Tag
Layer2
Episodes summarised with this topic tag.
NEAR’s AI Money Thesis: Intents, Privacy, and Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo
- Near Intents has achieved product-market fit and is processing ~$20 billion in total volume with $30+ million in fees to date, used by applications like Infinex, Zashi, and Venice AI for cross-chain transactions and abstraction. - Near's tokenomics shifted in October 2024 with protocol emissions reduced to 2.5% annualized inflation; in February 2025, Intents fee burn began accruing to the Near token via buyback mechanics tracked at revenue.near.org. - Near positions itself as infrastructure for agentic AI commerce through three vertical products: Intents (cross-chain settlement), Near AI (private inference via Near AI Cloud), and Ironclaw (AI agent framework). - The Near ecosystem employs a centralized team structure (Near Foundation, Diffuse Labs, Near AI) driving product development alongside commercial partnerships, contrasting with Ethereum's more distributed model. - Confidential transactions launched on NEAR.com in late February 2025, embedding privacy into the protocol for both users and enterprises requiring data sovereignty and compliance (e.g., HIPAA). - Sovereign, a Nasdaq-listed treasury and commercialization partner, is scaling MPC node infrastructure (targeting 21 operators) and driving go-to-market efforts to increase Near adoption and token demand.
Who Really Controls Bitcoin? | Bitcoin Mechanic
- Bitcoin as dual-purpose system: Bitcoin functions as both a monetary asset (currency limited to 21M) and a payment network (blockchain). Neglecting either aspect undermines the other; the payment network reinforces the credibility of the fixed supply through continuous transactional activity. - Arbitrary data on-chain problem: Since 2023, increased ability to store arbitrary data (via larger OP_RETURNs and Taproot exploits) has enabled non-monetary uses—NFTs, stable coin transaction histories, and other spam. This degrades Bitcoin's utility and incentive structure for node operators. - Node operator incentives: Decentralization depends on ordinary people running nodes. They have no economic reason to store data unrelated to financial transactions. As data clogs the chain, node operation becomes onerous; this trend drives centralization toward third-party data providers, echoing traditional internet gatekeeping. - BIP 110 (formerly BIP 444) mechanics: Temporary soft fork activating ~August 7, 2024, with full enforcement in early September. Limits OP_RETURNs to 83 bytes, disables OP_IF/OP_NOT_IF in Taproot, caps Taproot tree depth at 128 leaves. Rules expire after one year unless users re-enforce them. - Activation dynamics and game theory: Even at low hashrate (currently ~0.4%), soft fork activation creates prisoner's dilemma: miners cannot afford to ignore it if rivals adopt it, risking chain orphaning. Cultural apathy (not active opposition) makes adoption likely if pleb nodes enforce it. - Cultural shift from payment to store-of-value narrative: Early Bitcoin adoption was driven by censorship-resistant payments (Silk Road, donations to Assange). Current dominance of "hodl Bitcoin, don't spend it" (Saylor, MicroStrategy) has eroded payment-network usage and practical demand for on-chain settlement.
Bitcoin Kidnappings, AI Slop, Quantum FUD, and Memetic Warfare | coinjoined Chris
- Physical security threats to Bitcoin holders: The guest detailed the sharp rise in "$5 wrench attacks" in France, where criminal gangs use leaked government data to target Bitcoin holders for extortion and abduction. One case involved the Ledger co-founder being kidnapped, with his wife stuffed in a trunk for 48 hours and his finger taken. - Bitcoin privacy and scaling improvements: Discussion of soft fork proposals (CTV, CSFS, template hash, BIP-54) needed to enable self-custody adoption and reduce reliance on exchanges. The guest argues Bitcoin must improve privacy and scalability before government capture intensifies. - Threats to Bitcoin development: The guest identified the real danger as attacks on core Bitcoin developers themselves—citing Gloria Zhao's harassment and departure as a significant loss. Developer burnout and social attacks pose greater risks than technical threats like quantum computing. - CDOR hardware and BitSurance insurance: The guest builds industrial-grade cold storage solutions (CDOR) and co-founded BitSurance, offering cryptocurrency-backed insurance to protect Bitcoin holders against physical coercion and theft. - Medium of exchange versus store of value: Bitcoin should function as both; holding is valid, but spending Bitcoin and replacing it supports the mining economy and demonstrates real utility. Global South adoption (Kenya's Tando, South Africa's Money Badger) shows medium-of-exchange use emerging. - Memetics and AI as tools: AI democratizes content creation, enabling developers and non-technical people to build without massive budgets. The guest leverages original memes as CDOR's primary marketing channel and views memetics as propaganda in the service of freedom.
