Source: "Joe McCann: Modern Day Crypto Investor," in Superteam Podcast, avail. online (April 28, 2022)
PREAMBLE.
"Many are so unoriginal [that] they study history to find mistakes to repeat." (N.N. Taleb, Bed of Procrustes).
Because crypto is a hybrid asset class (public/private, global/local, utility/security/commodity), it's a mistake to follow history and treat the venture and hedge fund models as siloed.
Having come upon Joe McCann's discussion of Asymmetric, some threads to pull...
MAIN IDEAS (OF PERSONAL INTEREST).
- Investment Fund Hybridity. Asymmetric: self-styled liquid crypto venture fund. Given the hybrid nature of the crypto asset class, bucking traditional capital structure distinctions and being the "crossover" arena, "liquid venture" rings true. Query virtues (or vices) of a "hedged crypto fund." See also Field Note 17 (On “Tail Risk x Crypto,” or “Toward a Hedged Crypto Venture Fund?”)
- Technology Company with Fund Mandate. Asymmetric: differentiated "value add" investor providing infrastructure services (e.g., relayer nodes) to assist early-stage concepts, not simply "dumb" check + perfunctory recruiting & media / brand service (not trivializing any of these, to be sure). See also Field Note 15 (On “Metatransactions & User Experience”)
- Talebian Influence. IYI, SITG, Turkey, Asymmetry. I'd add some of my favorites that have personally impacted my relationship with the gradient of risk and uncertainty: convexity (f != f(x)), risk of ruin, ergodicity, tails, non-linearity, heuristics, Knightian uncertainty. See also Field Note 22 (On “Heuristics”) and Field Note 26 (On “1 / N”)
DETAILS (LESS STRUCTURED, MORE FLEETING / QUICK CAPTURE).
Disclaimer: these notes reflect my interpretations and views, not quotes, not journalistic reporting.
