Interview Series — redphone.eth
In our interview series, we talk to the chads of Crypto Twitter — people that share the best alpha and have won the community’s respect. This time we’re talking to redphone.eth, whose annual crypto thesis documents are a work of art. If you want to be informed and entertained, then following him and reading his writings is a must.
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Hello ser! We read your 69 thesis document and have to say it’s rare that we come across something that’s so well-written. Not just the ideas you communicated, but the writing style as well. Did you already write before crypto (and what’s your background in general)?
I majored in literature and spent a few years as a professional journalist. There’s nothing better than writing on a deadline and getting constant editorial feedback to help you improve. In general, saying little is harder (and more powerful) than saying a lot, so I try to be bloody and aggressive in my edits.
How long have you been in crypto & what was your first investment?
I bought my first bitcoin in 2013. Quickly started mining Litecoin and even Ripple (when they were giving away XRP to BOINC contributors). I later invested in some ICOs, hardly slept during DeFi summer and eventually fell in love with NFTs.
Full-time or part-time?
Full-time crypto since ‘18.
Your bio has a reference to a movie that I’ve seen probably around 15–20 times. Do you feel that crypto kind of plays a similar role in our current society as V played in the movie?
Absolutely. Every government on the planet is generally in the business of passing regulations (or limiting freedoms). Once taken, freedoms are rarely ever reinstated, so it’s just an ongoing retraction of rights. Crypto is one of the few things I’ve ever seen that actually subtracts power from governments. That’s a net positive for humanity imo.
How much time it took to put together the 2023 thesis document, and what’s the motivation behind doing that?
I randomly jotted down ideas for a few months. Then, I spent 2 weeks or so refining/editing them at night. Generating the art (Stable Diffusion) and the layout (Figma) took maybe 30 hours. It’s a lot of work. This is the third year I’ve done it, and I considered not doing it. But I also felt like we lost our way in 2022. So I wrote them in part to remind myself why I’m here, and in part to try to inspire others to take on really important freedom-enhancing projects. It’s easy to feel like our individual actions don’t matter. But there’s one action that has enormous implications for humanity and that’s choosing where you work… The idea that I could potentially sway 1 or 2 people into quitting meaningless jobs for work that improves the world is all the motivation I need.
You outline 4 big trends for 2023 (who haven’t read the doc, please do) — which of them you’re the most certain to play out in 2023?
I’m pretty certain FTX was an inflection point for the industry. It will force people to question all the centralized services they use and motivate entrepreneurs to build more open-source, DeFi projects. It will take time, but I think DeFi will eventually be superior to CeFi. Why trust humans when you can trust immutable code? It feels so obvious and clear to me, it doesn’t even seem like a choice at this point. Code and open protocols should decimate the murky corporations we’re forced to trust today.
It’s 2050. Did we succeed in building a better and more fair financial system?
Yes. I imagine a future where a lot of the core crypto protocols are as baked into everyday life as http or smtp are today. I think crypto will restructure the internet, too, so we’ll eventually be using things like decentralized DNS, hosting and cloud computing without realizing it. AI will get deeply enmeshed in crypto, too, with all sorts of financial transactions happening seamlessly on the backend. Some people might have to access crypto networks secretly, but they’ll have a way to do it if they need it badly enough.
You can’t sell for the next 5 years, and can only hold one: ETH, BTC or USD?
Asking me to pick between ETH and BTC is like asking me to choose the one child I get to save from a fire. If it’s either/or, I’d say ETH, but I think it’s pretty insane to have exposure to this space without having exposure to both.
Name 3 of your current favourite protocols.
What do you think is missing from crypto at the moment?
- Noob-friendly UX. Ultimately, I think private keys will either be abstracted away for most users (by being encrypted and stored in the cloud) or stored in a secure enclave on a user’s phone or computer.
- Regs that first carve out special status for most crypto tokens (so they’re not deemed securities) and that give corporations a framework to enter the space without worrying that they’re breaking the law or that crypto might suddenly get outlawed. Ultimately, I’d love to see some legal protections for self-custodying crypto assets. Imo, it should be a fundamental right that’s protected by law.
- Decentralized crypto-fiat gateways (so we can have assurances that we can always convert cash to crypto and vice versa). I’m not sure this one’s solvable, though.
Besides Ethereum, which ecosystem do you see thriving in the future?
Cosmos appchains. I’m cautiously optimistic on Solana, too, though I’m not buying SOL right now.
Most underrated protocol in terms of impact on the whole DeFi space?
Probably Thorchain. So many protocols are trying to tackle cross-chain liquidity, but almost all of them exclude BTC, which makes them “half-solutions” imo.
1–3 accounts people must follow on Twitter?
@pythianism, @ChrisBlec, @delphi_labs
Which crypto chad would you like us to interview next & what’s one question you want us to ask them?
Would love to hear from a data company on the favourite/underappreciated alpha indicators… someone like Alex Svanevik at Nansen or Matt Aaron at Uniwhales.
