Tag: Eth

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Beyond the FUD

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FTX isn’t crypto! This can’t be stated frequently or loudly enough! SBF and his band of shysters have been all over the news. The Crypto exchange and its native token FTT have many shell shocked investors wonder WTF happened.

FTX did not have its own blockchain. It didn’t create, it didn’t program. They were simply some math loving nerds making increasingly riskier bets using Other People’s Money (OPM).

In the early days the bets paid off and they made some money. Ok, a lot of money. However, their luck which they mistook for skill, soon ran out. Remember, when making bets, the house always wins! Those big Vegas Casinos weren’t build by gamblers being successful.

Unlike blockchains, coins and tokens, Crypto Exchanges are not products. They are marketplaces more akin to a bank or brokerage firm.

SBF was a cocky dick. He made brazen bets with OPM while many Investors didn’t know they weren’t actually investing in crypto.

What were the warning signs?

What can we learn from this? … Continue readingBeyond the FUD

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NFTs Battle Royale

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I have the Power! One of the classic lines spoken by almost every child of the 80s and early 90s. Clutching the sword and speaking these words turned the modest Prince Adam into the specimen that was He-Man. By reaching into the psyche of their target market (school aged boys) Mattel’s sales took off faster than the Millennium Falcon. Sales went from $38M in 1983 when the line launched to $1B in 1984.

Mattel understood that kids didn’t want a toy they knew nothing about. They wanted to buy into an adventure. They wanted to travel to and be part of an imaginary world (Eternia). Mattel understood they needed to create an experience. NFT creators and investors are beginning to learn the same thing.

Web3 is now beginning to think about what “clutching the sword” looks like for the space. Hype from a mint is not enough to hold the value in a collection. Twitter timelines are littered with projects that peaked at 1,2 or 10 Eth only to fall back down to earth, available for 0.05 Eth in the value bin of Web3. They are lining the Boulevard of Broken dreams as would-be-investors flee the space battered by their emotional scars. As more and more projects mint out, then fizzle, the shine is quickly coming off the space.

I believe one of the biggest debates going on behind closed doors is which will be more popular: in-game-items or collectables. Which will be more influential? How do they create the emotional experience Mattel was able to capture with He-Man?

Today I dive into the world of collectables and make a case for why this will drive sales and collections. … Continue readingNFTs Battle Royale

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NFTs- A New Hope

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NFT PFP have gotten a bad rap of late. I have been one of their harshest critics on this page. Though much of my criticism has been nuanced, I have maintained a pretty strident tone. I am happy however to see a dramatic reduction in project launches. Perhaps just because the allure of easy fast money has left the space. I think this is now a fantastic opportunity for NFTs to grow up a little and launch the next phase in development.

When Jerome Powell stepped up the the podium in Jackson Hole two weeks ago, markets tanked. The Dow Jones alone lost $1.2T in market cap. That money didn’t vanish however, it simply converted into to USD (aka dry powder).

So what will attract new users, investors and ultimately liquidity to NFTs?

In this guy’s humble opinion, PASSION.

… Continue readingNFTs- A New Hope

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DFK Sails to Klaytn

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Here today, gone tomorrow! When the Harmony network was exploited for $100M , DeFi Kingdoms (DFK) was the blameless victim of the hack. Making up as much as 90% of the traffic on the Harmony network, the popular game bore the brunt of the fallout.

In a recent release, DFK announced it was leaving the Harmony chain and heading to Klaytn.

So why go to a chain so few people have heard of? Klaytn is more centralized than many blockchains. We have different theories as to why Klay chose centralization. … Continue readingDFK Sails to Klaytn

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Autumn Predictions

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Crystal balls, tea leaves and palm lines. Are these practices any more or less reliable than monetary policy? It often seems like Jerome Powell and his cronies at the Fed are just making it up as he goes, doesn’t it? The sad reality is monetary policy is reflectionary and often influenced more by election cycles than data. It examines events that have already occurred and then makes adjustments based on yesterday.

Crypto doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We often forget it isn’t an isolated market. Sometimes Eth is down because some old white man in Washington was grumpy and made a bad decision. As a crypto investor I find it important to separate overall market and economic conditions from web3 conditions. It is possible to be bullish on crypto as economic conditions are making crypto profits seem like a pipe dream.

