Today I was reminded about Beanie Babies and the craze that was.
As a kid I collected sports cards growing up which ultimately led me to beanie babies. All the card dealers were selling them at shows.
I can remember going through the yellow pages and dialing up florists and gift shop in my parents kitchen. Most of the places would record messages letting customers know what beanies they had, when the doors opened etc.
There were limits on how many you could buy and people lined up hours before the stores would open.
I can remember sitting outside of a florist is lawn chairs for what I think was the Princess Dianna bear.
Truly great memories of hunting, buying and selling.
It was the perfect storm as the internet was just coming to be and Ebay was hitting the web. I didn’t know how to use it but I remember my Aunt being very proud that she owned the stock.
Well, the bubble burst and nothing really ever came to replace that moment. I’m pretty sure nothing will.
There’s been a lot of analogies of cryptocurrencies being tulips or beanies.
Those thoughts are short sighted. If you had taken that side of the bet since the beginning of bitcoin you are on the losing end.
AI has taken over the landscape of tech at the moment and rightfully so.
But some announcements over the recent days have me more bullish on blockchains and use cases for Ethereum.
Yesterday Ethereum shipped it’s biggest upgrade yet in Pectra:
This announcement from Coinbase can unlock payments for AI agents:
Thanks to the Pectra upgrade all wallets for Ethereum will now be capable of being smart wallets with social recovery. Bullish.
The new internet is onchain and social.
— Coinbase Wallet (@CoinbaseWallet) May 8, 2025
Get a first look at the feed inside the new Coinbase Wallet beta. pic.twitter.com/LcZroLy7fi
The future for blockchains is still to be determined but i’ll leave you with a thought from one of my favorite people in the space:
