The Real Housewives of DeFi
GM, we take the latest Web3 news and translate it into plain old English - so you can stay up to date, without your eyes glazing over.
In today’s edition:
The Real Housewives of Decentralized Finance
Countering counterfeiting, in digital art
RESOURCE: The Top 50 cryptocurrencies, summarized in 1 sentence (Watch in under 10 mins)
FTX just handed over $250M to their competitor (BlockFi). Here's why...
Terms used (click for translation):
Blockchain, NFTs.
The Real Housewives of Decentralized Finance
Ooooooh!
Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, just took a swipe at a beloved Bitcoin price theory - the 'stock-to-flow' (S2F) model.
“I know it's impolite to gloat and all that, but I think financial models that give people a false sense of certainty and predestination that number-will-go-up are harmful and deserve all the mockery they get,”
So what's this 'S2F model' he's ragging on?
The model simply suggests that, the harder something is to get, the more it is worth.
We love the simplicity of it (and so does the Bitcoin community).
Why?
The model is specifically tailored to Bitcoin - the Bitcoin Network is programmed to give miners less and less BTC in exchange for processing transactions, over time.
The model suggests we'll see a $1M Bitcoin in four years time.
And, until recently, Bitcoin has been following the stock to flow model pretty darn closely:
Here's the let down:
The S2F model may be breaking (it predicted we'd have a $100K Bitcoin right about now).
To add insult to injury financial loss, folks within the BTC community have been touting the theory, quite loudly, for a while now.
One of those voices is the pseudonymous creator of the S2F model, PlanB.
His theory on S2F's potential downfall? He believes that either:
A) the model is essentially broken and "will be less useful in the future".
or
B) "BTC is extremely undervalued and will bounce back soon"
(We have a feeling he's betting Option B will win out).
Countering counterfeiting, in digital art
In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.
The guys who stole it had to:
Sneak into the Louvre
Hide overnight in a narrow storeroom
Disguise themselves as workers in the morning
Rip the painting off the wall
Hide it under their clothes as they snuck out
To steal digital artwork in the modern era, all you need to do is:
Find the artwork on a legitimate marketplace like Opensea
Right click - save image as…
When the Mona Lisa was stolen, as soon as the thieves tried to sell their loot, they were caught and sent to jail.
Nowadays, digital art thieves can list their stolen art on another legitimate marketplace (like Rarible) with a low risk of getting caught.
…until now.
Remember DeviantArt?
They've just launched the DeviantArt Protect Protocol, which allows any old artist to submit their work to be tracked around the internet - whether they’re a DeviantArt member, or not.
The way it works is: DeviantArt constantly indexes artworks across nine key blockchains.
(And they’ve already found 330k NFT copyright infringements).
All in the name of trust.
We love it! How they plan to monetize it? We have no idea.
Either way, it's a net positive for the NFT space.
Two thumbs up.
Resource of the day
The Top 50 cryptocurrencies, summarized in 1 sentence.
(Watch in under 10 mins)
FTX just handed over $250M to their competitor (BlockFi). Here's why...
At the 1956 Olympics, Australian runner, John Landy, doubled back to check on his competitor, Ron Clarke.
(Ol' Ronny had tripped up).
In the final two laps of the race, after losing his lead and adding 7 seconds to his time, Landy made up the deficit and somehow won the race.
People collectively lost their minds! They loved it.
(66 years later, Australians of that generation still talk about it).
Landy had a statue erected in his honor and even went on to become governor of Victoria, in 2001.
Point is: people LOVE a good sport.
And the rule still applies in the crypto world.
FTX have just given their competitor, BlockFi, a $250 million dollar line of credit / helping hand, after they were hit hard by the current market downturn - and folks are loving the solidarity.
So what's the angle?
...is this pure altruism, or is there something else at play?
Honestly, for Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF, aka FTX's CEO), 'effective altruism' is kind of his whole thing.
He plans on giving away the majority of his multi-billion dollar fortune, before he dies.
That being said, slowing 'market contagion' is also in the best interest of FTX.
"Up-bup-bup-bup...hold your horses.
What's 'market contagion'?"
(We hear you).
Sounds grim, right? And it is.
Market contagion is essentially the spread of an economic crisis, from one market or region to another.
Currently, the 'crypto banking' market is in dire straights.
Celsius have frozen all customer accounts, while BlockFi and Crypto.com are cutting jobs across the board.
If customers lose trust in crypto banking companies/products, that sentiment could easily spread to trading platforms like FTX.
God's speed SBF, God's speed.
Your Daily Dose of Web3
Cloudflare outage hit crypto exchanges FTX, Bitfinex and more
Solana NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Raises $130M, Plans Multi-Chain Expansion
Solend Says Whale at Center of Solana DeFi Controversy Starts Moving Funds
DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) Declines 35% In One Month To 15-Month Lows
Deloitte and NYDIG set up alliance to help businesses adopt Bitcoin
Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to the family,