Dom Steil

2023

This year I spent time building for the future. Remote from home, building systems with people around the world. The digital distance to engage has never been shorter. Physically distant yet self-organizing and connected in this cybernetic, always on, state interpretation. We have singleton moments like the world cup but most everything else is somewhat fractal, polarized, cherry picked, self enforcing. The physical world still operates in it’s own localities, with opt-ins games to play. There are writers in Nashville’s, Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley’s, Actors in LA’s. All playing different games and in different states of mind. Though there is the evermore capturing digital realm that we are all aspirants in. Characters known within a digital singleton. How do we find and verify truth in this digital realm? What is the means the global community of humans on the internet, can settle against? What is the totem of objective reality in digital world filled with bots, deepfakes, pfp avatars, hit / puff pieces? Is block height and header hash the flag of technological and provably indifferent and unbiased truth? What are the implications of humanity interpreting reality through a single pane of glass we all individually have? Can we build a future network where there is privacy preserving veridical proof?

What is the totem of the objective reality in the physical world? Can we usher in future where humanity strives to come together as one? Where we can live longer, cure cognitive diseases, spend time on things worth building for the betterment or the future? Where we have the time to collaborate on solving the hardest problems that make life better. We need to figure out a global schelling point in order for us to come together. Is it a unified global digital asset, is it a Cambrian explosion of creativity powered through AI, is it the survival of the planet? Is there a way for us to steer ourselves towards a future where individuals have sovereignty, privacy and the freedom to work on whatever it is they want as we race ahead into the future? Can we build systems that do not deplatform, that are not rigged, that enable humans to have ownership and agency? Can we build a global community online where incentives are aligned, there are opt-in north star’s with clarity, coordination on a global scale in a way that enables trust and produces outcomes that benefit humanity? How might we build this future? How might we build systems that leverage the digital totem as a backstop against that which tries arbitrarily control? What is the best way to empower individuals around the world to deliver on their dreams? How might we turn more characters into heros in the physical and digital realm?

This past year:

  • I wrote a lot of react.js, tailwind and node.js

  • I learned how to build cosmos sdk modules in go

  • I learned how to write cosmwasm smart contracts in rust

  • I learned more about MEV and arbitrage in the Eth supply chain

  • I learned more about zero-knowledge proofs, circuit libraries and snarks

  • I learned more about DAG based consensus protocols

  • I learned more about prompting systems such as GPT3 and DALLE

  • I wrote a lot of node.js, javascript, GO and Rust

  • I learned how to use Temporal and build Durable Execution into the stateset os

  • I launched the new version of the stateset platform in tailwind

  • I created the stateset testnet and a client for interacting with the network

  • I learned more about stablecoins and sending stablecoins on L2’s

  • I learned how to run a bitcoin full node on my computer using umbrel

Here are the past couple years of this same blog posts.

2013: A Year in Review

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

This year I read and reread some great books:

Zero to Production in Rust

Proof-of-Stake

Numbers

Becoming Supernatural

VC

Autobiography of a Yogi

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

Rust in Action

The Sentient Enterprise

Here was my focus for 2022:

  • Build and Launch the Cosmos SDK version of Stateset Network
  • Learn more about how to write Smart Contracts with Agoric and CosmWasm
  • Become an expert in writing ocaps security smart contracts in javascript
  • Learn more about the Bitcoin Lightning Network and Run a Full Node and Lightning Node
  • Leverage IBC for connecting the Stateset Blockchain with other blockchain networks
  • Create my own validator company for running proof-of-stake nodes
  • Build and Launch the Tailwind version of Stateset Platfrom
  • Launch Stateset Payments with Stripe Treasury
  • Build a great product around OpenAI and CodeX
  • Build Stateset to $1M ARR by June
  • Build a great engineering team
  • Run, Box and Lift everyday
  • Meditate more often, make it a habit
  • Stretch more often, make it a habit
  • Fast from 8pm to 2pm everyday
  • Read Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
  • Complete the Duolingo for Mandarin before I turn 30
  • Keep a daily journal and a physical calendar
  • Say my autosuggestion every morning and every night
  • Eat Healthy (Eggs, Leafy Greens, Mushrooms, Quinoa, Black Beans, Avocado, Turkey, Chicken and Steak)
  • Drink more water

build, keep, learn, write, read.

