It has been nearly seven years since I last published anything. In that time, I’ve wandered across deserts and mountaintops, lived out of my backpack, slept under the stars, and completely lost track of what it means to sit still long enough to write a book. The truth is, life has been both amazing, and […]
Author: cleanshave
Between Pages and Pixels
In 2022 I lost years worth of unpublished writing. Now, living in Cancun, in my own sort of monk-like retreat, I have cracked open the corrupted file that once held my hopes and dreams of a future earning a living as a writer. Not everything is there, not everything is complete, and what remains is […]
The Harvest
It takes a farmer to understand the Rapture. I was in the field at dawn, knees deep in wet cucumber rows, when the rain started, soft and steady, like a whispered warning. The patter on the leaves reminded me of a lullaby. But today it carried something else, as if nature herself were signaling something […]
Florida to Cancun
Hiking across Florida was everything I’d hoped, good people, endless sky, and a life spent outside. But beneath the ease of it all, a nagging thought filled me with subtle dread. A goal left unfinished. Something that felt beyond my capabilities, beyond what I could take on while living out of a backpack. And yet, […]
Alice Wallet: Stellar Testnet Tutorial
Stellar Testnet deletes assets after a period of time. All of the assets on this page, including the USDC Faucet, no longer work. You can still use the Alice Testnet Wallet to practice, funding it with XLM, but the Alice and USDC on the Curated Assets list will not work. Welcome to Alice Alice, or […]
Market Positioning and Trading Path Analysis in AMM Systems
The success of an Automated Market Maker (AMM) systems increasingly depends on the strategic positioning of liquidity pools and the efficiency of trading paths. Understanding where a liquidity pool fits in a broader trading ecosystem, and how trades flow through direct and indirect routes, is essential for optimizing returns and minimizing volatility. This post explores […]
Understanding Price Impact and Slippage in Liquidity Pool Dynamics
Automated Market Makers (AMMs) have become central to the functioning of liquidity across networks like Stellar. One of the most important aspects of AMM-based trading is understanding how price impact and slippage affect trades and liquidity pool performance. This post explores how these dynamics work, why they matter, and how they influence returns for liquidity […]
Potential Methodologies for Calculating Optimal Pool Ratios
In decentralized liquidity systems, the ratio of assets allocated across pools can significantly influence earning efficiency, market stability, and price sensitivity. This post explores a data-driven approach to optimizing pool ratios using core performance metrics, dynamic adjustments, and system-aware constraints. The goal is to propose a speculative but structured framework for calibrating pool weights in […]
Alice: Onboarding
Welcome to Alice, an open and permisionless protocol that was built to provide steady returns against the US dollar. Simplifying the process of growing your savings. She is an experimental alternative to current savings options, operating autonomously and without the need for human input or management. Alice works 24/7 to grow the value held in […]
Key Insights into Liquidity Pool Dynamics
Liquidity pools are the backbone of decentralized trading platforms, but their success depends on more than just how much capital they hold. A deeper look at pool behavior reveals that the relationship between pool size, volume, and efficiency is complex, and getting it right requires a careful balance of several interrelated factors. I have identified […]