Sawasdee ton chao,
i’ve entered a new era i’m calling midcurve monk mode. its like monk mode, but dumber and holier. im deleting all apps on my phone and not investing in anything that doesn’t make me laugh, cry, or dissociate. no more decks, metrics. just vibes and a vaguely supernatural sense of conviction.
recently, the city gave us one (1) seductive, 71-degree breadcrumb of hope. the people flooded the streets like they’d just been released from cryogenic pods. there were ankles. there were collarbones. someone was bodying a magnum rose in shorts and a startup hoodie like winter had never touched him. a woman next to me whispered “it’s over” into her phone and i wasn’t sure if she meant cuffing season or the macro environment.
meanwhile everyones saying things like “maximize your wealth!” and “structure your assets efficiently!” but you see it’s tough to do that when you’re being whimsical with your friends and languishing in high-tax jurisdictions like new york city. but i’ve got a pragmatic underbelly. this morning, i stared at my effective tax rate and thought, “why?” and then i learned that in monaco, it’s zero. so naturally, i crafted a map of potential new homes, color-coded by tax efficiency, set to a loop of ambient cayman sounds, slowed to match my breathing. all that just to piece together my shattered psyche.
anyway, enjoy some mostly accurate reporting below.
xx, c
Farcaster introduced Tips - Once a week, they summarize the people on the network you interact with the most. You can opt-in to sending them a $1 USDC tip with a simple tap. Doodles unveiled DreamNet, a decentralized protocol for building shared story universes, powered by $DOOD. Worldcoin is expanding its offerings by integrating Visa functionality into its World Wallet. Noise announces partnership with Kaito AI to turn mindshare into tradable trends. Kaito AI announced a $KAITO creator rewards program starting in April, offering $5000 in their native rewards weekly to top and emerging Yappers. Circle has filed for an IPO. Trump sons launch new Bitcoin mining business called ‘American Bitcoin’ (lol). Simcluster is a new social game, basically a parallel twitter where all users and content are generative and you can now join the waitlist. Cheryl & LDF dropped Zero Knowledge EP.2 in collab with Uniswap.
2 girls.
3 entires.
10 tribes.
countless enemies.
and absolutely Zero Knowledge (EP2).
@cryptothegame_ @ldf_gm
a @seedclubhq production made possible by @uniswap
3 entires.
10 tribes.
countless enemies.
and absolutely Zero Knowledge (EP2).
@cryptothegame_ @ldf_gm
a @seedclubhq production made possible by @uniswap
41
The Cultural Compression of AI-Generated Content
last week, OpenAI's new image generation model sent the internet into an absolute frenzy with its Studio Ghibli-style portraits, demonstrating both the incredible power of new AI tools and our bizarre cultural metabolism that can digest trends in less than 24 hours. the virality wasn't accidental—running headfirst at controversial IP is clearly a good media strategy, especially when targeting nostalgic, beloved content from a creator openly anti-AI. what's fascinating is how Studio Ghibli captured absolutely none of the social and cultural value their brand generated over those chaotic hours, while OpenAI, Twitter, and various memecoins harvested all the attention.
the incident sparked renewed conversations about how crypto might value IP, with some arguing that a tokenized collection could have captured this memetic energy. Perhaps we could build a scarce set of non-fungible assets that act as a store of mimetic value to prevent the mumification of media. others argue that crypto is actually making attention's value legible, even if these cultural moments are increasingly short-lived. these discussions highlight a fundamental challenge: how do we connect social capital to financial systems in a way that properly rewards creators? whether through protocol-level licensing systems or more organic tokenization, the struggle to monetize cultural phenomena remains crypto's most tantalizing unsolved puzzle.
Studio Ghibli lost out on millions today.
Don't get me wrong, the world is far better with AI. AI empowers 8 billion people around the world - the teenager in Argentina, the aspiring artists in Kenya, the hobbyist in NYC.
But AI companies also use IP without compensation.
This
Don't get me wrong, the world is far better with AI. AI empowers 8 billion people around the world - the teenager in Argentina, the aspiring artists in Kenya, the hobbyist in NYC.
But AI companies also use IP without compensation.
This
Rethinking Token Economics Beyond Buy-and-Burn
the industry-wide love affair with buy-and-burn mechanisms is facing increased scrutiny as Messari released a piece outlining why blindly implementing programmatic token burning might be counterproductive. their critique highlights a programmatic token buyback fallacy with RAY, GMX, GNS, and SNX having programmatically bought back millions in tokens now worth way below cost. the core issues are threefold: 1) token burning is largely irrelevant to price action which is actually driven by revenue growth and narrative formation; 2) when revenues are strong and prices high, protocols end up spending more cash reserves to buy tokens at unfavorable prices; and 3) when price and revenue inevitably decline, these protocols lack excess capital to invest in innovation and restructuring while sitting on massive unrealized losses from buybacks now worth far below cost.
RAY, GMX, GNS and SNX have programmatically bought back millions in tokens which are now worth way below cost.
