A Bird's Eye View
The practical case for DeFi: how decentralized finance addresses systemic risks, conflicts of interest, and inefficiencies in traditional banking.
Part 1: Logic
1. Digital Gold
Bitcoin as the first successful implementation of digital scarcity. Why a fixed supply matters, how it compares to gold, and the store of value thesis that drives institutional adoption.
2. Coins & Tokens
The taxonomy of digital assets: native cryptocurrencies, utility tokens, security tokens, governance tokens, and stablecoins. What distinguishes each type and why the distinctions matter legally and technically.
3. Self-Custody
"Not your keys, not your coins." Hardware wallets, seed phrases, multisig setups, and the mental models required to truly control your own assets. Lessons from exchange collapses.
4. The Unbanked
1.4 billion people lack access to banking. Crypto as an alternative path to financial participation: remittances, dollarization via stablecoins, and real adoption patterns in emerging markets.
5. DeFi
Decentralized finance: automated market makers, lending protocols, yield farming, and composable "money legos." The innovation is real; so are the smart contract risks and exploits.
Part 2: Lunacy
6. Launching a Chain
Everyone wants their own blockchain. The technical requirements versus the marketing reality, L2s and app-chains, and why most new chains probably shouldn't exist.
7. Easy Money
The psychology of speculation: FOMO, sunk cost, and "number go up" culture. Ponzi mechanics from Bitconnect to modern yield farms. Why smart people fall for obvious scams.
8. Misconceptions
Common myths debunked: "Bitcoin is anonymous" (it's pseudonymous), "crypto is only for criminals" (data says otherwise), "blockchain solves everything" (it usually doesn't), and the energy debate.
9. Getting Away With It
Pseudonymity versus anonymity. How blockchain forensics works, famous catches from Silk Road to the Bitfinex hack, privacy coins, mixers, and the cat-and-mouse with regulators.
10. True Fans
Beyond speculation: the genuine builders, open source ethos, and projects with real sustained usage. What separates builder culture from trader culture.
Part 3: Roadmap
11. Corporate Chains
Enterprise blockchain adoption: permissioned vs permissionless, the "blockchain not Bitcoin" narrative, supply chain and trade finance use cases. What's real versus vaporware.
12. Scalability Theater
The scalability trilemma and proposed solutions: rollups, sharding, state channels. TPS claims versus reality. Cutting through the marketing to see what actually works.
13. Tokenizing the Future
Real-world asset tokenization: real estate, securities, art, intellectual property. The technical standards, legal hurdles, and what's actually working versus theoretical.