Chatting with Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab, the CEO talked about finding Ethereum, mining on its genesis block, selling ETH, and getting into Radix.

Ridyard told us about the project’s key principles, and how it goes above and beyond to keep users’ funds safe.

In this interview, Ridyard discussed:

• the founding story of Radix DLT;
• Y Combinator’s secret sauce: setting the tone and levelling up in business;
• Radix having a much simpler coding language than other blockchains;
• Radix as a game engine for DeFi: it is significantly quicker to build applications on;
• how Radix Wallet improves crypto user experience.

Piers Ridyard gave a wide-ranging exclusive interview, which you can watch above – or you can read a part of it below.

Wild Ride Through Smart Contracts and Y Combinator

Ridyard started the interview with his background. Notably, he described his experience with Y Combinator as “a wild ride.”

First, he entered the Ethereum community very early and got very interested in smart contracts.

At the time, smart contracts were a new thing in the space, and everybody wondered what they could create. Ridyard finds that most of these ideas will come true, it’s just a matter of timing.

But he had something specific in mind:

“One of the things that I thought – it was an obvious use case for smart contracts – was insurance.”

Ridyard started “playing around” with this idea of automatic insurance. Having no knowledge about insurance, he first reached out to “a bunch of” insurance companies to understand their problem set.

He talked to them about blockchain, and they told him about insurance. “So I ended up speaking with a bunch of the senior people in some of the biggest insurance companies in London.”

However, the crypto sector was very different at the time and was ultimately not equipped to facilitate automatic insurance. Specifically, there were no stablecoins.

They could only use ETH as collateral, and that wouldn’t work, he said.

Meanwhile, Ridyard learned from the insurance companies that their sector was a slow, manual, disorganized “mess.”

Soon, he began the process of product discovery and came up with the idea of Surematics: a way of creating smart contract-based deals around large syndicated insurance deals.

It would enable the control of the programmatic flow of money, creating criteria for insurance, and more.

He went on to apply for Y Combinator. And Surematics got in.

Y Combinator taught him that,

“There can be a million excuses, but if you want to be successful, this is what you have to achieve. Either you’re going to move heaven and earth to achieve that, or you’re not going to be as successful as you could be, and that’s your choice. We’re not going to give you shit for not doing it, we’re just going to be like, this is the bar and this is what you need to get to. And that changed my perspective from that point forward.”

And at the same time, Ridyard “started playing around” with other blockchain technologies because he had realized that Ethereum had a number of issues.

He soon discovered this new platform called Radix and became friends with its founder Dan Hughes. He then decided to build Surematics on top of Radix.

Why should you apply to YC?https://t.co/jMbniHoJK4 pic.twitter.com/NBDxvlqkwf

— Y Combinator (@ycombinator) April 4, 2023

Mining On the Genesis Block

In July 2015, Ethereum created its “genesis block,” i.e. the first block in a blockchain.

Ridyard was one of those mining on the Genesis Block. More precisely, he had already set up the mining equipment before the Ethereum mainnet launch.

He stated that,

“I think we probably mined maybe in the top 50 blocks, something like that. And so it was a really weird entrance into crypto for me because it started from a point of complete skepticism.”

When he first learned about Ethereum from a friend, he wondered if either of them should invest. Ultimately he told his friend it was a scam and not to buy it.

However, Ethereum started testnet mining a few months later, and “I was like, oh shit, I’ve taken a completely wrong view on this.”

Following some intensive research, he realized that they “just need a bunch of GPUs.”

Notably, before he got into crypto, Ridyard had manufactured consumer electronics for the Apple market. So mining was “right in my wheelhouse.”

They bought “a bunch of hardware” and started mining on the testnet. And then they simply continued mining on the mainnet.

“And we were mining sequential blocks at many points where we would win a block, and then we’d win the next block. And that’s how low the computing power was at the time.”

Ridyard was there for many of Ethereum’s firsts.

Following his mining entry, he got into smart contracts, invested in the first decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), known for The DAO hack, and was there during the debates about whether or not Ethereum should fork.

Meanwhile, he sold most of the mined ETH.

“I think we mined 10,000 ETH in about three months. But the irony of it was if we’d taken the money that we’d spent on hardware and just bought Ethereum, we would have done about 5X better than we did through mining.”

That said, Ridyard wanted to buy his first house, and he had enough money from mining to make a deposit.

There appeared another irony. This one hurt. It took six months to close on the house. By that time, he could have bought the house in cash.

On the other hand, he had put his ETH in various wallets. When he opened one of them previously holding about $300-500 in ETH, he found it reached $20,000.

“I think the thing that I learned from that is never sell your moon bag,” Ridyard said. “Always make sure that you’re always holding something. But yeah, Ethereum has definitely treated me well.”

Today marks the 8th anniversary since the Ethereum genesis block.

One of the most significant moments in crypto so far.

Happy birthday to Ethereum! pic.twitter.com/rKezCxTZWl

— Binance (@binance) July 30, 2023

The Core of Radix

Ridyard noted that the technology of Radix excited him “way more” than the application of insurance.

The three things that make the core of Radix, and that the team delivered, are scalability, developer experience and tools, and user experience.

The company took a thorough approach, thinking:

“Let’s take a bit more time, and let’s actually work with developers to get to the point where you have a programming language that feels really intuitive for doing the things in Web3 that make sense”.

Therefore, they spent about two years talking to about a thousand developers.

They knew that the syntax had to be “super easy” as well.

The team kept iterating until they got it to the point where “developers are just getting it immediately” once they went through the documentation.

“They spend an hour going through it. And they’re like, I understand how to build Uniswap, I understand how to build Aave.”

That’s when they released the programming language at the end of 2019. It has grown “incredibly well” since.

They also worked thoroughly on what the user experience (UX) paradigm needed to look like.

The team wanted to shift the way people think about wallets. It’s not just a place where they keep their money – it’s their portal to Web3. It’s how they interact with Web3.

“And without it, without that making sense, you are in a situation where consumers can’t use it,” Ridyard argued.

Step One: Download the Radix Wallet

You can download the wallet from here, following the steps highlighted on the page https://t.co/YQVhNz1q73

— Radix – Radically Different DeFi (@radixdlt) March 7, 2024

No Nonsense on Radix

Radix is seen as a no-rug-pull, no-nonsense place.

But Ridyard stressed that it’s always possible to rug pull someone.

The point is to assume that everyone at every level of the stack is malicious – to make sure that everything acts on the minimum trust possible and the maximum user information possible.

This leads to two key actions:

• put as many guards up;
• make sure that every interaction is human-readable so that users know what they’re signing.

What Radix offers is transparency that ensures more security. Users can see in their wallets the information about the token type issued to them.

People behind tokens are not able to hide the rules associated with the token, Ridyard said, and added:

“You can’t stop people from scamming, but you can make it a lot harder to scam a user into doing something that they don’t consent to because all of the information is available to the user.”

Furthermore, Radix doesn’t allow project makers to “present an action as one thing” and get the users to approve something else.

What you see in your wallet is the action that you signed to happen on the ledger, said Ridyard, adding:

“And once you signed it, no one can play with it.”

Therefore, somebody can’t commit a rug pull via something that looks like Uniswap, for example. Radix shows users if they are not actually interacting with the genuine Uniswap application.

Also, there is always a guarantee. For example, when a user clicks to confirm a transaction and it fails, the smart contract built by the app enforces the swap guarantees.

But “if you’re with a naughty one, then they’re just going to take your tokens.” Radix doesn’t allow that. The guarantees are then enforced at the ledger level.

