One week at IC3 changed how I think about technology. I came in as an economics person and spent my time on understanding market structure, liquidity, ETFs, narratives, and how information gets priced into an asset. Mostly, I think about "why" things happen. Then I spent a week surrounded by some of the sharpest researchers in blockchain, cryptography, distributed systems, law, and economics, and realized there was a whole layer of this industry I thought I understood but really didn't. It's the "how" you actually build the business vision from a technical foundation. In crypto, it's easy to fall in love with narratives. A narrative tells you what the future could look like: 24/7 settlement, global access and liquidity, and privacy through ZK. But behind every compelling narrative sits a stack of hard technical problems that have to be solved before that future can exist. At IC3, I watched researchers spend their days presenting on problems they are untangling: protecting privacy, scaling systems, verifying computation, and coordinating people who don't trust each other. The more I learned, the clearer it became: technology and adoption are solving different parts of the same puzzle. - Business turns complexity into a vision (it compresses the hard parts into something people can believe in). - Technology turns that vision into reality (it actually solves them). I'm still far from being a cryptographer. But I'm leaving with much deeper respect for the people building the foundations beneath the narratives we talk about every day. And maybe more importantly, I found where I feel most alive: at the intersection of technology, markets, and human behavior, trying to be a translator between what gets built and what gets adopted. I'm going to keep learning the hard technology behind the narrative. Grateful to everyone at @initc3org for an unforgettable week of learning, curiosity, and conversation.

🥉 3rd Place at the IC3 Blockchain Camp Hackathon!!! Our project focused on rethinking DAO governance from a UI/UX and governance perspective, combining insights from shareholder voting systems with cryptographic tools to create a healthier decision-making process. We often assume that more transparency leads to better governance. But when every vote, wallet, and discussion is public forever, incentives change. People may follow whales, vote defensively, or stay silent altogether. That led us to a simple question: Can DAOs learn from shareholder governance without sacrificing the openness that makes them valuable? Our solution combined a privacy-preserving and publicly verifiable voting system (DRE-ip) with a governance-aware discussion forum, designed to improve both voter privacy and communication. Personally, while I'm still learning cryptography, what fascinated me most was the human side of governance: incentives, communication, coordination, and the stories that shape collective decisions. Huge thanks to my incredible teammates and @initc3org for an unforgettable week of building, learning, and debating the future of decentralized governance.

Twenty-five experts from academia and industry put together this (monster, 150 -page) survey on the bidirectional impact of crypto and AI. Visit AIC3.io to read it, peruse the executive summary—or chat with a chatbot about it.

Why did Bitcoin's 4th halving feel so different? Last week, I had the opportunity to present our Bitcoin market structure research at Princeton through @initc3org, a moment I'll carry with me for a long time. Many point to spot Bitcoin ETFs as the explanation. Our findings suggest the story may be bigger. Across four halving cycles, we found evidence that Bitcoin's market response has evolved from a delayed reaction to anticipation and correction and increasingly toward pre-event absorption. A few findings stood out: → Structural breaks move progressively closer to halving events over time. The 4th halving is the first cycle where the structural break appears before the halving itself. → Post-Halving Event Drift (PHED) appears clearly only in the first cycle. → Liquidity regime shifts observed in earlier cycles largely disappear by 2024. Taken together, these patterns suggest that Bitcoin may be transitioning from an event-driven market to an expectation-driven market. The 4th halving may not simply be an ETF-era anomaly. It may be the visible outcome of a decade-long market-learning process. As markets mature, information gets absorbed earlier, narratives get priced in faster, and historical patterns become harder to repeat. The challenge is no longer just anticipating the event itself but understanding how market participants will anticipate and price in that event. Grateful to @initc3org and all organizers for an unforgettable week of learning, discussion, and new ideas.

3rd Place: Revamping Governance The Revamping Governance team set out to rethink how DAOs and decentralized governance operate. Their first step was a deep dive into real-world corporate governance and shareholder voting. Surprisingly, they discovered that traditional shareholder voting is more private than DAOs, thanks to how brokers aggregate votes. Furthermore, nearly all top US companies fail to facilitate shareholder-to-shareholder communication (i.e., they have no online forums). With this in mind, the team sought to bring private voting to DAOs without sacrificing their inherent openness. They implemented a variant of DRE-ip for weighted voting, enabling broker-like vote aggregation while allowing anyone to verify the count by summing the ballots. For communication, they built a Reddit-style forum that leverages governance token weights to signal which prominent members are worth listening to.

One of the most rewarding weeks I've had this year was at the IC3 Blockchain Camp at Princeton University. A week full of learning, building, presenting, and making new friends. Grateful for every conversation, every challenge, and every late-night brainstorming session. I had the opportunity to learn from world-class researchers, present my research on Bitcoin halving cycles, build alongside an incredible team, and somehow come home with a 🥉 hackathon finish. Most importantly, thank you, @initc3org and all the organizers, for creating such a special experience. Hope to see everyone again soon!!!

