azeem

The news is out! Couldn't be more excited to announce that I'm back in the ring as a builder. Coming on as a co-founder to @0xMiden with our $25M seed fundraise being co-led by @a16zcrypto , @1kxnetwork , and @hack_vc . I spoke to what must have been over a 100 projects in the past few months, but nothing came close to being nearly as exciting as what this team is building. My co-founder @bobbinth is genuinely the most impressive person I've met in Web3 in the 13 years I've spent in this space. And this is no exaggeration. Brilliant, humble, and hustles like no other. Vitalik brought him into Web3 and got him working at the EF years ago on zk, then he went to Meta where he led the zk team, and is a Polygon cofounder as well. When I say the most impressive, I mean it. Privacy, scalability, and decentralization, with the ability to offer compliance. That's what separates Miden from just another blockchain. And we're going to be bringing institutions on chain with this. If you're a builder in this space, I'd love to hear from you. My DMs are open.

Huge shout out to @jazzyook for helping me achieve a bucket list item in my life of being able to give a guest lecture at NYU's Steinhardt Department of Media, Culture, and Communication class. We discussed the work we're doing at Miden, the important of privacy, opportunities that become available on blockchains once you add privacy+compliance, but did so without any technobabble. Maybe it's being non-technical myself, but for years now I've railed against this need for our industry to create our own in-group language to speak to others because it's intimidating the exact people we say we're trying to be inviting of. Looking forward to doing more of this in the future! PS -- This was election night for the midterms, so I had to wear the all Knicks outfit. It just felt like the moment that the whole of the US would know what "Knicks in 5" was like and I was right..

Something depressing I’m noticing as someone who writes is how people are increasingly using AI to produce long, dense documents that look like they were put together by McKinsey, only for the people receiving them to use AI to summarize everything because they don’t have time to read it all. We’ve essentially created a world where people use AI to write things that other people need AI to read. Call me old fashioned, but I struggle to see how this leads to greater productivity over time. Historically, these elaborate documents served as a positive signal because they required significant time, effort, and resources to produce. People respected that and gave them their attention. But now that anyone can generate something similar in minutes, that signal is losing its value. What’s more concerning is that writing isn’t just about communicating thoughts. The process itself helps us organize and develop them. When we outsource our writing to AI, we risk unintentionally outsourcing our thinking as well. The result is an illusion of productivity. Organizations are producing more polished documents than ever, but if nobody is meaningfully engaging with what’s being communicated, are we actually accomplishing more? And if the person generating a document hasn’t fully thought through their ideas, how can we expect an AI summarizing it to consistently identify what matters? I suspect we’ll eventually move away from treating elaborate documents as the gold standard for communication. Instead, the people who stand out will be those who can think clearly and communicate complex ideas in as few words as necessary. Good writing has always been about knowing what to say and what to leave out. In a world drowning in AI-generated content, that skill might become more valuable than ever.

At the end of the day, if we’re being honest, people making these decisions are often trying to apply logic that allows them to justify those decisions to the people above them within their organizations. Even the people leading digital asset initiatives at these companies have someone to answer to. So part of your pitch needs to be about how you’re helping them look good in front of the people they report to. So much of doing business comes down to people, and in an industry so dominated by technology, it can be easy to forget that. Big thanks to the folks at @FinalityForum for giving me the platform, and to the excellent co-panelists and moderator who joined me on stage.

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate from spending years in this industry is that making financial products more accessible doesn’t necessarily mean making them easier to understand. We’ve made tremendous progress in giving people the ability to trade just about anything from their phones, but far less progress in actually helping them make informed decisions about those trades. I think AI has a real opportunity to change that, and it’s interesting to see the team at Button building Tailor with that exact problem in mind. Congrats to the team on the launch!

The one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve is the fear of failure.

