Musings on Technology
A personal collection of notes, reflections, and essays on technology, finance, and building — written over the years as I made sense of the ideas shaping our industry.
Stablecoins Cross $200 Billion — The Quiet Giant
Total stablecoin supply has crossed $200 billion — a new all-time high. While Bitcoin and Ethereum grab headlines, stablecoins are quietly becoming the most important product in crypto: settling trillions in annual volume, serving as the backbone of DeFi, and providing dollar access to billions in emerging markets.
OpenAI o1 and the Reasoning Breakthrough
OpenAI's o1 model introduces a new paradigm: chain-of-thought reasoning at inference time. The model thinks before it answers — spending compute on reasoning rather than just pattern matching. The implications for complex analysis, coding, and financial modelling are significant.
DeFi Governance Is Maturing — Slowly
DeFi governance has evolved from a chaotic experiment to a functional — if imperfect — system. Delegation, working groups, and professional governance participants are replacing the early days of whale-dominated voting. The progress is real. The challenges remain significant.
BlackRock Tokenises a Fund on Ethereum — The Signal Is Clear
BlackRock's BUIDL fund — a tokenised money market fund on Ethereum — has crossed $500 million in assets. The world's largest asset manager is not experimenting with blockchain. It is deploying on it. The implications for the tokenisation thesis are unmistakable.
The Agentic AI Wave Is Coming
AI is evolving from chatbots to agents — autonomous systems that can plan, execute multi-step tasks, use tools, and interact with the world. The shift from conversational AI to agentic AI will be the most consequential technology transition since mobile. And crypto infrastructure is uniquely positioned to serve it.
The Spot Ethereum ETF Is Approved — Faster Than Anyone Expected
The SEC approved spot Ethereum ETFs just four months after the Bitcoin ETF launch. The approval was unexpected — most analysts had predicted rejection. The decision validates Ethereum as an institutional-grade asset and opens the second-largest crypto asset to the same distribution channels as Bitcoin.
Stablecoin Legislation Finally Moves Forward
After years of debate, US stablecoin legislation is advancing through Congress with bipartisan support. The emerging framework would require issuers to hold full reserves, obtain federal or state licences, and submit to regular audits. It is not perfect — but it is progress.
The Fourth Halving: Bitcoin Enters Uncharted Territory
Bitcoin's fourth halving reduced the block reward to 3.125 BTC. For the first time, a halving occurs with spot ETFs creating structural demand. The supply-demand dynamics are unlike anything in Bitcoin's history.
Ethereum Dencun and the Layer 2 Fee Revolution
Ethereum's Dencun upgrade introduced proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), slashing Layer 2 transaction fees by 90-99%. Transactions on Arbitrum and Optimism now cost fractions of a cent. The scalability problem that has plagued Ethereum for years is being solved — not on the base layer, but above it.
Claude 3 and the New Frontier of AI Reasoning
Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus matches or exceeds GPT-4 on most benchmarks. The AI frontier is no longer a one-company race. Competition is driving capability improvements at a pace that is difficult to comprehend — and the implications for every industry are accelerating.