“So even if I signed it, they couldn’t steal my money, because for the transaction to succeed, they would have to return to me the minimum guarantee that the transaction was enforcing in the first place. And if it can’t, then the transaction fails,” Ridyard concluded.

This is not just another year for Radix; it's the year everything changes.

The question of "wen" for too long was answered with "soon."

The days of "soon" are over. The answer is "now."

Get ready for #Breakout2024 https://t.co/OkPWD8j93I pic.twitter.com/JV5vkgjQmo

— Radix – Radically Different DeFi (@radixdlt) March 7, 2024

__________

About Piers Ridyard

Piers Ridyard is the CEO of Radix DLT – a decentralized network that will enable developers to build quickly without the constant threat of exploits and hacks.

Radix will reward improvements and will ensure that scale is never a bottleneck.

Ridyard also founded and exited Surematics, a Y Combinator company, and was mining on the genesis block of Ethereum in July 2015.

He graduated from the University of Manchester and the University of Law and has a CFA level 1.

The post Piers Ridyard, CEO of Radix DLT, on The Future of Web3, Wallets, Account Abstraction, and Creating the Game Engine for DeFi | Ep. 315 appeared first on Cryptonews.

About Solana

Founded in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana is an open-source blockchain platform focused on scalability and speed. It aims to outperform existing blockchains in transaction processing without compromising on cost-effectiveness.Solana achieves this through a unique Layer 1 network architecture, allowing it to handle over 710,000 transactions per second (TPS).

This architecture also facilitates the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), making it suitable for various use cases like decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) marketplaces.

Launched in 2020 after extensive testing, Solana stands out from platforms like Ethereum by avoiding the need for additional scaling solutions. Instead, it utilizes powerful and fast computers to maintain the network and manage data storage. SOL, the native cryptocurrency of Solana, plays a crucial role in enabling transactions and securing the network through staking.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Solana ecosystem in February 2024, analyzing SOL price performance, ecosystem developments, and updates.

Solana On-chain Data and SOL Price Performance

Solana’s daily transaction volume has seen a significant increase, rising from 22.1 million on Feb. 6 to 33.7 million on Feb. 26. This rise in activity suggests growing engagement and use of the Solana blockchain. However, by the end of the month, the daily transaction volume dropped once more, reaching 28.5 million.

< Solana's total value locked (TVL) has reached $2.5 billion, which represents a 30% increase year-to-date. In comparison, Ethereum's TVL grew by 15% during the same period, and BNB Chain saw a 12% increase in BNB deposits since Dec. 31, 2023.

The outage of Solana’s Mainnet was caused by a complication with legacy programs, as detailed in Solana’s comprehensive report compiled by Anza.

Engineers from across the ecosystem are investigating an outage on mainnet-beta. This thread will be updated as more information becomes available https://t.co/rfeioQ6BG9

— Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) February 6, 2024

The SOL price fluctuated throughout February. After dropping to $95 on Feb. 4, it rebounded by more than 27%, reaching about $130 by the end of the month.

Two factors fueled SOL’s price increase: various airdrops and the network’s perceived advantages in terms of affordability and ease of use compared to its competitors.

Despite its recent outage, Solana boasts faster development and upgrade implementation compared to Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible networks. While the February outage caused exchanges to halt SOL and Solana SPL token transactions and impacted DApp usage, it didn’t significantly affect the SOL price, potentially due to Solana’s faster development cycles.

Solana Ecosystem Updates And Acquisitions

Solana Mobile’s Chapter 2 smartphone reached 100,000 preorders on Feb. 12, less than 30 days after registration was opened. The smartphones will start shipping in early 2025. In comparison, it took Solana almost a year to sell 20,000 of its first Solana Saga smartphones.

100,000 preorders in less than 30 days

We’re floored by the demand and truly grateful for the overwhelming support

Now that we’ve hit this milestone, the Founder Window & preorder price of $450 will close in 48 hours. Your chance to join is now!

https://t.co/nYR9apGGIT pic.twitter.com/9L224igXcL

— Solana Mobile 2⃣ (@solanamobile) February 12, 2024

​​Helius, a platform developing tools for Solana blockchain developers, secured $9.5 million in funding. The company plans to use the funds to hire more engineers, improve its technology, and onboard more developers to the Solana ecosystem.

Tools for Humanity, the main developer behind the Worldcoin project, announced the acquisition of Ottr Finance, a Solana-based digital wallet startup. Ottr Wallet will cease operations as the company focuses on supporting Tools for Humanity in building the Worldcoin project.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, CMCC Global and 468 Capital participated in a $25-million Series A investment in crypto mobile payment firm Oobit. Oobit wants to make it easier for consumers to purchase goods and services using cryptocurrency.

Solana also collaborated with Filecoin, a decentralized data storage marketplace, to enhance the reliability and scalability of the Solana blockchain. As part of the partnership, Solana will leverage Filecoin’s infrastructure to improve data redundancy, scalability and security while reinforcing Solana’s commitment to decentralization.

Solana's integration with #Filecoin is a significant move away from centralized storage solutions and a remarkable step towards enhancing the reliability and scalability of the Solana blockchain.@solana is utilizing Filecoin to make its block history more accessible and usable… pic.twitter.com/1NcuaLNYT5

— Filecoin (@Filecoin) February 16, 2024

Moreover, the Solana Foundation launched a global hackathon called Renaissance for Web3 developers as well. The hackathon will take place from March 4 to April 8, 2024, and participants can compete for a share of a $1 million prize pool and pre-seed funding.

Solana Meme Coins

Following SOL’s price gains, several meme coins built on the Solana blockchain, including Bonk (BONK) and DogWifHat (WIF), also saw significant increases in trading activity during the last week of February.

The prices of BONK and WIF grew by 110% and 250%, respectively, since Feb. 23, reaching $0.00002364 and $0.856420 on Feb. 29. The BONK price saw an uptick following the news about a possible listing on the Revolut trading platform.

The proposed collaboration would see Revolut launch a “Learn and Earn Campaign” aimed at attracting 500,000 new users to the Bonk ecosystem. With 38 million users in over 50 countries, Revolut’s involvement could significantly expand Bonk’s user base if the partnership is realized.

#Revolut plans to list #BONK and launch a $1.2M campaign to educate users about the meme coin. Approval vote expected to pass. #crypto #Solana

Follow and stay tuned!

— Learn2Earn (@Learn2Earnify) February 14, 2024

A new Solana-based and dragon-themed coin, Smog (SMOG), which was launched on Jupiter DEX on Feb. 7, is also experiencing increased interest. Its price jumped over 3,000% upon release, attracting over 30,000 holders. The project is currently offering staking rewards and planning an airdrop to distribute a portion of its token supply to the community.

Solana Airdrops and DEXs

Following the lucrative JUP airdrop by the Jupiter exchange in January, the Solana blockchain is now home to several projects with the potential to replicate this success.

Drift Protocol, an open-sourced decentralized exchange (DEX), Parcl, a decentralized real estate trading protocol, and Zeta, a decentralized derivatives exchange, emerged as Solana’s leading projects poised for upcoming airdrops, offering innovative opportunities for user participation in DeFi.

Drift Protocol

With a significant $3.8 million in seed funding and a subsequent $23.5 million Series A round, Drift has proven its position as a heavyweight in the DeFi space. Drift has introduced “Drift Trader Points”. This is a system that rewards users for their activities on the platform, including trading volume and liquidity provision. The program will conclude at the end of March with a snapshot of past activities already taken; users will be rewarded at the end of the season for their activities, insurance fund staking and super staking.

