Canadian builders are shovel ready. @CMCC_Global Co-founder @BlockchainRI Author: Web3, Blockchain Revolution Host: @DeFiDecodedpod
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Alex Tapscott retweeted
my very quick post-election data center friendliness review:
major lynchpins of the DC buildout – TX, OH, WI, MI, and GA – elected governors who have explicitly pledged moratoria
other less relevant states also slammed the door shut.
there are, it's worth noting, five newly-elected governors who are pro DC (in FL, TN, SC, WY, and OK). there is exactly one who is explicitly more DC than his predecessor – Byron Donalds in Florida.
TLDR: there are still places to build, but the likely loss of TX, OH, and GA will be felt dearly.
This is so fun!
Follow along 👇
I'm drawing Toronto as one big isometric illustration, a homage to SimCity 2000. This is the first block: King & Bay up to the Eaton Centre.
I'm using Tiny London's method (tiny.london/how): a big model draws examples, a small one learns from them and draws the city.
Alex Tapscott retweeted
US voters just rejected data centres everywhere they got the chance.
That investment has to land somewhere.
Clean hydro. Open land. Cold winters.
That's Canada 🇨🇦
This is a massive opportunity for us. Generational.
Pacing the frontier is good for big tech. Less capex = more profit/FCF.
Reminds me of 2023, aka the "year of efficiency" when they slashed costs and stocks ripped.
A few thoughts post-midterms on Canada, the impact on the AI buildout, and the future of crypto:
On Canada: Turns out picking a fight with your closest ally and largest trading partner is a pretty dumb idea. Voters, especially in border states, made Trump pay.
So what now?
Canada is stronger with a close trading relationship with the U.S. We'll almost certainly get a better deal now than we would have before, vindicating our PM's strategy.
But we can't take our foot off the gas. We need to accelerate.
Anyone who doesn't see that Donald Trump is one of the best things ever to happen to Canada is missing the bigger picture. My worry is that, with Trump weakened, our ambition fades and the voices calling for a return to the status quo get louder.
We can't let that happen.
Let's focus on what we can control, build what we need to build, and get on with it.
On AI: I think fears of a Democrat-induced AI slowdown are overblown. AI is too critical to the economy. Do they really want to inherit a country in 2028 in the girps of a recession?
But if data centre projects south of the border do get shelved or delayed, let's bring them north.
Canada has abundant power, land, and a highly skilled workforce. There is a stronger political consensus that AI and data centres are good for the economy and local communities, along with clear federal guidance on how to build them responsibly. Citizens need more convincing so let's make the case.
On Crypto: The industry went all-in on the Republican Party. Now it has to rebuild trust with lawmakers on the other side of the aisle.
Fortunately, crypto is (and always has been) a bipartisan issue among American voters, who want a better, fairer, faster financial system.
The industry's job over the next two years is to make that case clearly. And the best way to do it isn't through lobbying or political donations. It's by building useful products, like stablecoins, that actually improve people's lives.
They have two years to prove it.
Meanwhile, Canada is implementing new stablecoin rules that broadly track the U.S. approach. But we can go further. If we want to safeguard our currency and strengthen our financial system, we need to build our own blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
A final thought on our government's historic and important investment in @cohere:
In the 19th century, Canada had one of the biggest rail networks in the world.
But it wasn't Canadian.
The Grand Trunk Railway was financed largely by British investors and controlled from London, connecting Chicago with the American Atlantic coast through the heart of Canada.
Today’s global tech giants are the new Grand Trunk.
They operate here, extract value, and enrich foreign shareholers. They can also suspend service or build elsewhere.
Canada is a bypass. We are renters, at best.
If you don't own your infrastructure you're not truly sovereign.
This is just as true today for AI as it was for the railways 150 years ago.
That's why we built the CPR.
It was Canadian-owned and built to open our Western frontier to global markets, while securing our place on the continent.
Why am I bringing this up?
The CPR only happened because of the leadership of the political class working together with private interests to attract world-class talent and huge amounts of foreign capital to actually build the thing.
When you're doing something big, you need all hands on deck. The builders of the railway understood this.
Today, @cohere is following a similar playbook, and predictably, catching a lot of flack.
