Investment Thesis
DeFi mechanism design, AMM theory, MEV research. Novel financial primitives and their mathematical foundations.
What Excites Them
Elegant mathematical solutions, novel AMM designs, MEV mitigation approaches, rigorous proofs
What They Pass On
Hand-wavy tokenomics, copy-paste forks, projects without mathematical foundations
How to Pitch
Dan cares about mathematical rigor and novel mechanism design. Show him the math behind your protocol.
Key Frameworks
CFMM Design Space
Mathematical framework mapping constant function market makers across dimensions of capital efficiency and flexibility.
Mechanism Design Elegance
A protocol is well-designed when its incentive structure feels mathematically inevitable
Notable Writing
Priority ordering in block construction is sufficient for MEV extraction.
Technical paper on concentrated liquidity AMM design
Liquidity curves define the design space for automated market makers.
Formalized the CFMM design space including Uniswap, Balancer, and Curve.
Formal mathematical analysis of the x*y=k constant product market maker.
Analysis of hash time-locked contracts and their limitations
Podcast Appearances
Key Quotes
“The geometry of constant product markets is beautiful in its simplicity.”
— Paradigm Research
“The best DeFi protocols are the ones where the mechanism design feels inevitable.”
— Bell Curve podcast
Background
Research partner at Paradigm. Creator of Uniswap v3 concentrated liquidity math. Former Interstellar chain engineer. Stanford Law.