Hey there,
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekly Crystallizations, a weekly newsletter where I highlight tweets (and occasional Telegram messages) from people making sense of what’s going on in the world today!
Personal update
I just came back from ETH Gathering in Barcelona. It was my first ETH conference and it was interesting to get an impression of what they’re like (nerdy + counter culture vibes). It was also a real pleasure to hang out with some Deep Workers and affiliated crew before, during and after. I helped Andrej think through and facilitate a workshop format he’s been developing to help DAOs self-organize. I wrote a short write-up of it here. It was also cool to meet some of the crew behind Maker DAO (👋 Deniz), and to witness how they’re grappling with their current major pivot.
Crypto
Meloni eviscerates France for their colonial CFA currency which they've hoisted onto various African countries. She argues the solution [to immigration] is not to bring Africans to Europe but for countries such as France to stop exploiting them.
@gladstein has more on how these colonial currencies work and how Bitcoin may be a way out.
@sassal0x claims the recent crypto bull market was built on leverage [rather than valuable new technology].
Following the FTX collapse there have been a lot of calls for asset holders to demonstrate proof of reserves — publishing the addresses of their cold wallets so anyone can verify that they have the reserves that they claim they have. An amazing feature of the crypto economy by the way. Imagine being able to independently verify whether your bank is solvent or not.
Elon's Twitter Takeover
Poll (possibly the biggest one in Twitter’s history)
Reasonable question from Sam Harris.
FTX
A lot of weird shit coming out around FTX, its founder SBF and his connections. It seems at the very least he was using customer funds to buy influence in Washington and he was able to fool a lot of people.
Russo-Ukrainian War
My respect goes out to Julian Röpcke. He tries to report on the war even when it makes Ukraine look bad. In this case it does. It looks like Ukrainian soldiers get caught here executing dozens of Russian prisoners of war who are lying on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs. I've not seen any reports of this in the mainstream news (although there may be some).
Censorship, Moderation & Propaganda
COVID-19
@MartinKulldorff counters a recent NEJM (most prestigious medical journal) article claiming to show the efficacy of masks vs. COVID.
I remember when altered menstrual cycles postvaxx was a conspiracy theory.
Tech
This might be a realistic prediction. FSD = Fully Self-Driving Car. Apple glasses seem to be coming up pretty soon.