Thoughts

Short thoughts, notes, links, and musings by . RSS

It's no coincidence that the Fairshake crypto super PAC has timed its press release announcing they have $140 million ready for the midterms as Congress is considering three crypto bills during "Crypto Week". Pass our bills, or we will spend millions against you in the midterms.

as someone who likes to collect cool or new words, you would not believe my delight just now when i discovered my e-reader saves a list of all the words i look up while i’m reading

Vocabulary builder: iconoclast patrician denouement gantry encomiastic scrofulous sepulchre vicissitudes samovar eyrie verisimilitude cockaded fulminate euphony physiognomy labile moraine scrivener Diadem privation perdition epigram encomium torpor synecdoche taciturn balalaikas

A couple of years ago I wrote a tweet thread about how I'd begun to see people in the crypto and finreg spaces expressing excitement about the traceability of cryptocurrencies.

Thinking back to it as I watch Senators and crypto industry executives talk about how delightfully traceable public blockchains are. No pesky warrant required!

Molly White @molly0xFFF 1:33 PM · Feb 14, 2023 the past ~month or so i've suddenly started seeing a bunch of people in crypto and in the financial regulatory/enforcement world who are unironically excited about crypto because of the financial surveillance it could empower, and that scares the shit out of me the other day i was listening to a conversation about how "algorithms" could detect criminal activity occurring on public ledgers in real time to automatically alert law enforcement, or be programmed into the money itself to stop transactions. [Screenshot of a text message: "or I'm going to move to a cabin in the woods with a faraday cage built around it"] anyone know any good welders? i run into people somewhat regularly who think that because i don't like crypto, i support unfettered government/LEO surveillance of personal finances. like, no, that's part of WHY i don't like crypto
Senator Tim Scott: And let's set the record straight. Crypto isn't lawless, it's traceable. In fact, crypto companies are helping law enforcement track illicit activity with greater precision than traditional finance allows. Jonathan Levin, Chainalysis CEO: But the unprecedented visibility offered by the public blockchain has to be factored into the assessment of both activity and risk. With the right tools, the public ledger becomes a powerful resource for market participants, regulators, and law enforcement to protect financial integrity. ... Getting the right regulations in place will ... require the government to leverage the transparency and available real-time information for effective supervision. Senator Tim Scott: There's a common belief that money laundering is easy with crypto, but the truth is it's not. Blockchain technology creates a permanent traceable ledger that can help law enforcement catch those bad actors. I've said it before, so I'll say it again: It's far easier to track something that has a digital footprint than something that does not. Senator Britt: And transactions on the blockchain offer a unique ability for tracing and tracking, including analyzing trends on the ledger. Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO: I think the good news has been in many cases they don't often understand how traceable and trackable that actually is and it's more trackable than, obviously, cash.
Proposal: Make $WLFI Token Tradable General Jul 4 1m WLFI_Team 1d Summary This proposal is presented to solicit community input and formally initiate the tradability of the token. This would mark a major milestone in the development of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem and opens the door for broader community participation, access, and protocol development. ⸻ Proposal Objectives • Make $WLFI transferable, thereby enabling broader community access to governance participation, whether through peer to peer transactions or secondary markets • Transition the WLFI ecosystem from closed to open participation • Enable greater token utility access • Begin the next phase of community ownership and engagement • Align long-term token incentives with protocol adoption and success ⸻ Early Supporter Unlocking • A portion of WLFI supply was sold to early supporters • A portion of these tokens will be eligible to be unlocked upon launch of tradability • The remainder of the tokens will be subject to a second vote by the community to determine the unlock and release schedule • Founders, team, and advisor tokens will not be unlocked initially and will be subject to a longer unlock schedule than early supporters to demonstrate long-term commitment and alignment with the success of the protocol • Timing and any eligibility requirements for unlock to be determined subsequently.
Why Now? Over the last year, WLFI has made significant progress across product development, ecosystem partnerships, and brand awareness. With strong demand from community members and partners, many community members have said that the timing is right to make WLFI tradable and initiate this next chapter in our collective journey. ⸻ Governance & Community Role Following the vote to make the token tradable, WLFI’s governance framework will enable more token holders to participate directly in protocol decisions. This includes voting on emissions, ecosystem incentives, and future treasury actions. This proposal is the first step in handing greater influence to the community. ⸻ Next Steps (If Approved) • Execute and enable transferability • Initiate distribution for eligible early supporters • Begin community governance with a second vote on remaining unlocks • Continue ecosystem expansion and partner integrations ⸻ Voting Options • YES: Proceed with WLFI tradability • NO: Maintain current token non-transferability and closed network status ⸻ Final Note This is a defining moment for World Liberty Financial. The foundation has been laid, the community is growing, and we’re ready to move forward. Launching WLFI as a tradable token brings us one step closer to building a more open, transparent, and powerful financial system. Let’s build it together. — The WLFI Team

The team behind Trump's World Liberty Financial project has proposed lifting restrictions on the WLFI "governance token" to make it tradeable. I predicted shortly after its launch that if Trump succeeded in gutting the SEC, he would do this.

This would lift the substantial restrictions on the token (non-US or accredited investors only, locked tokens with no secondary sales) that were aimed at sidestepping attention from the previous SEC, and could be enormously lucrative for Trump.

It could also be enormously lucrative for early buyers like Justin Sun or the Emirati Aqua 1 Foundation, who hold $75 million and $100 million worth of WLFI, respectively.

Prior to the Trump administration, a token like this would likely have been considered an unregistered security by the SEC, and its sales illegal offerings.

Reviewing the 14 books I read in June

So many good books this month, with Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents and Martha Wells’ Artificial Condition leading the pack for fiction.

@molly0xfff June reading wrap-up, reviewing the 14 books I read this month (no spoilers) #readingwrapup #junereadingwrapup #booktok #bookrecommendations #parableofthetalents #murderbot #spaceopera #litrpg #newtanddemon ♬ original sound - Molly White
Storygraph June 2025 wrap-up page. Books: 14; pages: 5,829; av. rating 3.85. Highest rated reads: Artificial Condition (5 stars), Parable of the Talents (5 stars), Newt & Demon III (4.5 stars). Average book length: 389 pages; average time to finish 6 days. 93% fiction, 7% nonfiction. 5 mystery/thriller/crime, 4 science fiction, 2 fantasy. 64% digital, 29% audio, 7% print.
June 2025 reads: Storm Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars) Parable of the Talents, Octavia E. Butler (5 stars) Stolen Prey, John Sandford (3 stars) Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata (3.5 stars) Newt & Demon III, E.M. Griffiths (4.5 stars) Silken Prey, John Sandford (4 stars) Newt & Demon IV, E.M. Griffiths (4 stars) A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (3.5 stars) Field of Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars) All Systems Red, Martha Wells (4 stars) Enshittification, Cory Doctorow (5 stars) Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (5 stars) Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells (4 stars) Gathering Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars)<br><br>

Lawsuits like this one are not something to celebrate just because you hate Fox News.

I'm not normally one to agree with Fox, but they're right in their statement that suits like this are "designed to chill free speech critical of [Newsom]."

“Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for $787M in defamation case over Trump call”.
Tyler Katzenberger in Politico.
The California governor accused Fox News of defamation in a lawsuit Friday morning, alleging the network should fork over $787 million after host Jesse Watters claimed Newsom lied about his phone calls with Trump, who ordered National Guard troops to Los Angeles this month.