Crypto Token Reading List

Chris Dixon put this reading list together.

Instead of reading something from me today, maybe everyone can pick one or more posts from Chris’ reading list and learn a bit about tokens.

I believe I have read all of these posts over the past year or so and I agree with Chris that they are all quite good.

#blockchain

Comments (Archived):

  1. awaldstein

    Thanks!Any podcasts that you recommend?.I will start making it through the list. Spending a block of time each day on this.

      1. awaldstein

        thanks–I will check these out.i will go deep enough to make my own decisions on infrastructure.Community platforms are my passion so need to get a bit down and dirty.

      2. Mike Cautillo

        Fantastic indeed, though I could not go without sharing one of the best I have ever read form Nick Szabos’ blog Unenumerated. Man this was so good, from one of the industries finest visionary!! Enjoy. http://unenumerated.blogspo

    1. Michael O'Rourke

      Unchained – Led by journalist Laura Shin. She’s probably the best journalist in the space right now. She asks good, hard questions and has amazing guests. Probably my favorite right nowThe Bitcoin Podcast – If you don’t mind their bantering at the beginning (I find them funny) these guys get great guests from all over the ecosystem. Not just bitcoin but Ethereum and other projects as well.The Boost VC podcast – Not every pod is crypto related but their last two are Tezos and 0x which are very interesting projects.The Ether Review – Arthur Falls gets guests just focused on the Ethereum ecosystem. His guests usually are launching generally lesser known projects but informative.

      1. awaldstein

        Super and thanks.

    1. William Mougayar

      Only if Tim and Naval would let Nick speak more.

      1. Girish Mehta

        Interesting…I also felt a little bit of that re Tim in this particular podcast.I don’t think I have felt that about a Tim Ferris podcast before. Usually his style works well. He has also in past let his guests do the entire talking in an episode like he did the 2nd time with Maria Popova as guest (and the 2nd time with Naval).

      2. jason wright

        the lost art of conversation. i blame the web for that.

    2. Twain Twain

      Re Nick Szabo, at 20 minutes, he talks about how the definitions of money vary if we’re talking to a lawyer and an economist. Shortly before that, Naval talks about “wet code” and “meatspace” being untrustworthy (the banks, any central authority that issues crypto keys). Two things:(1.) All blockchain engineers are as “meatspace” as bankers and central authorities. Their “wet code” is as biased as bankers and central authorities.Here’s one of Kickstarter’s former data scientists on how the objectivity of code is a fallacy and an illusion:* https://technical.ly/brookl…(2.) Nov 2015, I wrote this to William Mougayar and Fred: “Where Nick Szabo and Blockchain’s position on “Dry Code” (logic and bits) of computers resolving and eradicating the flaws of “Wet Code” (the subjectivity of law and human analogy) may find itself on the wrong side of history is not just because of developments in Quantum Computing and the advantages Production Capital has in that space.It is that even Google is changing its strategy about whether logic and bits is sufficient in how it engineers Machine Intelligence and does data processing.”March 2017: https://uploads.disquscdn.c…Meanwhile, I had this in my slides:https://uploads.disquscdn.c…Moreover, March 2017: “Scientists at the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania conducted research on how to encode classical legal and philosophical definitions of fairness into machine learning (see 1,2,3). They found that it is extremely difficult to create systems that fully satisfy multiple definitions of fairness at once. There’s a trade-off between measures of fairness, and the relative importance of each measure must be balanced.Replace the word ‘fairness’ with ‘justice,’ ‘liberty’ or ‘non-partisanship,’ and we start to see the challenge. Technologists may be unconsciously codifying existing biases by using data-sets that demonstrate those biases, or could be creating new biases through simple ignorance of their potential existence. Technologists should consciously remove these biases and encode laws, policies, and virtues, (shortened for our purposes to ‘values’), into machine learning systems. These values can be mathematized, but there will always be tradeoffs among different values that will have real-world impacts on people and society.The same Univeristy of Pennsylvania scientists found there can be a cost to fairness in machine learning. The penalty to a machine learning training rate from encoding fairness can be mild to significant depending on the complexity of the model. The cost of encoding virtues (and the benefits) must be balanced against the potentially lower costs of systems that are optimized without regard to values or bias. For a machine learning system that delivers ads for clothing, encoding values may not be worth the cost. But for a system that determines eligibility for food stamps or advises on criminal sentences, the cost of bias is severe and likely worth the expense of encoding values.”https://medium.com/artifici…In addition to which, this idea that human “wet code” makes for bad decisions about money and money allocation whereas the machines’ “dry code” makes for good decisions … IS NOT TRUE.* https://uploads.disquscdn.chttps://insight.kellogg.nor

