centralization

From Dominance to Compliance

Last Tuesday saw Binance settle its long-running legal disputes with several U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). However, they failed to reach an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding their pending charges. As part of the settlement, Binance has agreed to pay an eye-popping fine of $4.3 billion. Furthermore, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, will step down

Walking the Tightrope

As we stand on the verge of a new era in crypto, it’s crucial to reaffirm the importance of decentralization. Beyond being a mere aspiration, decentralization serves as the lifeblood of the crypto world, standing as the pivotal force that draws the line between freedom and control. Amidst the hype surrounding the impending approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States, accompanied by the influx of capital from behemoths like BlackRock, the immediate market surge raises a serious question for the future of crypto. Are people here for

Paribus. Trust Less.

One month ago, Jerome Powell, head of the Federal Reserve in the US, announced that the banking system was sound and robust despite the collapse of several large banks. After raising rates a further 0.25%, he said, “We’re committed to learning the lessons from this episode and to work to prevent events like this from happening again.” As we prepare for another potential 0.25% rate hike on May 3rd, another major bank in the US, First Republic Bank, has collapsed. Its collapse is part of a larger trend of consolidation

The Four Quadrants of MEV Protection

Understanding the MEV Solution Landscape Like many other crypto narratives, the dark side of blockchain was first introduced on Reddit in a post titled “Miners Frontrunning.” In the now historical post, the author outlines how given the Ethereum mempool is inherently public, miners can frontrun transactions and profit on the ultimately arbitraged difference in that transaction. However, this isn’t an entirely new phenomenon in finance. The 2014 book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis investigates frontrunning orders in high-frequency trading. The paper Flash Boys 2.0, published in 2019, takes these observations into

The Central Problem

The black swan events of LUNA and FTX that have so far characterized crypto in 2022 left many in the space wondering how we got here. What began as a quiet revolution focused on decentralization and financial sovereignty has been corrupted by greed and the centralization of power and control. If crypto has any hope of a future it can only be found in reaffirming the central tenets of decentralization and financial sovereignty. While the media claim these problems are the fault of a lack of regulation it’s worth considering