Kalzumeus Software

What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 01:35:00 +0900

I joined Stripe to work on building financial infrastructure for the Internet. Time flies. Here is what I've learned in the first four years.

An update on a pre-registered result about the coronavirus

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 22:00:00 +0900

A history of an anomaly in the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, an independent research project about it, and what we need to learn about our next steps.

Dropping hashes: an idiom used to demonstrate provenance of documents

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 21:45:00 +0900

There exists an idiom called “dropping a hash” which is widely understood in the security community and not widely understood elsewhere. Somewhat surprisingly, there does not appear to be a canonical explanation. I have dropped hashes before and wrote this up to explain the significance of it to non-specialists.

The Working Group's White paper on Japan and covid-19

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:15:00 +0900

Author’s note: This is a copy of the white paper of the Working Group, a group of four pseudonymous professionals in Tokyo. I, Patrick McKenzie, was the primary author. It was distributed quietly during the week of March 25th, 2020. I have written an essay describing how this document came to be and demonstrating its provenance.

Tether: The Story So Far

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:27:37 +0900

Tether is the internal accounting system for the largest fraud since Madoff. That is a robust claim, I know, but the evidence for it is overwhelming.

How Discount Brokerages Make Money

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:01:00 +0900

Discount brokerages are accused of making their money via payment for order flow. This is wrong; it is actually mostly net interest revenue. That so dominates their business that selling trades for commissions is irrational; better to give away the trades to attract assets.

What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 00:55:00 +0900

I joined Stripe to make starting an Internet business easier, mostly by work on Stripe Atlas. It continues to be a fun adventure. Here's what I've learned so far.

Japan's Hometown Tax

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 20:35:00 +0900

This is outside of my normal software-focused beat, but I met some folks who were very interested in public policy recently. I found, to my surprise, that I probably understand one innovative Japanese tax policy better than very well-informed people who geek out about tax policy [0].

Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:12:00 +0900

This is outside my usual brief, but one of my hobbies is that I used to ghostwrite letters to credit reporting agencies and banks. It is suddenly relevant after the Equifax breach, so I’m writing down what I know to help folks who might need this in the future.

Kalzumeus Podcast Episode 14: Running A Business Portfolio with Jonathan Siegel

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — Wed, 10 May 2017 21:30:00 +0900

Jonathan Siegel is a buddy of mine who lives in Tokyo. I can’t decide whether I’m more floored by the fact that he runs five businesses at once or has eight kids. He recently wrote a book The San Francisco Fallacy, mostly to share his experience with running software businesses for the last two decades with folks who might be getting a wee bit too much of their advice from Techcrunch.