On Feb.13, Drift saw a massive $300 million daily trading volume and an all-time high in active users. Its TVL stood at an impressive $182,7 million on Feb. 29.

Parcl

Parcl announced the launch of its governance and utility token, PRCL, with a focus on community engagement and future protocol functions. Moreover, Parcl experienced significant growth, boasting over 140,000 users and $111.2 million in TVL.

Zeta

Zeta also announced its upcoming token launch in April. The project’s recent $8.5 million Series A funding round led by Jump Capital highlights the significant potential of the upcoming airdrop. This news, along with the already mentioned airdrop announcements from Drift and Parcl, makes April a promising month for Solana ecosystem participants.

Io.net

Io.net, a Solana-based decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project focused on sourcing GPU computing power, also unveiled a rewards program in anticipation of its token launch.

Magnifi

Marginfi, a decentralized lending protocol on Solana with a TVL of $533,5 million, announced the completion of early development for its decentralized stablecoin, YBX, which is set to launch on the main net in late March.

1/ Introducing $YBX

A yield-bearing asset to capture base layer monetary policy

Here's how it works pic.twitter.com/JNKAd4GyfY

— marginfi (@marginfi) February 28, 2024

Jupiter

Jupiter Exchange, the largest DEX aggregator on Solana, opened its LFG launchpad for applications. The Jupiter DAO, alongside JUP holders and the community, will be able to assess these applications to decide which project will be selected for the LFG launchpad listing.

Solana NFTs and Games

Solana was the third most popular blockchain network in the NFT ecosystem in February. Solana-based NFTs reached a new milestone, hitting $5 billion in all-time sales volume in February.

Data from CryptoSlam indicated that the sales volume for Solana-based NFTs in February reached $218 million. The data further revealed that the Solana network attracted around $433k buyers and 197k sellers of NFTs in February. The number of NFT transactions on Solana in February reached more than 3,8 million. This high volume of transactions highlights the increasing activity within the Solana NFT ecosystem.

However, a large part of the trading volume was generated by only a few collections (e.g. Froganas, Tensorians, MadRug).

Tensor has rapidly ascended to become Solana’s leading NFT marketplace, commanding over 70% of Solana’s NFT trading volume. With $3 million in seed funding, Tensor’s valuation is speculated to be closer to Blur, Ethereum’s top NFT marketplace, signaling a solid market position.

During the last couple of months, Tensor has surpassed Blur’s trading volume on a number of occasions, highlighting Tensor’s growing influence and potential valuation.

BREAKING: Solana's dominance trend continues, Tensor flipped @blur_io in 24 hours NFT trading volume.

Tensor: $14 million
Blur: $12 million pic.twitter.com/scWKEh8pt3

— SolanaFloor | Powered by Step Finance (@SolanaFloor) December 16, 2023

Solana-based Web3 racing game MixMob secured the licensing rights for the Original Stormtrooper from the Star Wars franchise. This collaboration will integrate the character into MixMob: Racer 1 through unique NFTs. This acquisition is part of MixMob’s ongoing strategy to secure additional licenses in 2024.

Transdimensional Fox Federation, an NFT collection featuring a fixed supply of 7,779 NFTs hosted on the Solana blockchain network, was the seventh most-selling NFT collection in February.

Notable Solana NFT launches in February

Looking Ahead – Will SOL’s Price Continue to Ascend?

The Solana ecosystem experienced notable developments and challenges in February 2024. Solana’s TVL reached a significant milestone of $2.5 billion, marking a 30% year-to-date increase.

The SOL price also saw a new high of $130 on February 29. This was driven by several airdrops and perceived advantages in affordability and ease of use of the Solana blockchain. Despite a five-hour network outage on February 6, Solana demonstrated resilience, with its daily transaction volume reflecting growing engagement.

Solana’s ecosystem showcased diverse advancements, including the successful preorders of Solana Mobile’s Chapter 2 smartphone and Helius securing $9.5 million in Series A funding. Partnerships with Filecoin and the launch of the Renaissance hackathon emphasized Solana’s commitment to innovation and collaboration within the Web3 space.

The meme coin sector on Solana witnessed increased trading activity, notably in DogWifHat, Bonk, and the newly launched Smog. These coins experienced significant price surges, reflecting the dynamic nature of the Solana blockchain. DEXs on Solana emerged as leading projects with promising airdrops, attracting substantial funding and user participation.

Solana’s NFT ecosystem flourished, reaching a new milestone of $5 billion in all-time sales volume, with Tensor dominating as the leading NFT marketplace.

Despite challenges, including the network outage and concentrated trading volume in certain NFT collections, Solana remains a vibrant and evolving ecosystem. Especially with ongoing developments in DeFi, gaming, and NFTs shaping its trajectory in 2024.

The post Solana February 2024 Recap: SOL Price Analysis and Ecosystem Review appeared first on Cryptonews.

The “Figment Ethereum Plus Staking Rewards” ETP will trade under the ticker symbol “ETHF” and the “Figment Solana Plus Staking Rewards” ETP will trade under the ticker “SOLF” once live. The products are fully backed by Ethereum and Solana, respectively, using Figment’s staking infrastructure.

Both ETPs will be issued with Issuance.Swiss AG — the products will give access to staking rewards through traditional brokers or banks allowing conservative institutions to hold the asset class through the ETPs.

The Ethereum and Solana ETPs will track an index provided by MarketVector which measures the price performance of ETH along with the staking rewards earned by the product, using Figment’s rewards indexing capabilities.

“Unprecedented Demand” From Institutional Investors

Figment said there is unprecedented demand for crypto ETPs and it remains a challenge for institutions to buy crypto and stake directly.

“We remain committed to the unprecedented demand we are seeing from institutional investors wanting staking exposure,” said Eva Lawrence, Head of Figment Europe, in a press release.

“The popularity and interest in ETH and SOL has increased substantially over the past few months,” said Josh Deems, Institutional Business Development Lead for Figment, adding, “However, it is still challenging for institutions to buy crypto and stake directly. The ETPs will contribute to an increased accessibility to staking rewards for a wide audience, and we at Figment are proud that Apex and Issuance.Swiss chose Figment to be part of this development.”

European Market Leads the Way With ETPs

Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) approved almost a dozen spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which has in turn triggered a bull market and trading frenzy.

In Europe, many issuers have successfully listed numerous cryptocurrency ETPs over the years ago giving investors exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Major crypto ETP providers in Europe include CoinShares, 21Shares, WisdomTree, ETC Group, Valour and Fidelity.

Crypto ETPs Versus ETFs – What’s the Difference?

According to CoinShares, a European asset manager specializing in digital assets, in the U.S. the term “ETF” has become the default term for all exchange-traded products that aim to replicate the performance of an underlying asset or benchmark.

“In Europe, due to specific fund regulations, the term “ETF” cannot be used for single assets like bitcoin, gold, or smaller baskets of assets. This regulatory distinction means that when European investors search for a “crypto ETF,” they should be searching for a “crypto ETP” instead,” explains CoinShares on its website.

In February, CoinShares announced investors of the Europe-listed CoinShares Physical Ethereum ETP (ticker: ETHE/CETH) can earn a 1.25% staking reward per year.

The post Figment, Apex Group to List Ethereum, Solana ETPs on SIX Swiss Exchange Next Week appeared first on Cryptonews.

He talked about growing the Solana ecosystem, accelerating its adoption, and how the Solana Foundation hackathons help accomplish just that.

