Permissionless blockchains enable frictionless barter. Specifically, if you can swap your preferred asset positions into whatever unit of account a merchant accepts (e.g., through a DEX) at the point of purchase, then you don't need to hold cash for payments. Economically, this means that blockchains relax the cash-in-advance constraint in monetary economic models.

A classic observation in finance papers is that people only hold cash if there are frictions. People either hoard cash to spend in the future or face barriers to investing. Crypto companies are removing those frictions. - @ether_fi lets users borrow cash against their investments. You don’t have to sell, which decreases the need to hold cash to spend in the future. - @anvil_xyz lets companies put deposits in yield bearing assets like money market funds. Instead of putting 50k down for an event sponsorship a year ahead of time, you put 50k worth of money market funds down and keep the yield. - @SECGov’s new innovation exemption allows tokenized NMS stocks to trade against money market funds in AMMs. Neither LPs nor swappers need to hold cash to access stocks. People say time in the market beats timing the market. Crypto literally increases time in the market.

The most bullish AMM news today is not the official statement, but the comment letter from SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce that went along with it “Truly decentralized systems that are driven by autonomous software… do not need need an exemption” (Aka normal permissionless Uniswap) The exemption applies to permissioned pools on Uniswap v4, creating a pathway for compliant trading in the US for assets and users where this is needed This can be incredibly useful for amm adoption, and we will be submitting a comment letter with proposed improvements

After a month of community outreach, @ethlabs_org is shipping a major piece on a faster Ethereum with faster L1 blocks, collecting perspectives from all corners of the ecosystem. Ethereum core developers are in the final stretches of deciding what to include in Hegotá, the network's upcoming fork after Glamsterdam. Our Hegotá proposal is EIP-8198: Quick Slots. It does two things: 1. Prepare the network to decrease the slot time, currently set at 12 seconds. 2. Perform a first decrease from 12 seconds to 10 seconds. We presented this plan to major DeFi applications, Ethereum core infrastructure and many top builders, to get their thoughts on the value of a faster L1. This post is the result. Beyond highly valuable data from broad user research, the post also stands as an effort to continue closing the loop between the network development process and the most direct consumers of the network's affordances. Core developers have in my view already expressed relatively positive sentiment regarding the value of faster slots on the L1, showing clearly their understanding for the benefits and appreciation for the change. But understandably, their bandwidth and the network's capacity to upgrade aren't infinite, and there are critical decisions to make today regarding the long-term survival of the protocol with the quantum threat. The bar to clear in order to justify a change beyond those that are existential is very high, and we hope with this piece to show that opening the door for improved latency on Ethereum clears it. As recounted in the piece, this is one of the highest-value items for the network to deliver, and without the groundwork performed by EIP-8198, the door will remain closed for much longer than necessary. At Ethlabs, we are committed to seeing EIP-8198 through should its inclusion be decided. We are working on specifications with the support of Ethereum Foundation engineers, and we are deeply engaged with the broader research and engineering allowing for the Ethereum consensus to thrive in the post-quantum age. We are also engaged in technical outreach to understand how a slot time change affects deployed smart contracts and broader infrastructure. It's time for a faster Ethereum!

Every day, I knock on doors to help speed up Ethereum. Fast confirmations can accelerate L1-to-L2 deposits. ZK proofs can accelerate L2-to-L1 withdrawals. More work has to be done, but these improvements are happening. But slot time, the smallest unit of time that affects L1-to-L2 bridging time, L2-to-L1 bridging time, L1 UX, and markets across the ecosystem, hasn't changed in years. In Hegotá, we have to take the opportunity to reduce slot time and then iteratively speed up more and more in the forks after that. Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what founders, engineers, and business leaders from the entire ecosystem want!

Building on Ethereum L1 right now, or shipped something in the last few months? I want to talk. Two things I'm trying to learn: 1⃣what your agent wrote vs what you wrote 2⃣where the agent broke DMs open or comment below.

