Rough Notes

I’ve barely been writing in the last year. As I transitioned full-time into the exciting, fast-moving space of crypto/blockchain/web3/DLT, there would have been plenty of topics. Yet, in between launching the Untitled INC network, working with several clients on their blockchain projects and ICOs, learning a bunch, and meeting many new people, I didn’t find the time.

Of course, finding time is not happenstance, it’s a choice. Whether or not you find time comes down to your priorities. And frankly, I didn’t put writing at the top of my list. But now it’s time to change this.

For one, I realized over the past few weeks that I increasingly miss the act of writing. No activity does a better job at helping me to sort my thoughts out and develop clarity in my thinking. In a highly dynamic domain like crypto, that is even more important than it is in general. Moreover, writing down your thoughts and sharing them with the (interested) world opens the door for new input and, thus, accelerates your learning curve. As I am convinced that the crypto world is a space devoid of experts but full of continuous learners and avid explorers, that seems extremely valuable to me. And finally, by turning writing into a habit, your writing profits immensely. Add to this that writing has always been one of my preferred activities and it seems just like a very good idea to turn it into a regular activity again.

While it became clear to me that I wanted to write regularly again, I still faced a real-life issue: limited amounts of freely available time. Those of you who are familiar with my usual writing (you can find most of it on Medium, especially here and here) certainly know that I’m keen on writing long-form, analytical pieces. While that is certainly my preferred form, it is also one that takes time. More time, alas, than I can currently invest in writing.

But around 3 a.m. on Friday night, I had a moment of inspiration. What if I challenge myself to write every day but find a way to overcome my tendency to write longish pieces by simply timeboxing myself? This thought marked the birth of CryptoConscious. Here’s how it’s going to work:

The Format

• I’ll write every day for one hour, not more, not less
• I’ll publish the result here on RoughNotes (a blog I had for some time)
• The writing style will draw from stream of consciousness (that’s where the title comes from) and editing time will be limited

The Subject

• As the title implies, I’ll be writing about the space that is often dubbed as crypto (much to the dismay of cryptographers around the world): blockchain, decentralized systems, D(A)Os, cryptocurrency, web3, ICOs, cryptoeconomics or token/incentive design, tokenized assets etc.
• I didn’t get in the space from a financial angle. My background is in the tech industry, I have a long-standing fascination for decentralized systems and networks. So don’t expect me to write about the price of bitcoin or do chart analysis. I approach the space with a long-term, fundamental perspective
• I don’t want to do news-based writing. What I mean by that is that I don’t intend to create a curation-based, newsletter-style format. Instead, the idea is to mostly start with a concrete subject or question in mind and go from there. That said, it might certainly happen that a current event is the trigger of an episode

So far for the initial format and basic idea. Time will tell the rest. Expect some experimentation – this is pretty much an evolving format – and finetuning on the fly.

So, starting tomorrow, expect an (almost) daily episode of CryptoConscious. If you don’t want to miss an episode, follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. (I’ll add an email subscription option to this blog asap as well).