Smart Contracts

As we enter another crypto winter, it has become de rigueur for tech types to go on record espousing that Web3 is nonsense, that blockchain is a terrible technology, and that cryptocurrencies (all of them) are Ponzi schemes. There is seemingly no end to the tweets and blog posts from highly credentialed people about tulips and "The Emperor's New Clothes" and greater fool theory. It's as if the technocrats want to make sure that they know that you know that they know that all things Web3 are technologically inferior to all things Web2. Are they right? Continue Reading →

One of the first (and still one of the best) use cases for tokenized assets (NFTs) on immutable public ledgers (blockchains) was fraud prevention. You could tokenize a physical item (make a "digital twin"), then follow (and authenticate) that item/token through its journey. Today, because NFTs (smart contracts) are easy to write, this is much easier to do. Continue Reading →

In World of Warcraft, a soulbound item, once picked up, cannot be transferred or sold to another player. It is this idea of “immutable, permanent binding” that inspired Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, to ask a question: What if NFTs could be soulbound? Continue Reading →

Greetings from NYC and happy Summer Solstice (to those who celebrate). NFT.NYC is in town this week, and to say that a "hard dose of reality" has hit the faithful would be to mischaracterize the vibe. People in the business know that the current market conditions are universal. They know that the underlying technology and associated business models are evolving, and they also know that – most importantly – the shakeout, while painful, is a required growing pain. Continue Reading →

What’s the best cryptocurrency to invest in? Will the value of this NFT go up? Is the DAO I’ve been thinking about worth joining? How much BTC should I buy? Is this stablecoin really stable? How much can I really earn from this Web 3 or metaverse “play to earn” game? After you get excited about a project, your next step should be a deep dive into its tokenomics – it’s the key to understanding the true value of any token-based investment. Continue Reading →

In 2000, almost $8 trillion of wealth vaporized when the dot-com bubble burst. It was a tough year for Wall Street, venture capitalists, and average retail investors. Why? The pundit parade did its best to explain the crash, but markets are complex systems (which makes them computationally unpredictable). So, in the end, the only thing we could be sure of was that $8 trillion had gone missing. What did we learn? Continue Reading →

This past week, I had the pleasure of spending time with several bankers, financial professionals, and business leaders. While everyone agreed that it's too early to make predictions about how the world of crypto, Web3, and DeFi are going to go, there was one common thread: to a banker, crypto looks like money. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Continue Reading →

It's the end of an era: New York City removed its last public payphone on Monday. The city began removing street payphones in 2015, replacing them with kiosks that offer free phone calls, Wi-Fi, and device charging. The boxy enclosures were once an iconic symbol across the city, but the rise of cellphones made the booths obsolete. Continue Reading →

I’m thrilled to announce the public beta launch of Metacademy: a free-to-use, risk-free, hands-on website that will teach you about blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, smart contracts, Web3, and other associated technologies. You’ll learn about the world of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi), the correct way to set up a crypto wallet, how to mint your own NFTs, and how to buy and sell them. Continue Reading →

This past week, DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) invited me to keynote at SportsInnovation 2022. With the football (soccer) pitch at Düsseldorf’s Merkur Spiel-Arena as the backdrop, rival teams played live games as various technologies were demonstrated in real time. Here’s a look at some of my favorite tech from the event. Continue Reading →