Ryan Cwynar

Writing

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  1. Web 4 Is About Building Your Own SystemsWeb 1 was looking stuff up. Web 2 was interacting on fixed platforms. Web 3 was moving money. Web 4 is people building the systems that solve their own problems, and letting those systems interact.AI & agents
  2. We're about to hear from everyoneMost people never had the energy to post. Now their systems post for them.AI & agents
  3. The smart home you actually wantedOne app. No subscription. Everything integrated.Making
  4. How AI and Robots Break the Housing WallHousing got expensive because supply is restricted. Robot labor, AI paperwork and cheap distance attack that from three sides.AI & agents
  5. All the Money Is Coming On-Chain. Circle Arc Wants to Catch It.Money is moving on-chain, and company chains like Circle Arc want to catch the flow. The corpo chain critique is fair. Spend, repay and borrow move anyway.Stablecoins & payments
  6. Why Everyone Wants to Be a Stablecoin Issuer (and What It Actually Costs)Issue a reserve-backed stablecoin and you keep the T-bill interest and the mint key. Why everyone wants to be a stablecoin issuer, and what it really costs.Stablecoins & payments
  7. Follow the Float: Stablecoin Reserves, the National Debt and Who Gets PaidStablecoin reserves really do buy Treasuries. But the interest goes to issuers, distributors and the Treasury, not altcoin holders. An engineer's look at where the float goes.Stablecoins & payments
  8. What Is OUSD? The Open USD Stablecoin, ExplainedWhat is OUSD? The Open USD stablecoin went live Sept 30, 2026. An engineer on what it changes (free minting, shared reserve income) and what it doesn't.Stablecoins & payments
  9. Where Does Stablecoin Yield Actually Come From? An Engineer Follows $1 Through the ReserveStablecoin yield comes from one place: interest on the T-bills, repos and bank deposits that back each token. The GENIUS Act bans issuers from paying it to holders, but exchange "rewards" fill the gap, and that gap is what sank the CLARITY Act. An engineer follows $1 through the reserve.Stablecoins & payments
  10. Knowledge Space Theory and Mastery Learning: How I Use AI to Learn AnythingHow I combine knowledge space theory and mastery learning into an AI workflow: map a field, run a placement test, then close gaps one concept at a time.AI & agents
  11. Are Stablecoins Safe? What Actually Protects Your Dollar, From Someone Who Built the BackendAre stablecoins safe? Stablecoins aren't FDIC insured. Regulated, fully reserved coins are protected instead by 1:1 reserves in short-term government assets, redemption rights, monthly audited reserve reports, and GENIUS Act bankruptcy priority. Here's where each protection lives, and why September's depegs were different.Stablecoins & payments
  12. ESP32s around the houseA handful of small ESP32 boards run a lot of the house. Buttons, shades, lights, a mirror remote and soon the minisplit.Making
  13. PhotoSwipe: I built an iPhone and Mac app in three daysPhotoSwipe is a swipe-to-triage app for your photo library. It also convinced me native Apple apps are now a realistic side project for a web engineer.
  14. The home serverOne small computer runs the whole house. Lights, climate, shades, the network and the boards that control them.Making
  15. An input sink: my Mac's keyboard and trackpad drive my Linux boxA small reverse software KVM: a Mac menu-bar app streams keyboard and trackpad events to an always-on Linux NUC, which replays them as a real device.
  16. Strange, in a Good WayFrom the Air Force Academy to Hong Kong, a van, and a house in Medellín: why seeing life slightly different than you grew up with makes it stick.Life abroad
  17. A projector media center I run from my phoneA small computer drives the projector. My phone is the remote.Making