Ladies and gentlemen, artists and arbers, builders and bots, it’s once again time for Pakt’s Friday FAQs. As always, we’ll feature one long answer, one medium answer, and one brief after-dinner mint of a reply to the questions we get asked by the community.
Usually we kick things off by drilling deep on a specific aspect of Pakt’s build, team, or strategy.
But with Ava Labs’s Emin Gün Sirer headed to Capital Hill to address the House Financial Services Committee next week, we thought the time was finally ripe for us to address an overarching Q we receive on the daily:
Long Answer: What is Pakt’s official take on Binance, Coinbase, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ledger, the SEC, Congress, and whatever else is the crypto emergency du jour?
h/t to Cryptotwitter
Let us shout it loud enough to be heard up in the peanut gallery: Pakt will never publicly comment about price, pending regulations, ongoing cases, or politician soundbites impacting our industry.
Not only would it amount to us sticking our noses where they don’t belong, it’s horrifically low EV. Worse than slot machines. Worse than the bowling alley stuffed animal claw game.
Best case scenario, we fire off a hot take and earn a flurry of fleeting pixel heart tap kudos by preaching to the Cryptotwitter choir. Worst case scenario, we attract unwanted attention from minions determined to divert us from our core purpose: building the OS for the World Computer.
Now this isn’t to say that we lack forceful opinions on critical issues facing our industry. Web3 isn’t some social media parlor game to us. Every case, regulation, and legal action in the space profoundly impacts our lives, vocation, and mission.
But recognize this: if you are building on Avalanche, you are playing in the World Cup for the future of digital value. And if you’re in the World Cup you Absolutely. Cannot. Score. An. Own. Goal.
It’s time for us as an industry, as builders, and as a community to upscale our professional discipline, even if only from pure self-interest. Those who do will be the first to step through a generational portal into the future of value. Those who don’t will become blockchain’s Pete Best.
What does this discipline look like? Exclusively playing long term games with long term people. Holding projects accountable to detail paths to profitability beyond “wait for a bull market.” Calling out frauds as frauds, even when it may adversely impact your bags or short-term social status.
This may seem like we’re buzzkilling, but this depends on your definition of fun. Do you want to be the guy who graduated three years ago still showing up at high school parties to do keg stands in your letterman’s jacket? Or do you want to be the trailblazer who’s always three years ahead of the curve, celebrating with friends you uplifted into abundance because you continuously make the winning strategic bets of a lifetime together?
What is Pakt’s strategic bet? It’s not a token. It’s a trifecta of principles. We bet on:
- Smarts
- Builders
- Connection
Smart people, organizations, or algos don’t always win, but they win far more than “not smart” people. Plus, they transform their Ls into lessons in true Bayesian fashion, increasing the likelihood of future successes with each experiential loop.
Builders don’t always win, but the future is always built by builders. Plus, they tend to stick together, can’t help but build, and tend to welcome those who measure up on their meritocratic rubrics. In their community, you earn the respect of who matters by doing what matters — delivering results. You can’t ask for a fairer shake than that.
And connection always wins in the end. Energy will flow around, over, under, through, or quantum leap, but whatever novel conduit accelerates connection alignment will inevitably become the value highway of the future.
That’s why Pakt went all-in on Avalanche — Ava Labs has the smartest builders building the best connections. Pakt seeks to embed Avalanche’s smartly built connections into a mainstream accessible platform and in doing so boost the collective functional intelligence of the New Internet.
So if you’re reading this, you’re already in the right place, at the right time, likely supporting the right red triangle team. But make no mistake. Avalanche is a pro team playing a pro game.
There are rules, written and unwritten, for players and fans alike. Don’t streak onto the field. Don’t tarnish your team’s reputation. And above all, don’t get banned from the arena before your home team is about to hoist the trophy.
Medium Answer: What stage is Pakt in right now?
This question can be answered two ways — as a platform and as a company.
As a platform, we have recently begun demoing v1 of our beta. We’ll unveil it soon, but we promise you it’s come a looooong way from our MVP that won the Avalanche Creates pitch day in Berkley last October.
As a company, some would say we are currently in our pre-seed stage, but we view ourselves as product-focused first, raise-focused second.
So again, back to the previous paragraph — Pakt is completing v1, with several promising pilot programs in the works, dozens of successful live demos under our belts, and an Asana full of components requested by those we’ve demo’d for.
Brief Answer: But seriously, just between us, what do you really think about Gary Gensler and Elizabeth Warren?
h/t Cryptotwitter again
To quote father-of-the-year Logan Roy:
Until we meet again (in one week),
The Pakt Crew