That’s a wrap! Over 100 computer scientists, researchers, and students attended the 2026 IC3 Blockchain Camp for a full week of learning and hacking. Congrats to the winning hackathon teams:

DeFi changed the way I think about finance. As a recent NYU Economics graduate, NYU Blockchain Lab leader, and researcher studying Bitcoin market structure, I want to help bridge the gap between academia and the builders creating the future of on-chain finance. ETHConf is exactly where those conversations happen. I’d love to learn, contribute, and meet the people pushing DeFi forward. #1inchForward

JPMorgan. Mastercard. Ripple. Ondo. They just settled a cross-border tokenized treasury in under 5 seconds. Next Monday, we're talking to the Ondo Smart Contracts Lead @thomassb1625 at @BlockchainNYU 5.11 | 12:45–3PM | NYU Leslie eLab 👉 luma.com/9py4y8d2

This Monday, we hosted @robin_linus at NYU Blockchain Lab for a conversation on what Bitcoin actually needs to sustain itself long-term. With everything happening around ETFs, stablecoins, and institutional adoption, we took a step back to focus on a more fundamental question: what actually keeps Bitcoin running over time? His answer felt both urgent and grounded. A store of value still needs to be used. And real payment adoption depends on three things working together: usability, scalability, and privacy. He even brought it down to something as simple as units. Asking people to transact in 0.00000100 BTC already makes payments feel unintuitive. Simplicity builds trust. Complexity creates hesitation. One idea that stood out throughout the discussion: this is ultimately a human problem. And those tend to get solved. Grateful for a conversation that was hard to stop thinking about. 🙏 #Bitcoin #BitVM #NYU #Web3 #Crypto

Attended a creator event in New York today, and it suddenly dawned on me: The reason I’ve been stuck with Web3 creation is that I’ve always been waiting until I "understand it well enough." But Web3 is constantly evolving; no one ever fully masters it. Maybe I don't need to be the one who knows it best. I just need to be the one who can translate the blockchain world into plain language. Still figuring it out. Starting anyway.

Thank you, @Ledger! Proof of luck 🍀 Absolutely made my day 💚 Loving this matcha green wallet!!!

Institutional Crypto is coming to NYU. 🗽💼 We’re excited to host @emceecoy_ and @austincampbell for an exclusive fireside chat on April 27th! Learn how institutional capital is navigating the digital asset space from leaders across industry and academia. We’ll be covering stablecoins, regulation, hacks and security, and institutional adoption in crypto markets. 🔗 RSVP: luma.com/bghbkdar #NYU #Crypto #InstitutionalCrypto #Web3 #NYUBlockchain

We hosted @Uptodatenow (VP Research @galaxyhq ) at NYU Blockchain Lab. Here's what's worth paying attention to 1. Agentic payments are the next frontier. AI agents transacting autonomously on-chain — not a concept, it's being built. Which settlement layer wins when machines become economic actors? 2. Onboarding isn't a tech problem. The bottleneck is UX regulatory clarity. Mass adoption happens when users don't know they're using crypto. Closer than people think. 3. Most crypto research is noise. Filter: ignore narrative-driven hype. Anchor to on-chain data protocol fundamentals macro positioning. Packed room. Great energy. This is why we do this!

Want to break into fintech or Web3? This is the room. @SoulByte_HD × @BlockchainNYU × @Anti__Capital × @IsleFinance Hiring managers. Builders. Real conversations. 📍 NYC | April 22 | Soulbyte Office Apply ↓ luma.com/kdd6z80q

A special moment for me. Last year, I met @CryptoMeina and @NFTfarming1 at a Web3 event at Trump Tower in NYC. Last week, I had the pleasure of moderating an alumni panel with them @BlockchainNYU. That’s the magic of this industry. There’s no fixed path, you have to explore it yourself. But because it’s still being defined, unexpected opportunities appear along the way.

Prof. Ian D’Souza is genuinely one of the best professors I’ve had at NYU Stern! I took his Blockchain and DeFi course, and it genuinely changed the way I think about financial systems and what’s possible with this technology. His class was one of the moments that pushed me to take blockchain more seriously and explore the space further. Really excited to host him at @BlockchainNYU for next week.

Really enjoyed listening to the panel yesterday at @BlockchainNYU with @LowBeta and @YYBlockchain. One key takeaway: Bitcoin’s long-term story may be macro (debasement hedge), but today’s market behavior is still shaped by who holds it, mostly risk capital rather than central banks. Thank you for the thoughtful conversation!

人真正的自由，不在于拥有无数选择。 而在于当他做出选择之后，不再回头张望，思考另外一条路的美好。 我们似乎从小被教育成“谨慎的选择者”。 小学决定中学 中学决定高中， 高中决定大学， 大学决定工作。 仿佛人生是一条不断加固地基的工程。 选择被赋予重量。 错误被赋予惩罚。 久而久之，我们不再害怕失败。 我们害怕 — 选错。 但真正消耗人的，并不是错误的选择。 而是悬而未决的状态。 当一个人反复比较两条路的风景，他永远无法抵达任何一处。 犹豫，是对行动最温柔却最致命的消耗。 关于人生的地基，我认为从来不是外界所赋予的， 好学校、好城市、好行业、好工作。 这些当然重要，但它们更像风向。 真正的地基，是独属于每一个人的特质： - 是否知道自己想成为什么样的人，想去到哪 - 是否愿意为决定承担后果 - 是否能在低谷中重新站立 - 是否在黑暗中也能看见缝隙中透过的光 健康的身体，向上的生命力，独立的自我，和从头再来的勇气…从长期来看，才是一个人能过好自己一生重要地基 我不确定未来的曲线如何波动。 但我确定一件事： 真正的风险，不是走错路。 而是在该承担风险的时候，选择安全。 所谓冒险，是当精力、能力与野心尚在时， 不把它们浪费在对可能性的反复计算里。 人生不是资产配置模型。 它更像一场持续下注的博弈。 而下注的对象，不是我所不能控制的一切，是自己。