's the dark truth about who's really behind your next scam call:

There is an answer and that answer is slow wallets pioneered by @0LNetwork Native vesting contracts at the account level that have a long time horizon — think 10 years. Everything else about the crypto markets is programmatic, but we leave unlocks for legal documents and hoping for better human nature. Won’t happen.

Should banks fear Google's Fintech comeback?

Wealthfront bet everything on robo-advisors in 2011. 14 years later: IPO-bound with $351M revenue. The twist? 60% comes from cash accounts, not AI investing. Their numbers reveal a counterintuitive truth about the automation revolution:

I spoke with @houlgrave, CEO of @walletconnect. Her prediction about crypto's next cycle contradicts everything the industry believes. It's about something far more fundamental than better technology or faster chains:

There will be more value creation in building a global digital-native economy than in trying to reformat the past. Until the two are indistinguishable. That’s what I was trying to say to @TheEconomist

A new fundraising model raised $200M in 2 years without touching a single VC term sheet. Retail can invest. Founders keep control. Liquidity shows up fast. This shift could flip startup capital on its head:

1/ Looks like @GoldmanSachs is on a shopping spree, trying to build a #fintech powerhouse. So let's put on the CEO hat and go shopping for companies. Check out what I would do in this week's newsletter, and keep reading for more lex.substack.com/p/long-take…

Zero-sum thinking is killing Web3 Fighting for scraps while the real opportunity is 100x bigger Stop thinking about: • Stealing users • Copying protocols • Front-running launches The pie is infinite The game is positive-sum The future is collaborative Build bigger

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