Some highlights from 2022

Got married in Napa Valley

Traveled to Greece and South France for my Honeymoon

Lots of best friend’s weddings

Hawaii, Florida time with the family

Won Best EY Blockchain Best Use Award at EthSF

Won Optimisim JumprOPe competition with 95 jumps in 30 seconds

2022 - The year in review:

This year I spent a lot of my time working on building Stateset. I built and launched new features of the core platform. I spent the majority of my mornings working on serverless functions and core platform UI updates. My typical morning would be working from around 530am-11am. I spent a lot of time this year working out leading up to our wedding. Mostly running, fasting and started boxing more. I started doing circuit training with sets of boxing, jump rope and bands. 1-3 minute boxing, jump rope 1 minute, 30 reps of bands. ~ 5 - 8 sets. Lift heavy afterwards. Steam. Cold Shower. I would spend the majority of the afternoon either doings calls or working more on core platform development. This year outside of work we traveled a bunch and went to a ton of weddings. I spent a lot of time this past summer in the mid-west as well. I spent alot of time on Duolingo learning Mandarin. I spent 845 minutes on it. Wǒ de pǔtōnghuà hěn hǎo. I can have a basic conversation in an uber. I had an awesome summer, spending a ton of time in Europe, the midwest and CA. My wife and I traveled all through Greece, South France and visited Amsterdam for the first time.

Focus for 2023:

  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to crypto programming in rust
  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to scaling software companies
  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to zero-knowledge proofs
  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to dag based consensus protocols
  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to numerology and astrology
  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to machine learning and generative ai
  • Learn & Gain Knowledge related to building distributed systems
  • Leverage IBC for connecting the Stateset Blockchain with other networks
  • Spiritual Growth related to Meditation and Manifestation
  • Read more whitepapers and research
  • Write more on substack
  • Learn and Speak Mandarin everyday for a 30 minutes a day
  • Run, Box and Lift everyday
  • Fast from 8pm to 2pm everyday
  • Take NMN and Resveratrol daily
  • Cold Showers
  • Keep a daily journal and a physical calendar
  • Say my autosuggestion every morning and every night
  • Eat Healthy (Eggs, Leafy Greens, Mushrooms, Quinoa, Black Beans, Avocado, Turkey, Chicken, Elk, Steak, Fish)
  • Drink more water

build, keep, learn, write, read.

On Stateset

I am working towards this idea of building this event-driven serverless autonomous commerce platform. We are able to use serverless functions to codify loosely coupled services that can drive business process automation. I am building a core platform that is able to capitalize on the shift towards a distributed 3factor.app network as a reference architecture for building advanced software systems. The system needs to be built in a way that is continuously improving based on customer feedback but also by inheriting the innovations from open-source projects upon which it is built. If you pick the right technology partners and talk to your customers, the system will continue to become more advanced over time. A core component of the technology stack can increasingly ride the wave of advancements in modern web development.

On MEV

I spent time at the Stanford Blockchain Conference MEV workshop and learned a lot about this new supply chain within the Ethereum ecosystem. There is an opportunity to provide and capture value within the preprocessing stage of an ethereum transaction.

The value chain is the following:

users —> searchers —> builders —> relays —> mev-boost —> validators.

I wrote an article at length covering this but the general idea is around a concept called proposer / builder separation and the fact that slashing exist in proof of stake protocols. The root premise that MEV is built on which is that as a validator if you double sign a header you will be slashed.

The democratization of MEV extraction in Ethereum Post-Merge is a massive opportunity and will create an entire new market and an entire new specialized and professional role in the blockchain ecosystem.

The key to this new market:

Minimize MEV for the user

Maximize MEV for the validator

Proposers: may want to to sell blockspace.

Builders: want to buy blockspace.

On ZKPs

I spent a lot of this year’s san francisco blockchain week learning more about zero-knowledge proofs. I am learning more about the methodology of using them in practice and applying them to software applications. I went to the Crypto Economic Security Conference at UC Berkeley and attended a workship covering different projects using ZKPs such as zkSync, Scroll, Polygon Hermez, Polygon Zero. I learned more about frameworks such as Arkworks which is being used across the ecosystem.

I think the main line of thought is that zkps provide a highly needed function of data integrity which crypto and blockchains are driving due to the implications related to pricacy and security.

Internet Security → Secure Communication —> encryption, key exchange.

However the internet is now somewhat ocified.

Blockchain Systems —> data integrity —> signature, commitments, proofs

We are already seeing research across txns, bridges, mempools and other aspects of blockchain networks leveraging zkps for enhancement.

ZKPs clicked for me when I understood this concept:

Verifier knows simulated views and real interactions are indistiguishable.

On Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the 0, 0 of the money matrix. The idea of Bitcoin. Monetary Premium Chain, Secure, Censorship Resistance. Bitcoin extends one's time reference by creating a confidence in the store of value and therefore calcified incorruptibility of one’s time and energy savings. In doing so, trust in digital property rights becomes a means of increasing the predictability of one’s future. Bitcoin has another 10x-100x in front of it. Very hard to find 10x at $1B. That act of transferring a bitcoin is that which creates the value. Bitcoin is simply a namespace for the act of quantum transactional state verification. It is a wave until that act of spending makes it material. It is untangible yet verdical. Bitcoin is it.

Definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it. I will continue to build the mastermind group and devote my energy to drive combinatorial creativity through technology and people.

Happy New Year.

Live the Dream.

-Dom