In this interview, Taylor discussed:

• Colosseum as a platform focused on growing, accelerating, and investing in the Solana ecosystem;
• Colosseum streamlining three pillars: hackathon, accelerator, and venture fund;
• Colosseum’s aim to onboard the next generation of on-chain developers and make decentralized technologies as ubiquitous as email;
• Bonk DAO making a first-of-its-kind investment in Colosseum to back ecosystem builders;
• hackathons as the backbone of the Solana developer community, attracting $600m in venture funding for the winners.

You can watch the video above to learn what Matty and Matt talked about – or you can read a part of it below.

Not the Y Combinator of Solana

The team announced the launch of Colosseum in late January this year. The organization aims to run Solana’s hackathons, accelerate winning founders, and invest in crypto startups.

Many have described it as “essentially Y Combinator (YC) for Solana.”

The comparison comes due to the organization’s aim to sponsor and nurture promising startups.

Taylor commented that the Colosseum team is flattered by the comparison and that they have a lot of work to do “to lift up to that sort of legacy.”

However, he said,

“Honestly, long-term, we don’t really want to be compared to Y Combinator, because we think we have a very differentiated model on what we’re trying to do. This is specifically built for the crypto industry and Solana in particular.”

While one can think of Colosseum as a traditional accelerator, like YC, there is no written application. Instead, projects must win a five-week hackathon to be even considered for the program.

Taylor argued that this model is “a much better indicator of potential founder and founding team talent” than a traditional written application.

Therefore, Colosseum will run hackathons that the team has been doing for the past three years at the Solana Foundation.

Besides hackathons, they have added two more pillars to the organization: the accelerator and a venture fund.

The funds raised will be given to the hackathon winners. Up to fifteen teams per hackathon will be accepted into the Accelerator program and will receive a pre-seed $250,000 investment each.

Colosseum will continue to support them and help them go from DevNet to Mainnet, where they can sufficiently pitch seed investors and raise a proper venture fundraising round.

Two Touch Points with Solana

Asked if Colosseum is directly involved with the Solana Foundation, Taylor explained that it is, in fact, a fully independent organization.

However, there are two particular touchpoints between the two.

Firsts: The Solana Foundation is a liquidity provider (LP) in the Colosseum’s venture fund. They have invested in the fund itself and have signed a commercial agreement for Colosseum to “take the reins” in administering their official hackathons.

Second: Colosseum is focused on Solana “just generally.” The team feels “very strongly” that most of the growth of applications and the ecosystem around them will happen on Solana over the next several years.

And so, Taylor said,

“We’ve basically decided to focus all of our efforts on that particular ecosystem.”

This approach also helps the team modify the accelerator experience to help embed the projects in this ecosystem rather than going multi-chain and “diffusing the experience across many different L1 or L2 ecosystems.”

Moreover, Taylor commented that we are still early in crypto’s evolution – and hence, Solana’s evolution.

That said, Solana’s Mainnet went live just four years ago, in March 2020. “There’s a ton of room for growth left,” Taylor said.

Therefore, Solana will inevitably get to the next level of adoption, he argued.

Taylor added that “we’re seeing the fruits of that right now, where the developer ecosystem and founder ecosystem is stronger than ever, hackathon submissions are at all-time highs.”

Renaissance is On

Colosseum recently announced the start of the next hackathon with the Solana Foundation, called Renaissance.

It will run from March 4 through April 8.

“It should be pretty big,” Taylor said.

Today, the Solana Renaissance Hackathon officially kicks off!

Tomorrow March 5 at 10am PST join an X Spaces AMA with @SolanaFndn & @ColosseumOrg to learn how to better position yourself for success.

Set reminders & drop your questions in advance in thread below! https://t.co/z5jsvrMGtx

— Solana (@solana) March 4, 2024

This will be the first hackathon where the team will choose winners and then select a subset of those winners to join the accelerator program. These will receive the funding.

More specifically, there will be 30-40 winners in the first round. These will then proceed to have an interview with the three Colosseum co-founders.

The second round of evolution will determine the top 10-15 teams that the organization will invest in.

“And hopefully, this will usher in the next wave of breakout startups in the Solana ecosystem,” Taylor said.

Interested projects can sign up now.

Renaissance will also show the level of interest in the Solana ecosystem, but based on the activity on the Colosseum platform, “we think it’s stronger than ever.”

BONK DAO’s Surprising Investment

BONK DAO made a first-of-its-kind $500,000 investment in Colosseum earlier this year.

Taylor noted that the move was “pretty surprising” to the team.

But the BONK DAO Council had been looking for ways to use their treasury to help support the ecosystem. And they felt that becoming an LP in the Colosseum fund accommodates this.

The DAO held a vote on whether to invest, they voted ‘yes,’ and Colosseum accepted the offer.

Per Taylor,

“I’ve never heard of this happening before for another venture fund. So definitely uncharted waters. But we’re excited to help fulfill the vision that they have, which is growing the startup ecosystem on Solana and helping founders get off on the best foot.”

BONK DAO, he argued, is not your average meme coin. There seems to be a lot more actual development around it.

“It’s probably one of the most integrated tokens just into the Solana DeFi ecosystem,” Taylor noted.

As for other developments, Colosseum finds the social network space interesting.

“That’s a whole green field of opportunity that we’d love to see more experimentation with,” Taylor concluded.

__________

About Matty Taylor

Matty Taylor is the co-founder of the independent organization Colosseum. The other two co-founders are Clay Robbins and Nate Levine.

Taylor was previously the Head of Growth at the Solana Foundation, where he kickstarted the Solana hackathon program in 2020.

Over the past three years, that program cumulatively resulted in over 60,000 participants, 4,000 projects launched, and $600 million in venture funding for winners.

Top Solana ecosystem founders from Tensor, Squads, StepN, Jito, and dozens of other leading projects got their start through Solana Foundation hackathons.

Taylor previously worked at 0x Labs and Square (now Block).

The post Matty Taylor, Co-founder of Colosseum, on Solana, Hackathons, and Growing the Solana Ecosystem | Ep. 314 appeared first on Cryptonews.

The rising interest in Bitcoin has pushed the iShares Silver Trust launched in April 2006 trading under the ticker symbol “SLV” lower down the leaderboard. The silver trust is another BlackRock-owned product and gives exposure to the day-to-day movement of the price of silver bullion. The SLV trust has approximately $9,787,865,530 AUM just shy of $10 billion.

Bitcoin ETFs are moving up the Commodity ETFs leaderboard.

Note the YTD performance difference of $IBIT $FBTC $ARKB $BITB vs. $GLD $IAU $SLV $GLDM $PDBC $SGOL $DBC $USO $UNG pic.twitter.com/fg3vl4AJTj

— HODL15Capital (@HODL15Capital) March 3, 2024

Bitcoin ETFs Driven by Excitement and Frenzy 

Hector McNeil, co-CEO and the co-founder of HANetf, a firm which markets and distributes exchange-traded products, told Cryptonews, that it is unsurprising IBIT has overtaken the silver trust.

“The success of IBIT I think reflects how hot bitcoin is as an asset class driven by the excitement and frenzy around the US ETF approvals,” explains McNeil.

BlackRock is a global powerhouse, the world’s largest asset management, with $10 trillion in assets as of December 31. Unsurprisingly, the firm entering Bitcoin with a new Spot Bitcoin product has triggered another bull run.

“Tons of competition and masses of marketing dollars being spent. As long as the price momentum keeps going then I see the AUM rising. This is both down to Bitcoin price as well as inflows,” said McNeil.

