Manager Services @botbotcap
Cupertino
Joined October 2021
- Tweets2.5K
- Following834
- Followers1.4K
- Likes3.4K
Joseph Page retweeted
Depending on who you talk to, our industry growing up is either doom or glory.
We are finally globally relevant and that necessarily means we are less insular.
Because this industry was created by the stubborn resolute and unwavering conviction of contrarians, misfits, and fringe actors, we relished in the pirate mindset. We loved our insularity. (Tbh, I miss it too at times).
The “web3” thesis where programmable blockchains are supposed to be decentralized computing infrastructure for many apps ultimately incinerated billions of dollars of venture capital because it led tech minded builders and their investors to prioritize app sovereignty over unified liquidity. This was wrong on first principles.
As it turns out, blockchain has and always will be financial infrastructure. Finance superpowered by tech and programmability. Decentralization, neutrality, and censorship resistance have never been more important.
Whether this excites you going forward depends on whether you’re more west coast or east coast; San Francisco or New York; more tech or finance minded.
From the west coast crowd, I often hear disappointment (“oh in the end blockchain is only about finance?! That’s it?”)
I couldn’t be more excited, and I think the mandate has never been more clear and also attainable.
Capital formation isn’t an abstract thing that bankers do when you are ready to IPO.
Capital formation enables innovation. It allows us to take big bets on the future. Liquid markets enable capital formation. Over the long term, there can not be a larger global capital market than the internet capital market. The biggest market to possibly unify is that of people on the internet who use money.
Like all things the internet has ever touched, the online/onchain experience is never the same as the pre internet experience. Just as we needed network engineers to imagine and build blockchain networks, we need consumer tech minds to complement finance minds to deliver new ways of accessing finance.
This is not and has never been a small vision for blockchain. In fact, I would argue that it’s a core intent of a “peer to peer electronic cash network.”
We welcome those who want to double down on finance for the internet to come join the Solana ecosystem and make good on this mission.
I think it’s fine and even great that the risk-on talent from blockchain is now expanding new frontiers away from blockchain. New frontiers are only ever explored by those with stubborn resolute unwavering conviction.
My take on a16z crypto moving into frontier tech.
First, I'll always be grateful to a16z for helping validate the space back in 2013 when Chris Dixon led their investment into Coinbase, which got me even more excited about crypto.
But the final nail in the coffin for my previous career, and what ultimately pushed me to pivot my entire career into Bitcoin, was Marc Andreessen's 2014 NYT oped, Why Bitcoin Matters. If you haven't read it, suggest reading it. It's still important to this day.
A lot of people have probably forgotten, but in those days we were all just looking for external validation. Very few institutions or funds were willing to publicly endorse crypto, and two of the funds that took a real brand risk were a16z and USV.
Since then, we've seen some of the most incredible talent enter the space and fundamentally reshaped what crypto is today.
You can actually argue that a lot of the AI infrastructure development we're seeing today wouldn't be where it is without Bitcoin mining infrastructure and the talent that flowed from crypto into AI. There is a real connection between the two industries that I don't think gets enough credit.
Now, moving from crypto into frontier tech, whether that's robotics, bio, AI, energy, compute etc just means to me that the talent and muscle we developed building crypto over the past decade can now be used to build across all of frontier tech.
We spent years building something that was nascent, misunderstood, and in many cases hated by the world. We developed thick skin, continued investing and building, and had to constantly show the world why this tech mattered. Even during thanksgiving dinners.
And I think that makes us uniquely suited to build frontier tech.
An example is data centers. Today, people and governments are increasingly pushing back against them. Well, people and governments hated crypto too, but we continued to invest and build, and now almost all of trad finance is embracing crypto in some capacity.
I believe frontier tech represents the next generation of pirates in technology. People willing to build things that are nascent, misunderstood, and sometimes hated by the world.
We're going to be hated and loved along the way, but we're going to keep building cool shit that the world hasn't recognized the importance of yet.
And crypto taught me that the world usually doesn't recognize the importance of new tech until years later which is why I stay close to talent
Joseph Page retweeted
Here's to the crazy ones.
The nerds. The financiers. The gamblers.
The twelve traders in a decision market deciding a founder's cliff.
The ones who committed 32 million and got 31.75 back.
The ones who voted on the terms, then voted on the terms again.
They're not fond of rules. Especially the ones they wrote last quarter.
You can quote them, disagree with them, re-run the market on them.
About the only thing you can't do is hold them to it.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think a vote is a contract
are the ones who find out it isn't.
Some of those businesses are starting to work out.
The rest are starting a new proposal.
Joseph Page retweeted
Look at him, thats my Qual.
Your what?
My Qualitative! My vibe specialist. Look at him, you notice anything different about him? Look at his face.
I'll give you a hint, his name is Jayden. He won a local poetry competition in bushwick! Yeah I'm sure of the vibe.
Quant firms are hiring idea guys, not quants
I've been skeptical about the whole - software is commoditized, ideas are the moat argument
But I've seen first hand the best quant and technical firms in the world hire thinkers, liberal arts grads, and generalists
I predict the trend accelerates
Letter from @AQRCapital below
Joseph Page retweeted
If Scooter pulls this off he earns himself a seat next to the patriarchs. Future generations will sing songs about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Scooter.
Sydney Sweeney meets with rabbis as her and Scooter Braun think about a future with kids trib.al/1PlWCKE
Joseph Page retweeted
call me crazy but i actually think if you’ve been vibe coding for the last 12 months you’re at a disadvantage
your expectations of what models like opus 5.5 can do are probably too low and your workflow are probably too complex for their own good
you can literally just tell it what you want and it’ll do it. literally that’s it
Joseph Page retweeted
Holy shit LOL
Embarrassing even
🚨JUST IN: @Solana recorded more spot DEX trading volume yesterday than Ethereum mainnet, all Ethereum L2s and Hyperliquid combined.
Joseph Page retweeted
the crypto era of the 2010s and early 2020s will forever be goated. anyone on the planet with an internet connection was able to own eventual trillion dollar assets at sub billion dollar valuations. by contrast almost every other tech wave including ai begins in the silicon valley, where only a handful of ppl already close to the room are able to get extraordinarily wealthy.
Joseph Page retweeted
This is the case for every single successful person on earth.
But it all comes down to doing everything you possibly can and staying in the game indefinitely, so you maximize your chances of eventually hitting that jackpot.
Luck itself is out of your control, but the number of lottery tickets you earn is not.
TLDR: never give up.
Joseph Page retweeted
NYT: Israeli Passengers Genocide Innocent Muslim Pilot on Flydubai Flight From Dubai to Tel Aviv
Joseph Page retweeted
"Overall, the probability that a plane full of Israelis will contain a trained assault team, two additional pilots, and, statistically, at least one cardiac surgeon, psychologist, lawyer, and diamond dealer is substantially higher than 50%."
A passenger on the Dubai–Tel Aviv flight recounts:
“We are currently in Saudi Arabia.
One of the crew members attacked the pilot with a knife and disabled the aircraft’s systems. Yaniv (pictured?) and another passenger stormed the cockpit and subdued the attacker.
Luckily, there were two more pilots on board. They were the ones who managed to land the plane.”
Well, yes. Overall, the probability that a plane full of Israelis will contain a trained assault team, two additional pilots, and, statistically, at least one cardiac surgeon, psychologist, lawyer, and diamond dealer is substantially higher than 50%.
