US spot etfs require a mature regulated futures market. we don’t yet have cme futures for any of those things so basically not possible for the next 3 yrs at least

bitcoin’s focus is definitely a strength

i think ironically ppl are trying to do that now with bitcoin l2s that intend to run evms (eg alpen labs). still hard to build a trustless two way peg (bridge) without softforks. so the short answer is that currently a trustless version of using bitcoin as the base currency of another chain is just not possible.

that there was a premine (ico)

public as in public access rather than public cloud but i understand your point that non money use cases don’t need blockchains

i agree that the scammers and hype men can be insufferable and eth ppl should do better. but it’s also the dynamics of what’s most visible on twitter. like if you just went by twitter you might think op_cat taproot wizards represent a big part of bitcoin culture

yes. we’d use a third party custodian (like coinbase as you suggested or fidelity/anchorage/bitgo/etc all support eth custody out of the box as well).

centralization concerns are real but when etfs hold a small percentage of the supply (gold etfs hold 6% of all gold supply; for bitcoin so far it’s about 3-4%) i don’t know if the launch of eth etfs fundamentally change the dynamics that much

not particularly a fan of drive chains and tx fees have been pretty high in recent months but i hear what you’re saying

bitcoin could indeed swallow everything

i think of ETFs are mostly a vehicle that brings public market liquidity (stock exchange trading liquidity) to bitcoin's market. it's like an IPO like thing. the asset is the same. liquidity around it changes a lot. bitcoin's price went up a lot since the ETF moment and i think it's a rational upward pricing by the market liking the same asset even more with more liquidity

i don't necessarily disagree with most of what you're saying here. but even if most of the stuff that trades on uniswap is just gambling non-custodial trading itself is a good idea. we would want the world to move more towards stablecoin + non-custodial trading rather than the existing custodial exchange paradigm.

will have to work through the details but most likely yes. likely through this entity (https://twitter.com/ProtocolGuild)

sorry to disappoint. anything in particular about the above that bothers you? just launching an eth etf to begin with?

yes bitwise is launching an ethereum etf

i'm bitcoin first but not bitcoin only and if that's upsetting i'll take the heat. replies / dms open.

fwiw i think bitcoin and ethereum are completely different things. i know it can be super annoying when eth maxis are like "eth is even more sound than bitcoin!" but nobody takes that seriously. bitcoin is undeniably king as decentralized non-government money and that's not really up for debate

imo the question is around whether bitcoin wants to swallow the full range of public computing needs or leave room for the non core use cases (everything outside of sovereign money). i mean, stablecoins are undeniably a thing. non-custodial trading (uniswap) is also undeniably a thing.

i'm very happy that bitcoin hasn't morphed to make any of those things too easy on bitcoin. making stablecoins easier means making general token issuance easier. making non-custodial trading easier on bitcoin means more MEV risk on bitcoin. i'm happy that those experiments are playing out outside of bitcoin. maybe where i differ with many bitcoiners is that i am happy that those experiments are still happening.

anyways, happy to discuss this more. didn't want to seem like i'm hiding from this issue.

let's go. i know it's all getting better 🙏

notifications is still my top pain point with nostr:npub12vkcxr0luzwp8e673v29eqjhrr7p9vqq8asav85swaepclllj09sylpugg. it needs to be grouped! don't need individual full scroll notifications for each like!

last week on my citadel dispatch rip with nostr:npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx i talked about how unbelievable it is that the BANKING LOBBY pushing for the equal treatment of bitcoin advocating for repeal of things like SAB 121 (unfair accounting treatment of bitcoin that makes it financially not viable for banks to service bitcoin)

well, since the rip we've really been seeing the full force of that political power shift. the bill that repeals SAB 121 went through both house and the senate.

so stuff like unfair accounting treatments or bans of regulated entities to touch or service bitcoin, those things i have increasing confidence will be sorted out soon (which is good news b/c it means more ppl will be able to buy bitcoin with less friction; imagine opening your normal banking app and being able to buy bitcoin there).

the real fight now that remains in a tough place that we need to really focus our energy on feels like protecting our ability to interact with bitcoin the asset and network in a non-custodial way which governments are increasingly focused on pushing out while financial firms are trying to move closer to bitcoin.

it was a crazy week so didn't have time to post earlier but was really happy to see the peer-to-peer rights fund come together this week. everyone should check it out and donate! bitcoin policy institute doing incredible work. https://p2prights.org/

let me know if you have any questions / thoughts after listening to this rip!

we talked a lot about:

- importance of dev donations and how we thought about our program

- the good and bad of a bitcoin ETF and how we really need in-kind redemptions to make it better

- the evolving political landscape and how ETFs have changed the incentives for tradfi banks etc

- importance of nostr and ecash

nostr:note1hptwjgg3532xjehtpc6gz9sh5ex46rd3asm69jew30kr2pa0tkwqtcfct6

hard to get into all the details of the NAV and ETF mechanics here but i agree with your sentiment in general that bitcoiners should be skeptical and we need more transparency. that's the reason bitwise shared our bitcoin holding addresses (the only bitcoin ETF to do so) and we also work with hoseki to do proof of reserves.