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GM. This is Milk Road – Happy New Year to all you Roadies out there and welcome to what could be crypto’s biggest year yet!

Here’s what we got for you today:

WHAT IS DESCI? (AND WHY ARE VITALIK AND CZ BACKING IT?) 🧑‍🔬

About a month ago, the topic of Decentralized Science (DeSci) popped up in the Mindshare Top 10, seemingly out of nowhere…

Since then, we’ve been looking for some quiet time to really dig into the sector – and what better time than the holiday break?

So here’s the story of what DeSci is all about, and how it grabbed all this mindshare (seemingly out of nowhere).

Let’s start with the easiest question to answer: where’d all this chatter start?

Simple, this tweet from CZ (ft. Vitalik):

Neat! So why are the big dogs focusing on DeSci (what’s it all about)?

Basically, traditional research funding is controlled by a select few institutions/businesses (i.e. governments, universities, pharmaceutical companies), making the selection process clunky and biased.

If you do manage to get funded? You’re now part of a very exclusive club (congrats)!

The next hurdle to jump is getting published in one of the few high-impact medical journals out there (no easy feat).

Then – if by some miracle – you get both funded AND published…your work will likely spend the rest of its days behind a paywall.

DeSci is trying to fix that by becoming the ‘GoFundMe’ for scientific research.

The key ingredients here are speed and openness.

It’s the same secret sauce behind the internet. For example:

Building a multinational retail brand pre-internet = get a degree → think of a business idea → get a loan → find a brick and mortar space → launch → scale, scale, scale → launch overseas.

Building a multinational retail brand post-internet = think of a business idea → watch some YouTube videos → open a Shopify account → boom, you’re now selling globally.

The problem is — a pre-internet multinational retail brand has had to prove itself, whereas a brand new Shopify store hasn’t (creating one only takes a few clicks, and doesn’t prove much).

Same goes for DeSci research, in the sense that you could (theoretically): 

…at the end of the day, it’d still be a crackpot idea (so DeSci is going to have to build one helluva robust reputation system).

The thousand foot view of all of the above? 

Yes – DeSci has the potential to do great things, by massively increasing the speed and openness of scientific research…

But we may need to tweak our bullsh*t detectors when exploring some of the ideas floating around the space.

HOW PENSION FUNDS ARE SECRETLY BUYING $BTC 🚪

Most pension funds aren’t buying Bitcoin.

Not because they don’t want to, but because they aren’t allowed to.

But a few of them have found a sneaky side entrance into the crypto world: bonds.

See, these funds have mandates that they have to abide by – one of them being that a certain percentage of their portfolios need to be made up of government and corporate bonds. 

(Bonds = IOUs).

Typically, you’ll buy a bond, earn some interest on your money, and get it all back at the end of a set time period. 

Or in the case of corporate convertible bonds, you may have the opportunity to convert your cash IOU into stock at some point in the agreement.

Now, here’s how these pension funds are finding roundabout ways of buying Bitcoin.

They buy convertible bonds from companies with exposure to Bitcoin (hint: MicroStrategy) → their mandates are met → no one gets fired → they still earn $$$ when $BTC pumps.

And because of these mandates – there’s crazy demand for bonds (of any sort). 

So much that MicroStrategy may be about to raise EVEN MORE cash to buy $BTC. 👇

And now that MicroStrategy has proven that buying Bitcoin with cash raised from bond sales is a profitable business, more companies will likely be incentivized to do the same. 

(Meet the global demand for bonds + get outsized returns = win/win).

We just learnt that in today’s episode of The Milk Road Show, with Tyler Neville, where we talk:

Check it out below! 👇

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

DeFi Saver manages all your positions across multiple networks. Lending on Ethereum but borrowing on Arbitrum? DeFi Saver keeps it all in one place. Sleek.

Some researchers predict $ETH might continue to struggle in 2025. Another year of $ETH underperformance? Our bags aren’t ready for that.

Solana adds $1B worth of stablecoins. $SOL price might be down but their fundamentals are soarin’.

Weirdest bets on Polymarket in 2024. From aliens to tampons, this list is truly absurd.

We’re hiring! Calling the brightest minds in crypto to join our team but hurry, there’s only 4 roles left.

We’ve launched a top centralized exchange page. Whether you’re a trader or a long-term investor, our curated list of CEXs has something for everyone.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.