Read this first
- Introducing Seaport Protocol: Ben Evans gets the credit for inspiring this week’s title. (If you don’t read his newsletter, I strongly recommend it.) He highlighted this announcement, observing this is one example of how much plumbing really needs to get built to take blockchains to a “mass-scale development model.”
- Bitcoin has no future as a payments network, says FTX chief: I remain skeptical of blockchains-as-currency. Apparently, I’m not alone (duh).
- Why This Computer Scientist Says All Cryptocurrency Should “Die in a Fire”: This is… an aggressive stance, but worth reading even if you’re a true believer. Good background on key attributes of our current financial system (the normal one, not the crypto one). It also serves as another very good list of things that need to get fixed (plumbed, if you will) before we’ll see any megascale crypto opportunities.
- Introducing the 2022 State of Crypto Report: This is the bull case for Crypto.
Reads
- Frédéric Arnault talks Tag Heuer, Web 3.0 and NFTs: Some interesting background on the luxury watch business, and a tiny bit about NFTs.
- Apple’s hidden setting instantly makes your video and audio calls sound better: Another good tip.
- The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers: Not really a tech story, but I thought this was worth sharing in light of the conversation stirring up around Elon Musk’s Twitter bid. History is really complicated because societies are really complicated. Moderation is therefore complicated. This beautifully (though slightly annoyingly) rendered story from the Times illuminates some of those hidden layers in one particular bit of history. It’s never just corruption or just bots or just free speech.
- Making the metaverse: What it is, how it will be built, and why it matters: Nick Clegg, Meta’s (Facebook’s) president of global affairs (and former UK Deputy PM…) wrote this massive essay on how Meta thinks about the metaverse. Worth skimming.
Code & Tools
- Tailscale: I meant to link to this weeks ago, but I’ve been impressed with this service. It’s a VPN service that’s is entirely peer-to-peer in it’s topology. Clever conceptually, and potentially very interesting if they can make it enterprise friendly. I do run my own Wireguard server at home, but I’ve been playing with Tailscale and am debating if I should move more use cases over.
Maker & Home Automation
- Hot glue tip from Adafruit: You can clean it up with isopropyl alcohol, which I didn’t know. That makes it useful as temporary cushion, which I also didn’t know. Nice tips.
- Menlo Micro switches on an opportunity for its tech to be in every device you touch: I’m currently reading Fadell’s book, Build. He’s mentioned his investment into Menlo Micro in a few interviews, which launched me into a mini rabbit hole about relays and why they’re so big. I’ve taken apart my share of smart plugs (in order to flash open source firmware onto the MCU)… the relay is easily the biggest thing in the case, let alone on the circuit board. Never thought about their power consumption. I hope this tech is for real. Could be huge.
