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.
2022: The Year of Reckoning
Luna. Three Arrows. Celsius. Voyager. FTX. The crypto industry lost over $2 trillion in market value and its most prominent leaders to fraud and insolvency. But the technology survived. DeFi worked. And the builders kept building. A year-end reckoning.
The FTX Collapse: Crypto's Darkest Week
FTX — the third-largest crypto exchange, valued at $32 billion — collapsed in five days. Customer funds were missing. The founder was arrested. And the crypto industry's credibility suffered its most devastating blow. This is what happened, and what it means.
The EU Passes MiCA — Crypto Gets Its First Comprehensive Framework
The European Union has passed the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation — the world's first comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto. MiCA provides clarity on stablecoins, exchanges, and token issuance. It is imperfect, but it is real — and it gives Europe a head start.
Real-World Assets: The Next DeFi Frontier
As crypto-native yields collapse, DeFi is turning to real-world assets — Treasury bills, corporate bonds, real estate, and trade receivables — as a source of sustainable yield. The convergence of DeFi and traditional finance is no longer theoretical. It is happening.
The Merge Succeeded — Now What?
Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake is complete. The Merge executed flawlessly — no downtime, no bugs, no chain splits. Energy consumption dropped 99.95% instantly. The most ambitious upgrade in blockchain history is done. The next chapter begins.
The Merge: Ethereum Moves to Proof of Stake
After years of research, development, and delay, Ethereum's Merge is imminent. The transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake will reduce energy consumption by 99.95%, cut ETH issuance by 90%, and fundamentally change the network's economic model. It is the most significant upgrade in blockchain history.
Bitcoin at $20,000 Again — But Everything Is Different
Bitcoin has fallen back to $20,000 — the same price as the 2017 peak. But the ecosystem around it is unrecognisable. The infrastructure, the institutions, and the regulatory landscape have all matured. The price is the same. Nothing else is.
The Tornado Cash Sanctions and the Fight for Code
The US Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash — a privacy protocol on Ethereum. Not a company. Not a person. A smart contract. The precedent is extraordinary: the government has declared that interacting with open-source code is a sanctionable offence.
DeFi Survived. CeFi Did Not.
As centralised crypto lenders collapse one after another, the DeFi protocols they borrowed from continue to function perfectly. Aave liquidated positions. Compound processed repayments. MakerDAO adjusted parameters. The code worked. The humans did not.
The Contagion Spreads: Three Arrows, Celsius, Voyager
The Luna collapse was not an isolated event. It was the first domino. Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and Voyager — firms managing billions — are now insolvent or teetering. The contagion reveals a shadow banking system built on leverage, opacity, and misplaced trust.