So what does the economic data mean for crypto? … Continue readingAutumn Predictions

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Perilous Bridges: Crypto’s Achilles’ Heel

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Hacked! Millions of Dollars lost! These types of headlines are often the only crypto related ones the mainstream media will publish.

Many people want crypto to fail. “I knew that fake internet money was a scam all along”. People are afraid of what they do not understand. Since crypto can be scary, many people would rather see it crash and burn. Seeing other folks get rich and not understanding how is not a comfortable experience for many people.

Catastrophic failure have occurred and millions of dollars stolen. Much in the same way cars require bridges to cross a river, liquidity requires a bridge to cross from one blockchain to another. Under these bridges are where the trolls lurk.

… Continue readingPerilous Bridges: Crypto’s Achilles’ Heel

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NFTs pt 2- Monkey see, Monkey do

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So, the NFT Bear market turned out to just be a pile of Bull-shit. We got wrecked by a lack of creativity combined and an influx of supply. Cheap copy pasta knockoffs with little to no thought put into them.

In part 1, we explored the raw data. The NFT market hasn’t actually turned South, simply over-saturated by the PFP genre. Perhaps having extinguished its 15 minutes of fame. Following in the footsteps of Tickle-Me-Elmo and the pet rock. Then again, an Ether Rock did sell for 289 Eth, so what do I know?

Perhaps we should begin by asking why has the NFT market been so focused on PFPs? Why do are most collections using a 10,000 piece mint? Since for many “investors” it was monkey pictures that started it all. Maybe a story about monkeys is a good place to begin. … Continue readingNFTs pt 2- Monkey see, Monkey do

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NFTs- Pt. 1, Did the bull never stop?

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Bears! The bane of hikers, salmon and investors alike. NFT collectors have been loudly lamenting the current market conditions we find ourselves in and thinking back longingly to the “good ole days”. But, are we actually in a bear market? Twitter sentiment says we are, but what do the numbers say? What does history tell us?

What if I told you the bull actually never went away? Volumes never really changed. What if I told you, your worthless crap is just worthless crap? The market analytics may just surprise you.

Let us first explore history, then we will get back to our current market. Like any good mania, “investors”, “founders” and “artist” flocked to the NFT PFP space. Much has been made about how this resembles the Dutch Tulip Mania of the 17th century.

Numbers, charts and pretty flowers. What does it all mean? Why TF do I care Canuck? I know, I know, bear with me here (pun intended)…… … Continue readingNFTs- Pt. 1, Did the bull never stop?

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Layer 1s

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Decisions decisions decisions. Choosing a blockchain is kinda like choosing an outfit for a fancy occasion.Similar to a bad outfit, being on the wrong chain at the wrong time can leave you standing out in a crowd for all the wrong reasons.

So why is layer 1 important? Ethereum was the first smart contract layer 1. Many smart contract platforms have developed to try and compete with Ethereum. A few major players in this space are Avalanche, Solana, Binance chain, Algorand, Cosmos, Cardano, and Harmony. Each of these chains offers a currently improved transaction speed.

Can a project survive if it is not a layer 1?
Are subnets a viable solution?
What is our personal investment strategy? … Continue readingLayer 1s

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The Celsius death spiral

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Only up! Big returns! Set it and forget it! What could be better? Growing up in the 80s, for me it was late night infomercials. In the mid to late 90s it was tech stocks, YOU CAN’T LOSE. Mid 2000s it was real estate. I mean who doesn’t pay their mortgage? Housing only goes in one direction, right? The year 2020 kicked off a whole new bull market. Come one, come all, crypto is the future! Give us your funds, you’ll be rich!

On June 12th, 2022 in A memo to the Celsius Community, the company announced “Due to extreme market conditions, today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts.” DOH! History was once again repeating itself.

The more the company lost, the more the market dipped, the more desperate Celsius became. Their liquidity was required to make the weekly payouts to keep new marks investors, coming in. Investment firms like all good politicians are all about taking risks with other people’s money. Why risk your own money when someone else’s is so readily available? … Continue readingThe Celsius death spiral