Why does bridging matter? By now, it’s clear that the future is multichain and omnichain. For example, L2 Beat now tracks nearly 60 active networks, with TVL having increased 5x over the past year alone. As more chains emerge, the need for seamless communication between networks becomes more important. From a user’s perspective, they shouldn’t have

What is Maker and DAI? The Maker Protocol is governed by the MakerDAO and is responsible for the creation and management of the DAI stablecoin. DAI is a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar and is backed by collateral assets that are locked in smart contracts. To gain a better understanding of decentralized stablecoins, see this blog po

Not only are stablecoins a leading use case driving crypto adoption around the world, but they’re a great medium for onramping funds onchain. As a user located in the USA, the ability to move my dollars onchain for free via Coinbase’s L2 is a killer feature. Why would I onramp any other way? Unfortunately, in Canada users don't have the luxury of o

Back in December, I started to read about Ethena and their ambitions to create a synthetically-backed fiat stablecoin that could act an an “internet bond” in its staked format. I shared some initial thoughts here. Now, several months after Ethena’s public launch and $3B in TVL later, I am suggesting that DAOs consider dedicating a portion of their

Starting Out as Toys Just like many other disruptive technologies that came before it, NFTs started out as toys. While the technology has been popularized as a means to own and flip digital art — think Crypto Punks and Bored Apes — NFTs represent a more serious shift in the way we attribute ownership online. NFTs effectively make the internet ownab

Will Balaji Be Right About The U.S. Economy? Often regarded as the most important asset in the world, the U.S. Treasury market is $25tn in size and sees hundreds of billions in volume traded on a daily basis. However, the government’s outstanding debt is now 5x larger than it was at the beginning of 2008, and Balaji isn't the only one warning us of

Crypto-Backed (Anchored) Stablecoins Unlike fiat-backed stablecoins, these tokens are often managed by decentralized protocols, relying on overcollateralization to maintain price stability. If that sounds confusing to you, keep reading. Referring back to the hypothetical XCAD token that I wrote about here, let’s assume I wanted to design it differe

Back to Basics Recently, I’ve started to look into some exciting projects that are pushing the boundaries of stablecoin design. For example, Ethena Labs is working on a synthetic dollar that preserves its peg by maintaing an equivalent short position on its LST assets. As I started to read up on these types of projects, it didn’t take me long to re

An Intro to Ethereum’s Proof of Stake Network As of September 2022, Ethereum is now a proof of stake network, which reduced its energy usage and carbon footprint by 99.99%. Under this design, node operators (humans) will run validator client software on dedicated hardware devices. In turn, validators (software) are responsible for correctly proposi

.SWOOSH Is the Home for Nike’s Virtual Creations Since launching in late-2022, Nike’s .SWOOSH platform has experimented with new ways to distribute digital ownership across its customer base at scale. In the process, thousands of users have interacted onchain in order to collect virtual wearables that have utility both online and offline. Initially