Written by Julien Genestoux. Entrepreneur, Hacker, Investor & Advisor You should follow me on Bluesky and Farcaster
The Appchain thesis was wrong because, in the crypto world, the apps are assets. Blockchains are native marketplaces where specific assets settle, and every asset in the world will eventually move onchain.
The open web is under pressure from AI companies and large platforms, but its troubles did not start with AI. We also chose convenience over control, and we will have to change that if we want a better web.
Privacy matters, but not for the reasons you think. The real threat isn't surveillance—it's the algorithmic curation of your information diet that shapes what you think, believe, and do.
The dollar auction is a simple game that shows how perfectly rational decisions can lead to absurd outcomes. It also explains why we're seeing billions poured into AI, even when the math doesn't add up.
We are sharing why the Unlock Labs team is joining Relay, how it will help us serve builders, and what comes next for our community.
Did you know that your Uber driver has 2 jobs? One of them is to drive you to this fancy restaurant, and she's paid for it. The other, unbeknownst to her is to create "driving data" that will inevitably be fed to some kind of machine learning algorithm so that, eventually, a machine can take that job from her.
Or rather… stablecoins, not Bitcoin. I have been a long fan of Stable coins: in 2019, I pointed that they were a UX improvement over the volatile other crypto assets. Today, it looks like stable coins are taking the tech world by storm: Stripe acquired Bridge, Circle has filed for an IPO... and, both of these things from 2018 have happened, and of course, the GENIUS act is touted to bring the needed regulatory framework for these.
About 10 years ago, when Bitcoin started to emerge in the broader tech community, several folks started to think that blockchains themselves were more interesting and useful than Bitcoin. What these people missed at the time that the blockchains need a native asset to ensure their security. Blockchains like Bitcoin, but also Ethereum are secured, as much by cryptography as they are by economic incentives. A blockchain without a native asset has an "external" dependency which can be vulnerable and destabilize it.
There are many ways to think about Large Language Models, AI and conversational agents like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. I am increasingly convinced that they are in fact, a new kind of user interface, rather than a new kind of computer.
In a highly complex world, where we can only expect complexity to increase, it is dangerous to centralize decision-making, especially if these decisions are made by folks whose expertise is mostly about being elected... rather than governing.
