Revenge of the Twins
Good morning. Today we are rolling out our first "Altcoin Friday" where coverage will be given to a specific token that isn't Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, etc. This should most certainly NOT be considered as financial advice as we will eventually be reviewing what some may refer to as sh*tcoins.
What this is:
A "Top 5" of crypto, digital asset, and other blockchain related news sent to your inbox on a daily basis
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- Send to your friends, family, and anyone that would be interested (check the Top Sharers leaderboard at the bottom of this email to see where you stand!)
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Top 5:
- Gemini Raises $400 Million To Build A Metaverse Outside Facebook’s Walled Garden
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, or the Winklevii as they are referred to in the plural form, are enacting phase 1 of their revenge plot against Mark Zuckerberg. The brothers are close to finalizing a $400 million round of funding that values their company, Gemini Space Station, LLC, at $7.1 billion. While that number is nothing to sneeze at, it's still a long way of from the Zuck (net worth ~$125 billion) and the brothers won't get there just by operating the 11th largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. “There’s these two parallel paths, in terms of technology right now,” says Cameron Winklevoss, “there's a centralized path, like Facebook or Fortnite, that is one step away from being a metaverse, and that’s totally fine. But there is another path, which is the decentralized metaverse and that's the metaverse where we believe there's greater choice, independence and opportunity, and there is technology that protects the rights and dignity of individuals.” The twins plan to continue investing and "maybe even building" in the metaverse. Hopefully this time they won't hand over their source code to an undergrad at Harvard. - What is an NFT? (a thread from @punk6529)
The idea of an NFT clicks with a lot of people and they just get it. I am not one of those people. If you're in the same boat or have trouble explaining the concept to your dumb friends like me, this thread is the best place to start. Some of my very basic takeaways are below:
- NFT - non-fungible token (yes, we are starting from ground zero)
- Fungible - able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable
- Most things in the world are non-fungible even if they appear fungible at first glance. Ex: every dollar bill has a specific serial number that differentiates it from other dollar bills
- For societal convenience we agree that certain non-fungible items (dollar bills) actually are fungible
- Non-fungible in crypto, basically means a token with a number
- An NFT is not the art itself, but rather the token that represents the art
- What you are buying, selling, storing in your Ethereum wallet is the token, nothing more and nothing else
- The token serves as the certificate of authenticity for the piece of art, which is infinitely more desirable that verifying authenticity in the physical-world
3. Fed's Waller says stablecoins do not need to be subject to full banking rulebook
"A stronger regulatory and supervisory framework is needed to ensure that stablecoins are a safe form of payment, but they should not necessarily be subject to all of the same rules as banks," says Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller. His comments come after the President's Working Group on Financial Markets recommended earlier this month that Congress should regulate stablecoin issues like Tether or Circle as banks. As mentioned in the earlier story it is currently unlikely that Congress will move quickly to act on these recommendations, leaving the SEC to operate as the main financial regulator in the stablecoin space.
4. Copy of U.S. Constitution Sells for $43.2 Million as Crypto Group DAO Is Outbid
The dream of ConstitutionDAO and its many supporters to purchase a copy of the Constitution was ultimately a failure in its original purpose. However, some of the impacts coming out of the fundraising effort are truly impressive and may have longer term impacts to world of crypto.
- 17,437 donors, with a median donation of $206.26
- Largest ever crowdfunding effort in 72 hour period
- Thousands of new DeFi wallets initialized from first times users
- Global exposure to DAOs, crypto, and web3 technology
5. Altcoin Friday #1 - Chainlink
Overview:
- Current price (as of this writing) of $26.21
- Market capitalization of $12.2 billion (19th overall)
- Created in 2017 by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis
- Built on the Ethereum blockchain
Purpose/example:
- Chainlink is a decentralized network of nodes that provide data and information from off-blockchain sources to on-blockchain smart contracts via oracles. Rather than get into the technical details (see whitepaper), I think an example of Chainlink's functionality might be more helpful.
A famer concerned about his crops getting flooded could enter into a smart-contract agreement on a blockchain that paid the farmer if more than 12 inches of rain occurred in any 30-day period during growing season. In order for the smart contract to execute it will need weather data as an input. The smart contract will put out a request for this weather data and the Chainlink protocol will recognize this request as an "event" that triggers three additional contracts in the Chainlink protocol that verify the node's (data providers) reputation, match the data request with the right number and type of nodes, and lastly aggregates the requested data before returning to the requesting smart contract. In this example, the Chainlink protocol could go to the AccuWeather node to source rainfall data in the farmer's region over the last 30 days.
Token Name - LINK:
Requesting Contract holders use LINK to pay Chainlink node operators for their work. Prices are set by the Chainlink node operator based on demand for the data they can provide and the current market for that data. Chainlink node operators also use LINK to stake in the network; node operators must deposit LINK with Chainlink to demonstrate their commitment to the network and incentivize good service.
Top Sharers of the Crypto Top 5:
1. Cameron S. - New York, NY
2. Jake Y. - Greenville, SC
3. Lauren A. - Nashville, TN
Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter shall not be understood or construed as financial advice. I am not an attorney, accountant or financial advisor, nor am I holding myself out to be, and the information provided is not a substitute for financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.