Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

THIS. By CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero is spot on.

I read this last week.

Read it again a couple days later.

Reading it again this morning.

Knowing what it takes to be an operator of a company, a business, a startup, and also a crypto-related one that did an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), I can say there are giant gaps end-to-end for most entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators in this space that are 1) funding/investing in random crypto-coins and tokens, 2) taking an idea to startup launch using a token ICO or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) idea to fund it, and 3) figuring out piece by piece of what's really going on underneath the hood of any operation in this space.

The whole system of compliant, complacent, quiet, people in the industry claiming to be working to change the world for the better of all people need to take several BIG steps back. No. If we're here to change the world for the better, the details MATTER. How we get there, matters. The spider sense that you get when you feel something is off and you don't say anything because really, who am I to speak up, who am I to know better than all these super successful wealthy folks -- those are BIG missed opportunities to have REAL impact.

Myself included.

I went along as a favor without questioning much in co-hosting a panel with SBF, the Seattle 601 Club and the WTIA back in December of 2020. I remember when putting this panel together and preparing for it, wondering, WHY IS THIS PANEL SO EMOTIONALLY AND MENTALLY DIFFICULT to put together? Usually I'm am full of joy as I put together events, panels, dinners for the community. I love bringing people together. I remember that all the interactions to prepare for this panel, the panel itself, the aftermath of the follow ups were all done with so much difficulty. SBF's local handler in Seattle was rude in his interactions with me. It was arduous. Demanding. Disrespectful. Patronizing. I remember wondering if he hated me or women in general. I wondered why in the world I was being asked to do this when they could have easily put on this panel WITHOUT ME. I regretted having said yes to doing it over and over. I second-guessed myself and dismissed my feelings with, "I'm probably just really tired...", "I'm probably reading into the tone too much...", ... etc. In hindsight, I should have called it and said, I'm sorry, we cannot cohost this. Fearing I'd be called "demanding" and difficult to work with (Another story, in my younger years at work, men literally prefer me to "smile more" and go along with the senior leadership. This was actually said in a performance review many years back.), I literally clenched my teeth and went along in pain to deliver the panel, and video. I should have said SOMEWHERE along the painful journey of doing this, "No." I should have listened to my gut. You can see in the video, I'm literally reading the bios because I cannot pull myself together to do it. I finally posted the video in February 2021, months after the event.

Funny that I painfully did all that because I'm usually an Earthling that has no problem "speaking truth to power." Advisors and Investors usually seek me out for a private 1:1 to hear candid feedback on whatever topic. I'm asked to sit on boards because I'm usually the person that will ask the "dumb question", or poke a random idea a few times to verify that what I was assuming was really what was happening. And there I was for several months, grinning and bearing it.

In hindsight, I was being used to give legitimacy to the whole shenanigan.

• Every. Single. Person that did not speak truth to power.
• Every. Single. Person that did as they were told.
• Every. Single. Person that did not quit FTX/SBF/Almeda when they realized it was a big SCAM.
• Every. Single. Person that went around and shilled the FTX/SBF/Almeda story raising it to God-status.
• Every. Single. Person that (nonsensically) thought they had a piece of that influence because of the money being dangled in front of them.
• EVERYONE needs to take a hard look in the mirror of Ethics, Integrity, Financial Responsibility, Truth, and Honor. (Especially the parents and the familial circle around Sam Bankman-Fried , who happen to be professors of law at Stanford University.)

The lesson for everyone: NO, the end does NOT justify the means.

Some thoughts on funding/investing in random crypto-coins and tokens:

I speak to this point whenever I get a chance. Most folks ASSUME that cryptocurrencies/tokens are LIKE bitcoin. THEY ARE NOT. Repeat. Most folks ASSUME crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens are like bitcoin:

• decentralized
• using an immutable blockchain
• permissionless & public
• time-stamped
• hard-capped supply (with sound monetary policies)

They are not. Not at all. Not even close. What they get wrong is that 99% of crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin), are:

• centralized
• not immutable

99% of crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin) have a backdoor in their smart contracts. They have a CEO/Founder/Board/Foundation. There is someone alive or known you can point to that wrote the white paper. There's usually a "pre-mine" of crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin) that are reserved for insiders like advisors, early investors, founders, employees, and partners. Not much different than today's equity (like stock) markets, the earlier you get in the lower the price you get in, the bigger chance you have to make money as later people get into the asset. The normal regulatory expectations you have of a company today, should be the expectations you have of any crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin) company.

