In this week’s issue:

• Touch Grass: First Date with Pyth (how I committed my first oracle tokens)

• Hodl Me Tender: 🔥 Web3, Crypto + AI Jobs of the Week

Hodl Me Tender: 🔥 Web3 + AI Jobs of the Week

Looking for your next move in (or into) web3, crypto, or AI? Here are some fire openings for this week, all remote:

• Eclipse is looking for a DeFi / Capital Markets Lead (whatever that means)

• OKX has an opening for Head of Product Marketing

• Cortensor is looking for someone to be their Communication & Social Media Manager

• CoW DAO needs a Support Engineer (Python) to join their team

• Glider.fi is on the lookout for a GTM Summer Intern (they best be paying!)

• Chainlink Labs want to find a Community Manager—is it you?

• Chaos Labs needs a Researcher

• Gensyn.ai is looking for a topnotch Machine Learning Engineer

• Want to be a Product Marketing Lead at Solana? Get it.

• Fireblocks has an opening for a Senior Marketing Manager

Want to see your company's job listed here? Reply to this email and lmk.

For my crypto-curious readers (which, really, I’m one of you) who are all what the hell is Pyth and why should I care?—here’s a bit of a breakdown before we get into staking:

wtf is Pyth anyway?

Pyth is basically the nervous system of crypto—an oracle network that brings real-world data (like stock prices, crypto prices, yadda yadda) onto blockchains by connecting directly to major exchanges and financial institutions instead of using middlemen. 

Imagine if blockchains were isolated islands—oracles are the bridges that connect them to mainland information. Without oracles like Pyth, DeFi (decentralized finance, as opposed to trad centralized finance) apps would have no idea what Bitcoin actually costs in the real world.

What's staking and/or why bother?

Staking is crypto's version of a savings account, only with decent interest rates. When you stake tokens, you're essentially locking them up to help support the network (in this case, by vouching for certain data providers).

In return, you earn rewards just for holding (hodling, in crypto slang) instead of panic-selling every time Elon tweets. It's passive income for the digitally anxious.

Now, onto the process of staking Pyth.

1. The most intimidating part was showing up (but not really)

I went to staking.pyth.network expecting some kind of technical interface, but instead found something that looked like it was designed for actual humans (who are probs into gaming, just a hunch). Three buttons, clear instructions, and a surprising lack of crypto jargon. Thanks to having just gone through SheFi (season 14 is open now—highly rec) I already had 3 Pyth tokens deposited into my account as part of a staking quest we did.

2. Wallet connection that didn't make me question my life choices

After clicking "connect wallet," I linked my Coinbase browser wallet (Phantom wallet works too), and it just... worked? No error messages, no cryptic code, no need to sacrifice a goat under the full moon. Just a clean connection that took about three seconds. I was both relieved and slightly disappointed I didn't get to troubleshoot anything.

3. Choosing validators was easy, but I can see how it could get weirdly personal (question mark)

The Oracle Integrity Staking section showed me a list of validators (the folks who confirm data accuracy) with their stats—rewards, fees, performance. I found myself creating little personalities for them based on these numbers. This one's reliable but charges too much, like my trustworthy but expensive mechanic. That one's new but offers higher rewards, like that risky startup job I almost took. 

Really, though—just make the best choice according to you and fucking stake that shit. Full disclosure: I didn't quite understand that you could look through all the options and, as a result, hurriedly chose the first option I saw. So actually, take yr time… but not too much time. This is staking, not high stakes. 

4. My massive fortune of 3 PYTH tokens ($0.3925 rn) needed diversification

With my empire of tokens (worth a whopping ~$0.3925 at the time), I decided to go all in on delegating 3 tokens to one single validator at 7.5% yield. This wasn't some sophisticated investment strategy—I just wanted to get the ball rolling, see how this shit works.

5. Now we wait (the least exciting part)

After confirming my delegation (which cost about 0.011 SOL or $1.43 USD in transaction fees - I mean yolo), my tokens entered "warm-up" until April 16th. Now I'm checking daily like I'm expecting some life-changing windfall instead of what will probably amount to a few cents. The anticipation is apparently the product feature here. And it’s the experience that counts, eh.

For any beginners considering dipping their toes in: this was surprisingly not painful and took less time than ordering coffee. No computer science degree required after all.

PS: Subscribe now if you want in on this arithmetic. Miss the last issue? It’s right here.