Commenting on the IBIT ETF overtaking the iShares Silver Trust in terms of AUM, McNeil explains, “Precious metals have had a good price run over the last year but nowhere near the frenzy of Bitcoin so doesn’t surprise me it’s surpassing the silver trust.”

IBIT Overtakes GBTC Trust 

On Thursday, Grayscale’s Bitcoin product trading under the ticker symbol “GBTC” faced a sluggish trading session, marked by net outflows nearing $600m. This day marked the second largest outflow since Jan. 11. Total GBTC outflows since Jan. 11 now amount to $8,406.3m.

“It’s great to witness from a capital markets perspective that [BlackRock] iShares has superseded and replaced Grayscale’s GBTC from being the main trading vehicle for Bitcoin,” Laurent Kssis, a crypto expert on trading and ETFs at CEC Capital told Cryptonews.

“We always said the GBTC product was substandard for institutional investors but the first one to make it on the secondary market through a loophole in the rules to admit products on OTC markets,” explains Kssis.

Taken Ten Years To Get Where We Are 

Back in July 2013 the Winklevoss twins first filed for a Bitcoin ETF but this was rejected over and over again. 

“It has taken 10 years after the filing of the S1 from the Winklevoss brothers to get where we are and we are still scratching the surface where many trading platforms are still holding off and deliberating from allowing their clients to trade the ETFs — it’s inevitable — and this will allow a second layer of investment yet not seen so far,” said Kssis.

Wall Street Remains Hungry for Crypto ETFs 

On Wednesday, it emerged that Morgan Stanley is considering adding spot Bitcoin ETFs to its brokerage platform and is currently in the process of conducting due diligence, according to a CoinDesk report citing two sources familiar with the matter.

During press time Bitcoin was trading at around $63,755. ​​Bitcoin’s price prediction remains a focal point for investors as Bitcoin is climbing to $63,800, an increase of nearly 3.25% on Monday. This surge reflects growing investor confidence and a keen eye on the Federal Reserve’s anticipated monetary policy adjustments.

The post BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF AUM Hits $10B Overtaking the iShares Silver Trust appeared first on Cryptonews.

In a wide-ranging, exclusive interview, Pierce talked about the US returning to the crypto scene as a participant following the spot Bitcoin ETF approvals, democratizing real estate investments through tokenization, and projects avoiding the ‘securities’ label, even when it suits their products better than ‘utility.’

In this interview, Pierce discussed:

• his motivation to join EstateX as an investor and strategic advisor;
• the difference between securities and utility tokens;
• brick and pixel = where physical and analog meet;
• how crypto provides solutions to the traditional banking system;
• Bitcoin ETFs and 52 million Americans holding digital assets.

The Bull is Running

This has been an exciting year so far for everybody in crypto, Pierce told Matt. The entire space went from “bull-ish” to “likely full bull.”

And we’ve just begun.

The first massive event for this year was the approval of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Pierce argued that people don’t really understand how big of a deal this actually is: both for the Bitcoin (BTC) price and the crypto industry in the US.

Had the opportunity to discuss Bitcoin hovering around $43K after post ETF selloff today on @TheBigMoneyShow at @FoxBusiness

Amidst the 2024 US elections, the launch of the Bitcoin ETF marks a pivotal success for cryptocurrency, showcasing its growing acceptance and sparking… pic.twitter.com/pWWAU5kjHb

— Brock Pierce (@brockpierce) February 3, 2024

This former presidential candidate argued that the USA is an innovation leader but that its position on crypto is “a very real concern” in the country’s congress.

“American entrepreneurs were leaving the country left and right in droves. A lot of America’s greatest talent was leaving. A lot of America’s highest-potential businesses were leaving because of regulatory uncertainty.”

The ETF approvals changed this. There will be more regulatory issues and discussions. But “everyone can rest assured that America’s position in being a participant and not continuing to make this industry go away and pushing America’s finest across and out of our borders. It’s a game-changing event.”

Besides ETFs, another major event will be the much-anticipated Bitcoin halving in April.

Meanwhile, people tend to feel two kinds of ways in these market circumstances.

On the one hand, “all of a sudden, everybody feels poor,” said Pierce, because they measure their wealth based on their highs, not their lows.

However, a lot of people who have invested in crypto now understand what it is to have some degree of wealth. Per Pierce,

“This has been one of the greatest wealth transfers ever.”

The problem arises, Pierce argued, when people don’t diversify. Many people who have already invested in crypto will choose to diversify a bit in this next run, he said.

Notably, they are unlikely to reach for memecoins or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They will seek to invest in real estate.

From ‘Brick and Mortar’ to ‘Pixels and Bits’

The tokenization of real estate is not exactly a new idea, but it’s an increasingly popular one.

And now is a good time to jump into democratizing real estate investments through tokenization, Pierce argued.

There are many ways to democratize access to this type of investment product, and blockchain is not necessary to do that. However, these novel technologies are helpful in the space, Pierse said and added:

 “We talk about the brick and mortar business, call it real estate, and let’s call it ‘the pixels and bits business.’ This is where brick and pixel, the digital and the analog, the hard and the soft assets meet.”

This is a very clear value proposition, Pierce said. Real estate is a major asset class that most people do not have access to unless they are very wealthy.

Tokenization is here to help them enter the real-world asset (RWA) space and diversify their portfolios at the same time.

Per Pierce,

“[Real estate] is just something that any person that is going through asset allocation and wants to have a well-rounded portfolio with a diverse set of assets that can weather any storm or market condition that comes […] should consider.”

Near the end of February 2024, Pierce joined real estate tokenization startup EstateX as an advisor and strategic investor. The company aims to democratize access to real estate investments, allowing investors to benefit from increased liquidity and lower investment minimums.

Welcome aboard @brockpierce! The #EstateX Fam is thrilled to have you!

Here's to disrupting entire industries and more! Onwards and upwards! https://t.co/DsptxH8BRz

— EstateX (@estatexeu) February 20, 2024

The possibility to invest as little as a hundred dollars and speculate on real estate as an asset class is something that “will make the world a better place,” Pierce said.

He continues to look for more real estate projects that can deliver the types of yields and returns “that are needed for this to be a viable long-term solution that is ultimately delivering on the promise, which is value.”

Also, another theme he is interested in is self-sovereign identity, describing it as the Holy Grail.

This is the foundational layer, he said. “Identity is more foundational than money value finance. […] So I’m interested in sort of the continual tokenization where people can be enumerated for their participation in open source software development.”

Security v. Utility: Some Things Are Better Left Securities

Pierce also touched upon the ongoing battle within and beyond this space: securities versus utilities.

Real estate is a regulated market, and rules are much clearer than they are in the crypto industry. The latter’s lack of clarity has been a sore point for years now.

A lot of work has to be done to be compliant when offering securities – it can’t happen fast, and it creates a barrier to entry.

Therefore, Pierce stressed that,

“Some people are busy taking what should be a security and making it into a utility to avoid rules and regulation and to not have dilution and getting free money for themselves.”

He referenced the security token BCAP, created by Blockchain Capital under Pierce’s leadership, which went through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017.

At the time, Pierce stated that BCAP was a security and was critical of projects that tried to avoid this label.

“I was watching a lot of people doing their ICOs back in the day where I’m like, you’re really better off being a security,” Pierce told Matt.

“Because there is a difference between utilities and securities. It doesn’t all have to be a utility token. There are things that are designed that way. And then there are some things that should be securities.”

It’s taken a while for the right infrastructure to occur, argued Pierce. But one thing that hasn’t happened yet is security token exchanges and offerings becoming “the thing.”

