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Lightning 2020: A Toolkit for Heretical Web3 Developers

By Ryan Gentry

May 5, 2020 | 11 minute read

Many developers and investors interested in building Web3 gave up on building on top of Bitcoin years ago, assuming that its limited throughput, high latency, and conservative programmability made such development impossible. Indeed, this is precisely what led to the birth of Ethereum, and a plethora of Web3 platforms (e.g. Arweave, Cosmos, Polkadot, Solana, Near) that developers are leveraging today.

On Forking DeFi Protocols

By Kyle Samani

April 16, 2020 | 14 minute read

As a suite of new layer 1 blockchains are launching, I’ve been thinking about Ethereum’s network effects, and the defensibility of the DeFi protocols built on top of Ethereum. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the network effects of non-sovereign layer 1 monies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Our Investment in dForce: The DeFi Super-Network

By Mable Jiang

April 14, 2020 | 5 minute read

Today I’m excited to announce that Multicoin Capital led a $1.5M round in dForce, the world’s first unified network for open finance protocols. Coinvestors include our friends at China Merchant Bank International (CMBI) and Huobi Capital.

Trust Spectrum

By Tony Sheng

March 24, 2020 | 25 minute read

Most people talk about financial services in crypto—trading, saving, lending, etc.—as either “decentralized” or “centralized.” Crypto advocates tend to characterize the former as less risky because users don’t have to trust a counterparty to custody their assets, removing the risks of losing their funds through a hack, impropriety, seizure from governments, and other forms of human error or malice.

March 12: The Day Crypto Market Structure Broke (Part 2)

By Kyle Samani

March 20, 2020 | 14 minute read

Note: A few days ago I published a postmortem detailing how the crypto market structure broke on March 12. This post, Part 2, will explore the potential solutions to some of the systemic problems outlined in Part 1. To recap, one of the core structural problems is that current blockchains—both Bitcoin and Ethereum—simply do not support enough transaction throughput to facilitate global trading across many venues in volatile environments.

March 12: The Day Crypto Market Structure Broke (Part 1)

By Kyle Samani

March 17, 2020 | 11 minute read

There were two large downward moves in the crypto markets on March 12th, about 13 hours apart. The first was early in the morning, and the second in the evening (in the US). The first move down—a ~25% move—was fast and relatively orderly given the size of the move; however, during the second leg down, the market structure broke.

Infinite Scale

By Kyle Samani

February 6, 2020 | 14 minute read

Today, the vast majority of economic activity is conducted via corporations. Corporations were invented in the 1400s, with the first versions manifesting as joint-stock companies. Capital structures, limited liability, and other parameters have evolved since then, but the fundamental premise of the corporation as the conduit to facilitate economic activity remains largely unchanged.

Welcoming Mable Jiang To Multicoin Capital

By Kyle Samani

December 5, 2019 | 2 minute read

Since launching Multicoin Capital more than two years ago, we’ve sought to build a crypto-native, global-scale asset management firm. Over the last 12 months, we’ve been thinking hard about how exactly we should grow the firm in order to build towards that vision. We determined that the most important initiative we could undertake was to develop a meaningful presence in Asia.

Investing In the Permaweb

By Kyle Samani

November 5, 2019 | 7 minute read

Today I’m excited to announce our investment in Arweave, a new protocol and blockchain pioneering an entirely new idea: permanent data storage. Arweave is the foundation of the Permaweb, a critical piece of infrastructure in the Web3 stack. We invested alongside our friends at a16z crypto and Union Square Ventures.

Exchanges Are Open Finance

By Kyle Samani

October 29, 2019 | 11 minute read

The largest profit centers of crypto—the exchanges—are generally under analyzed from a strategic lens, especially given their systemic importance to the space as a whole. This is especially true given that the public can invest in the success of the exchanges through each exchange’s respective token (with the exceptions of the US-based exchanges, BitMEX, and Deribit).

Lightning 2020: A Toolkit for Heretical Web3 Developers

By Ryan Gentry

May 5, 2020 | 11 minute read

Many developers and investors interested in building Web3 gave up on building on top of Bitcoin years ago, assuming that its limited throughput, high latency, and conservative programmability made such development impossible. Indeed, this is precisely what led to the birth of Ethereum, and a plethora of Web3 platforms (e.g. Arweave, Cosmos, Polkadot, Solana, Near) that developers are leveraging today.

