Grant Stellmacher

Research

Long-form analysis on institutional crypto finance, agent economics, digital asset tax policy, and AI-native financial infrastructure.

10 articles · Updated 2026-04-17 · RSS Feed · Machine-readable index

AI & Security2026-04-1710 min read

Vibe Coding Is Creating a Security Debt Crisis

Andrej Karpathy coined 'vibe coding' — shipping production software by feeling through AI prompts rather than engineering it. The litellm supply chain attack in March demonstrated exactly what happens when AI-generated code reaches production without security review. We are accumulating a security debt that insurance actuaries, compliance frameworks, and liability law are not remotely prepared to handle.

vibe coding securityAI code securitysupply chain attackLLM generated codeRead →
Tax & Business Structure2026-04-1411 min read

Solo Founders Hitting $1M ARR With Zero Employees: The Tax and Legal Nightmare Nobody Warns You About

IndieHackers is full of solo founders celebrating $1M ARR with zero employees. What's missing from those celebration posts: the self-employment tax on $1M, the S-corp election timing you probably missed, the QBI deduction phase-outs you didn't budget for, and the multi-state nexus exposure that's accumulating with every remote customer.

solo founder taxesself-employment taxS-corp electionQBI deductionRead →
AI & Business Models2026-04-108 min read

The SaaS Extinction Event: When AI Agents Replace Your $7,500/Year Software Stack

McKay Wrigley cancelled 7 B2B SaaS subscriptions in a single weekend after building replacements with Claude. He's not alone — and the compounding effect of AI-native replacements on SaaS revenue recognition, valuation multiples, and the $700 billion SaaS industry is being dramatically underestimated.

SaaS disruptionAI agents replacing softwarevibe coding SaaSSaaS business modelRead →
AI & Business Models2026-04-0710 min read

OpenAI Is Burning $14 Billion a Year. The AI Business Model Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About.

OpenAI is projected to lose $14 billion in 2026 — on $12.7 billion in revenue. The company that sparked the AI arms race cannot figure out how to make the math work. Understanding why matters enormously for every business building products on top of these APIs.

OpenAI financialsAI business modelinference costsLLM unit economicsRead →
Prediction Markets & Regulation2026-04-038 min read

The Prediction Market Jurisdiction War Is Here. Both Sides Are Wrong.

The federal government just sued three states for trying to regulate prediction markets as gambling. The CFTC says they're swaps. The states say they're bets. The real problem: neither framework actually fits what these markets are becoming.

prediction markets regulationCFTC prediction marketsKalshi regulationPolymarket regulationRead →
Crypto × Tax2026-03-167 min read

The Quiet Tax Crisis Inside x402

Coinbase's x402 protocol makes machine-to-machine micropayments trivial. Every tax authority on earth is unprepared for what comes next.

x402 protocolmicropayments taxcrypto micropaymentsIRS Notice 2014-21Read →
AI & Finance2026-03-148 min read

The Broken Signal: Why Corporate Earnings Estimates Are Structurally Wrong

Wall Street consensus estimates were built for a world where information moved slowly. That world is gone. Here's what's actually happening — and what actually works for pricing earnings outcomes.

earnings estimatesWall Street consensusprediction markets earningsAI earnings analysisRead →
Crypto × AI2026-03-029 min read

When Agents Pay Agents: What the Machine Economy Does to Financial Infrastructure

Agent-to-agent payments are already happening. USDC on Base, protocol-speed settlement, no human in the loop. The financial infrastructure — wallets, reconciliation, controls, accounting — was not built for this. Here's what needs to change.

agent to agent paymentsAI agent crypto paymentsx402 protocolagent economy infrastructureRead →
AI & Finance2026-03-028 min read

AI Is a Headcount Compression Engine. And Nobody Knows Who Pays the Taxes.

AI is collapsing the value chain while simultaneously spinning up an autonomous agent economy that existing tax frameworks, accounting standards, and liability structures have no answers for. Both are happening at once.

AI agents taxesAI economyAI labor marketAI agent taxationRead →
Crypto Accounting2026-03-029 min read

What the Accounting Profession Is Getting Wrong About Digital Assets

The profession spent years debating impairment models for Bitcoin. Meanwhile, the real accounting problems — agent-generated income, protocol governance as a material event, cross-chain settlement — have almost no literature and no standards.

GAAP crypto accountingdigital asset accounting standardscrypto GAAPblockchain accountingRead →