Philip Decker

@psd

118 Following

63 Followers

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With btc at ath, I’m noticing most people I know aren’t exposed. Family, friends, co-workers…none hold any btc. So they’re watching the price rip but remain on sidelines bc it’s “too expensive” now, or they feel they “missed the boat”. FOMO is once again driving many to look for the “next bitcoin”. And my bet is that this cycle crypto has a massive opportunity to meet consumers where they are and give them something to get behind. “Mission coins” will fill that void. Tokens that support a greater good or incentive a brighter future will steal the narrative, and give those that missed out on today, a solid chance to roll the dice and gain some wealth/financial security tomorrow. And we’re the lucky ones that get to build those tokens and shape those narratives. Game on!!!

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Another great read from Richard Powers. No Overstory, but still solid. One thing struck me though. In the book, the character Todd Keane builds an online network called “Playground” that employs an in-game currency. And users essentially pay to play, pay to post, pay to engage on the platform. Was this book the inspiration for farcaster????

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I’m not sure about that. Certain people fund wallets during a bull. Sure. But it ain’t mainstream consumers. There’s still a massive lack of trust in crypto. Maybe that changes with a “US btc reserve” ala Lummis (not sure that’s a great idea) but otherwise, I tend to agree with Dan. We still need a way to build trust in crypto with mainstream consumers and provide them consistent reasons to fund wallets. That’s when the flood gates will open up. And it’s not bitcoin hitting $100k. If anything, thats even more dangerous/detrimental for mainstream adoption, because we all know it’ll eventually correct and then people will lose $ and write off crypto for good. Happens ever bull. There has to be another way besides “number go up”.

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6/6 ( I totally fudged the numbering, oh well) Admittedly, that’s a strange concept. How do you build a store-of-value out of attention? Well, it would look something like this: “touch grass, earn points”. A consumer crypto app that mints “attention tokens” only when you stay off social media. Open tiktok, and the points stop. Scarce. Durable. And fungible. In our hyper-distracted and manipulated world, where everyone’s mind has been hijacked with a dizzying stream of digital slop, “attention” becomes the culturally relevant tulips, wampum and Rai stones of our time. And might just free us from our digital chains.

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5/6 Today, crypto fits a lot of those buckets. It's durable, portable and fungible, and can be designed to be scarce. But does it have direct cultural or social significance? I don’t think so. At least, not in its current form. Sure, decentralization and self-sovereignty are important. But are they directly culturally relevant to everyone in our hyper-distracted world? No, not at all. In today’s world, attention is all that matters. So, let’s build a store-of-value out of it.

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4/5 Almost as if pre-programmed into us, every human society creates stores of value. But that idea is always limited by the physical and conceptual constraints of that place and that time. People on Yap Island didn’t want Tulips. Folks from the Netherlands didn’t want seashells. And none of them would have even been able to comprehend bitcoin. So what makes a store of value “good”? A combination of qualities really: durability, scarcity, portability, fungibility (interchangeability), and arguably, most importantly, cultural or social significance. While the form of the store of value varies greatly across time and place, its ability to be understood and relevant to a wide swath of people ultimately defines its demand and utility.

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3/5 For example: • Rai Stones of Yap Island: These were large stone disks, some as wide as 12 feet, that were used as money and stores of value in Micronesia around 1000 years ago. Their value came not only from their size but from the difficulty of quarrying and transporting them, making them scarce and symbolic of wealth. Ownership was passed by word of mouth, making the stones an early example of “ledger money.” • Tulip Mania in the Netherlands in the early 17th century, tulip bulbs briefly functioned as a store of value. In the 1630s, tulips, especially rare and uniquely colored varieties, became highly prized and their prices skyrocketed due to speculative trading (NFTs, anyone??). • Seashells in Inland America: Shells, like wampum (beads made from shells), were used by Native American tribes as currency and for ceremonial exchanges. Shells were valuable due to their rarity inland, portability, and their intricate craftsmanship in some cases.