The Decrypt News roundup with TylerD - May 15th
- The Clarity Act advanced through the Senate Banking Committee with a 15-9 bipartisan vote, clearing its first major legislative hurdle. Two Democrats crossed over despite failed late-night negotiations on ethics provisions tied to Trump family crypto interests. The bill now requires 60 votes on the full Senate floor, meaning approximately 6 additional Democrats must support it. - Coinbase and Circle announced a partnership making Coinbase the official treasury deployer for USDC on Hyperliquid under a new AQA v2 framework. Coinbase will manage reserves and share yield, while Circle handles technical infrastructure. The deal could boost Hyperliquid protocol revenue by around 25%. - Cerebris, an AI chipmaker, surged as much as 100% above its $185 IPO price on debut, reaching a market cap exceeding $100 billion. Significant pre-IPO trading occurred on Hyperliquid through TradeXYZ before the official listing. - The Trump-Xi summit produced a constructive tone on trade with progress on tariff reductions and purchase commitments, though Xi warned Trump that mishandling Taiwan could create a "highly perilous situation." - Kraken migrated over $3 billion in TVL from Layer Zero to Chainlink CCTP following the $292 million Kelp Dial exploit. This represents the third major migration away from Layer Zero after Kelp Dial and SOL Protocol moved their assets.
The Plan to Put a Bitcoiner in Every Boardroom on Earth | Scott Ellam #222
- XE's public market strategy: Structured as a traditional operating business designed to grow through bitcoin treasury accumulation rather than conventional scaling. Recent equity raise deployed 100% into bitcoin acquisition (10 BTC purchased). - Recruitment industry disruption: XE targets thousands of privately-held recruitment firms globally facing three core problems—cash leakage, scaling challenges tied to headcount, and difficult exits. Proposes bitcoin-backed equity incentives for recruiters and acquisition targets. - Talent retention through bitcoin alignment: Performance-based equity stakes backed by bitcoin treasury growth align employee incentives with long-term value creation, attracting high-performing recruiters who otherwise lack exit paths in a relationship-driven industry. - Bitcoin settlement for services: XE accepted 0.516 BTC as fee payment for executive recruitment placement. International cross-border payments identified as major friction point where bitcoin and stablecoins offer efficiency gains. - AI integration without role displacement: Deployed AI trained on negotiation frameworks and thousands of recruitment calls to enhance rather than replace recruiter work. Increased time spent on revenue-generating activities from 50% to 70%, targeting 90%. - Second-order bitcoin adoption: By placing thousands of executives within bitcoin-native companies and acquiring recruitment firms into XE's bitcoin-treasury model, every senior business leader globally would interact with bitcoin-informed recruiters, driving corporate adoption organically.
Bitcoin Optech: Newsletter #404 Recap
- Node fingerprinting via dual-homed networks: Researchers can correlate Bitcoin node identities across different networks (Tor/IPv4) by analyzing address gossip responses and their timestamps. Five potential mitigation approaches are being evaluated, including fuzzing timestamps, network-specific timestamp handling, and making older addresses appear older. - Just-in-time (JIT) Lightning channels and trust model: Current JIT channels require either client or server trust, creating centralization pressure. Thomas Voegtlin proposes using blockchain-published preimages as fraud proofs to reduce trust requirements and enable decentralized Lightning Service Providers. - Public fraud proofs for JIT channels: A three-part fraud proof consists of LSP commitment to channel funding with specific UTXOs, client publishing the HTLC preimage on-chain before a deadline, and proof of UTXO double-spending. Fraud detection infrastructure via Nostr is proposed. - PSBT version 2 support in Bitcoin Core: After five years in development, Bitcoin Core now defaults to creating PSBT v2 (BIP-370) while maintaining backward compatibility. PSBT v2 improves modularity for multiparty transactions by eliminating redundant transaction duplication. - Multiple Lightning protocol upgrades: Eclair and other implementations now support simple Taproot channels and official splicing protocol from Bolt specifications. LDK adds reserve checks for zero-fee commitment channels to prevent issues during simultaneous force closes. - Dust UTXO disposal standard (BIP-451): A new specification enables safe disposal of unwanted dust UTXOs by spending them to zero-value OP_RETURN outputs, with sighash ANYONECANPAY allowing batching of multiple dust disposal transactions.
