Bitcoin - Catabatic

A survey of El Salvador's bitcoin adoption

Dec 28, 2023 3 min read

On December 22, a group of researchers from the US had a paper published in Science in which they reported the results of a survey of 1,800 households in El Salvador over its members’ adoption, or not…

What the bitcoin price drop reveals about 'crypto'

Jun 19, 2022 2 min read

Analysis Bitcoin bitcoin price computing power cryptocurrency permissioned blockchain permissionless blockchain Ponzi scheme

One of the definitive downsides of cryptocurrencies raised its head this week when the nosediving price of bitcoin – brought on by the Luna/Terra crash and subsequent cascading effects – rendered bitc…

Crypto: Climate change means new tech has less time today to prove itself

Feb 13, 2022 4 min read

Analysis Tech Big Tech Bitcoin blockchain carbon dioxide concentration carbon emissions cryptocurrencies David Rosenthal decentralisation Ethereum Molly White non-fungible tokens proof of work web2 web3

I spent this weekend reading about permissioned and permissionless blockchain systems. If you want to get in on it, I can’t recommend this post by David Rosenthal enough. Much of the complexity of exe…

On crypto-art, racism and outcome fantasies

Mar 23, 2021 9 min read

Analysis Op-eds Tech art criticism art patronage Beeple Big Tech Bitcoin bitcoin mining blockchain capitalism consensus algorithms crypto-art cryptocurrencies Ethereum Everydays financial transactions Metakovan Metapurse NFT non-fungible tokens power consumption proof of stake proof of work racism settlement finality Silicon Valley Sybil attack The First 5000 Days Tim Swanson Twobadour Christie's

If you want to find mistakes with something, you’ll be able to find them if you tried long enough. That doesn’t inherently make the thing worthless. The only exception I’ve encountered to this truism…