For example:

• Does it have product-market-fit?
• Is it really solving a problem?
• What is their Go-To-Market (GTM) plan?
• What kind of traction do they have? Are they made up of "vanity" metrics like Twitter followers?
• Is the CEO/founders investable? Can they lead?
• Does the company have revenue? Is it growing month-over-month?

Ideas are great and cheap. Very few people can stomach putting their own hard money into a great idea. And yet, it happens in crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin). Most people are not savvy enough to do the due diligence and think through investing in crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin) - let alone companies and startups.

Some thoughts on taking an idea to startup launch using a token ICO or DAO idea to fund it:

On a daily basis, I have folks reaching out to me for feedback on their business idea, usually involving an ICO or DAO. If someone happens to reach me these days, I tend to do whatever I can to discourage the idea:

• Why do you even need a token? You can't do what you want to do with one of the 13,000+ crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens that already exist?
• Do you really have utility or are you creating utility just to have the crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, tokens (not bitcoin)?
• How much are you trying to raise and for what?
• What exists today without the token/DAO? What's the engagement rate? How do you define engagement? How do you know that is what they are doing? How and where are you tracking that?
• What law firm are you planning to work with to do this?
• How much money do you have in the bank or committed to actually do this?
• What's the org chart look like and who's going to run the company? Who's going to run the crypto side of the company?

Most of these ideas, companies are nowhere near ready to even deserve crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, or tokens. People forget, over and over and over, or maybe they do not know. You use blockchain/crypto to AMPLIFY a NETWORK EFFECT ALREADY IN PLACE, not to create it from scratch.

Some thoughts on figuring out piece by piece of what's really going on underneath the hood of any operation:

In part of the work I get to work on with various organizations, I get to interface with the government. When it comes to crypto assets, cryptocurrencies and tokens, most folks that work in government don't have actual firsthand experience or skills working with this type of asset. It's completely conceptual and theoretical. It's based off what their staff members may have experienced or read about in the media. The last several years have been very eye-opening and insightful. Some observations:

• Almost everyone I've interfaced with from the government, they're regular people trying to make a living and trying to do their best to help people.
• They aren't as tech savvy as most people who work in tech. It's expected. And we should all work together to demand better technology skills from those that serve us in government.
• There's a LOT of friction in government. By design. It's slow and very costly. As much as possible, we all need to practice taking a step back and using systems thinking to discover all the causes and impacts an idea, no matter how seemingly brilliant, can have in an ecosystem. That takes a lot of time and resources.

Most people have not had the opportunity to work across departments, disciplines and functions in a company, let alone, a technology oriented one. Reading about it only gives a person so much knowledge and wisdom. So where and how should one look to figure out what's going on and what needs to be regulated? Find folks that are startup "operators" who have hands-on first-hand years of crypto asset, cryptocurrency and token experience.

• Most companies/startups related to crypto assets, cryptocurrencies and tokens have a "token-cap table". Ask for that. They should be tracking who has what tokens, when it was received, when it should be sent, and so forth.
• Look at advisor and investor agreements. Look for side letters. Look at employee and founder agreements. Review against the equity cap table and the "token cap table".
• They should have good code written by the developers, where in the //comments sections in the code, the business rules and INTENT is documented.
• Build a timeline of events that adds up: media/social content, code pushes/releases, major transactions (both fiat and crypto), travel records of the major owners, and so on.
• Review org charts and personnel changes. How are terminations (whether voluntary or involuntary) handled and what is the process? Note these changes against the timeline of events as well.

On the CFTC Commissioner's note about... "clever drafting of exceptions in legalese or fine print..." and to all the lawyers that help that clever crafting of the legalese, she's right. Anyone that knows or smells issues needs to take more responsibility in "doing the right thing", and not just worrying about billing.

Team members that are employees, early employees or even co-founders of a crypto assets, cryptocurrencies and tokens related company, whether in marketing or IT operations, all need to be ready to speak truth to power.

Grow a backbone.

No one seems to hear you? Change tactics. Yell, whisper, nudge, pound your fists, push as hard as needed. Escalate. Raise your concerns.

Document and write down your thoughts.

Get called names.

If you have your integrity, stand tall.

Get fired for knowing the difference between RIGHT and WRONG.

It's ok. Be proud.

Shine sunlight on the issue - "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

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Here's the full transcript/article by the CFTC Commissioner: Crypto’s Crisis of Trust: Lessons Learned from FTX’s Collapse: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/oparomero5