From Turing to Twitter

Ethereum is a public blockchain with a scripting functionality. A distributed computer platform, as they say, “The World Computer”. Ether is a currency generated on that chain, or if you like, on that platform. We seem to get fixated on ideas that move the goal posts forward, and this is no different. To put it bluntly, Ethereum makes some bold claims. It also delivers on some pretty amazing stuff too, from proofs of concepts to bleeding edge models there is plenty to dive into here. Most of that is a conversation for another time. The idea here is to outline some methods I use for monitoring Ethereum via Twitter. I don’t think it would be fair for me to begin here without linking to a really cool primer that A16z put together. Check it out, please. It’s full of links that even your parents can understand.

https://a16z.com/2018/02/10/crypto-readings-resources/

Did you click on it yet? Just click on it. It has like, a bunch of articles you should probably send to your mom, your ex-partner, anyone who heard you ranting in 2015…point is – if you’re ready to chat about the basics and eventually about the implications, let’s dive in. Moreover, let’s figure out how to bring this you type of info without you scrolling or having to go dig it up. Automation is good no matter what your interest here, and honestly that will only get better with time. I’ll stack a couple personal use cases right here and let you run with it.

Twilert Alerts – Affordable and Easy Twitter Monitoring

Twilert is a super simple subscription model that lets me apply search terms, hashtags, geography, and operators into an automated twitter monitoring dashboard. I’ll outline some of the basic things I use it for re: the subject of Ethereum in a short list below. Head on over to www.Twilert.com to get started on a free trial if you want to poke around.

Vitalik Buterin – Vitalik is considered to be the founder of Ethereum. He received a Thiel Fellowship in 2014 and was able to develop Ethereum full time. Before that he wrote for bitcoin magazine. Vitalik has a substantial list of philanthropic giving, almost all in ETH, and takes an approach to social media that often involves the asking of questions rather than the relaying of conclusions. My Twilert alerts on Vitalik usually have to do with search terms like “second layer”, “casper” (which we will get into in a minute) and “plasma” which is along with casper has been a scaling subject for some time now.

Vlad Zamfir – Vlad is a co-founder of the Ethereum protocol, he has worked for the Ethereum Foundation as well as for Casper, a Proof of Stake scaling implementation. Lately he has been focused on the inherent legal implications and community governance / laws of blockchain, on what the implications and responsibilities of the community members and developers look like. There’s a lot of game theory and history involved in his recent words with guys like Nick Szabo, and even though it can be a lot to take in, I feel it is high value. I have my Twilert Alerts on Vlad set up to simply include terms like “conference” or “development” – I follow him because I want to know what he is working on currently, as well as who is re-tweeting and debating.

Dan Larimer – Dan has been around for awhile, and actually communicated with Satoshi a bit right before Satoshi went dark in 2013. Dan founded or helped found Steemit and EOS, among other projects – and part of any good Ethereum monitoring setup is going to include a bit of the competition. I won’t get into that right now but I will say that my search terms for Dan include “Smart Contract” “Dapps” and “Toolkit” – I even added “Regulation” in there just in case anything pops up. Dan also appears as a tag in my alerts.

Loom – Loom represents a lot of what keeps up excited about crypto. Finding solutions to scale, bringing seemingly simple things like games onto plasma and side chains, just adding functionality that not everybody else is poking at. I keep an alert up on these guys for “listing” “deployed” and #plasma which is a lot of their posts, but overall I think it is worth it. I prefer to have a bit too much than too little. Definitely rooting for these guys and their project.

Announcing an upcoming token bridge between Loom PlasmaChain and Cosmos Hub.

This is the first major step for us on a path to blockchain interoperability 🤙@tendermint_team @cosmoshttps://t.co/SnatXSjzNx

— Loom Network (@loomnetwork) January 16, 2019

Twilert is Easy.

Head on over. Give us a try. The team is small and super responsive, always up for a demo and a chat so feel free to bring us your wish list and ask us all the questions.

Hope to see you on Twitter.