Finance
Finance is the flow of capital toward value. Two legs carry the same body.
| Leg | What it prices | Where it settles |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional finance | Equities, fixed income, private companies, funds | Custodians, registries, bank rails |
| Crypto and DePIN finance | Tokens, protocols, treasuries, physical-yield networks | On-chain, verifiable, programmable |
Different rails. Same questions. What is it worth? Who pays? When does the cash come back? Did the model match reality?
The Five Questions
Every finance task answers one of five questions. Memorize the order. Refuse to skip.
- What is it worth? — Valuation methods (DCF, comps, LBO, three-statement)
- What did it just say? — Earnings analysis, filings, calls
- Should we buy it? — Investment committee memo, diligence, screen
- Who is the counterparty? — Know-your-customer framework, onboarding, source-of-funds
- Did the model match reality? — Reconciliation, variance commentary, post-close review
Stop on any one. Get it wrong and the next four compound the error.
The Two Legs
Traditional finance
Investment banking, equity research, private equity, wealth management, fund administration. Public and private market work. Custodians and registries enforce ownership. Auditors enforce truth. Read the traditional leg.
Crypto and DePIN finance
Tokenized value, on-chain treasuries, physical-yield networks. The pipe replaces the registry. The contract replaces the ledger. Read the crypto leg and the existing business templates for the operating side.
Why Both Matter
The bond market is bigger than every crypto market combined. The crypto market is the laboratory where the next decade of financial primitives ships. A firm that knows one but not the other limps. A firm that knows both walks.
Methods translate. A discounted cash flow on a software business and a discounted cash flow on a yield-bearing token use the same arithmetic. The hard part is the inputs and the assumptions. The arithmetic is the easy part.
Universal Methods
The methodology hub carries the techniques both legs share:
- Discounted cash flow
- Comparable company analysis
- Leveraged buyout model
- Three-statement model
- Earnings analysis
- Investment committee memo
- Know-your-customer framework
The Discipline
Finance rewards the patient and punishes the loose. Three habits separate the durable from the unlucky:
- Reconcile before you believe. Compare what the model says to what reality reports. Variance is a signal, not a nuisance.
- Stage outputs for sign-off. Models, memos, notes draft for review. They do not bind risk on their own.
- Write down the assumptions. Every input has a source. Every source has a date. Every date has a half-life.
Discipline beats genius. Both legs prove it.
Questions
Which question am I answering — worth, signal, buy, counterparty, or reality check?
- Does the method match the question, or am I running the method I know best?
- Have I sourced every input with a date?
- Who signs off before this output binds a decision?