Brad's Brief - Crypto-Based RPG Dungeon Crawlers, Money, The Merge, and Consuming the Never-Ending Now
Yo
We’re back.
I know I haven’t sent one of these in a while, but I’ve been writing a lot more and I’m fired up about some things and wanted to share them with you all. If you forgot you signed up for this and don’t want me in your inbox, feel free to unsubscribe. It won’t hurt my feelings.
Today’s edition is crypto-heavy, but let’s be honest... the prices are up so everything is more interesting.
Let’s get into it.
Brad
What I'm reading
Don’t Sleep on The Merge by David Hoffman
The Merge is one of the most significant blockchain network upgrades ever.
It changes Ethereum from a proof of work network to a proof of stake network. This has several benefits, but the biggest is that the daily issuance of ETH will go down 90%. The Merge is nicknamed 'the triple halving' because it would take Bitcoin three halvings to produce a similar supply reduction.
The Merge is happening in June.
Disclaimer: I am uncomfortably long Ethereum right now.
What is Money, Anyway? by Lyn Alden
This article walks through the history of monetary transitions from the lenses of a few different schools of thought (often at odds with each other), and then examines the current and near-term situation as it pertains to money and how we might go about investing in it.
Money is one of my favorite subjects to study and this article did not disappoint.
Sit down with a cup of coffee and really think about money and what it is. Lyn does a great job of taking you through the history of money and helping you understand that digital money is the next phase. There are a lot of different ideas for what digital money will look like including CBDCs, state-regulated corporate stable coins, or Bitcoin.
I’m not sure, but I think we’re definitely living through a changing of the guard.
What I'm listening to
Crypto Raiders: Creating an Anti-Fragile Game Economy with Skill-Based Gameplay
Crypto, NFTs, and gaming go together very well.
Crypto Raiders is a crypto-based RPG dungeon crawler. Two of the creators, Nicholas Kneuper and Nat Eliason were on the Delphi Podcast to talk about the game. I have followed Nat Eliason (one of the developers of the project) for a long time and respect his writing and thinking about Defi.
Building a crypto game is hard because you have to master 3 things: 1 - the game has to be good, 2- tokenomics have to be good and 3 - NFT strategy has to be good.
The composability of games on Polygon is a really cool future that Nat talks about in this podcast. Using characters from one game in a new game to attract new players. There is definitely a world where Polygon becomes the go-to L2 for gaming and a rising tide lifts all ships (games) on that platform.
I don’t currently own any RAIDER, but after listening to this podcast, I’m in the market.
What I'm watching
How to Use Your Phone Better than EVERYONE Else
80% of Americans check their phone within 10 minutes of waking up.
In this video, David talks about the concept of the never-ending now. Every one of us consumes news feeds that are filled with information that was created in the last 24 hours. When you focus on the now, you miss out on the wisdom that a great book or evergreen content can give you.
Think about shifting your content diet to more evergreen content and less newsfeed.
Photo of the Week
On Friday, we celebrated the Grand Opening of our 4th Skin Pharm clinic in Charlotte.
We flew down and back on the same day. It was exhausting, but it was great to see the team and celebrate their successful start in the Queen City.
Thanks for reading!
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