Crypto Compendium - Part I - Introduction

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. Anything stated in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Triton may maintain positions in any assets or projects discussed on this website.

TL;DR

• Crypto skepticism stems from concerns about scams, money laundering, and the lack of tangible backing, highlighting a need for clearer education.
• A key issue is that many people don’t understand what problems digital assets aim to solve, making it difficult to grasp their long-term value.
• Real risks, such as quantum computing threats, energy sustainability, and reliance on anonymous developers, must be addressed for broader adoption.
• The series will provide a balanced view, recognizing crypto’s flaws while exploring its transformative potential in finance and technology.
• Understanding Bitcoin’s origins, the industry's evolution, and key investment risks will help readers form informed perspectives on digital assets.

Digital Assets: All You Need to Know

Time and time again, inevitably the same questions about blockchain and digital assets come up when we speak with prospective investors, finance professionals and friends or family. Typically, the questions are along the lines of “isn’t it just scams and money laundering?”, “what is it even used for?”, “what is the value if there is nothing tangible backing it?”, “how is it both traceable yet anonymous?”, or even more basically, “why do we even need it?”. 

From these discussions, what often becomes clear is that there is no shared understanding of what problem(s) cryptocurrencies are trying to solve in the first place. Only by first establishing that footing can we then move the discussion towards what the solutions to those problems will ultimately enable in the future. 

Readers of our newsletter will have seen standalone articles that allude to many of the concepts we will cover in this upcoming series of posts. Often, we jump right into more minute details of the technology, value flows, protocol designs or go deep into a specific topic – all of which naturally assumes a certain level of familiarity with the technology (by reading, we assume the interest is at least there too). But by doing so, we realize we have also neglected to provide better context for everything we discuss, taking for granted that readers are already onboard with our crazy crypto-enabled vision for the future. 

Many people remain skeptical or unsure of the theses they often see coming from the industry. And, frankly, rightly so. It is no secret that crypto has its fair share of warts. It is also true that many of the developments espoused by the industry are either niche, complex, or worse: both highly niche and highly complex. 

There are also valid concerns that we will address, such as: Is quantum computing a risk? Is the energy footprint sustainable? How can you trust trillions of dollars to code that randomly appeared one day written by some anonymous person?

The onus is on us, as investors in the industry and as advocates of its growth and adoption, to better share our perspectives, insights, vision and theses for what the technology will provide to society if we are successful. 

We invite you to join us as we lay out what is essentially a full compendium for digital assets. By the end, we hope that the reader will have a better understanding of why Bitcoin and digital assets were invented in the first place, the developmental arc of the industry, where we are today, where we are going tomorrow, and because we are investors, how can one look at these assets as financial investments (including explaining what to avoid). We will generally try to refrain from going too deep into the technicalities and intricacies of frontier tech, but there will undoubtedly be times when we do get technical given the nature of the topic.  After all, who doesn’t want to read about competing zk-TLS implementations over their morning coffee?

Our goal is not to be a blind cheerleader and ignore the downsides. That would be disingenuous and would rightly leave any skeptical reader with a bad taste in their mouth. Instead, we aim to provide a realistic view of everything, along with more context about the ‘whats and whys’ behind everything while providing our interpretation of where things are ultimately heading. By the end, we hope that the reader shares even just a shred of the enthusiasm for this industry that we do. If every reader ends up just 10% more excited about what this technology will unlock, the future will indeed be bright. 

As always, please reach out to anyone on the team if you are interested in any specific topics or want to discuss digital asset investing in further detail. Triton’s fundamental, discretionary fund still has limited capacity available and we are soon to open subscriptions to our quantitative fund coming to market in the next few months.

We expect this to be a substantial series of posts. Stay tuned.