so what's the deal with paragraph.xyz?  who's it compete with?  do you own your audience or does paragraph?  is it kind of a mix between medium and mirror.xyz?

Imo Mirror is a more web3-native Medium, and Paragraph is a web 2.5 Substack.

We're focused on:
- distribution (discovery, FC integration)
- newsletters (email now, on-chain in the future)
- memberships (token-gated access)

using permissionless & compsable protocols wherever possible

cma.xyz. Founder /paragraph, ceo /mirror, previously at Google & Coinbase 

i do have a random question... why do you charge $50 for custom domains?  is it a pass thru cost or just market rate?

Just market rate - it’s a premium feature that power users would want. The monetization model is subject to change though