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2/5 But before we get there (hint: touch grass, earn points), let's look at what makes a good store-of-value. Today, people use things like gold bars, btc, Picasso’s and NYC apartments. But historically, societies have used a wide range of items, each chosen for particular qualities like durability, scarcity, and cultural significance (each was limited by what was available to the people living at that particular time and that particular place).

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1/5 Attention Tokens: Cultural Stores of Value in a Hyper-Distracted World At the bottom of it all, crypto is a few core things: (1) a digital store of value (btc), (2) a currency (USDT, USDC), and (3) a hyper-connected incentive mechanism. The first 2 are well on their way. I want to focus on the 3rd, mostly because I believe it has the potential to be the most impactful. Munger said it best, “show me the incentive, and I’ll show you the outcome”. In our hyper-distracted world, the incentive is to keep doom-scrolling, keep frying our attention, keep that dopamine drip flowing. My thesis is that the stage is now set for a new crypto store-of-value to incentivize a reawakening of the human mind, freeing us from the shackles of social media. I call them “Attention Tokens”.

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No comment. Being a former lawyer and all ;-) lol

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Touch grass. Earn points. Problem: Digital addiction Pings have eaten the world. Hijacked our attention. And depressed our kids. Now, everyday is an endless stream of alerts, updates, slacks, dms, emails, videos, replies, likes and follows. This is obvious. As are the detrimental effects on our mental health. There’s no end in sight. And there’s no incentive for anyone to turn it off. But there should be. Solution: An app and token that incentivizes users to stay off social media. The app monitors all programs running on a mobile client (user permission requested), and when social media apps are closed, the faucet dispenses off-chain points (redeemable for tokens at a later TGE) to the user. When the user opens TikTok (insta, X, etc), the points stops. Incentives are the most powerful tool man has ever created. Lets use them to reorient human attention, get people off social media and back in the real world. Touch grass. Earn points.

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Love this! As a former in-house counsel at Amex, I transitioned to the business side (corp strategy) 2 years ago to push crypto, and fully agree my experience helped immensely. Tho, we’re still not doing anything in crypto ha. Anyways, law school is all about getting good at issue spotting. And then applying the relevant rules/laws (IRAC, anyone?). I think that’s one of the main skills that translates to many facets of business…figuring out quickly what the main issue is and solving for that. I see many of my colleagues get bogged down with irrelevant facts/concerns that don’t drive to the heart of the matter. But, I also worked with many lawyers who were too far along in their careers, and too hard-headed, loved to argue way too much, and seemingly didn’t have any empathy for our customers, to make the transition to the biz. So ur spot on with lawyers making the transition early/mid career. Before their minds cement into arrogance.

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Halloween in Hoboken looking goooood

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I grew up with a giant forest in my backyard that went on for miles. And it was mine alone. I spent my childhood in that forest…and this book brought me back to my love of trees. I just finished it, so I’m a bit captivated. But man, it was beautiful. Just like trees.

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To be Prince Caspian

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Of course they are. Probably just finished reading Payments Systems in the US by Benson, and see crypto as a way to save merchants 3% on every swipe. They’ll be convinced of that until next month when they get to Debt by Graber. Then they’ll be in here spouting about how pre-modern economies operated on systems of credit rather than currencies. That’s gonna last until next year when they’ll be regurgitating Dee Hock and, talkin’ about, you know, “network of networks” and “chaordic organizations”. They’ll suddenly see crypto as the next financial “great leap”, and launch a yield-bearing stablecoin, the 27th on the market, when everyone still pays with credit cards and loves points. See, the sad thing is that in 50 years they’ll start doing some thinking for themselves, and they’ll realize 2 things: 1. Don’t do that. And 2 - payments is all about TRUST and INCENTIVES. Crypto still lacks both.

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a “touch grass, earn points” dapp would be cool. Incentivize less social media and more offline time outdoors. Grow it into the blackbird for outdoor rec industry.

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twen…twen…20% discount?

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sweet. It’s onchain rewards for shopping, right? Are you live? If so, how are merchants responding?

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Points. Then Payments.

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