Becket U curates the best resources in Math, Physics, Computers, Microeconomics, Game Theory, and Persuasion. With this knowledge, you will understand how the world works.
Undiscovered #103: Rise of Zcash, The Quiet Ones, AI Agents Explained in 2 Minutes
#103: Rise of Zcash, The Quiet Ones, AI Agents Explained in 2 MinutesHi All! We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com. This week, we will take a look at the latest cryptocurrency capturing all internet attention, how great art will continue to thrive in the age of AI slop, the 'quiet ones' keeping companies together, and more. Let's dive in: Rise of Zcash, the "Insurance on Bitcoin"A few weeks ago, we wrote about Zcash in our #100 edition of Undiscovered. The heading of that insight was, 'Privacy is the last 1000x in crypto'. At the time (September 12, 2025), Zcash was trading around $49. In the last couple days, its price has soared as high as $153. Why is this happening? And more importantly what is Zcash? Recently, Arjun Khemani had been tweeting about Zcash in broad praise, but it really seemed to take off when Naval Ravikant wrote a tweet saying "Bitcoin is insurance against fiat. ZCash is insurance against Bitcoin". He proceeded to follow this up with a quote tweet saying "Satoshi himself can't use Bitcoin." The quote tweet was in response to a post from @0xMert_ who outlined six important points related to Zcash: i) three important missions in crypto: markets, store of value, privacy/freedom the last one has been slept on, and it's about to make a comeback as CBDCs and centralized coins accelerate ii) there are various large tech improvements coming that will 1,000x performance and scale as well as help with security and finality iii) monero is a 5B coin and somehow zcash was below 700M when I started talking about it this is an obvious mispricing, as zcash has a stronger privacy and scale design but almost no one in crypto is technical enough to look into this you dont have to believe even that zec is superior (though it is), you just have to believe that it is extremely undervalued, just look at the coins above it on CMC iv) theres a new Renaissance of talent entering zcash, which can be seen on zashi wallet, near intents, and new research pieces v) it's a very old coin so you know the community that has been down bad this whole time is genuinely passionate about the mission vi) simply: a world where crypto succeeds but privacy doesn't is a dystopian nightmare — we have no choice @Zooko explained Zcash under 40 seconds on a recent podcast as well: "Zcash is a cryptocurrency that's like Bitcoin, except that the transactions are end-to-end encrypted, so that only the sender and the receiver can see the contents of the transaction - like the address of the sender and the address of the receiver, and the amount of money transmitted. All of that is end-to-end encrypted so that everyone else in the world sees nothing but cybertext, which could not be broken even by a star-sized quantum computer. only the people who need to know can see the contents of the transaction." The Only Thing that Matters in LifeSam Parr, founder of the Hustle, Hampton, and host of the My First Million podcast, shared a tweet that has stuck with me since I read it: “The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.” That’s the conclusion of Harvard’s Grant Study, the longest-running study of human life ever conducted that tracked men for 80+ years from youth to old age. Great Art in the Age of SlopWith the release of Sora 2 from OpenAI, people are quickly (and in my opinion, prematurely) declaring AI content to be nearly 'there' in terms of quality and ability to pass the human eye test. I'm personally not convinced, but I also understand that this is 'as bad as it will ever be'. Thinking about Sora, though, make me consider how pieces of art will be made in the future. Humans have always admired craftsmanship, and I believe that when it comes to film and video content, capturing the 'how' will ultimately make more people connect and care about any given piece. Naval quote tweeted the new Meta short-from, AI-generated video feed by saying, "Creation without a creator is meaningless". And A24 partner Scott Belsky made an incredibly astute observation that he has "yet to meet an artist (he) admires that would ever trade control for speed. as machines flood the zone, humans will crave craft and meaning-infused creativity more than ever before. the best technology evolves craft, it doesn't replace it." The Belsky quote completed changed my perspective on what's happening right now. Amidst the endless choruses of people stating "it's so over", those who take the time to create with intention and meaning will have opportunity like never before. The Quiet Ones Keeping Your Company TogetherThis is the best piece of writing I have read in perhaps the last year. It describes, 'the quiet ones' who hold an entire organization together with no one realizing. It perfectly captures the essence of those who put their heads down, get the job done, and struggle to be defined by a singular role or title. Thank you to Nikunj Kothari, and I'm excited to read more of your work. AI Agents Explained in 2 MinutesAgents are one of the other hot topics in AI space currently, and far too few people actually understand what they do. This video from Matt Palmer on 2x speed will break down the complicated aspects of the topic and give a high level 'Agents 101' overview that covers:
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Becket U curates the best resources in Math, Physics, Computers, Microeconomics, Game Theory, and Persuasion. With this knowledge, you will understand how the world works.
#104: The Life of Ed Thorp, Obscurely Fantastic Children's Books, You Have 12 Shots in Life Hi All! We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding on the material found on our main site - becketu.com. This week, we will take a look at how Ed Thorp lives life, how plot surfaces through rules in worldbuilding, how to maximize your 'shots' in life, and more. Let's dive in: A Life Worth Emulating I've always been...
#102: Don't Go Viral - Become a Legend, Smart and Leveraged, AI Won't Make You Rich Hi All! We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com. This week, we will take a look at a winning, long-term social media mindset, what Naval says is the key to unlocking extreme wealth today, a historic Japanese magazine releasing their first English edition, and more....
#101: Relentlessly Resourceful, Time Kills Dreams, Future of Cartography Hi All! We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com. This week, we will take a look at the delicate balance between achieving your dreams and your available time, one of the most important traits of the future, and a profession that is set for a new-age renaissance. Let's dive in:...