For something to get mainstream adoption, it needs to be an order of magnitude better than whatever it’s trying to replace, he said. “Otherwise, it’s a long, slow grind.”

Pierce concluded by saying that he’s “just so excited by the world’s potential and what it can be.” He told listeners that “the future is going to happen to you, or it’s going to happen with you. So get involved if you want to live in a world that is of your liking.”

A woman in Costa Rica used #Bitcoin to sell her eggs at the farmers market.

Bitcoin empowers developing countries by providing access to financial services through smartphones, acting as a hedge against inflation, and fostering global economic participation. pic.twitter.com/0eUjtO60LU

— Brock Pierce (@brockpierce) January 29, 2024

__________

About Brock Pierce

Brock Pierce is a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, recognized for his contributions as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and advocate for the digital currency ecosystem.

Pierce began his career in the entertainment industry as a child actor but later shifted his focus towards technology and innovation.

He co-founded several high-profile projects in the crypto and blockchain sectors, including Blockchain Capital, Tether, and EOS. He has also served as the chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, aiming to standardize, protect, and promote the use of Bitcoin cryptographic money worldwide.

Pierce is also involved in certain philanthropic efforts and supports organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the Brennan Center for Human Rights.

The post Brock Pierce, Co-Founder of Tether, EOS, Blockchain Capital, on Tokenizing Real Estate, 2024 Crypto Markets, and Bitcoin | Ep. 313 appeared first on Cryptonews.

According to the ‘Crypto Losses in the February 2024 Report,’ Web3 has lost $200,478,412 to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 year-to-date.

This is across 32 specific incidents in two months.

The report stated that this represents a 15.4% increase when compared with the same period in 2023 at $173,693,675.

Jonah Michaels, Comms Lead at Immunefi, told Cryptonews that, this year, the team observed “an alarming volume of losses” due to private key and wallet compromises, representing close to 30% of the total losses YTD.

Furthermore, he said:

“We expect that 2024 will likely witness the most substantial losses in Web3 ever in terms of volume of funds. We are already seeing an increase of over 15% in losses year-to-date compared with 2023, as anticipated.”

February Sees 2x Decrease in Web3 Hacks Costs Compared to January

In February 2024, hacks and frauds cost Web3 users $67,065,795 across 12 specific incidents.

However, this represents an almost 2x decrease from January 2024. Registered losses at the time were $133,412,617.

Michaels commented that, in February of this year, there was a slight drop in the number of single incidents compared with January, decreasing from 20 to 12.

Furthermore, compared with 2023, February also witnessed the lowest number of incidents overall so far.

Per Michales,

“Generally, we have observed an average of 26 key incidents per month, based on our data for 2023. Despite this decrease in incidents, February still saw a considerable volume of losses, with notable exploits resulting in losses of as much as $32 million due to hacking.”

Comparing hacks and fraud, hacks continued to be the predominant cause of losses in February.

$65,413,795 was lost to hacks across ten specific incidents. Meanwhile, there was a loss of $1,652,000 related to fraud across two specific incidents.

Put differently, hacks accounted for 97.54% of the total losses this month, while fraud accounted for only 2.46%.

Michaels stated that,

“As activity and capital inflows increase in the ecosystem, along with a persistent rise in cryptocurrency prices, hacking will remain the primary challenge for the industry. Bad actors are closely monitoring protocols for opportunities to exploit them, from contract vulnerabilities to infrastructure compromises, and other sophisticated vectors.”

Moreover, most of the month’s sum was taken in two projects:

• crypto gaming platform PlayDapp lost $32,350,000,
• decentralized crypto exchange FixedFloat lost $26,100,000.

DeFi Hit Hard – Again

In February, decentralized finance (DeFi) was – yet again – the main target for exploits in terms of funds lost, compared to centralized finance (CeFi).

DeFi suffered $67,065,795 in total losses across 12 incidents. The sum primarily came from the high-profile attacks on PlayDapp, FixedFloat, and Duelbits.

Per Immunefi,

“In contrast, CeFi did not witness a single major exploit.”

Meanwhile, the most targeted chains in the same period were Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Bitcoin.

Among the three, Ethereum suffered the most individual attacks, with 12 incidents. This represents 85.71% of the total losses across targeted chains.

Bitcoin and BNB Chain witnessed one incident each, representing 7.14%.

Meanwhile, Immunefi offers over $157 million in available bounty rewards. It has so far paid out over $90 million in total bounties, while saving over $25 billion in user funds, it said.

The post Web3 Lost Over $200 Million to Hackers in Two Months of 2024, More to Come – Immunefi appeared first on Cryptonews.

DeFi is Resilient, TVL On The Rise

The total value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) has surpassed $80 billion. It’s the first time it has breached this threshold since the infamous fall of the Terra stablecoin nearly two years ago.

According to DefiLlama, TVL is currently $90.113 billion. The last time it stood at this level was May 2022.

An increase can be seen starting October 2023, picking up speed in January 2024.

Between October 28, 2023, and February 28, 2024, TVL has increased by 108.3%.

Blockchain platform Swarm Markets’ co-founder Timo Lehes commented that,

“The end of the Crypto Winter has led to an increase in investor confidence, which has filtered through into the DeFi market. We expect this trend to continue, especially if the prices of well-known crypto assets continue to rise.”

He noted that the DeFi sector is susceptible to “the vagaries” of the wider market as most other sectors are.

However, the above-mentioned increase proves that the DeFi sector is also resilient.

Furthermore, DeFi projects added more than $42 billion in assets over the past few months. This fact “proves the doubters wrong,” Lehes argued.

Therefore, DeFi will only expand in numbers and size in the coming years, he concluded.

Plenty to Be Excited About

Barney Mannerings, DeFi expert and Founder of Vega Protocol, a decentralized exchange for futures and perpetuals, said that we’re witnessing a growing interest in DeFi again.

In a comment shared with Cryptonews, he argued that there is a new wave of experimentation and innovation in the sector.

This is the result of the introduction of new primitives to the network, Mannerings explained. They are primarily based around Ethereum’s staking and yield functionalities.

Also, the recent gains in the crypto market seem to be “funneled back into protocols.” We commonly see this as a bear market turns bullish, Mannerings said and added:

“The fact that ETH, which many are speculating could be packaged into a new spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), is rising so dramatically is only supercharging this trend. But, the impressive showing of Ethereum Layer-2’s (like Mantle and Gnosis) over the past week is showing that growth is happening in interesting places, too.”

As reported earlier this month, wealth management firm Bernstein suggested that Ethereum may be the only digital asset after Bitcoin to secure a spot ETF approval.

Moreover, United States investors’ activity has led to ETH price hikes in recent weeks. A significant reason is investors’ anticipation of spot Ethereum ETF approvals.

Meanwhile, the “considerable growth” of new DeFi primitives like Pendle are providing more reasons to be excited, the Founder argued.

Coupled with the arrival of modern derivatives exchanges, like Vega, “it’s looking like a very exciting time for DeFi, and it will be interesting to see what 2024 brings.”

____

Read more:

• John Paller, Founder of ETHDenver, on Present State of ETH, and Future of DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs
• DeFi Protocol Tranchess Launches New Staking Products Offering Fixed and Leveraged Returns
• More Institutions Will Look to DeFi for Regulated Solutions in 2024
• Ethereum’s TVL Breaches $50 Billion as DeFi Activity Ramps Up

The post Expert Take: Rising DeFi TVL is Silencing the Doubters appeared first on Cryptonews.

