I’ve been lurking around what’s possible when you want to publish content across a peer-to-peer network, and not on a central server or one owned by a hosting company. And I’ve been watching the new wave of “domain/name” registrations on the blockchain, as an alternative to using central registries as we are currently used to. UnstoppableDomains recently approached me, asking if I would consider publishing content with a new domain wmougayar.crypto. They kindly offered that domain to me. Yesterday, I took the dive. I connected my Metamask to a new account on UnstoppableDomains, claimed my doma ..read more

It’s no secret I’m a fan of creative usages of crypto-tokens, and the resulting mini-economies they create. As a refresher, please refer to 2 seminal blog posts I wrote 4 years ago: The Theory of a Blockchain Circular Economy and the Future of Work and The Relationship Between Cryptocurrency Tokens, Value and Work. Since then, I’ve had direct experience and involvement in the first social currency that showed a decent adoption, Steemit, as well as with Kin, another large-scale cryptocurrency for socially-minded mobile apps.  [disclaimer, I was an early advisor to/holder of STEEM, and am c ..read more

There is no shortage of experimentation in trying to apply blockchain technology to organizational dynamics [this is different than governing technical blockchain protocols, reference: Let’s Be Clear About What is DAOable and What is Not. Decentralized autonomy in organizations (DAOs) is one popular metaphor that has seen a surge of entrepreneurial activity especially in the past year. Recent interpretations of the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) concept have lead to several implementation approaches, including notable ones by Aragon, MolochDAO, MarketingDAO, MetaCartel, LAO and o ..read more

In the past few weeks, there has been a flurry of news at the intersection of blockchain and the coronavirus.  As someone who watches the industry news diligently (via OnCoins), I curated a related collection of such new, and they range into four buckets of activity: Scams and fraudulent activities Lending computational resources Devising blockchain-based solutions  Donating funds or material  Here is the collection of 18 articles, (and I will continue to add to it if you’d like to save this link. Focus on Blockchain+Coronavirus: Global Crypto Community Comes Out in Full Force Again ..read more

Given the global quarantining in place (some pegged it at 3 billion people doing it), the world is not just on pause, it is also on reflection and introspection. As many of us move away from normal routines to the abnormal ritual of staying at home, and radically changing our interaction habits, this is a time to reflect, re-think, and evaluate what is really going on. For many, staying at home or disrupting the work routine is a break from the rat race they are used to, but it is also a perfect inducement for some critical thinking. Here are the key themes that are sticking in my mind ..read more

If you know me well, you know that I’ve had an obsession with content aggregation and curation. It’s been a passion of mine for as long as I remember, which led to one of my previous startups, Eqentia (founded in 2008) as a content aggregation/curation/publishing platform. Fast forward to the crypto era, I found myself struggling in keeping-up with the news in that sector. So, in 2014 I bought the domain Oncoins.org and started aggregating news for my own. In 2015, I opened the site to the public, Announcing Super News Aggregator, OnCoins, and the first iteration of that site was born. At ..read more

I wrote a blog post on CoinDesk a couple of days ago, Defining Cryptocurrency Is the Best Way to Kill it. It’s a plea and a case for allowing cryptocurrency to become as pervasive as today’s money in all of its applications variety, plus much more. It’s also about the realization that the industry has tied itself in knots with various classifications and definitions trying to please regulators. Let’s stop playing that game, so we can let cryptocurrency become accepted as an alternative digital currency that is here to stay for the long term. Cryptocurrency inherits all of money’s proper ..read more

Friday the 13th of March 2020 will be remembered as the morning-after.  The morning-after North America came to grips with the fact that the Coronavirus is among us. The morning-after US and Canadian stock markets tanked like they haven’t before, in decades.  The morning-after global crypto-markets reached lows that set it back to December 2018. The COVID-19/coronavirus situation has already done its damage, not just to human lives, but to the financial markets, and consequently it has affected people’s wallets, investments, and many businesses that will suffer, at least in the s ..read more

I wrote today an opinion piece on CoinDesk, with a provocative title, “Cut the Consensus: You Can’t Run a Business Like a Blockchain“. Its original draft title was Beware the Pitfalls of Decentralized Decision-Making. It’s a 1,400 word essay arguing the important distinction between the “governance of blockchains” and “governance by blockchains.” Five years ago, I had outlined an An Operational Framework for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations. More recently, I have been involved in a DAO experiment, the Ethereum Marketing DAO, in addition to closely following the key projects in tha ..read more

Last September 2019, I tweeted a prematurely positive position on the overall cryptocurrency sector, with an end-of-year target of $750 Billion for the overall sector. End of year predictions: ETH @ $1,000 BTC @ $25,000 ETC @ $50 ATOM @ $20 BNB @ $50 DOT @ $250 EOS @ $7 KIN @ $.0001 STX @ $1.50 (Stacks) XTZ @$2 STEEM @ $.50 Total Crypto Mkt Caps $750 B. BTC dominance will end at 55%. ETC at 15%. Top 20 at 95%. [this is not trading advice]— William Mougayar (@wmougayar) September 18, 2019 That tweet was loved and hated by an equal number of people, judging by the 362 comments rec ..read more