      1. Twain Twain

        @wmoug:disqus — Sticking with my perspective from two years ago.

  2. John Pepper

    Has anyone seen innovative ways that bricks-and-mortar companies are using crypto currency? Ways that add new value perhaps not seen before? I think about this every day. Often leads me back to payment of hourly workers but I don’t get too far in my thinking. Looking for a little turbo push if anyone has any thoughts…

  3. William Mougayar

    Lame list. (we should forgive Fred because he’s on vacation)That list was a just roundup of recent posts, no more and no less. It suffers from Silicon Valley tunnel vision. The list doesn’t even have article dates, so you don’t have the context, and it mixes original content with re-hashed pieces. It is not a comprehensive reading list on tokens, for several reasons, the least of which being, that I’m not included, and I have been writing about tokens for almost 3 years. Many of my posts are seminal that others pick-up or get inspired from. My posts are re-published elsewhere and widely read, worldwide.Otherwise, here’s a sample of 11 pieces what I have written, with dates, and 12 others that I recommend (2 in French).The Darkness Side and Long Honeymoons of Token Sales (Part I) (April 2017)http://startupmanagement.or…There is Hope for Blockchain Regulation, Thanks to General Georges Doriot (April 2017)http://startupmanagement.or…The Ultimate List of ICO Resources: 18 Websites That Track Initial Cryptocurrency Offerings (March 2017)http://startupmanagement.or…Watch Out, The ICOs Are Coming (Jan 2017)http://startupmanagement.or…Cryptocurrency Will Re-Fuel the Attention Economy, Get Ready (Dec 2016)http://startupmanagement.or…How to Evaluate an Initial Cryptocurrency Offering (ICO) (Nov 2016)http://startupmanagement.or…How Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain-based Startups Are Turning The Traditional Venture Capital Model on Its Head (Oct 2016)http://startupmanagement.or…The Relationship Between Cryptocurrency Tokens, Value and Work (Aug 2016)http://startupmanagement.or…The Theory of a Blockchain Circular Economy and the Future of Work (Aug 2016)http://startupmanagement.or…Best Practices in Transparency and Reporting for Cryptocurrency Crowdsales (Feb 2015)http://startupmanagement.or…An Operational Framework for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (Feb 2015)http://startupmanagement.or…Plus others:Token Summit YouTube Channel (Multiple videos from the top players in this field, June 2017)https://www.youtube.com/cha…Podcast on Unchained, ICOs: Why People Are Investing in This $380 Million Phenomenon with William Mougayar and Nick Tomaino (that was the fastest most downloaded podcast on that series) (Forbes, April 2017)https://www.forbes.com/site…My Token / ICO / Blockchain Capital Markets Landscape (Etienne Brunet, June 2017)https://medium.com/@etienne…Want to deflate the token bubble? Fix the market cap indicator. (Zach Herbert, May 2017)https://blog.sia.tech/want-…The Perfect Token Sale Structure (Reuben Bramanthan, May 2017)https://blog.gdax.com/the-p…Token Rights: Key considerations in designing a token economy (Smith+Crown, March 2017)https://www.smithandcrown.c…The Golden Age of Open Protocols (Fred Wilson, July 2016)http://avc.com/2016/07/the-…Appcoin Law: ICOs the Right Way (Marco Santori, Oct 2016)http://www.coindesk.com/app…Securities Law Framework for Blockchain Tokens (multiple authors, December 2016)https://www.coinbase.com/le…and a couple of good ones in French:Cryptomonnaies, tokens, où la création des actifs numériques (Simon Polrot, May 2017)https://medium.com/@simonpo…La Token Economy, ou le nouveau paradigme des réseaux décentralisés grâce à la Blockchain (Pierre Entremont, May 2017)https://blog.otiumcapital.c…

    1. jason wright

      my goodness. where do you find the time?

