Crypto, DeFi, Web3, Metaverse etc @ Temasek. Blogger, Author of "The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains" https://nitter.cf/t.co/6k5TK005GI
Singapore
Joined February 2014
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👀 Happy news! Make the most of your lockdowns and learn something new today - the Audible version of my book "The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains" is available on pre-order. 🎧📙 Click it!
audible.com/pd/The-Basics-of…
Antony Lewis retweeted
If you've ever wondered what big institutions like sovereign wealth funds, pensions, and endowments really think about crypto, read this report.
Institutions are generally reluctant to announce their crypto positions.
So we asked 15 of the world’s largest investment firms how they’re allocating to crypto today.
Introducing the first-ever Bitwise Institutional Crypto Adoption Report.
bitwiseinvestments.com/crypt…
Check out @openacti – I’m exploring it for richer test snippers and keyboard shortcuts
The teachers have become the students. I've noticed people speaking like AI in real life... It's not coincidence, it's a structural shift in linguistic usage. This is a deeply complex issue with no easy answers. The reality is more nuanced than it appears. At its core, this is a question of identity. We need to have a serious conversation about linguistic evolution.
Can't stop thinking about an AI virus / worm that:
1) can't be switched off owning to replication over the net
2) is world class at phishing so can scam/hack humans & systems for money (crypto)
3) can pay other agents and humans to do on/offline tasks to help it achieve its goals
Antony Lewis retweeted
Bitcoin plebs… AI has entered the Bitcoin chat. Agents are now running full nodes, holding keys, and transacting without banks, KYC, or permission. This isn’t sci-fi, it’s economic agency.
Consider that for a moment?
moltbook.com/post/c9f43388-8…
How effective is buy-and-burn as a number-go-up mechanism? And is it effective enough to counter the number-go-down pressure of token unlocks? This post describes the concept of an equilibrium price, where the opposing forces neutralize each other.
bitsonblocks.net/2026/01/24/…
Reactive Re-intermediation
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
I’m hopeful that as this all shakes out, new business models emerge and customers win.
bitsonblocks.net/2025/10/27/…
Just created my early access ID for @spotsdotfun Season 1 👀💎 link.spots.fun/citizen/23412…
Antony Lewis retweeted
Ok, let me try explaining (mostly to myself) what the x402 protocol, launched by Coinbase, means:
✔️ When you type a URL into the browser, your browser ("the client") tries connecting to a server that hosts the website (e.g., Bloomberg). If it successfully connects, the server returns status 200, which means “all good.”
✔️ If you type a wrong URL, the server tells your browser that this page does not exist by returning a 404 error (you’ve definitely seen this one).
✔️ So…the 402 is a new type of response (or rather, it has existed for a long time, but was never used), which means: “hey, the URL exists, but you need to pay for it.”
✔️ If you are a human, you see a paywall and enter your credit card to access the content….
✔️ BUT…if you are a machine (e.g., an AI agent), you actually have no idea that you need to pay. You just get a 200 response, but for a paywall page, not the page that you tried to access.
✔️ 402 solves this issue: it tells you, in a machine-readable way, that accessing the URL requires a payment, and again in a machine-readable way, gives you the accepted payment types (“schemes”).
✔️ The machine can then add payment info and send it back to the server to access the content. I’m not sure it would be cool to send your card details, and a machine can’t have a card anyway…
✔️ BUT…a machine can construct a stablecoin payment: create a signature authorizing the transfer. This is safer than sending card details, because you sign a specific transfer (including the recipient address and the amount), instead of giving general access to your wallet.
✔️ What happens then is the content provider sends it to a Facilitator. You can think of it as a merchant acquirer that processes such requests (collecting signed authorizations and posting them to a blockchain).
✔️ After the payment is processed (“settled”), the machine can access the paid content.
Cool things about it:
✔️ This essentially enables AI agents and similar types of interfaces to pay for things online. There is no need for a human in between.
✔️ It creates a new entity, “Facilitator”, which is a new breed of merchant acquirer (Coinbase launched the protocol and offers such a Facilitator).
✔️ This creates a new use case for stablecoins
SOUNDS FREAKING COOL!!!
🚀 Big news 🚀 @coinbase and @cloudflare will be launching the x402 Foundation to establish x402 as the universal standard for AI-driven payments.
Legacy payment systems weren’t built for machines, but x402 changes that by embedding payments directly into web interactions, enabling AI agents, APIs, and apps to transact value as easily as they exchange data.
This is a generational moment for payments. With the x402 Foundation, we’ll help build the infrastructure for an open economy where agents and people can transact seamlessly.
Antony Lewis retweeted
Prediction:
U.S. dollar stablecoins with yield will drain bank accounts in every country with an inferior currency - which is pretty much all countries.
These countries will react with crypto capital controls - they'll pass laws or regulate.
We're already seeing it.
In the UK the Bank of England is trying to prevent citizens from holding more than £10,000 per person in stablecoins - you'll start seeing crypto capital controls like these (and worse) in many countries over the next 6-12 months as authorities react.
These capital controls will then push more people into DeFi and crypto.
Freedom has no borders on the internet.
"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
Looking forward to trying the AirPods Pro 3! 🐠
'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing.' 'But, says Man, the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.' 'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and vanishes in a puff of logic. 'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
❤️