Why “Read, Write, Own” isn’t quite right. And why the distinction matters. — Ownership If you toss me your iPhone, I “have it”. But you “own” it. Ownership is defined socially. It is the collective act of drawing a line in the sand. I can buy land without ever having set foot on it nor do I have to build a fence to claim…

A different perspective on cryptocurrencies — Most people think about cryptocurrencies this way: So, that’s the normal way of looking at things: the point of all that stuff on the left is to make that shiny coin on the right. People in Venezuela, for example, are finding crypto currencies quite useful this way. But there’s also…

Meditations on a dirty word — “There is intelligent speculation as there is intelligent investing.” — The Intelligent Investor (Chapter I), Benjamin Graham Gambling vs. Speculating There are two kinds of games in the world. Games where the odds are known and games where they are hidden. The odds at the casino table are known. They tell you all…

If you still don’t get what the heck a Smart Contract is… — Ok, you know a bit about Bitcoin (see: Explain Bitcoin Like I’m Five). You’ve been seeing the blockchain on the news. But what’s this new Ethereum thing? Apparently it’s this crypto-currency you can use to build “smart contracts”. Sounds impressive. So, uh… what are they again? (Spoiler: They’re not that…