This is the programmatic token buyback fallacy:
1. Irrelevant to price action which is driven by revenue growth and narrative formation.
2. When revenues are strong
This is the programmatic token buyback fallacy:
1. Irrelevant to price action which is driven by revenue growth and narrative formation.
2. When revenues are strong
Token buybacks have failed to prevent sharp price declines (h/t @defi_monk)
this signals a broader maturation in crypto's approach to economic design, with projects increasingly learning from traditional market practices. saurabh at decentralised.co brilliantly categorizes crypto projects into lifecycle stages that mirror public companies: "explorers" (early-stage, still finding product-market fit), "climbers" (scaling with meaningful revenue between $10-50M annually), "titans" (established protocols with strong cashflow like uniswap or hyperliquid), and "seasonals" (hype-driven projects with unsustainable growth). only about 27 projects currently generate over $1M in monthly revenue, highlighting how premature most token buybacks actually are.
historical data from the s&p 500 shows younger companies typically lose money (66%) or reinvest rather than paying dividends (only 18% do), while mature businesses frequently distribute profits through both dividends (78%) and buybacks (82%). jupiter exemplifies this lifecycle-aware approach—promising buybacks only after achieving 10x user growth and maintaining a robust treasury first. similarly, aave initiated its "buy and distribute" program only after securing a $95M treasury, allocating $1M weekly without endangering operations.
it all reflects some growing sophistication around token economics, with an increasing focus on transparency that mirrors traditional investment relations practices. kyle (cited in the decentralised.co article) argues crypto desperately needs proper IR roles—for an industry built on transparency, most projects ironically provide little visibility into operations, with financial metrics selectively shared and expenses remaining opaque. when token prices consistently trend downward, users quickly lose interest in the underlying product unless it has already established a significant moat, creating a vicious cycle that only transparent communication and thoughtful value distribution can interrupt.
Ownership, Value Distribution, and the Future of Social Capital
crypto's fundamental promise of democratizing access to ownership in networks and protocols remains its most compelling narrative. Jesse Walden's recent thread highlighted two critical properties that make ownership tokens compelling: 1) connection to a movement people want to participate in, or 2) connection to a product people intuitively want to own—ideally both. infra projects often struggle in this uncanny valley without either quality, though some like Ethereum have successfully tapped into movement-based fervor.
Variant Thesis:
Ownership as keystone of user experience, bootstraps networks bigger faster.
Works best when:
1) There is a moral/normative imperative—a movement that people want to participate in. Skin in the game enhances belief, resulting in a more exciting/engaged
Ownership as keystone of user experience, bootstraps networks bigger faster.
Works best when:
1) There is a moral/normative imperative—a movement that people want to participate in. Skin in the game enhances belief, resulting in a more exciting/engaged
meanwhile, Tribute Labs is pushing this concept forward with ADIN, an AI agent designed to disrupt VC by analyzing startup decks and deploying investment decisions with greater efficiency and less human bias. what makes this approach particularly interesting is how it democratizes deal flow—anyone who submits a successful investment opportunity to ADIN receives 10% of the carry, creating powerful economics for network participants.
its great to see projects exploring how to align incentives across wider networks of stakeholders. whether through AI-enhanced investment DAOs or more nuanced token distribution mechanisms. the industry is gradually developing frameworks that might finally deliver on the promise of making ownership more accessible, participatory, and economically meaningful for all involved.
Live & online Fridays at 10am PT / 1pm ET.
This is the episode where Nat & I laughed the most in the history of Liquid Culture
Both @cherdougie + @ldf_gm are stars & were honestly such fun guests to have on together
We covered a lot about crypto (past, present & future) + went on some sidequests, check it out below
Both @cherdougie + @ldf_gm are stars & were honestly such fun guests to have on together
We covered a lot about crypto (past, present & future) + went on some sidequests, check it out below
training my children to be great prompt engineers.
there is a very specific heartbreak reserved for when you’re vibing with someone and then they say “i’m launching a social token to gamify intimacy”
everyone will be buddhist or schizophrenic in two years
babe are you ok? it’s q2 and you’ve barely touched your “q1 roadmap”
april fools day feels like this when you have a pure heart that’s open to believing
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https://paragraph.com/@seedclubhq/get-me-to-gods-country-literally-any-tax-haven
https://paragraph.com/@seedclubhq/get-me-to-gods-country-literally-any-tax-haven
"im deleting all apps on my phone and not investing in anything that doesn’t make me laugh, cry, or dissociate. no more decks, metrics. just vibes and a vaguely supernatural sense of conviction." this is the only feeling I am aiming for https://paragraph.com/@seedclubhq/get-me-to-gods-country-literally-any-tax-haven?referrer=0xA5D224B43EAB837aa2Ee9C6Ed727f1613f301A5E
new paragraph mini app fucks @colin Would love to highlight to quote and compose a cast feels like the copy links should definitely be changed to actions that actually cast or at least have that option when in mini app mode
Really like this idea!
Mind sharing more about the last piece? I always assumed people would just exit out of the mini app and then quote share the cast they got into the post from, but maybe there's a more elegant way to go about this... Love the idea of the quote cast.
Make the share button a cast intent url or have it as another option I wanted to quote something so my clipboard was already in use Then when I hit share it said copy link I was like fack
Invest in my life, it’s pretty funny