1460
Alana Levin

@alanadlevin #1460

Investing @variant, writing at https://backoftheenvelope.substack.com/
5388 Follower 208 Following
The holidays are the perfect time to onboard friends or family members to Warpcast

Especially now with the Farcade, where you can challenge new onboardees to a friendly game of tower blocks or geo wars

If anyone needs warps for Warpcast invites, I’m happy to gift some of mine!
Humble brag I am currently #2 on the Tower Blocks leaderboard
Within just an hour, the @farcade has become my most addicting pinned frame
@blockaid released a cool dashboard w/ lots of onchain insights today http://stateofthechain.com

Two of my favorite stats:
- Blockaid secures over $100B in value ($)
- Blockaid prevented >71M scam attacks
Me when I ask chatgpt for medical advice
Just added the Farcade
ITAP of a foggy NYC tonight. The purple lights in the distance is from Times Square
Every cycle, we see reinventions of ways to access leverage

So far this cycle, the two big ones seem to be restaking and onchain perps
1/ We’re in the app phase of the app-infra cycle
Farcaster / Warpcast wish list: a tab that showed "economy" and filtered exclusively for economic activities on the platform
Coinbase has EIGHT* business lines that are EACH on track to generate nine figures in revenue this year

*nine if you count corporate interest & income
The Unincorporated Man (book) is unironically a decent blueprint for thinking about agents x tokens
Sat in an aisle seat on a plane today for the first time in years and it’s definitively worse than a window seat
3 years ago today. Cold DMs really can change your life!
I’ve seen the demos and this product is genuinely awesome

Brought me back to the days of spending hours playing Doodle Jump, Temple Run, and more.

The Farworld team has supercharged that experience by leveraging open social graphs, crypto rails for easy monetization, and some sneaky smart AI features
Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix is excellent

Watched the 4 part docuseries on HBO a few months ago; would recommend watching both (she only participated in the Netflix version, so they tell the story a little differently)
I took some photos on a run today in Central Park
Most of the takes on the Stripe <> Bridge deal feel off the mark

My take:
- Yes it's exciting, but $1B ultimately undersells what Bridge could have become

- It doesn't validate broader crypto M&A appetite. We've known stablecoins are a big deal. That doesn't mean we'll see large acquisitions in other crypto categories

- We probably will see more interest in payment M&A. Specifically, Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, and others will likely be on the hunt
Cerebras S1 feels like required reading for a pulse check on the AI industry

Some notable stats
- Revenue grew from $25M in 2022 to $79M in 2023
- First 6mo of 2024 have revenue of $136M
- 87% of revenue came from 1 (!!) customer
- That customer is G42, an AI holding co established in 2018 and based in the UAE
- Cerebras itself was founded in 2016; didn't start generative revenue until 2019
- Cerebras had an operating loss of $42M for the first 6mo of 2024. With only $91M cash on the balance sheet, and having raised 6+ rounds of private financing, almost feels like going public is a last resort
- Last private valuation was $4.25B (in 2021). Will be interesting to see where the public markets price it
New Essay: What Credit Card Networks Can Teach Us About Stablecoin Opportunities

https://www.backoftheenvelope.xyz/p/what-credit-card-networks-can-teach