HN user
[ my public key: https://keybase.io/hectorr; my proof: https://keybase.io/hectorr/sigs/WgqfTI5wB_elIGOOmGCWXfbqE5gnQXMf1dSooz3DdwI ]
This is the hard part:
the only thinking you'll have to do is how to manage your private keys securely.
But it’s also the fun part, because it’s the first time you really need persistent end-user key management. Obviously a hard problem, but there’s a ton of money on the line if you solve the UX. And imagine what else you can do once we’re not relying on passwords and federated auth.
While this may have been an unfortunate reality in previous eras, today we can get much better information from researchers and practitioners.
Most successful people have X.
Government: “Let’s give everyone X!”
Over time the value of X is diluted, loses its status signaling, and overall quality degrades.
Successful people move to Y.
Which is clearly why the U.S. is such a terrible environment for starting new businesses.
Tether is the FUD that never stops giving, anyone remember Bitfinexed from 2017?
Do people try to manipulate price? Of course they do. Sometimes it works, retail investors get excited and pile in. Sometimes it doesn't, and whales get rekt. Markets are messy.
How do we fix this? Stop barring Bitcoin companies from working with mainstream banks, and USDT volume will dry up.
And, why do they need to be productive?
Because the entire global economy is premised on having enough growth to pay off the debt incurred by previous generations. If people choose to be less productive the whole edifice comes crashing down.
Matthew Green had a good thread on this: https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/11906745637740093...
Doesn't once mention First Amendment protections. Code is speech, and the internet is the press. This is an attempt to ban an idea.
It's not hard - just build more housing. Prop 13 and local politics make this so much harder than necessary.
Usable cryptography.
iPhone-level UX for private key management.
People care about privacy, and more are willing to pay for it. There is a massive opportunity for direct monetization through cryptocurrency users, and the things you could build when this problem is solved...
The US military sells itself on being incredibly capable thanks to developing and fielding cutting edge weapons technology.
It is actually capable because it is extremely effective at logistics and maintenance.
Very few people turn that down, and even fewer are capable of running $100B companies. But those who are in the second camp are also probably in the first camp, because being an effective CEO requires the irrational confidence of first believing you are an effective CEO with limited evidence.
It's a little tautological, but the fact that they took it means they probably wouldn't have succeeded.
If you want a quick primer on buoyancy physics and ship design, Marine Insight has a good writeup:
https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/intact-stab...
As the article mentioned, wave action will cause the center of gravity (CG) of the liquid to shift, and with it the overall ship's CG. This puts the ship in a new stable equilibrium heeled over to that side. If the compartment isn't dewatered, this process can repeat until the 'stable' equilibrium includes upper decks taking on sea water. CG shifts up, righting arm becomes flipping arm, hull experiences stress beyond tolerances, breaches kill remaining buoyancy, and down she goes.
By the way, the easiest way to tell if a ship is in danger of hitting critical (aka neutral aka very very bad) stablility, watch how long it takes to rock from side to side. A ship that has an excessively long roll period and appears to be hanging to one or both sides can in serious danger.
I don't think that the distinction between art and technology stands up to scrutiny. Both are iterative creative processes, and we want to empower future generations of both artists and technologists to build their ideas in a way that advances the current stack. Allowing art to be balkanized with excessive copyright hurts cultural development. And we depend on culture to shape everything, including our current environment that fosters technical innovation.
No, but Google needs to worry about a much more important constituency. There are not that many people who know how to build something like this.
Most are probably wealthy, to the point they don't really need to work. All of them can figure out how to covertly contact journalists. And at least a few of them are starting to have qualms about the negative consequences of industry ignoring the social implications in pursuit of profit.
In my experience, the people who go for the extra money in derm and ortho don't need it from a wealth perspective, but often need it from a social and self-worth perspective.
Over time this dynamic translates into to the prestige gap.
Sanger's Confront and Conceal has a great chapter on Stuxnet / Olympic Games as well.
Messari | Infrastructure Engineer, Designer, Research Analyst | NYC | Full-Time | On-Site | https://messari.io/
Messari is a venture-backed startup building open data for cryptoassets. Our mission is to promote transparency and smarter decision-making within this emerging ecosystem by building a free, global, and open-source data library for cryptoasset projects.
We think crypto is great, but there are way too many scams. We want to give investors the tools to separate the wheat from the chaff, and apply new models for open source contributions and self-regulation to financial services along the way.
We are looking for a few talented team members:
- Infrastructure engineer to help design, architect, and build our scalable data systems. Experience working with blockchain data is great, but this will be a boring old low-latency, high capacity centralized database for the foreseeable future.
- Web UI/UX Designer to take ownership of the UI/UX vision for our product in its entirety, and drive it from ideation to implementation. Our standard is 'so easy a regulator can grock it', so you'll have your work cut out for you.
- Research analyst to create thematic and macro focused reports for the cryptoasset industry, and help launch our curated content products.
