Article by Frank America | Edited and Cover Art trewkat
After reading and shipping more than 200 articles over the last couple of years, the Bankless Publishing team decided we would each pick out a few favorites. The seven featured here are my choices — articles that impressed me because they guide the reader towards something new. The through line in particular, is our raison d’etre at BP, they are pieces that educate well.
They’re in no particular order, but we all love a countdown so here goes:
7. Tokenomics 101: Bitcoin & Ethereum
This classic from Florian Strauf is one of the most viewed pieces on our website to date. In his series of tokenomics pieces, Strauf covered Thor Chain, Terra, Kilt Protocol, and BanklessDAO… but before he did all that he wrote a 101 crash course on Bitcoin and Ethereum. I can’t think of a better explainer to send to a person who has never heard of cryptocurrency or tokenomics.
“Like a central bank applying monetary policy to control its currency, tokenomics applies policies to cryptocurrencies. These policies are the core of a currency. Without carefully thinking through the rules, the currency is likely to fail. The rules of tokenomics are implemented through code and are quite difficult to alter as they require agreement from many network participants.”
This piece is complete with charts and graphs and all the stats you need to get the skinny on bitcoin and ether. It discusses bitcoin’s supply issuance, the hard cap of 21M, and its valuation, then rolls through Ethereum’s progress towards proof-of-stake consensus. Although this article pre-dates The Merge, in fact because it does, it’s a great read.
If you’re wondering where and how to teach your friend about cryptocurrency, hit ’em with Tokenomics 101: Bitcoin & Ethereum.
6. Friend.Tech is Saving Twitter
What’s amazing about this piece isn’t just that BP did an interview with one of the biggest influencers on Friend.Tech (Captain Levi), but it is our exploration of the technology itself as it was only days following the launch. This piece is a historical record of the first time someone essentially put Twitter onchain and charged eth to follow people.
“No content creator has to sell bullshit merch anymore. No content creator has to accept bullshit ads and sponsors who are only interested in monetizing their fan base. Every content creator can just obsess over the content they loved to create in the first place and your fans will literally fight for you.
If I did it in five days, you can do it too. Let’s save Twitter together, starting with obsessing on content.”
Who knows if this particular attempt will turn out to be the Facebook or the MySpace of social-fi, but either way we’re glad we were at the cutting edge to document it. Tip of the hat to my colleague at BP, Hiro Kennelly, who had the fortitude (and the ETH) to dive into that novelty world, kick around, and ask questions, and met Levi in the process.
Get savvy on Friend.Tech and maybe make some ether while you’re at it.
5. The Ultimate NFT Red Flag Checklist
When hella people were getting dunked on, wash-traded, and scammed out of their valuable ETH in the name of NFTs, it was time for BP to compile the classic signs to a $hitty NFT project. Bankless Fam fave Kalex (who went on to work for HQ) knocked this one out and we were more than happy to ship it. It contains bangers like “if you don’t like the art, don’t buy it” (you’d think that’d be a no brainer but it isn’t) and advises readers to be wary of any project that has a celebrity as its primary promoter. This was pre-Kim-Kardashian-endorsing-EthereumMax. Way pre, like half a year earlier.
“When reviewing roadmaps, you should be asking yourself whether the promises made are realistic. If a promise seems ambitious and the project seems to be breaking new ground, be careful. You should vet the team to see if they’re able to make good on those promises. If they seem like they’re biting off more than they can chew, it’s time to start asking questions on Discord and/or Twitter.”
Bankless Publishing had your back before you even knew it! The fact that we were already safeguarding our readership against the onslaught of froth in a bull market warms our hearts.
Be sure and peruse this dope NFT Safety Checklist by Kalex.
4. The Byzantine Generals Problem, 51% Attacks, and Proof-of-Work
This piece is right on the money (pun intended) because it explains the origins of the proof-of-work consensus model that Bitcoin operates with. Bankless Publishing author Jake and Stake knocked it out of the park with a breakdown of the well-known “Byzantine Generals Problem”.
Here’s an illustration: suppose several Byzantine Generals are preparing to attack a city. Each General’s army is located at various points around the city, distant from the others, and has their own resources and supply lines… if some Generals attack and others do not, they will be defeated. To survive, they must attack together or retreat together.