Agian, this is nothing new. The CPR was once called "McDonald's folly" by contemporary haters, who questioned the expense and effort it would take.
Boy were they wrong.
The builders saw things differently. Infrastructure expanded the realm of possibility. If you build it, they will come.
So, once again, let's build it together.
If you're interested in the history of the CPR and what it can teach us about our current moment, check out this piece I wrote for @BetaKit for Canada Day this year:
betakit.com/ai-can-be-the-fi…
Great op-ed by my friend @ericrichy in the Globe today.
Blockchain is transforming how we move, manage, and invest in assets of every kind. Its potential extends far beyond crypto as an asset class.
Combined with AI, it will be the financial operating system of the agentic economy.
It deserves to be treated as the strategic opportunity it is.
Canada was once a global leader, helping give rise to Ethereum, the blockchain that demonstrated how this technology could become a platform for virtually any asset.
We have an opportunity to reclaim that leadership and build on it.
Please give this a read.
See my op-ed in today’s @globeandmail on why Canada needs to move faster on crypto regulation.
We still rely on staff notices and case-by-case exemptions, while the EU and UK give industry clarity. With 1/4 Canadians owning digital assets, it's time to catch up.
Read the full op-ed here: theglobeandmail.com/business…
Alex Tapscott retweeted
Canada has a lot going right for it. There’s a lot of doom and gloom, but young Canadians need to understand there is an enormous amount of opportunity all over the place. Optimism is the thing that will generally win.
— @ddebow, Founder of Debow Musical Instruments
Episode 253: Born to Build: Companies, Canada, and a New Musical Instrument with Serial Entrepreneur Daniel Debow
@alextapscott @ddebow @CMCC_Global
0:00 Introduction
3:12 Daniel as a “company producer”
4:30 What he looks for in founders: Ambitious Adventurers
6:08 Canada’s history of bold adventurers and naming after Leo Fender
8:20 How he became an entrepreneur at Workbrain
10:27 Six years scaling at Shopify
14:11 Shopify’s ecosystem and agentic commerce
16:12 His first instrument and his band, the Screenagers
20:16 Why most people quit music
23:00 Introducing Torch: a first song in seven minutes
26:19 The first prototype and how Torch makes sound
28:15 Building hardware vs. software
32:31 The market opportunity and the subscription model
37:54 Why applications build platforms
43:45 Why Daniel started Build Canada
49:32 Build Canada’s polls, surveys and growing influence
53:06 How AI will change the way people govern themselves
57:19 Growth, GDP and why Canada should aim for number one
1:00:28 Closing message: optimism and opportunity in Canada
It's easy to see a story like this and keep scrolling.
But if these allegations are true, we're looking at massive fraud at taxpayers expense.
Meanwhile, the Ontario government was asleep at the wheel even as warning signs mounted.
Please read.
Another bombshell on the billion dollar OSAP scandal.
Over 8,300 OSAP applications came from just THREE IP addresses. The Ford government was warned as early as 2023 and received over 220 tips, complaints and referrals since January 2024.
They had the warnings. They refused to act until Oct 2026. Now students are paying the price.
We need a full forensic audit.
cp24.com/politics/queens-par… #onpoli
Shared my thoughts on the Binance hack for @CTVNews
Crypto hacks are the canary in the coal mine and a harbinger of what’s to come for banks and other institutions.
The risks only grow with AI
New @defidecodedpod is out!
I've been looking forward to this conversation with @ddebow for a long time.
Dan is one of Canada's most prolific entrepreneurs, investors and thinkers, with a hand in some of the country's biggest tech success stories.
He's been called the "Forrest Gump" of Canadian tech because whenever something big happens, he seems to be in the room.
But I think he's more like Quincy Jones: bringing the right people together and helping them create something none could have built alone.
Dan co-founded Workbrain, Rypple (acquired by Salesforce) and Helpful (acquired by Shopify, where he spent six years).
He's also one of Canada's most active angel investors, with early cheques in more than 50 companies, including Wealthsimple, Clio, SkipTheDishes and Dominion Dynamics.
Today, as founder and chair of @buildcanada where he's helping shape the debate about Canada's economic future with a pro-growth agenda focused on backing builders and unlocking our country's potential.