    2. Abhi

      William, your writings are very much appreciated.

    3. falicon

      If only you felt compelled to share how you really felt…:-P

    4. JLM

      .Wm Mougayar goes for the kill shot and scores! Heartless bastard.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. William Mougayar

        You bet. In my turf, I am like that.

        1. Donna Brewington White

          I want to be like you when I grow up.

    5. aminTorres

      I love everything this comment.It points out everything that is great about AVC.It reminds me, I can disagree with Fred, as long as I do it respectfully, even a bit of passion is okay.

    6. Twain Twain

      Oh so you mean I get to practice my French by reading those 2 articles?! LOL.

      1. William Mougayar

        Why not. Or hit Google Translate.

        1. Twain Twain

          Ugh. Google Translate isn’t very good with subjunctives.It’s just as well I have a DFA2 (Diploma de Français des Affaires 2) accredited by Paris Chamber of Commerce.

          1. William Mougayar

            Bon alors, tu te démerdes 🙂

  4. Rob Underwood

    Recognizing that in many instances the block chain work is being done in and through decentralized projects, not discrete companies …. regarding companies that are working in the block chain space, are employees of these companies now receiving cryptotokens as one component of compensation similar to how employees receive stock options? More generally what models are emerging whereby people can trade labor in lieu of fiat currency for cryptotokens?More generally for the AVC folks who know this space well (@wmoug:disqus, etc.), what’s the advice to the average layperson technologist who doesn’t work primarily in financial services or fintech, doesn’t want to throw limited capital at ICOs blindly, but also doesn’t want to “miss the boat.” Asking for a friend.

  5. Matt A. Myers

    This echo chamber and hype machine is giving me a headache.Where is the educating people of the upside for these speculators, to educate people as to the cons/negatives of cryptocurrencies?Or is this all just propaganda?I wrote a much longer comment, however I don’t have the time to polish it.

    1. Twain Twain

      Nick Szabo made some comment on how Blockchain requires quantum thinking or some such at 1:49:24. I just tweeted this to all the Blockchain cheerleaders.Jason labels himself a “Bearium.” I’m against Satoshi’s ideas simply because they really didn’t future-proof for developments in AI, Quantum Computing nor these complex issues wrt cohering human language with machine logic on: “How are fairness and representativeness defined? What needs to be done to the maths and the code to factor in that definitions of these vary across cultures, disciplines, genders, age groups etc.and we need to make code as HUMAN-CENTRIC+CONSIDERED as possible.”It could be that the $hundreds of millions / billions poured into Blockchain will have been wasted because some fundamental logic is changing and Blockchain is built with that old logic (Merkle trees which follow Descartes’ methods). https://uploads.disquscdn.c

      1. Matt A. Myers

        I worry because this is getting more complex than I have time to dedicate to learning, and because with my ‘shallow’ understanding of it all it mimics a Ponzi scheme too closely except that it’s more dangerous: it’s global, decentralized, and mostly anonymous – where the single issuer is the cryptocurrency of choice promising the “20%” return. In reality, you get a higher return return the earlier you get in. The early adopters get their money, however it’s always the late adopters or the last people “promised the 20%” who lose out. It’s the shift in buying power is how the late adopters lose out – where the value gets extracted from them, the value is just extracted in the future instead of in the present.In this case the issuer is not running away with money, well, except for early adopters extracting value by selling it for USD and using that buying power in the ‘real world’ – so it’s not exactly the same, however buying power does get shifted simply because the value of previously owned cryptocurrency goes up – and that is unreasonable and perhaps outright wrong.

  6. William Mougayar

    You want an Ultimate Reading List for Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Tokens topics? No kidding. Here the real list:http://startupmanagement.or

  7. fredwilson

    exactly