Rolling Up the Memes • CEO Letter #22

Taylor Culbertson -

'Sup kids, it's Taylor, CEO of Hedgehog, where you can monitor your crypto-coins as if you put them all in one basket, without actually putting them all in one basket. Keep using various exchanges and wallets, no need for a manual spreadsheet to figure out what you even own!

Want a chance to win a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet? Don't forget the giveaway question at the end of the newsletter!

Last time I asked about the holiday dishes you don't like. Disapproval was registered for brussel sprouts, candied yams, and even green-bean casserole. Turkey itself had at least one hater. I bet a lot of you love these dishes, so to each their own 😛 Do u, boo. I’ll take the extra turkey.

Speaking of holidays, Hedgehog published a cheeky crypto gift guide! The goal was suggestions that are actually cool, and thoughtful. Heck, you might wanna shop this list for yourself.

Memes are important to the crypto community — we use them to bond, to promote shared values, to develop narratives, and of course as marketing. That includes clowning on each other constantly! But memes can be deep too, more than merely silly jokes. Pretty sure I've linked "The Meme Economy" before, but it's a topic well worth revisiting:

Poor Matt Levine isn't happy about crypto enabling anyone, anywhere in the world, to monetize a Schelling point. But at least he gets it: "Crypto has developed tools to create scarce claims on computerized representations of memes, to create scarce tradable claims on societal attention. This is … extremely, extremely stupid? I think? But what do I know. The point is that it works."

Tldr: That's right Matt, the point is that it works! Buckle up for the ride.

ETH2 is basically here, almost. (Pretend you haven't been hearing that for years.) The whole ecosystem is upgrading:

  • Popular Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash is ready to integrate with Arbitrum: "As an Ethereum mixer, Tornado Cash improves transaction privacy. It does so by breaking the on-chain link between the sender and recipient address. [...] Tornado Cash's launch on Arbitrum means its users will be able to process Ethereum transactions faster and cheaper. Arbitrum uses optimistic rollups for its scaling technology."
  • Zero-Knowledge Pioneer StarkWare Launches Layer 2 Rollup Network: "StarkWare describes StarkNet Alpha as a 'permissionless decentralized rollup operating as an L2.' They claim the network can offer decentralized applications (dApps) 'unlimited scale' for computation without compromising the composability or security of its underlying settlement chain Ethereum."
  • How The Merge Impacts Ethereum's Application Layer: "The Merge is designed to have minimal impact on how Ethereum operates for end users, smart contracts and dapps. That said, there are some minor changes worth highlighting." This one is very technical.

Wondering wtf any of that means? Check out "An Engineer's Hype-Free Observations on Web3 (and its Possibilities)." Despite coming from an engineer, this post is a high-level rundown of… everything that's been going on lately? Good for getting up to speed, though I'm sure the author and I could find plenty to argue about at a dinner party. That's the crypto default, actually 😜 If you're not arguing, are you even alive?

Tldr: Big ETH gets bigger.

I just gave you a lot to digest — Thanksgiving pun not originally intended, but now that it's occurred to me I do intend it.

Giveaway question: What's your favorite meme lately? Bonus points for sending me an actual image, but I can also pull up the Know Your Meme page if necessary. Reply to this email with your answer and you'll be entered to win a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet 😎

Damn Daniel, hopefully this signoff isn't too dated,
— Taylor

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