2023

Feb. 18, 2024

Every year, when I write my annual report, I ask the same question – “what is it for?”

At their core, all of my annual reports are about reflection. It is a practice I love, but I can also get lost in it and find it hard to devote the time to dig in and go deep. These public reports are all preceded by a personal report where I explore a few dimensions of my life – work, health, relationships, finance, adventure, and learning. I believe in the power of slowing down and looking back at the last year to help me set up the next year. Writing helps me to look at what has happened, examine my reactions, and look for clues as to what I want to change or dig into over the coming year.

A lot of the power of these reports comes from the questions you ask yourself. And over the last year, with the rise of Large Language Models like ChatGPT, it seems like knowing how to ask the right questions is more useful than ever. Often I find I don’t stop to ask if the question I am asking is the right one – and I spend too much effort answering a question that might not be the correct one to begin with. This year, we have seen the rise of “prompt engineering,” and I think asking better questions is a skill we all need – regardless of whether you’re asking Google’s Bard, your team, or yourself.

I struggled with writing this year’s reflection. This is partly because I started the year with back-to-back RSV and COV (and long COV has been awful this time around). And partially because the last year was tough professionally. This was the 3rd crypto bear market since I entered the space in late 2016. And this felt longer and deeper than all of the previous. This market cycle was a slog – and lacked any of the fun that we had seen in past downturns. And we had to shut down several products and layoff 1/3 of our team. Coming into the holidays, I was burnt out. Some much needed time off and signs of life in the market are helping to get me back into a good groove. We ended 2023 with a rebound of markets:

• Bitcoin is up ~165%
• Ethereum is up ~88%
• S&P 500 is up ~20%
• Nasdaq is up ~37%

The Fed seems to have pulled off a soft landing, and for the first time since the crash of Terra and FTX the market feels like it is back – VCs are doing deals again in web3, recruiters are out knocking on doors, and the vibes are back. If the past market cycles have taught me anything I expect we will have 3-4 quarters of sustained growth and then 1-2 quarters of crypto craziness.

Work

Blocknative

I recently crossed 5 years at Blocknative. I continue to be bullish about the tech we are building and our ability to help improve the observability of public blockchain networks.

Last year I wrote about our move into block building and relaying. After operating that infrastructure for a year – and producing over 10% of the blocks on Ethereum – we made the decision to suspend our relay and builder due to a lack of economics. We also went through a restructuring and reduced our headcount by about a third. If I am honest, these changes were painful. We had to say goodbye to some great colleagues and it took me some time to square the disconnect between how critical our team was to the core of the Ethereum network and the lack of economics.

But we ended 2023 strongly. We launched Etherenow.xyz – a first of its kind transaction explorer (read the Coindesk article). This was made possible by a grant from the Ethereum Foundation. And this is the first tool that helps you see the construction of the network in real-time. Opening up access to this tool and the underlying data has fueled a lot of interesting research about the operations of the network.

As we start the new year, I am finally feeling excited again about the space. The vibes are back. And some really exciting use cases are coming online.

Crypto Market

Crypto markets rebounded over the last year. And the industry feels like it is emerging from the hangover of FTX, Blockfi, Terra, and every other failure of 2022. The unwinding of these entities and clean up of the remaining assets is either complete or well underway.

America continues to drag its feet in providing regulatory clarity for web3. But many other jurisdictions pushed through meaningful regulatory clarity this past year. Notably the European Union passed MiCA and Dubai launched VARA.

Climate

Earth is getting closer and closer to hitting the wall of a climate catastrophe. America’s grid-locked government isn’t making meaningful progress. And the signs of climate cancer are getting more and more severe. Denver saw historic flooding this year (and we felt some of that in our home). I am excited about the progress some firms are making with Climate Tech – and I often find myself asking if I should be spending my time in this sector.

Advising

I am really fortunate to act as an advisor to some amazing founders in web3 – HackMD, Nifty Apes, and Spritz Finance. My monthly calls with these teams are some of the work I look forward to most. And I am excited to see where these projects go in the new bull market.

A highlight of the summer was working with the Graph Paper Capital team to be a mentor to their cohort of startups.

This kind of work brings me back to my days as a teacher and a coach for the altMBA – and I really love this type of work.

Travel, Adventure, & Fitness

Some of my highlights for travel were:

• Starting the year in Steamboat on a ski trip with my folks
• Watching a dog sledding race on the top of Grand Mesa on the western slope of CO
• Skiing Crested Butte for the first time
• Visiting Tahoe for the first time – for my sister-in-law’s wedding
• Chicago for Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour
• Provincetown for a week at the beach – and my first time vacationing in a town that was mostly queer. It was pretty incredible being a community where being gay is the default. 
• Napa – where I officiated my 14th wedding
• Moab for a long weekend of hiking

Some of my fitness highlights were:

• I also made the switch from snowboarding to skiing this year – taking my first ski lesson just a few days before Christmas. It has been a really fun modality to embrace. I have a ways to go to get back up to my ski level with snowboarding – but I am enjoying this adventure.
• Earlier this year I hired a new trainer and hit a new personal bodyweight goal – gaining 20lbs (of mostly muscle) and reaching 195lbs. It turns out that lifting heavy weights and eating ~4k calories a day will go a long way in helping to put on mass. All of my clothes are a bit tight and I’m looking forward to increasing the cardio a bit.

Other Life Updates

Earlier this year, Kaleb and I adopted a dog – Gizmo. He’s the best and has been such a great addition to the family. I’m obsessed.