On Forking DeFi Protocols

By Kyle Samani

April 16, 2020 | 14 minute read

As a suite of new layer 1 blockchains are launching, I’ve been thinking about Ethereum’s network effects, and the defensibility of the DeFi protocols built on top of Ethereum. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the network effects of non-sovereign layer 1 monies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Our Investment in dForce: The DeFi Super-Network

By Mable Jiang

April 14, 2020 | 5 minute read

Today I’m excited to announce that Multicoin Capital led a $1.5M round in dForce, the world’s first unified network for open finance protocols. Coinvestors include our friends at China Merchant Bank International (CMBI) and Huobi Capital.

Trust Spectrum

By Tony Sheng

March 24, 2020 | 25 minute read

Most people talk about financial services in crypto—trading, saving, lending, etc.—as either “decentralized” or “centralized.” Crypto advocates tend to characterize the former as less risky because users don’t have to trust a counterparty to custody their assets, removing the risks of losing their funds through a hack, impropriety, seizure from governments, and other forms of human error or malice.

March 12: The Day Crypto Market Structure Broke (Part 2)

By Kyle Samani

March 20, 2020 | 14 minute read

Note: A few days ago I published a postmortem detailing how the crypto market structure broke on March 12. This post, Part 2, will explore the potential solutions to some of the systemic problems outlined in Part 1. To recap, one of the core structural problems is that current blockchains—both Bitcoin and Ethereum—simply do not support enough transaction throughput to facilitate global trading across many venues in volatile environments.

March 12: The Day Crypto Market Structure Broke (Part 1)

By Kyle Samani

March 17, 2020 | 11 minute read

There were two large downward moves in the crypto markets on March 12th, about 13 hours apart. The first was early in the morning, and the second in the evening (in the US). The first move down—a ~25% move—was fast and relatively orderly given the size of the move; however, during the second leg down, the market structure broke.

Infinite Scale

By Kyle Samani

February 6, 2020 | 14 minute read

Today, the vast majority of economic activity is conducted via corporations. Corporations were invented in the 1400s, with the first versions manifesting as joint-stock companies. Capital structures, limited liability, and other parameters have evolved since then, but the fundamental premise of the corporation as the conduit to facilitate economic activity remains largely unchanged.

Welcoming Mable Jiang To Multicoin Capital

By Kyle Samani

December 5, 2019 | 2 minute read

Since launching Multicoin Capital more than two years ago, we’ve sought to build a crypto-native, global-scale asset management firm. Over the last 12 months, we’ve been thinking hard about how exactly we should grow the firm in order to build towards that vision. We determined that the most important initiative we could undertake was to develop a meaningful presence in Asia.

Investing In the Permaweb

By Kyle Samani

November 5, 2019 | 7 minute read

Today I’m excited to announce our investment in Arweave, a new protocol and blockchain pioneering an entirely new idea: permanent data storage. Arweave is the foundation of the Permaweb, a critical piece of infrastructure in the Web3 stack. We invested alongside our friends at a16z crypto and Union Square Ventures.

Exchanges Are Open Finance

By Kyle Samani

October 29, 2019 | 11 minute read

The largest profit centers of crypto—the exchanges—are generally under analyzed from a strategic lens, especially given their systemic importance to the space as a whole. This is especially true given that the public can invest in the success of the exchanges through each exchange’s respective token (with the exceptions of the US-based exchanges, BitMEX, and Deribit).

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Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies reshaping trillion-dollar markets.

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Blog

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Lightning 2020: A Toolkit for Heretical Web3 Developers

On Forking DeFi Protocols

Our Investment in dForce: The DeFi Super-Network

Featured

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The Web3 Stack, 2019 Edition

Binance is Blitzscaling

Privacy Is a Feature, Not a Product

Podcasts

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Podcast: Tushar Jain and Jake Brukhman Talk Generalized Mining With Laura Shin on the Unchained Podcast

Podcast: Tushar and Kyle on Invest Like the Best Podcast With Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Podcast: Tushar and Dhruv Discuss ASIC Mining, Chia, and Mining Decentralization

Videos

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Fall 2019 Multicoin Summit Recap (VIDEOS)

Inside the Room at the Spring 2019 Multicoin Summit (Videos)

Multicoin Summit Panels: Fall 2018

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Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies reshaping trillion-dollar markets.

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