Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Money Reimagined: Musk Masters the Attention Economy

Well, this past week felt historic. As bitcoin (BTC, +1.07%) surged to all-time highs and found its way into TV studios and onto newspaper front pages, it felt like wed crossed the chasm and gone mainstream. This happened in predictably weird and wild ways, with memes and attention-grabbing stunts – as discussed in the column below. Regardless, it seemed like no one could stop talking about bitcoin.　　Ethereum had a big week, too. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched ether (ETH, +6.51%)futures, which helped the token hit all-time highs as well. And the buzz around decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) just got louder.　　All of that activity is putting ever more stress on the Ethereum network, where transaction costs – in the form of “gas fees” – are surging (see below). There‘s an urgent need, in other words, for the scalability promised by Ethereum’s long-awaited 2.0 upgrade.　　That‘s what Sheila Warren and I discussed in this week’s episode of our “Money Reimagined” podcast. We asked Danny Ryan, a key Ethereum core researcher and communicator, to give us the lowdown on whats happening with the massive upgrade, and more.　　Have a listen. After reading the newsletter below.　　Are we not entertained？　　When news broke Monday that

2021-02-13Deep Dive

MicroStrategy Begins Hiring for Bitcoin Data Product

MicroStrategy is moving to assemble a blockchain analytics team. It would be the first bitcoin-related software product from a company best known for CEO Michael Saylors whopping bet on BTC as a reserve asset.　　The firm, based in Tysons Corner, Va., put out calls on LinkedIn Friday for a Blockchain Data Analyst and Blockchain Data Engineer, explaining in job postings they will join a team “building an analytics platform with advanced metrics and insights for Bitcoin.”　　MicroStrategy hinted last November its interest in building blockchain data products and even stated its intention to hire for them. Executives did not go public then with positions of interest and remained largely mum on program specifics, describing it as a potential data offering at the time.　　But Saylor has been vocal about perceived deficiencies in bitcoin (BTC, -1.14%)s data. He declared last October that “garbage” market data was holding bitcoin back. “Where can you find something so incredibly compelling that has such bad data around it relative to other assets？” Saylor said at the time.　　For a man who spent much of last week all but pleading for his fellow CEOs to adopt the bitcoin standard, theres an obvious, and vested, interest in improving upon the “garbage.”　　Read

2021-02-13Deep Dive

MicroStrategy Begins Hiring for Bitcoin Data Product

MicroStrategy is moving to assemble a blockchain analytics team. It would be the first bitcoin-related software product from a company best known for CEO Michael Saylors whopping bet on BTC as a reserve asset.　　The firm, based in Tysons Corner, Va., put out calls on LinkedIn Friday for a Blockchain Data Analyst and Blockchain Data Engineer, explaining in job postings they will join a team “building an analytics platform with advanced metrics and insights for Bitcoin.”　　MicroStrategy hinted last November its interest in building blockchain data products and even stated its intention to hire for them. Executives did not go public then with positions of interest and remained largely mum on program specifics, describing it as a potential data offering at the time.　　But Saylor has been vocal about perceived deficiencies in 比特币 (BTC, -0.69%)　　For a man who spent much of last week all but pleading for his fellow CEOs to adopt the bitcoin standard, theres an obvious, and vested, interest in improving upon the “garbage.”　　Read more: MicroStrategy Wants to Be in the Bitcoin Business, Not Just an Investor　　MicroStrategy did not respond to a request for comment by press time.　　The dual hirings add a rough picture to what could eventually become a commercialized