This is an ideal opportunity if you are interested in crypto, but turned off by some of the excesses in the industry. We are an experienced, mission driven team looking to drive the asset class forward. Our team has a mix of startup and institutional experience at Microsoft, Palantir, Bloomberg, Tower Research, Digital Currency Group, Coindesk, JP Morgan, S&P, and the SEC.
Please send your resume and a quick note introducing yourself to hector@messari.io
angel.co/messari/jobs
And your life depends on your gear.
Messari | Infrastructure Engineer | NYC | Full-Time | On-Site
Messari is a venture-backed startup building open data for cryptoassets. Our mission is to promote transparency and smarter decision-making within this emerging ecosystem by building a free, global, and open-source data library for cryptoasset projects.
We think crypto is great, but there are way too many scams. We want to give investors the tools to separate the wheat from the chaff.
We are looking for a few talented team members:
- Infrastructure engineers to help design, architect, and build our scalable data systems. Experience working with blockchain data is great, but this will be a boring old low-latency, high capacity centralized database for the foreseeable future
- Smart contract developers to help build our TCR in Solidity
- Full stack engineers to help manage the site
- Can't code, but like to hang out on HN? We're also looking a junior research analyst and an ops associate.
This is an ideal opportunity if you are interested in crypto, but turned off by some of the excesses in the industry. We are an experienced, mission driven team looking to drive the asset class forward. Our team has a mix of startup and institutional experience at Microsoft, Palantir, Bloomberg, Tower Research, Digital Currency Group, Coindesk, JP Morgan, S&P, and the SEC.
Please send your resume and a quick note introducing yourself to hector@messari.io
angel.co/messari/jobs
Kalanick is a giant asshole, but also built an incredible company. He then proceeded to nearly destroy it out of arrogance. So did Jobs during his first stint as CEO.
Look at the heat Musk and Zuckerberg are taking these days. We would probably have a much different view of Jobs if he was in his prime in the social media era.
Why are drones too expensive? When you consider pilot cost and risk it seems like you should be able to get a ton of savings.
Seems like you could build a drone that meets your other specifications. You can either spend the saved lbs on more armor and weapons, or make the aircraft lighter for even shorter takeoff.
My cynical view is that too many people wearing stars grew up in the cockpit, and are still fixated on human pilots. If a remote drone manager in Henderson can handoff a CAS asset to your control, why do you need a human pilot in the mix?
Everything else you buy on your credit card has an expected future value of $0.00.
Why shouldn't you be able to buy things with arguably non-zero EFV as long as you are in good standing on interest and principal?
Messari | Software Engineer | NYC | Full-time | ONSITE | 105-175k + equity DOE
Messari is a venture-backed startup building open data for cryptoassets. Our mission is to promote transparency and smarter decision-making within this emerging ecosystem by building a free, global, and open-source data library for cryptoasset projects.
We think crypto is great, but there are way too many scams. We want to give investors the tools to separate the wheat from the chaff.
We are looking for a few talented developers:
- Infrastructure engineers to help design, architect, and build our scalable data systems. Experience working with blockchain data is great, but this will be a boring old low-latency, high capacity centralized database for the foreseeable future
- Smart contract developers to help build our TCR in Solidity
- Front-end and full stack engineers to manage the site
This is the ideal opportunity for a talented engineer who is interested in crypto, but turned off by some of the excesses in the industry. We are an experienced, mission driven team looking to drive the asset class forward. Our team has a mix of startup and institutional experience at Microsoft, Palantir, Bloomberg, Tower Research, Digital Currency Group, Coindesk, JP Morgan, S&P, and the SEC.
Please send your resume and a quick note introducing yourself to hector@messari.io
angel.co/messari/jobs
How much of Uber was simply rediscovering things that the taxi industry had already found?
That sounds really boring and depressing.
I got a job in crypto on Twitter.
There was a lot more to it, but the conversation that led to the offer started when I replied to a tweet.
The main implication of hyperconnectivity is the breakdown of physical borders as the most meaningful cultural boundaries. It has actually been happening for a while when you consider the rise of air power, ICBMs, broadcast communications, the internet, etc.
The Army is fundamentally a real estate focused organization - their role is to take and hold territory.
The Navy is about slow influence - control of the seas allows you can deploy and retract the threat of physical violence depending on the political situation.
The Air Force is about the ability to deliver devastating violence on space-age timelines. But they still require targets.
My cautiously optimistic view is that these forms of violence become far less relevant when geography is no longer the key dividing line in tribal affiliation. You will see a rise in low level violence, and that will be associated with a decline in the primacy of the nation state. But it will reduce the risk of globally devastating conflict.
When did you find out about cryptocurrency?
Because this has already happened in 2014-2016. It happened before that too. Each time the speculative bubble rises, it is being driven at first by improvements to the tech and/or ecosystem. Then it gets a life of its own, goes crazy, and runs out of gas. But along the way, more people learn about it and decide they care enough to continue the project.
Even if you are only in it for the money, the tech matters. Because the closer you are to the tech, the better you understand where the long term value will be, and when the price has outrun that value.