Diversity in crypto is important as it brings a range of perspectives, talents, and experiences to the table, fostering innovation, resilience, and broader adoption. It is no secret that the blockchain and Web3 sector has been historically male-dominated. By including more women in crypto this helps address biases and promote inclusivity, making blockchain technology more accessible and beneficial to a wider range of people and communities.

Here is a list of the most influential women in crypto 2024:

1. Gracy Chen the CEO of Bitget is a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency industry and serves as the Co-founder and Global CEO of Bitget, a leading digital asset trading platform. She is recognized for her contributions to the development and promotion of cryptocurrency trading services. Before joining Bitget, she worked for Phoenix Satellite TV as an anchor and producer on technology and financial channels.  Gracy was also an early investor in BitKeep, Asia’s leading decentralized wallet. In 2015, Gracy was honoured as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. She graduated from the National University of Singapore. In January, Bitget launched a new initiative dubbed the “Blockchain4Her” group which aims to support female-led businesses. Blockchain4Her will launch incubation programs tailored especially for female entrepreneurs. This included a $10 million fund which is being used to support female-led startups in the blockchain industry.
2. Cathie Wood CEO of ARK Invest, once said, “Bitcoin belongs in every portfolio.” She is known for her focus on disruptive innovation. Wood is very much recognized for her bullish outlook on innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, genomics, blockchain, and autonomous vehicles. Wood is a prominent figure in the investment community and is known for her forward-thinking investment strategies.
3. Elizabeth Stark, co-founder of Lightning Labs, where she is building a programmable financial layer for the internet with fast, scalable Bitcoin transactions. Stark previously taught at Stanford and Yale University about the internet’s impact on society, the economy, and the law, and was a visiting fellow at Yale’s Information Society Project. She has worked with startups in areas ranging from decentralized technology to AI and was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Stanford StartX. Stark holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
4. Kathleen Breitman is one of the co-founders of Tezos, a blockchain platform that raised one of the largest initial coin offerings (ICOs) in history. Alongside her husband Arthur Breitman, she has played a key role in the creation and development of Tezos. Kathleen has been involved in various aspects of the project, including its vision, governance, and community engagement. Tezos aims to offer a decentralized blockchain that can evolve through on-chain governance mechanisms. Breitman has since stepped back from the project and is no longer involved.
5. Amber Baldet the co-founder and CEO of Clovyr, a company focused on building decentralized applications and tools to make blockchain technology more accessible to businesses. Before founding Clovyr, Baldet was a prominent figure at J.P. Morgan Chase, where she led the development of Quorum, an enterprise-focused blockchain platform. She is widely recognized for her expertise in blockchain technology, cybersecurity, and fintech innovation.
6. Joyce Kim the co-founder and former Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), an organization focused on developing the Stellar blockchain network. She played a significant role in the early stages of Stellar’s development and helped shape its vision for financial inclusion and interoperability. Before her work with Stellar, Kim was involved in various ventures in the technology and finance sectors. She is recognized for her contributions to the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, particularly in promoting financial access and inclusion through innovative technologies.
7. Blythe Masters is another prominent figure in the financial industry, known for her work in derivatives and blockchain technology. She is the former CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, a company focused on developing distributed ledger technology solutions for financial institutions. Masters previously held high-ranking positions at J.P. Morgan Chase, where she played a key role in the development of credit derivatives in the 1990s. She is widely recognized for her expertise in financial markets and her advocacy for the adoption of blockchain technology in the finance industry.
8. Perianne Boring is the founder and former president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a leading trade association representing the blockchain industry. She is known for her advocacy work in promoting the adoption of blockchain technology and fostering a supportive regulatory environment for digital assets. Boring has been a vocal advocate for blockchain technology’s potential to transform various sectors, including finance, healthcare, and supply chain management. She is recognized as a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency and blockchain community.
9. Caitlin Long is a financial industry veteran and blockchain advocate known for her work in promoting blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. She is the founder and CEO of Avanti Bank and Trust, a Wyoming-based bank focused on providing services for digital assets and blockchain-based financial products. Long has a background in traditional finance, having worked on Wall Street for over two decades, including roles at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. She is recognized for her expertise in financial markets and her efforts to create a regulatory-friendly environment for blockchain innovation, particularly in Wyoming.
10. Last but not least, Kavita Gupta the Founder and Managing Partner of Delta Blockchain Fund, an investment fund focused on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. She is well known for her extensive experience in the finance and investment industry, with previous roles at organizations like the World Bank, where she worked on investment projects in emerging markets. Gupta is recognized for her contributions to the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, particularly in promoting investment and innovation in the sector. She has also been involved in various initiatives aimed at fostering diversity and inclusion in the technology and finance industries.

The post Who Run The World? Girls! Top Ten Most Influential Women in Crypto appeared first on Cryptonews.

The two talked about ETHDenver setting the main themes for the year and what we may see in 2024.

The founder further explained how investing in UI, UX, and specific tools leads to greater DeFi and DAO adoption.

In this interview, Paller discussed:

• shifting regulatory dynamics in the US and how crypto can influence it;
• evolving public sentiment of crypto post-FTX and Terra;
• preparing the Web3 community for the impending bull market;
• Web3’s focus and capital allocated to infrastructure needs to return to users;
• predictions for DAO 2.0, DeFi 2.0, NFT 2.0

Read a portion of what Matt and John chatted about below, and listen to the full episode above.

Super Bowl of Crypto

ETHDenver 2024 has started on February 23 and will last until March 3, boasting a number of events and speakers.

Paller noted that over the years, ETHDenver became two things.

Firstly, it’s the Super Bowl of crypto. There are family and friends reunions, and the community gathers.

Secondly, it’s a menu of topics to be discussed during the year. This is the first major event following the holidays in the US, so many are curious to see what will be placed on stage, what and how it will be talked about – that is, what the year’s main topics are.

The event often sets the main themes, movements, trajectories, players, etc.

Per Paller,

“I think what ends up happening is ETHDenver becomes sort of the distiller for that narrative for the year. […] The narrative gets formed and then walks into the rest of the year as a sort of fairly big thing.”

The team behind ETHDenver gets a lot of input about what goes on their stage – and there are bound to be changes to the narratives and themes throughout the year – “but we’ve been pretty consistently successful at [setting the year’s themes] over the past six years.”

As for 2024, we’re going to see some finality around Layer-2s, Paller argued. The “protocol wars” will end. There will be no more fights, we will “just use it.”

Also, Paller opined that the industry has already solved many of its issues. And while there is plenty left on that list, all of these will eventually be crossed out.

Investment Leading to Mass Adoption

Paller noted “a huge opportunity” for investment into user-facing tools, be it user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) in general, governance tools, tooling for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), or anything else.

There is a clear difference in the amount invested currently. If you look at the dollar-for-dollar investments in protocols versus just DAO tooling or UI/UX, “it’s like a thousand to one,” said Paller, and added:

“Imagine if we had put in that kind of money to UI/UX, where we would be with adoption.”

Therefore, Paller’s prediction is that we’ll see “a huge effort from” the community to improve UI/UX and crypto products, which is how we compete with Web 2 products.

You don’t win acknowledging a trade-off in crypto, Paller warned. For the past five-six years, the industry has been making excuses about trade-offs that we have to make around security, privacy, and transaction costs, among other things. Something is always sacrificed.

At the same time, we must accept the truth that the average user will never use the products as we make them because it’s not convenient and fast enough – simply put, it’s not better than what they’re currently using.

And while some people are willing to, most do not want to go through “eight layers” of a decentralized finance (DeFi) product to figure out how to “stake their damn tokens.”

