Crypto Curious is off this week for our annual summer break, just chilling in Europe with all of the venture capital industry. Crypto has been relatively quiet anyway. Notably, Ethereum is up 26% in the past week, driven in part by optimistic news about its transition to the more energy efficient Proof of Stake model (we’ll definitely cover this more in future issues).
As an alternative for this issue, I’ll give you some summer reading: a short selection of some of the more interesting cornerstone pieces on crypto. Each of these writings are at least four years old, but they remain some of the best foundational pieces.
🟢 The Bullish Case for Bitcoin by Vijay Boyapati
Quite long (but scannable), this treatise remains the best summary of Bitcoin, its characteristics and its potential as a monetary good. You don’t have to buy in to 100% of it, but if you read it and really understand it, you’ll have a better comprehension of Bitcoin than 99% of the population.
🟦 Why Decentralization Matters by Chris Dixon
The main point of crypto is that instead of having centralized gatekeepers like Google and Facebook that control all data, decentralized networks create a fundamentally different structure and a new set of challenges and opportunities. In many cases, the initial solutions are inferior, but over time, decentralization has some unique advantages.
◆Fat Protocols by Joel Monegro
While the “Fat Protocols” thesis has come under some pressure lately, it remains an interesting thought process about how value may accrue differently in crypto. Because data is centrally controlled in the traditional web, all of the value flows to the companies that control that data. With data pushed to the edges in a decentralized world, it may instead be the protocols themselves that accrue value.
Hopefully, these should keep you busy on the beach until next time.