Some news! I'm joining @a16zcrypto as Communications Partner. Crypto was an unlikely place to start building a comms career in 2014. More than a decade later across exchanges, institutions, defi, L1s/L2s, and more the work still feels early. That path makes this next step particularly meaningful to me. I've admired the a16z team for a long time, and I'm grateful for the chance to work with partners & founders building what comes next.

These assets are called “real world.” BUT trading is increasingly happening onchain. 86% of RWA perp volume now runs through onchain venues.

We dive into some of the lore behind SNARKs, sumcheck, and Jolt Thanks @_patrickogrady for having us on!

How Things Work #7: Jolt and The Return of Sumcheck Today, we trace the once infeasible idea of verifiable compute from 1980s theory to Jolt, @a16zcrypto's sumcheck-based zkVM, with @SuccinctJT and @moodlezoup. TL;DW can going post-quantum actually make a zkVM faster?

Excited to introduce @Cosign: the curated professional network for the startup community: cosign.co Our goal is to create the following: - A comprehensive startup directory of investors, companies, and operators, including what they worked on and who they worked on it with. - Cosign graph: Who shaped your career? Who were you actually in the trenches with? Who would work with you again? Who thinks you’re someone to watch? - Durable reputation: Great endorsements happen every day on X and disappear into the feed. Cosign attaches those signals permanently to people and companies. - Discovery: Who are the best fintech angels? Which AI companies should I watch? Who are the best designers? - Intent network: Privately signal “I’d invest in them,” “I’d hire them,” “I’d work with them,” or eventually even “I’d acquire this company.” Match people when interest exists on both sides. Imagine if Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and OG AngelList had a baby. Though Cosign is a community, not a business. In order to join, you need to be cosigned. Or you can apply directly. David Booth and I started this idea 7 years ago but didn’t have the firepower to make it work. Now we do. No one has really touched LinkedIn in 20 years. Excited to take a swing. cosign.co

Just going to leave this here. Open interest in perps tied to traditional assets grew from $161 million to $4.8 billion in 13 months.

Really slick

Are you building a product or a business? The answer likely depends on whether you sit in the money flow.

SEC Commissioner Peirce Calls for Zero-Knowledge Proofs to Replace Data-Heavy KYC/AML Practices SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said the agency’s Innovation Exemption provides a temporary pathway for tokenized securities to trade through AMMs, helping prevent overseas markets from monopolizing tokenized exposure to U.S. equities while serving as a bridge to longer-term rules. She also criticized the current KYC/AML model for creating ever-larger “data haystacks” with limited effectiveness while turning the financial system into a “panopticon,” and called for zero-knowledge proofs and attribute-based credentials to verify compliance without collecting or repeatedly storing users’ sensitive personal data.

We’ve done the walled-garden thing before. @cdixon and @jerallaire on AOL vs. the open web and why people should have an open option for the internet of agents.

$300 Billion.

Perps have become one of crypto’s most-traded products. @guywuolletjr and @jay_drainjr explain where they came from, how they work, and why more of the market is moving onchain.

You can copy the code. You can’t copy the network of lenders, borrowers, and companies building on it. Morpho continues to show the power of open credit networks.

THE BLOCK: Times are changing for financial markets, said CFTC Chair Michael Selig during a U.S. Treasury Market conference at the New York Fed. "With developments like tokenization, onchain finance, and 24/7 trading, the next decade will likely bring more change to financial markets than the previous several decades combined," Selig said.

Bullish on AI agents for customer service. Last week my boarding pass was missing pre-check. Expected an hour-long phone call to sort, but the airline's AI found issue and resolved in a few minutes. We've come a long way from bots linking an FAQ, which links more help pages.

hiring a new media manager, looking for someone who: → has actually grown brand channels on IG, TikTok and YouTube → gets things made, solo or with agencies, editors and creators → has taste high agency folks, come build

I'll be on the show later today!

"We recommend, as its next steps in advancing Project Crypto, that the SEC clarify the circumstances in which developers of decentralized exchange protocols (DEXs) and the apps that provide access to them (DEX Apps) fall outside the Exchange Act’s exchange registration requirements. That is why we, together with the DeFi Education Fund, are now proposing a safe harbor from exchange registration requirements of the Exchange Act." 👏