Not many people at BanklessDAO are that into bitcoin, and that’s okay, but as Bankless Publishing it is our duty to look at the OG cryptocurrency and give credit where credit is due. This piece very much does that and shows that we weren’t just thinking about the next ERC-20 token launch in Q1 of 2023.
Take a moment to catch up on the origins of Bitcoin, since you probably haven’t even read the whitepaper, anon.
3. What’s Behind The Backing of Stablecoins?
This piece is so great because it gets at the heart of what Bankless Publishing wants to do best: educate. Sure in one sentence you can say, “Stablecoins are backed by dollars.” But whose dollars? Where? How is it enforced? Why do they lose their peg? All of these questions and more are answered in this early piece shipped by BP.
In countries with high inflation or uncertain economic conditions, stablecoins can be a way to store money in a less inflationary and safer way. In many such countries, it’s difficult to get real USD without a US bank account. A stablecoin might be a good alternative here.
It was Q4 2021 and we were all about that education. As of today stablecoins hold down more than 100B of the total crypto market cap; that’s about ten percent. Stable coins are integral for securing positions outside of crypto while remaining liquid to get back in the market. Plus, these days Coinbase will give you 5% year over year just to hodl. Sure beats a CD or a savings account.
Get educated on the early days of stablecoins in this piece by Florian Strauf.
2. 4 Simple Steps on How to Join a DAO
Also one of our top ten most read articles, this piece’s title says it all. We’re all about teaching you how to get into the world of web3 and Samantha Marin did just that in this article.
When you join a DAO, the first thing you should assess is the vibe. DAOs are all about community. It’s the people that make DAOs such a wonderful place to work. Unlike a traditional job, there are very few switching costs with hopping from one DAO to another, so be sure to find a place where you fit in with your peers and reflects the values that you hold.
What’s so great about it is this encapsulates a time and place when there was a particular fervor around DAOs. Bankless Publishing was (and still is) on a mission to get the important details out to all of the eager anons.
Take a trip down memory lane and cruise through Samantha’s work on DAO’ing up!
1. The Essential Web3 Glossary
This one was a no-brainer. In the words of Terence McKenna, “New words create new worlds.” Web3 has most definitely generated a new lexicon and when beejorama joined our Writers Cohort and produced this glossary, we knew we wanted to share it far and wide.
FOMO: Fear of Missing Out, a form of anxiety about missing opportunities.
FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, a strategy to influence perception.
GM: Good Morning, often used in crypto social media, usually expressed in lowercase.
GWEI: A unit of gas price on the Ethereum network.
GUI: Graphical User Interface, a visual way to interact with software.
HODL: Hold On for Dear Life, advice to not sell assets during market volatility.
The OED adds between 500–2000 new words per year. Bankless Publishing has you covered until this batch finally makes its way into the established vernacular.
Brush up on your crypto essentials in this fantastic piece about web3 chatter.
The Last Word
The last word is yours. These are just some of the pieces that I believe demonstrate the ethos, attitude, and goals of Bankless Publishing, but which ones are your favorites? We’re proud to be serving up the best in web3 to our amazing audience day in and day out and we’d love to hear from you on X or see you in the BanklessDAO Discord.
We’ve shipped over 200+ articles to date on our website, and that doesn’t even include our Substack newsletters. There is talk of us moving our entire trove of published works onchain with our friends at paragraph.xyz — we’ll keep you tuned in on that as it develops.
Author Bio
Frank America is an author, musician, and comedian. He is Editor-in-Chief of The Rug News, and a Content Manager/Staff Writer at Bankless Publishing.
Edito & Designer Bio
trewkat is a writer, editor, and designer at BanklessDAO. She’s interested in learning about web3, with a particular focus on how best to communicate this knowledge to others.
BanklessDAO is an education and media engine dedicated to helping individuals achieve financial independence.
This post does not contain financial advice, only educational information. By reading this article, you agree and affirm the above, as well as that you are not being solicited to make a financial decision, and that you in no way are receiving any fiduciary projection, promise, or tacit inference of your ability to achieve financial gains.
Bankless Publishing is always open to submissions for publication. We’d love to read your work, so please submit your article here!
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