> be @barnabemonnot > spend 6.5 years at the ethereum foundation studying how this whole thing should work > become obsessed with what happens when someone actually tries to use it > why are they waiting? > why did that builder leave? > what would make them want to come back? > still believe in the reasons ethereum chose the harder path > also believe people should enjoy using it > decide to spend your days connecting those two things > cofound ethlabs > a nonprofit mission with startup hours > apparently this is your idea of a good time > start posting weekly updates > sometimes just explain what you’re thinking about > people show up saying they’re working on the same problem > now you have collaborators > keep posting > people want faster ethereum > you also want faster ethereum > have spent enough time inside the protocol to know where the complications are > propose doing the engineering to make block times configurable > start with 12 seconds to 10 > keep working toward further reductions as testing supports them > ten seconds is the first target and an ethereum that keeps getting faster without losing its core properties is the goal > listen to client teams about deadlines, workload and slower validators > account for future proving and post-quantum requirements > the exciting future involves a lot of checking things carefully > “why bother?” > because people should feel confident that their transaction actually worked > because markets benefit from fresher prices > because money waiting for confirmation is money someone cannot use yet > seconds matter when enough people spend their day waiting for them > also work on faster confirmations > the tech helps bridges and exchanges credit deposits in tens of seconds instead of 13 minutes > explain the security assumptions > recognize where people still need finality > go talk to the teams who would actually integrate it > find out what’s stopping them > research becomes more useful when you stay around for this part > asked about L2s > want them to succeed > scale mainnet too > different communities will want different applications and experiences > give them good reasons to build within ethereum > $ETH can reach more people through all of them > asked about attracting younger builders > discuss mentorship, funding and helping experiments reach users > want to do it properly > remember the point is for new people to build things you wouldn’t have thought of yourself > asked what success looks like in a year > want ethereum to feel alive > more people building useful, strange, ambitious things > more reasons to open an app and do something > more young builders deciding this is where they want to spend their time > has thought deeply about how ethereum can survive for generations and still wants to make sure you have a reason to use it tomorrow

ETH success = achieving global SoV status, anything else is a distraction strong L1/L2 ecosystem + post-quantum = best path to ETH as global and maximally durable SoV asset ETH is uniquely positioned to achieve this

DEAR CRYPTO, LETS SHOW THE WORLD WHAT WE ARE MADE OF. DONATE NOW. The Nepal floods have been devastating, 5,083 people are still missing but the search is still on, and it needs your help. This morning, two workers were pulled out of a hydropower tunnel after nine days underground. Imagine being their family yesterday, and now imagine being one of the thousands of families tonight who are still waiting. Every drop counts, and you can help directly. Now let me get a bit more personal, I wrote this in my journal last week: “My country was ravaged by what can only be described as an apocalyptic flood meets earthquake meets tsunami. It feels very strange being so far from home. It’s hard to think of anything that can even compare in the slightest to what those who perished or witnessed the floods felt; because for that, there is NO precedent, there are no previous videos of such things happening, there are almost no warning signs. It just happened, on a quiet morning, suddenly gargantuan waves filled with tons of debris moving at 200mph overtook entire villages, toppled entire buildings..and, well you’ve seen the footage. And all I can think of is WTF are we doing? My industry speaks of millions and billions in revenue and hundreds of thousands in paper profits; but the beauty of all of that is that it is powered by a global financial network; one that literally just works and can genuinely help the world. I’m also sat here thinking who the FUCK cares about all the bullshit we argue about everyday? Solana donated 160k through a channel made by Polygon, and it just worked. Chains battling pseudo religious battles while thousands have been entirely displaced feels so inconsequential. We ask which chain will win, but we never ask what will the world win if one does? We conveniently say we are boosting economic freedom but what about when it matters most? Why not reframe progress from real world outcomes instead of charts? Why not become the #1# vessel for relief on any calamity in the world? Why are we simply optimizing to please tech narratives? What about impact we can give to the world TODAY? We have everything it takes, we just need to do it.” Well, this is an attempted answer to most of those questions: Special thanks to @sandeepnailwal, @Mudit__Gupta, @Ronak0010, @DianaChimes, @vibhu, and countless others who have spent nights and weekends to help Nepal. And a major h/t to @0xPolygon