a photo of crypto expert reviewer Arjun Balaji

Arjun Balaji

Arjun Balaji is the founder of Shomei Capital, an investment fund focused on cryptoassets. He was formerly a software engineer at HubSpot and Flip.

Reviews by Arjun Balaji

All coin and product reviews by expert Arjun Balaji.

  • Arjun Balaji on Binance Coin Founder of Shomei Capital

    Binance Coin (BNB) is the best example of a pure tokenized security: $15M ICO -> partial claim on cash flows, future fund returns, etc.

    Full review 🔑

    2018-06-04

  • Arjun Balaji on Zcash Founder of Shomei Capital

    The path that Zcash and other next-generation blockchains (Tezos, DFINITY, etc.) have taken is to set up incentives and off-chain governance processes to align early contributors and help guide the project from infancy to adulthood. While this trades off early on with decentralization, it allows for independence, time, and resources to be committed to more intensive research questions.

    Full review 🔑

    2018-06-28

  • Arjun Balaji on 0x Founder of Shomei Capital

    I love the 0x protocol—trust-minimized, p2p exchange and a team that regularly ships. Digital securities trading is a great idea.

    Full review 🔑
    Show thread Arjun Balaji on 0x

    2018-10-11

  • Arjun Balaji on Bitcoin Cash Founder of Shomei Capital

    Bitcoin Cash forking into ABC and SV is a Pyrrhic victory for Jihan and Craig, where the battle inflicts such a devastating toll on the “victor” that it is tantamount to defeat.

    Full review đź’©

    2018-11-16

  • Arjun Balaji on EOS Founder of Shomei Capital

    Even assuming AWS and EOS are interchangeable . . . why do I want a "decentralized AWS" run by a cartel? What would I prefer to build there vs. AWS (or Google Cloud Platform or something else)?

    I've not only heard of AWS—I've actually used these services. They're great.

    Full review đź’©
    Show thread Arjun Balaji on EOS

    2018-12-08

  • Arjun Balaji on Civic Founder of Shomei Capital

    Civic was at the nascent stages of starting a potentially successful identity startup, which could have been a boon to traditional financial services companies. The gluttony of 2017 pushed them and many others to make short-sighted decisions. Not every company needs to become a “project” and embrace the ethos of “Web 3.0. — not that Civic even comes close — Civic’s project isn’t even open-source in counter to the cypherpunk ethos of other self-sovereign identity projects.

    Full review đź’©

    2018-12-21

  • Arjun Balaji on Augur Founder of Shomei Capital

    My bullishness [in Augur] is due to (1) a full year elapsing with a working product (2) improved UX/choice of clients (3) increased brand awareness (4) demand in the market for a non-custodial prediction market (5) stablecoin integration and (6) better market-making and liquidity provisioning.

    Full review 🔑
    Show thread Arjun Balaji on Augur

    2019-01-01

  • Arjun Balaji on Beam Founder of Shomei Capital

    If you prefer your [Mimblewimble] implementation to have some VC flavor, there’s the Beam project, with a pre-sale and centralized team!

    Full review đź’©

    2018-10-07

  • Arjun Balaji on Decred Founder of Shomei Capital

    On-chain governance [as in Decred] is an interesting experiment that'll likely be seen as an over-engineered solution looking for a problem.

    Full review đź’©

    2018-05-24

  • Arjun Balaji on Ethereum Founder of Shomei Capital

    Every Ethereum competitor has to go through the platform and community development Ethereum (2014-18) did to compete.

    Ethereum is witnessing some of the community splits and contentious “attacks” Bitcoin encountered now.

    This is the public blockchain hero’s journey.

    Full review 🔑

    2019-03-26

  • Arjun Balaji on Ethereum Classic Founder of Shomei Capital

    Virtually nothing is built on Ethereum Classic (https://ethereumclassic.org/powered-by-etc/). It lost.

    Full review đź’©

    2018-11-25

Paradigm People

Compare Arjun Balaji's coin reviews with other Paradigm people.

More Paradigm people