A few months back, Mashal and I sat down with Junaid Akram, a prominent Pakistani YouTuber, to talk about blockchain and digital assets. We even did parts of the interview in Urdu. But this post is about the shirt I wore. Anyone who knows me knows how much being a New Yorker means to me. In some ways, I feel like a New Yorker before I feel like an American. If you’re from New York, you probably understand. So wearing my “Mamdanistan” tee on that platform was intentional. When Zohran Mamdani won last year, I felt a sense of hope that reached well beyond New York. I believe that hope helped build the momentum we saw in yesterday’s elections. It certainly stayed with me. I’m the child of immigrants who came to this country looking for a better future. My parents achieved the American Dream, and I’ve spent my life benefiting from the opportunities their courage and this country gave me. I want that same possibility to remain real for the people who come after us. That’s what this hope means to me. And yesterday’s results strengthened my belief in the future of a country I love deeply. Proud New Yorker. Proud child of immigrants. And still convinced the United States is the best country in the world.

One of the more interesting developments as Ethereum matures is how we think about managing ETH treasuries. For years, the conversation has largely centered around holding and staking. But as yields compress, treasury management will increasingly require a more sophisticated approach to balancing productivity, liquidity, and risk. Great research from @GolemFoundation and @ethereuminsti.

Life is funny. Tomorrow, I'm going to be giving a guest lecture at NYU to an undergraduate class titled "Web3 Foundations: Blockchains and Marketing Fundamentals." Back when I was applying to college, I didn't get into NYU, despite it being my top choice. Things worked out just fine with me going to Boston University (BU) instead, but I still remember telling myself that BU would be "like NYU, but in Boston." Now, as I'm putting together my presentation, I can't stop smiling at the thought that the school that once didn't accept me as a student is now inviting me to help teach its students. Sometimes, as entrepreneurs, we get so focused on the larger goals we're trying to accomplish that it's easy to lose sight of the smaller wins we accumulate along the way. Not this time, though. I'm absolutely taking this moment to stop and smell the roses.

Action produces the very information inaction waits for.

If you only read the books everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

The Predicate team with @pumpernikhil @khushii_w and so on are one of the best teams I’ve had the pleasure of doing business with in this industry. Couldn’t be happier or less surprised to hear the best investors in the space see it makes sense to invest in them. Excited to see what we cook up together with Miden and overall what they end up doing too.

Miden's partner mainnet is now live!! Privacy has become one of the biggest conversations in tech, especially in crypto. But something that doesn't get discussed nearly enough is just how difficult it is to actually build and launch something that works. For years, this industry has struggled with poor UI, bad UX, and products that are simply too complicated for everyday users. Adding privacy to the equation makes that challenge even harder. That's a big part of why I'm so excited about what we're building at Miden. We believe people shouldn't have to choose between privacy, self-custody, and a great user experience. Today is a major step toward making that a reality. We're intentionally limiting access during this initial phase and will gradually open things up over time. But if we've spoken about Miden or Bread Wallet before, please reach out for an access code. I'd genuinely love to hear what you think. There's still plenty of work ahead of us, and getting real feedback from real users is what makes this next chapter so exciting.

Bread’s early-access list has crossed the 10,000 mark. 🥖🥯 Slowly building the private DeFi home base, powered by Miden.

When in Vegas, make sure to shoot an MP5, Uzi, M4, and AK47 on fully automatic settings..

Need to give a big shoutout to the Money20/20 team for giving me the chance to meet Timbaland yesterday before his set at Omnia in Las Vegas. Despite being a massive hip hop fan, I have to say that his best work, in my opinion, is FutureSex/LoveSounds with Justin Timberlake. That opinion probably dates me a bit, considering the album came out back in 2006. But if you know, you know..

I know I’ve been saying mainnet soon, but it’s actually mainnet on October 26th. Yes, it’s a partner mainnet, so get in my DMs on here or Telegram so I can help you get access. The same people who have spoken to me about access to Bread Wallet will already have mainnet access. If you haven’t though, hit me up..

One of the best things I did this year was start a skincare routine because of @arlery. To all the husbands, I must report, wives forcing you to use sunscreen is legit. The longer you hold off on listening, the bigger the “I told you so” will be late. And rightfully so.

Who’s in town for Money2020 in Vegas?

Your average crypto venture capitalist is the least sophisticated investor in the venture capital totem pole across industries. Does that mean there aren’t smart ones? No. But the average one is way worse than the average web2 equivalent.