#1 The Bull May Still Have Its Horns
WTF is a Blockchain, Crypto Market is Back, and Senate Debates Crypto
Welcome to the first edition of HAX Weekly, a private community newsletter delivered right to your inbox every Tuesday AM to help make you a more knowledgeable investor.
Our “1-2-3” format will make investing easy & fun to learn (plus help you crush):
1 investing/crypto concept explained in a way a 5 year old can understand
2 themes that we can’t stop thinking about
3 things (articles/tweets/memes/podcasts) that really hit the spot
PLUS community updates and the most recent episodes of HAX’s secure the podcast.
🔥, right?!
1 Concept 💡
WTF is a blockchain?
A blockchain represents the entire history of transactions for a cryptocurrency. Imagine a tower of legos, with each lego block representing the set of transactions that happened during a given time period. Every time a new lego block is added, it is “super-glued” to the top of the tower making it effectively impossible to remove or change prior lego blocks. With me so far?
Every cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc) has its own blockchain, and the blockchain is the SINGLE most important asset it owns. To ensure its survival, the blockchain is replicated across the entire network (every network node/miner has a copy): there is no master copy, instead everyone owns it.
Did this explanation help? Reply and let me know!
2 Themes On Our Mind 🤔
The crypto bull market isn’t dead - atleast not yet anyways! Bitcoin and Ethereum price has rallied ~50% and ~80% respectively over the past 2-3 weeks. Ppl within the community are comparing this cycle to the 2013 bull cycle, which included a run-up, a sizable pull-back, and then a face-ripping rally before its crash.
No one obv knows which way the market is going to go, but recent price action might indicate there is more (and potentially a lot) of upside left in this cycle.
The biggest news in crypto-land is the infrastructure bill that was voted on yesterday. After much debate, the US Senate passed regulations to make every participant in a Proof-of-Stake crypto network (which Ethereum will soon be) to report to the IRS. TLDR: if you hold ETH, you are a broker.
The guys at Bankless did a great job breaking this down here (I also loved Jake’s breakdown below on Twitter and Kyla’s Tiktok), and I tend to agree with them on this: 1) This initial regulation is worrisome but likely will evolve into something better over time, and 2) the fact that US Senators are talking about crypto and strict regulation didn’t tank the market in the short-term shows the staying power crypto has.
3 Things To Check Out 🔍
EIP-1559 was finally launched last week!!! This article offers a great summary of the changes that went live and their implications.
NFTs gone wild! Last week, Gary Vaynerchuk bought a CryptoPunk (one of the OG collections) for $3.76M!?!?! My natural reaction was to chalk this up to one big speculative bubble, but the Twitter thread below made me think about them differently (Packy also had a fun piece on NFTs representing status). NFTs represent culture and community, both of which will likely have HUGE long-term value accretion. While likely many of the NFTs today will go to zero, it’s clear to me that this is not a passing fad.
Miami will be launching MiamiCoin ($MC), which is a really unique way for cities to generate revenue for social works but also to ensure residents (and other speculators) have skin in the game for how the city functions. I think we’ll see more cities / countries do this over time (see article for more details)
BONUS: The way PartyDAO (which allows groups of ppl to pool their money together to buy NFTs via smart contracts) was built represents the potential of crypto:
Community Happenings
I’m so EXCITED to introduce Ben Bott and Clarissa Ramos, who will be leading HAX’s brand-building and social media efforts. Can’t wait to share some of their sick TikToks in future newsletters.
Kim had a great question in the AMA channel over the wknd:
TLDR: If you’re a Coinbase customer, use Coinbase Pro to make one-off purchases (fees are much lower). We recommend you store your long-term holdings in the Coinbase Vault product for added security.On Saturday night, HAX had its first NFT collab purchase #community. Brennan and Karthik both ape’d in (crypto slang for YOLO-ing into a purchase) to buying FLUF NFTs (one each). Here’s mine! TBD on if we HODL or sell - stay tuned!
Listen 🎧
In today’s episode, Paige Finn Doherty - a 22 yr old venture investor, children book author, and leading advocate of GenZ investing on Twitter (16K+ followers) shares:
What her perfect day looks like in her hometown of San Diego, CA
How the show "Silicon Valley" opened her eyes to venture investing as a career path
The shared "delusional optimism" amongst music artists and founders + her love for Kanye
How owning her advantage of youth led her to co-found her VC firm and why she believes young people everywhere should do the same.
Her personal mission to help 1,000 people make their first angel investment, 500 people organize syndicates and send 100 emerging managers (and her progress so far!)
Her dad's advice on the power of teaching someone else
This was fun to write. Until next time,
Karthik