puntium

google cloud going down is the world reminding you why decentralization matters

I regret some of my posts about Ethereum over the past few weeks. They didn't go far enough.

I regret some of my posts about Ethereum over the past few weeks. The didn't go far enough.

The Overton window on posting about ETH has shifted.

What was previously seen as cringey is now seen as a required part of the game.

We need to constantly, collectively remind the world of the benefits and strengths of Etherum, otherwise we'll be drowned out and forgotten.

Being at the bitcoin conference made me realize that Bitcoin vibes are 85% memetic and 15% builder.

Most Ethereum conferences I've been to are 15% memetic and 85% builder.

Both communities have something to learn from each other.

1. As long as humans disagree about things, there will always be multiple major stores of value.

2. US Dollars, Gold, Euros, oil are all stores of value.

3. BTC is a digital store of value.

4. ETH is a productive digital store of value.

It's easy to forget how connected crypto still is.

There are a bunch of gov people at the bitcoin conference because BTC is a hot national topic. But so are stablecoins.

Stablecoin adoption mainly benefits non bitcoin chains.

Bitcoin is the tip of the spear for all of crypto.

I'm getting asked a lot why RWAs care about decentralization, when an offchain issuer can just unwind things when things go bad on a low security chain.

For me, this argument shows a lack of imagination.

Yes, many of today's RWAs are exactly this. Thin pointers to assets that are governed by offchain contracts and legal systems.

But why would you expect things to stay that way?

We already know we can create crypto-native assets that offer you many guarantees that no RWA can.

We know that we can build transparent, onchain governance mechanisms that can add layers of safety in similar ways to traditional legal systems.

We know that wrapped tradfi assets will always add more compliance, counterparty, and censorship risk compared to assets that live purely onchain, and that these onchain guarantees are valuable for holders.

Someday many governments will realize that running their own property systems will be cheaper and more efficient to run onchain than their current archaic systems.

The true end state to think about is when all assets are crypto-native, and when all the rules around them are encoded onchain. (Let's also not forget the thousands of purely digital assets that haven't even been invented yet)

When this happens, the security, decentralization, fairness, neutrality, and censorship resistance of the underlying chain will be the _most_ import dimension, not an afterthought.

And when that happens we will stop using the word "RWA" because the distinction will be meaningless.

Status check. Since the Merge (Sep 15 2022):

ETH supply: 120.52M > 120.81M. 0.24% total growth. +0.09% annualized.

BTC supply: 19.15M > 19.87M. 3.75% total growth. +1.38% annualized.

The merge+burn works. Fight FUD with data.

Everyone wants faster, cheaper.

But what about safer?

What about unstoppable?

Ethereum secures over $600 Billion of actual value.

That’s built on decentralization. On credible neutrality.

You can copy throughput. But you can't copy trust.

When your life savings are on the line, you don't pick the shiny new toy. You pick the fortress.

What is the ultimate value proposition of a blockchain?

It's the creation of unimpeachable property rights. The guarantee that what you own, you truly own.

Ethereum’s PoS and its vast, decentralized validator set aren't just for consensus; they're the guardians of these rights.

The "trillion-dollar safety plan" isn't marketing; it's a declaration of intent to secure value at a scale previously unimaginable.

This is why RWA tokenization finds its natural home on Ethereum. It's why institutions are moving beyond speculation and towards integration.

They see Ethereum not just as an asset, but as the infrastructure for a future where ownership is digital, verifiable, and secure beyond doubt.

Over the next decade there are literally $100T of assets that will be begging to come onchain.

Which chain are they going to trust? The fastest one? or the safest one?

We all thought we were banking the unbanked but stablecoins are just as quickly unbanking the banked.

Hamilton had no idea how much that bitcoin would be worth

It's easy to understand why US citizenship is valuable. It gives you access to the widest set of economic opportunity and protections.

ETH gives access to the emerging digital economy. As Ethereum's growth compounds, access to it will also become valuable and coveted.

The US economy thrived because people were protected by due process, enshrined in the constitution.

Ethereum is the next step: deterministic, censorship-resistant, credibly neutral, fair.

Guaranteed due process for everyone.

Ethereum’s real moat isn’t “first-mover tech.” It’s a $100B+ pool of permissionless capital that only decentralization can unlock.

DeFi’s breakthrough wasn’t lower fees; it was borderless capital. New projects, yield vaults, and tokenized RWAs plug in because that capital is already on-chain.

Capital chases security. The more decentralized the chain, the smaller the trust assumption—and the deeper the capital stack willing to settle there.

High-TPS chains that dial down decentralization may win transactions, but they surrender the balance sheet. Throughput can be copied; Lindy capital cannot.

Stablecoins are the gateway drug to onchain finance.

What America Online was for the internet, but this time literally America (dollars) on Ethereum.

ETH becomes more valuable =>
Ethereum becomes more secure =>
More assets are secured by Ethereum =>
ETH becomes more valuable

A founder just told me: "if we're not on mainnet, we're not a serious protocol"