The Control - Issue #26
The total market value of Bitcoin surpassed $100B this week. Bitcoin is now worth more than Goldman Sachs and Nike (among a long list of well known blue chip companies) and the total market value of digital assets as a whole is over $173B
While the asset class is growing, it's important to understand what is actually underlying the assets. In my view, there's not nearly enough discussion about the decentralized organizations powering these assets. Without the organizations, the assets have no value.
Read more this week on The Control: "The Slow Death of the Firm."
Required viewing this week
Video: Blockchain Primer by Balaji Srinivasan
Last week, Balaji gave a great talk to a bunch of bankers at Credit Suisse. As the masses continue to flock to public blockchains and tokens, Wall Street is likely to follow.
Token Summit II San Francisco (December 5th) — www.youtube.com
The first Token Summit in May in NYC was a lot of fun. William Mougayar and I just announced Token Summit II in San Francisco on December 5th. Get your tickets at the Early Bird price before they sell out.
Basecoin Revealed: A16z, MetaStable Seek Crypto Holy Grail With Stable Token — www.coindesk.com
A coin that has the volatility similar to something like USD combined with the decentralization of something like Bitcoin is a holy grail in the crypto space. Basecoin is one of the more interesting projects working on it. Read more here.
On Medium-of-Exchange Token Valuations
Bitcoin and the majority of the most well known tokens today are usage tokens or "medium-of-exchange" tokens as Vitalik calls them. This piece highlights the fact that for valuations to sustain or increase, usage isn't enough; there needs to be "sinks" (fees that burn tokens or reasons to hold).
Global Messaging Token Launch Update: Initial Registration Results and Individual Cap — medium.com
Mercury has its token distribution event next week and the team has made the token (GMT) as accessible to as many people as possible while also providing transparency on pricing (unlike the vast majority of token distribution events to date).
This newsletter is curated by 1confirmation, an early stage crypto fund that supports founders fueling the decentralization of the web and society