And his latest venture, Debow Musical Instruments, brings together his talent for building businesses and his lifelong love of music. Its first product, Torch, is a new electronic instrument designed to make playing music more accessible and bring families together.
A fascinating, wide-ranging conversation.
Don't miss it!
Episode 253: Born to Build: Companies, Canada, and a New Musical Instrument with Serial Entrepreneur Daniel Debow
@alextapscott @ddebow @CMCC_Global
0:00 Introduction
3:12 Daniel as a “company producer”
4:30 What he looks for in founders: Ambitious Adventurers
6:08 Canada’s history of bold adventurers and naming after Leo Fender
8:20 How he became an entrepreneur at Workbrain
10:27 Six years scaling at Shopify
14:11 Shopify’s ecosystem and agentic commerce
16:12 His first instrument and his band, the Screenagers
20:16 Why most people quit music
23:00 Introducing Torch: a first song in seven minutes
26:19 The first prototype and how Torch makes sound
28:15 Building hardware vs. software
32:31 The market opportunity and the subscription model
37:54 Why applications build platforms
43:45 Why Daniel started Build Canada
49:32 Build Canada’s polls, surveys and growing influence
53:06 How AI will change the way people govern themselves
57:19 Growth, GDP and why Canada should aim for number one
1:00:28 Closing message: optimism and opportunity in Canada
Exponential times lead to exponential crimes.
Crazy…
BREAKING: Binance has been hacked with wallets across the Ethereum, Bitcoin, and TRON networks seeing outflows of -$5.7 billion.
The hack includes $1.45 billion worth of Bitcoin and $875 million worth of ETH.
If confirmed, this would mark the biggest hack in crypto history.
We expect more information shortly.
Damn. This hits hard.
Patrick Stewart, who gained international fame as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in the “Star Trek” franchise, has died. He was 86.
Read more: on.wsj.com/4eakW3o
Incredibly impressive!
Canada basically invented AI.
These guys are making sure it will get built here too.
Incumbents better wake up and realize they're standing on a burning platform.
Tokenization of all financial assets is happening.
This will upend many functions of finance—custody, settlement, payments, wealth management—as assets increasingly move onchain.
The risk of disintermediation is real. But so is the opportunity for reintermediation.
By leaning into these innovations, legacy Wall Street firms can streamline operations and tap into a global, always-on marketplace.
Issuers can broaden distribution, improving liquidity and and access to growth capital.
But to do that, they may first need to disrupt themselves, something they have so far been loathe to do.
trade[XYZ] and ICE, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, are joining forces to bring 24/7 perpetual futures on Hyperliquid to the United States.
In just over a year, our markets on Hyperliquid have surpassed $650 billion in volume. They provide continuous price discovery for stocks, indices, and commodities, and have become trusted reference points for retail and institutions alike when traditional markets are closed. Much of the world trades them. Until now, Americans could only watch.
We intend to change that. Subject to CFTC approval, trade[XYZ] and ICE plan to establish a new, dedicated U.S. market, with novel exchange and clearing infrastructure built on Hyperliquid. Planned contracts span equities, indices, commodities, FX, and crypto, with access through participating brokers and platforms. We’ll share more on products, eligibility, and timing as approvals progress.
ICE brings more than 25 years of experience operating regulated markets, clearing, and managing risk. trade[XYZ] brings the product development, market design, and technology behind the most liquid and robust markets on Hyperliquid.
Innovation and the protections of U.S. regulation shouldn’t be a trade-off. Together, we plan to prove it.
ICE is making a strategic investment in trade[XYZ] and joins us in building towards the future of Hyperliquid. A small group of market luminaries is joining as well, beginning with Stan Druckenmiller. For more than four decades, few investors have anticipated the great turns in markets as often as Stan. We’re proud to have him with us for the next one.
We’re building the U.S. market in parallel with our existing HIP-3 markets, which we’ll continue to expand and innovate on. We expect both to flourish. They each have a long road map ahead, from new asset classes to new ways to trade them.
To the Hyperliquid community, whether you were here before us or came because of us, thank you. You took a chance on new markets and you made them matter. You’ll forever be a part of this story.
Anything. Anytime. On ICE[XYZ].