Travis Bloom🛡️

The most AI proof job in the world is entrepreneurship Use it to make products and services. Build more companies. On Shopify or otherwise.

The latest quantum papers from Google and Caltech are an important signal for the industry. Timelines are still debated, but the time to act is now. The good news: post-quantum cryptography exists. This is a solvable problem, and many chains already have roadmaps. Bitcoin needs to catch up though. The bad news: post-quantum cryptography is relatively new and it would be fairly easy to create new security risks if implementation is rushed. The industry needs to align on what happens to wallets that fail to migrate before a CRQC appears. At Coinbase, we’ve been working on this for a while, auditing and upgrading our internal infrastructure, researching post-quantum cryptography and establishing a Quantum Advisory Council. It’s clear Bitcoin needs to make some fast progress here, so Coinbase is taking the role of rallying the troops and getting the right people in the room - Bitcoin core devs and the broader community - so they can start tackling this. But no one developer or company can do this alone. Real progress will require coordinated action across the ecosystem. If you’re working on post-quantum approaches for Bitcoin, we want to support you, and connect you with others that are working on it too. Please DM me directly and I’ll get you added to the working group. Bitcoin can and will upgrade, but it will take the entire community working together.

News: Stand With Crypto is launching its midterm offensive today, including a new "voter hub" highlighting races where they think advocates can move the needle. They're backing Nunn, Lee, Lawler, Davis, Landsman & Bresnahan. They're targeting Scott Perry & Marcy Kaptur. semafor.com/article/03/26/…

Fantastic episode. Great hearing the WeWork story from the founder, not Hollywood.

Prior administration's SEC (both under Biden and under Trump before) destroyed tens (arguably hundreds) of billions of dollars in value, punishing consenting adults for making their own financial decisions, in what is allegedly a free country that allegedly permits and encourages entrepreneurship, risk taking, and individual responsibility. The consequence of Gensler's SEC was, most obviously, a substantial reduction in entrepreneurs' willingness to attempt token designs of authentic utility. The flourishing of utility tokens post EVM (2016-2018) came to an end under fear of persecution. In its place, an era of memecoins and even greater scams that went entirely unprosecuted until post-collapse, like FTX. "If you try to build something of utility, we will ruin your life. If you make dog meme, no prob. If you steal $10b in customer money outright, we'll ask you for input on upcoming bills in DC so long as you donate some of it to our campaigns." The current SEC is materially better. Today's guidance is good, not because it is "clear" (ambiguous liberty is superior to clearly defined oppression), but because it recognizes limits on its own power; because the scope of tyranny over an allegedly free people is lessened. Importantly, what's new here is correct exclusions from security-definition of both "Digital Collectibles" and "Digital Tools". The latter aka utility tokens, so often persecuted under Gensler's regime. Digital Collectibles and Digital Tools are each massive categories. Huge, open territory for innovators to once again explore. To the current SEC, thank you for improving toward the ideals of what makes America good. I encourage anyone who was persecuted by the prior agency to post anything you feel comfortable sharing in the comments.

Don't be a NPC

The other day I thought I was weird because I feel like I’m the only one on this app that has a Mac mini running agents, but also uses an IDE. Now I feel vindicated.

Unclear how anyone who has paid any attention to the crypto advocacy space in recent years could believe this. Coinbase has been out front on the pro-crypto side of *every* policy debate, even when it doesn't really benefit them at all. True believers and true champions.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the banks only care about stablecoin yield. The quiet part out loud: "Holding payment stablecoin, creating liquidity in that DeFi world, that's part of the crypto roadmap, but that's not okay." Stop them now, or they're coming for DeFi next.

5. Don’t ignore voters. Bank CEOs are a formidable political force in Washington. When they mobilize, they can move lawmakers. But tens of millions of Americans own crypto, and millions of Americans vote on this issue. In one week alone, half a million phone calls and emails came into Senate to defend stablecoins. Most Americans don’t feel like the incumbent financial system works for them, and almost three million have signed up as crypto advocates with @standwithcrypto. Their views should be given as much weight as those trying to defend their incumbency.

This: agent-driven development has made me realize the dopamine hit I get from coding isn’t from writing the actual syntax, it’s seeing my ideas come to life. It’s the worst time ever to be a “programmer”. It’s the best time ever to be a builder.

the most underrated hire right now is a great product person. when i say product person i'm def not talking about a product manager. perhaps i think there has to be somewhat of a new role. i don't have a good name for it yet but maybe something like "product thinker".. someone with an intuitive grasp of the product as it exists, where it's soft, where it sings, & how to iterate it toward something even sharper. in some sense, this person has to cohesively hold in their head where this product should be 2 years from now & work backwards from that. i say this cuz when building was hard, engineering was the bottleneck & the status hierarchy often reflected that. building is no longer hard. which means the variance in outcomes has shifted almost entirely to judgment on what to build, how to sequence it, & how to talk about it. & the story matters as much as the thing. internally, it organizes the team around a shared model of why. externally, it shapes the interpretive frame users bring to their first experience. you can't retrofit narrative onto a product & expect it to land, it has to be load bearing from the start. the rarest version of this person sits at the intersection of culture & deep technology. someone genuinely bilingual. they know what's technically possible & they know which cultural currents are real vs. ephemeral. that combo is what separates products that feel inevitable from products that feel assembled. before ppl clap back with this person has always been valuable, i know.. i am just saying now they might be the most *important* person in the room. their value compounds like never before.

Similar to how my wife reacts when I tell her how much my @cursor_ai token spend was this month.

It’s pretty simple: Congress should pass laws that are in the best interest of the American people, not big banks 🛡️

@standwithcrypto @masonlynaugh Congrats @masonlynaugh 🫡

1/ We’re thrilled to announce that @masonlynaugh has been named executive director after more than 2 years leading our national grassroots strategy as community director. He helped grow SWC’s community to 2.7M+ advocates nationwide — and in this new role, he’ll continue expanding our membership, influence, and impact in Congress and at the ballot box.

@ThisIsNickCarr @masonlynaugh @standwithcrypto 🐐

@masonlynaugh is an excellent choice for Exec Director. The future of @standwithcrypto is very bright.

Accelerate

When AI automates all tasks, the only white collar skill remaining is agency. Every company should be laser focused on hiring founders/former founders. “Builder”, a combination of product/eng/design, will be a job title in less than 12 months.

@SECPaulSAtkins onchain* 🫡

This is another terrific step in the right direction from our team in the Division of Trading and Markets to remove barriers and unlock access to on-chain markets.