??Change Needed

Dear fellow community members, as written to my newsletter recipients on December 6th, 2022:?

It's been about a month since my last newsletter went out?to y'all. Something about yet another collapse with FTX/SBF just really got to me in so many ways. I also didn't want to put out more noise than was already out there.?

This crazy year 2022 is coming to a close. This crazy world of pandemic/post-pandemic life 2019-2022 is also coming to a close (hopefully for good everywhere). For me, I'm fighting to take a step back, breathe, and re-prioritize literally everything: tasks, health, work, ambition, family, marriage, and goals.

Top of mind this week:

Change is needed.?

Institutions of high reputation and trust were?broken for me this year especially.Gary Gensler/SEC has fallen. Venture capital investment firm Sequoia has fallen from the top of their pyramid. FTX/SBF has fallen face first into a pile of crap. The New York Times in their very poor portrayal of facts versus "narrative positioning". The pursuit of unbiased truth?and real journalism seems dead everywhere. We are polarizing a technology that really should be NONpartisan.?Stanford is viewed?as one of the most honorable?institutions of education around the world. They?had two law professors (SBF's parents)?who took customer deposits from FTX and purchased vacation homes in the Bahamas. That news left my gut in complete knots. Speechless.?

Virtue signaling works. It shouldn't.?As awful as it may be, we need to call out hypocrisy and the virtue signalers out everywhere. What we can learn from the the scam artist SBF and his FTX team over there, is that they took advantage of virtue signaling like no other. Name drop the right names. Throw around customer deposit money like it's your own personal money to make big donations or purchases from the right people.?

And there we have it, thousands of people, some more influential than others, are caught with their pants down in public. From Gisele Bundchen & Tom Brady, to Travis Kling of Ikigai Asset Management (where Dae and I are LP's), to?SEC Chair Gary Gensler are just a few of the names that had the rug violently pulled from underneath them.

The Bitcoin Maxi's get louder and louder every year.?They're called toxic. They're ignored. And so they get louder and?louder. The funny thing is, they're often right.

I've changed my view of what's going on.?Overall, media has completely desensitized many of?us to vulgar language, murder, sex, and more. And with more subversive cunning "click-bait", with each glance we are growing even more desensitized. To get anyone's attention, it literally takes vulgarity and something SHOCKING. Look at the number of email messages and messaging platforms we are on. I have Twitter, 14+ email accounts, Medium, Facebook, LinkedIn, Kakao Talk, Telegram, What's App, Signal, Slack, Meetup, Discord?and there MORE.

The digital world IS?INSANITY.?So how do you?get an important message out to as many folks as possible? You get louder and louder and louder. Hence, the Bitcoin Maxi's in the world have been doing that. Trying to get our attention.?They have mine now. I get it now.

And now, the MORE OF US that speak up, call out bad actors, demand discipline --- the less loudly and alone folks like the Bitcoin Maxi's will have to shout.?ALL OF US can shine sunlight on the scammers.?

We all assumed when?we should not assume.?

We all didn't?do our first hand direct due diligence.?

We didn't?call out discrepancies.?

We didn't?demand coherent proof.

We got lazy with "Don't trust, VERIFY" - a key ethos of our own world.?

And I was a part of that.?For me, and maybe for a lot of you, I want to believe that most people have good intentions. I want to give people the benefit of doubt. I want to believe in humanity. If it sounds good, I want to embrace that good and be a part of supporting it taking wings.?

I'm left with a ball of angst, disgust and horror in my gut.?I'm exhausted. I question the sanity of what I'm doing each and every day. Is this worth putting my name behind it? I've given up the pursuit of riches to focus on making an impact. I'm doing my best to play the long game with patience.?I'm the co-founder and Chair of the Cascadia Blockchain Council. I'm the co-founder and co-Chair of the U.S. Blockchain Coalition. I teach as an Adjunct Professor at Portland State University. I work on the Advanced Technology Cluster with the WTIA. I'm a member of the newly formed WA State Blockchain Work Group. Am I insane? Will this be worth it?

Maybe I should go get a paying job or go run a company again

Maybe.

I know there are people out there earnestly trying to do good in the world with all of their might. I know when I look at my family that humanity exists and has hope. I see many good people across the United States doing their best to help their local communities: CA's Blockchain Advocacy Coalition, TX Blockchain Council, and the PA Blockchain Coalition. There's so many states activated across the U.S. After all as Justice Brandeis once said, "the states are the best laboratories for democracy."

And here again, I am re-committting to this journey with you?every day.

One day at a time.?

We need to raise the bar of integrity, of discipline and of professionalism overall.?

We need to take the time and do the first?hand due diligence with discipline.

We need to embrace being uncomfortable and call out indiscrepancies and bad actors.

We need to demand coherent proof.

We need data, and deliverables with proper credit given to sources.

We see more intensely now than ever before that there is bitcoin, and?then everything else.

I'd love to hear your feedback.?Thoughts? Please comment below.

Anyways, I try and share interesting thoughts, news, and updates weekly-ish. If you want to get the full version of my Airdrop newsletter weekly in your inbox, please sign up here.