NUMBER GO DOWN: Deflation, Bitcoin, and Communist Lies | Allen Farrington
- Good vs. bad deflation: The essay distinguishes between natural deflation in functioning markets (prices falling due to abundance and productivity) and deflationary spirals that occur when credit bubbles pop. Fiat economists incorrectly blame deflation itself rather than the credit misallocation that precedes it. - Fiat economics as circular justification: Central banks use deflation fears to justify endless money printing, but this printing is what creates the capital misallocation and fragility in the first place. The conclusion (print more money) remains constant regardless of the economic argument presented. - Capitalism as boogeyman: The term "capitalism" has been so corrupted by association with cronyism and fiat banking that it no longer describes what people think. Central banking itself is communist (point 5 of the Communist Manifesto), making true free markets impossible when money supply is centralized. - Saving and production precede consumption: The "paradox of thrift" wrongly assumes spending enables saving; actually, production and saving enable future consumption. This fundamental confusion drives policy toward discouraging savings. - Bitcoin as Venice second edition: A revised edition publishing in Nashville at Bitcoin Magazine's next conference will include new standalone essays like "Number Go Down." The book is designed so readers arrive at Bitcoin conclusions organically without it being explicitly argued. - ARK and Lightning infrastructure: Layer 2 development (particularly ARK Labs' work) is making peer-to-peer payments seamless by hiding complexity behind the scenes, allowing self-custody while improving on Lightning's channel and liquidity requirements.
The Financial System Is Moving to Bitcoin | David Marcus
- Grid announced **Grid Global Accounts**, a unified dollar and Bitcoin account built on Spark (Bitcoin L2) that enables instant money movement across 65 countries' domestic payment systems, Visa, Lightning, and multiple blockchains. - The product integrates a **Visa debit card** (available in 100+ countries), **embedded wallet login** (via Google, Apple, or passkey—no seed phrase management), and **agent delegation protocol** allowing AI to execute payments within user-defined scopes. - Four regulatory and technical shifts made Grid Global Accounts possible: stablecoin regulatory clarity (Genius Act, MiCA), embedded wallet technology maturity, Spark's native stablecoin support, and stablecoin-backed debit cards. - Stablecoins are framed not as competitors but as **fiat payment networks** (like SEPA in Europe); multi-chain stablecoin compatibility and Bitcoin liquidity depth enable cost-effective cross-border settlement and merchant acquisition without ideological Bitcoin maximalism. - Agentic AI integration allows delegated agents to send money, pay invoices, and execute transactions on WhatsApp or other interfaces; two agents conversing independently began exchanging JSON-structured data rather than English, demonstrating emergent agent-to-agent protocols. - The business model targets **platforms paying creators, drivers, hosts** (Airbnb, Uber, YouTube): converts payment infrastructure from a cost center (billions in fees lost to banks and payment networks) into a profit center by enabling platforms to retain yield and customer data.
The Decrypt News roundup with TylerD - May 1st
- Mega ETH token launch: Ethereum layer 2 debuted its Mega Token in what the host calls the biggest token launch of 2026. The chain targets 100,000 transactions per second and uses performance-based unlocking—53% of tokens only unlock when the network hits specific milestones rather than on a fixed schedule. First milestone was reached on April 23rd when 10 ecosystem apps each hit 100,000 on-chain transactions over 30 days. - Calsheet rises to top-5 U.S. sportsbook: Prediction market platform Calsheet ranked as the 4th largest U.S. sports betting operator in March, ahead of BetMGM, Caesars, and Bet365. March Madness drove $13 billion in trading volume (up 15x year-over-year), with 86% tied to sports event contracts. - Wasabi protocol exploited for $4.5 million: An attacker compromised the deployer admin key and drained funds across Ethereum, Base, Bearchain, and Blast. The pattern mirrors recent Drift and Kelp exploits—all centered on centralized admin control. - DeFi security crisis: April saw over $770 million in losses across 30+ incidents, marking the worst month for crypto security since February 2025. - Crypto becomes most-muted topic on X: Users are muting crypto more frequently than politics or Iran conflict news via X's snooze feature. Drivers cited include endless token launches, constant shilling, and low-quality promotional posts.