2021-02-13Deep Dive

HOW FINNEXUS IS MAINSTREAMING DECENTRALIZED CRYPTO OPTIONS

FinNexus is a cross-chain decentralized options platform with pooled liquidity, currently live on Ethereum and Wanchain. Its options protocol is built to be universal and possibly include any underlying assets, including crypto assets, commodities, fiat currencies, stocks and even indexes from traditional finance. Users may effectively protect or appreciate crypto wealth with its decentralized option products.　　BOOSTING USER RETURNS AND INCREASING LIQUIDITY POOLS　　With millions of dollars already locked across FinNexus dApps, theres a lot FinNexus plans to do to increase its market share. Even though they already make it easier than ever to buy and exercise options on BTC, ETH, LINK, SNX, and MKR, the team is pushing upgrade after upgrade.　　One of their best new implementations is the latest mining mechanism, allowing users to combine FNX and USDC/USDT when mining, thus boosting returns. The boosting effect can go as high as 320x, leading to a 2000% APY on the FPO platform. This development will add depth to the networks liquidity, giving it the strength to move forward and innovate. In order to create a larger reward pool and boost overall platform liquidity, FinNexus is also adding USDT as a collateral option, allowing USDT holders to participate in the ecosystem for the

2021-02-10Deep Dive

4 Blockchain ETFs For 2021

With bitcoin prices soaring, ethereum producing even bigger gains and dogecoin becoming Elon Musks digital coin of choice, the spotlight on cryptocurrencies have perhaps never been higher. Whether these digital assets ever become a true alternative or even replacement for traditional assets, such as gold or the dollar, will be argued for ages, but theres little question that its become a popular part of the financial system.　　Underlying bitcoin is blockchain, the record-keeping technology that keeps cryptocurrencies running. The first blockchain ETFs showed up in early 2018 and have thus far been met with only tepid interest. The big four blockchain ETFs (which all happened to debut within about two weeks of each other) still only have a combined $1 billion in assets, a relatively modest amount by ETF industry standards and not nearly keeping up with the interest in bitcoin, ethereum and other currencies.　　These ETFs, however, have delivered some impressive returns lately and the renewed focus on cryptocurrencies could mean big things for this group over the next year.　　What Is Blockchain？　　Without diving too far into the weeds, blockchain, at its core, is a transactional record keeping system. According to Investopedia:　　“A blockchain collects information together in groups, also known as blocks,

2021-02-10Deep Dive

Will Decentralized Token Issuance Platforms Legitimize DeFi?

The DeFi industry is bound to undergo some crucial changes over the coming years. After noting initial successes, there are still serious concerns regarding the issuance of new tokens and Ethereums ecosystem fracturing. Addressing those issues requires out-of-the-box thinking.　　The Current DeFi Token Platform Issues　　For anyone who is not a degenerate decentralized finance enthusiast, trusting new DeFi tokens out of the blue is challenging. Most of these tokens and projects do not undergo audits, putting users at severe risk. With no quality assurance in place and a lack of transparency, a very problematic scenario is created.　　Even though several token launchpads can help bring legitimacy to projects, they are often controlled by a centralized entity. That creates another problem, as this industry is designed to promote decentralization. Additionally, there is a lack of automation and trust in this industry, which most technological solutions cant overcome easily.　　That doesnt mean there are no improvements to expect, however. Several teams are building new solutions. Introducing a decentralized token pad solution that also rewards holders of the native token can unlock tremendous potential.　　Jigstack has been building Lemonade, a project advertised as a DeFi token launchpad with automation and decentralization at its core. The team indicates their

2021-02-10Deep Dive

What Is the ERC-20 Ethereum Token Standard?

The ERC-20 Ethereum token standard is a blueprint for creating fungible tokens that are compatible with the broader Ethereum network. Ethereum, or ether, is a cryptocurrency that allows for the creation of a variety of applications, including tokens, that dont require intermediary services to operate, unlike most traditional applications.　　The ERC-20 standard has seeped into almost every corner of the crypto ecosystem. A large number of popular tokens, such as the stablecoin tether and leading oracle service Chainlink, are actually ERC-20 tokens under the hood.　　ERC-20 tokens are digital assets that can be created by anyone but are mostly made by organizations and tech-focused companies. Each token has its own specific utility, such as granting users the right to vote on decisions impacting the future of a project, or rewarding customers for performing certain tasks. ERC-20 tokens are typically sold via a variety of different offerings as a way to raise early-stage capital for the underlying project. In the past, however, critics have argued that crypto tokens have drawn too much hype, becoming a vehicle for sour investments or straight-up scams. Many of the projects that raised money in the initial coin offering boom of 2017 reportedly failed to provide any returns

