My Next Career Steps
After 3 incredible years at Kraken, I’ve decided to step down from my Marketing leadership role at Kraken.
I couldn't be more bullish on the company that Jesse Powell has built. I'll never forget being able to work with such talented individuals.
Looking ahead, I’m going to be spending more time building and investing in Bitcoin DeFi, starting with Trust Machines.
The mission of Trust Machines is to build the largest ecosystem of Bitcoin applications and grow the Bitcoin economy.
I’ve joined as a marketing partner, where I’ll be helping build and scale Trust Machines' marketing efforts.
Trust Machines has an awesome team which I’m thrilled to work with:
Muneeb Ali (Co-founder)
JP Singh (Co-founder)
Aubrey Strobel (Comms partner)
Rena Shah (Leading Ops)
Asiff Hirji (Advisor)
And many more I don’t have space to include!
Why Bitcoin DeFi and why now?
Bitcoin is a pristine piece of collateral with the most credible monetary policy on earth.
Building trust minimized applications is critical for Bitcoin to further absorb mindshare and use cases in the space.
Defining DeFi
Ask anyone what DeFi means and you’ll get a dozen different answers.
DeFi to me represents using smart contracts to unlock some sort of financial tool or primitive. This can be as simple as Lightning to something more complex like Stacks or DLCs.
Skepticism
I know many Bitcoiners are skeptical of DeFi. Rightfully so. There have been many false promises, scams, and fraud.
But just because there have been many mistakes, failures, and scams doesn’t invalidate the entire sector.
After all, Bitcoin was the origin for many DeFi apps:
NFTs: First launched on counterparty
Yield: JoinMarket
DAOs: First talked about on the BT forums
This is a return back to experimentation.
Projects
Here are some active projects that I personally find fascinating:
Lightning
@lightning has created Lightning Pool.
Summary: An order book for lightning liquidity (or a channel marketplace) done in a non-custodial manner (note: there is a coordinating server).
Read more: Lightning Pool
DLCs (Discrete Log Contracts)
Summary: Two parties can bet on a certain outcome based on x/y/z condition being met. For example, what the price of Bitcoin might be tomorrow.
Companies working on it:
@AtomicFinance (Options on Bitcoin)
@Suredbits (Oracle as a service)
Stacks
Summary: Smart contract layer on top of Bitcoin with the ability to create smart contracts that work on Stacks and Bitcoin simultaneously (where you only have to interact with the Bitcoin blockchain)
Companies working on it:
@ArkadikoFinance
@consoledao
@ZestProtocol
RSK
Summary: Smart contract platform via sidechain. Its engine is a forked version of the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), and the RVM (RSK Virtual Machine.
Companies working on it:
@sovryn
JoinMarket (CoinJoins)
Summary: earn a yield by mixing your coins with others.
Really excited to see a much more usable GUI developed which @dergigi, @giacomozucco, and others are working on!
Read more👇
Conclusion
While all of my consulting availability (on Marketing) is nearly filled, please reply to this e-mail if you need help with your marketing efforts.
Or if you’re building something I should check out in the DeFi world, let me know!
HODL,
Dan Held
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If you’re a paid subscriber, check the top of this e-mail for the link to your voting form. I’m not a financial expert. Consult an expert before engaging in financial decisions.
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Thank you, Dan! I wish you the best of luck and much success in your new efforts.
Your post, and recent some recent podcasts that I have listened to discussing new developments for the Lightning network, made me curious if you have an estimate regarding the trend and the amount of investments for bitcoin-only related work that is being done on the secondary layer of the Bitcoin network. I view bitcoin as continuing to benefit from it's superiority (secure network, only crypto that is truly decentralized) and the network effects of miners, node holders (seen by increasing rates of adoption), and entrepreneurs/companies that develop applications to enhance the scalability of the Bitcoin network.
I would think that in a free market, while there has undeniably been a massive increase in the number of altcoins in just the last two years (from around 8k to over 20k), that many smart entrepreneurs such as you, see the massive opportunity to develop solutions/applications to increase the adoption rate exponentially. I know that Jack Dorsey has discussed plans for bitcoin mining, developing an open source wallet using biometrics to make for an easier interface, and Jack Mallers at Strike and also potential new products/services that incorporate the Lighting network (and potentially Taro) and other solutions that may be developed as a result of the recent Taproot upgrade. I would also guess that one of the positive aspects of the institutional interest in the last couple of years in bitcoin, is that at least some of these investors (perhaps Microstrategy or NYDIG or others) would be interested in developing solutions internally or funding developers.
Sorry for the long post. I was just curious with all of these positive developments for bitcoin (regardless of the fluctuation of the price, which is all that the corporate media wants to focus on), have you seen greater interest from entrepreneurs/companies for bitcoin only solutions? Do you know generally how large this is (in number of groups, and size of funding) this represents, and the trend in the past few years?
Kind regards,
Kilgore
well done Dan ! .... you're a beacon of light in a dark world