2021-02-10Deep Dive

The Intangible Reasons Ethereum and Bitcoin Lead

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is exploding. The amount of capital locked in DeFi, an imperfect yet useful measure of traction, recently hit an all-time high of $35 billion.　　Today, Ethereum is the dominant network for DeFi in all important metrics, including capital flows, locked capital, number of projects and developers.　　The exploding growth in DeFi has stoked an already fierce battle among smart contract platforms, aka “Ethereum-killers,” to win share of the emerging category.　　Tushar Jain, partner at the crypto venture firm Multicoin Capital, recently made comments on Twitter calling into question Ethereums DeFi dominance:　　Jain‘s view is held by many smart investors and can be summarized as: eventually higher performance, better designed, less expensive networks will start to eat into Ethereum’s DeFi market share.　　Indeed, investors have poured billions into competing smart contract platforms in support of this exact thesis.　　Yet, despite many competing platforms launching and deploying vast amounts of capital in their efforts, Ethereums network effects and moat are inexplicably as strong as ever. How is this possible？　　Its possible because Ethereum has powerful intangible assets that are incredibly difficult to reproduce and compete against.　　This isnt a new dynamic – intangible dominance has long been observed and impacted traditional markets and companies, too.　　Coca-Cola, Google and

2021-02-10Deep Dive

Wall Street Shifts Focus From Blockchain Infrastructure to Crypto Assets

News that Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi are considering entering the crypto custody marketlikely surprised many who havent followed the blockchain tech or digital asset moves of major U.S. financial institutions over the last half-decade. However, analysis based on publicly available blockchain initiatives data clearly shows that many institutions – some more than others – are slowly de-prioritizing blockchain tech and shifting their focus to native crypto assets.　　To assess how institutions are adapting to blockchain technology, we surveyed their initiative announcements. We looked at credible media, such as CoinDesk and the Financial Times, and defined an initiative as a reported “investment, internal or external-facing company project, or consortium participation event primarily involving the company.”　　We can see a clear shift. In 2015 and 2016, financial institutions tended to have a technology-first focused strategy. They were founding members of consortia like R3 and the development of the Corda protocol. More recently, as you can see in our matrix, leaders in the space have shifted away from this earlier positioning to focus their efforts more towards digital assets (at least in terms of the number of total initiatives).　　The shifting focus is marked. Up until 2018, blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) dominated the

2021-02-10Deep Dive

Is Ethereum a Victim of Its Own Success?

IN BRIEF　　Ethereum introduces two concepts when sending transactions: gas and gas price.　　Many people are unable to execute their transactions due to a sharp increase in the price of ether and gas.　　Projects that used Ethereum to certify information, perform process traceability, or create NFT sets, have been moving to other blockchain networks.　　Many people are unable to execute their transactions due to a sharp increase in the price of ether and gas, a price that any user has to pay for their transaction to be validated, and are starting to look for alternatives on other networks.　　So if Ethereum is seeing success and people are using it, why could this be detrimental to its adoption？　　First things first, we have to go back, look at how Ethereum-based transactions work, and understand why we have to pay for every transaction we send to the network.　　Why are there gas fees to pay for transactions？　　There are two fundamental reasons: to reward miners who validate transactions and to avoid “useless” transactions. If they were free, anyone could make millions of transactions a day crashing the network, as miners would find no economic benefit or incentive for validating them.　　Ethereum introduces two concepts when sending transactions: gas and gas

2021-02-10Deep Dive

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