This is not getting the industry where it wants to go. It proved not to be durable. Also, we don’t really have a product market fit for DeFi, Paller argued.

Furthermore, most people, “let’s be honest,” said Paller, don’t currently care about owning their self-sovereign data.

What they do care about is using something easy, fast, and better than what’s already out there.

“Now, if we can give them fast, easy, better, and sovereignty, will they take it? Yeah, they will.”

Therefore, be it DAO tooling or DeFi products, investing in usability and UI/UX is the key.

“I think the 2.0 on the back of all of this stuff is the application of better user accessibility,” Paller opined.

And though he supports making money, all that these products are currently doing is just making money. That’s a problem. It only showcases the opportunistic side of what this technology can do.

Per Paller,

“If that’s all we do, then we’ve already failed, and it won’t work.”

We’ve got to have more than just making money as the goal. We’ve got to make what we’re creating widely accessible, transparent, permissionless, secure, and convenient for all to use.

The DAO That’s Got It All Figured Out

DAOs are going to make a comeback, John Paller said.

He couldn’t say when exactly, but as other aspects of the industry improve, the DAOs will rise. These aspects include user experience and user interface technologies, which will make DAOs more functional, usable, and configurable.

But DAOs have so far been just “grand experiments.”

Therefore, what’s missing is “a use case to point to that says, here’s the recipe [that] can be used to replicate the success in various contexts of the world,” Paller argued.

We don’t have that yet, and it’s a key ingredient.

Until we get it, we’ll continue to see a lot of experimentation. We’ll be seeing fidelity, development, and tooling enhancements.

“And then one of these days, it’s going to be slow and steady, and then all at once, you’re going to see this big narrative pop up where there’s this DAO that’s got it figured out.”

And who’s that going to be, Paller couldn’t say yet.

What he could say with near certainty is that,

“It’s got to be something people genuinely need, not just what they choose to want.”

This will create a natural demand for this and similar DAOs.

Paller noted that the industry needs to keep working methodically on user experience and abstraction technologies, not compromising security, privacy, data, and identity – but also making it cheaper, better, and faster for people to use “so that we can find these use cases to plug-and-play.”

One of these days, such a DAO will appear.

__________

About John Paller

John Paller is a US-based blockchain entrepreneur, inventor, and futurist. He is the Founder and Executive Steward of ETHDenver, the world’s largest Web3 and Ethereum-based innovation festival.

Paller is also the Founder and Executive Steward of Opolis, a digital employment cooperative for independent workers.

Prior to discovering Ethereum in 2015, Paller spent more than 15 years in talent acquisition, HR Technology, and employment systems, building multiple successful enterprises.

He brings a breadth of experience in fundraising, investor relations, community outreach, and crypto economies, guiding his vision of democratizing employment and growing decentralized communities.

In 2014, Paller was awarded “40 Under 40” by the Denver Business Journal for his contribution to shaping the future of business.

The post John Paller, Founder of ETHDenver, on Present State of ETH, and Future of DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs appeared first on Cryptonews.

Rajat further talked about the protocol’s industry-altering partnerships with Unstoppable Domains and MetaMask.

In this interview, Rajat discussed:

• Web3 UX and how Web3-native communication can help in getting to a billion users;
• Unstoppable Domains token-gated group messaging unlocking the power of community-based engagement;
• what security considerations are crucial when building a token-gated group messaging platform;
• Web3 notifications: bringing Web2 notifications to a Web3 world;
• MetaMask Snaps partnership: integrating with the most popular wallet.

Continue below to read a portion of what Matt and Harsh discussed, or listen to the full episode above.

A Billion-User Idea

Web3 can have a billion users in the future. Web3-native communications and user experience (UX) are a path to that number.

Push Protocol is working hard to contribute to the adoption.

Rajat explained that, in terms of communication, Push abstracts away all the Web3 complexities of “how to make the thing work,” how to make it compatible with wallets, and how to have the blockchain of communication.

All the protocols need to do is just use Push to re-engage the user and “get that entire Web2 UX to Web3.”

What Push did was invent the pre-notifications. These help all its users be notified about the things they are interested in and which they often engage with.

Therefore, Rajat noted that,

“This idea is so crucial, for Web3 to grow into a billion users. I always maintain and say that we have to remember that a million devs does not equal a billion users.”

He went on to explain that Push is a decentralized communication middleware. It enables protocols, blockchains, and even Web2 companies to send notifications (on-chain or off-chain), send chat, audio and video calls, etc. – that are now directly tied to a wallet address.

And because this is an interoperable and secure network, mobile apps or crypto wallets can now just tap into it and show their users all the important notifications about their activities. This can be related to loans, governance, social media, and pretty much anything you can think of.

With this, Rajat said,

“Push [has] changed user experience.”

More than 600 protocols are using Push. These include DYDX, Decentraland, Uniswap, Gitcoin, Polygon, and many others.

“They are using Push to basically make sure that this re-engagement is getting into Web3,” the co-founder added.

Unstoppable Path to Connecting the Community

The Push team has had a long relationship with the popular Web3 domain names and digital identity provider Unstoppable Domains. Unstoppable too has integrated Push.

In April 2021, Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) integrated .crypto domains to the EPNS products. In September 2023, the partners enabled business-to-user (B2U) messaging through Unstoppable Messaging.

And in January 2024, the two announced the launch of the token-gated ‘Group Chat’ on Unstoppable’s messaging platform.

With the Push integration, Unstoppable shows all notifications to its users. Per Rajat,

“When that integration was happening, we understood the value of community, and we understood that Web3 communication as a whole hasn’t tapped into the community part of it.”

Going back to the billion-user aim, Harsh Rajat said, they had to ask themselves why anyone would switch from a popular site where their friends are, for example Telegram, to something else and unknown.

“The user will shift when you provide them a feature which is over the top of what they are already doing, and that led us to creating this gated group functionality.”

The idea here is that a gated group works like a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Be it an NFT project, a DAO, or a project with some unique tokens – anything really – these entities can create a group via Push Chat and specify the parameters to join, i.e. how many tokens one needs to have to join and/or send messages within the token-gated group.

Unstoppable, on its side, has a Badges feature, which translates a user’s wallet transactions into achievements.

And all of these communities, “they love to talk to each other,” Rajat noted.

“And there is no way for Web2 chat to bring that community together.”

But with the gated group chat, you can define those Web2 chats, personas, or attributes, he added.

“And all of a sudden, you have a way by which all of these communities that shared the same vision can join this group chat and can talk about it.”

‘Huge’ MetaMask Partnership and Incoming Push Features

Unstoppable Domains is not the only major partnership for the Push Protocol.

It has also partnered with the popular MetaMask wallet.

MetaMask was working on the Snap feature, and “they asked if we would love to work with them so that notifications can be natively bought into MetaMask,” Rajat said.

And they did. In September 2023, the two announced Push Snap, a tool designed to seamlessly integrate notifications directly into MetaMask wallets.

Therefore, MetaMask users can now see the notification section where they can click to install Push snap.

“Once you do, whatever protocols you have opted into to receive notifications, they can send it right on your MetaMask, and it will appear right over there.”

As for Push’s near-term future, Harsh Rajat named two events the team is “very excited about.”

One is the upcoming launch of Push Network. With it, Push becomes, “let’s say, our Layer-2 for all the communications.”

The other thing is the unveiling of Push nodes, which will “basically make this a network in its own, or a blockchain in its own,” Rajat concluded.

____

About Harsh Rajat

Harsh Rajat is the co-founder and Project Lead of Push Protocol (formerly EPNS).

He has over 12 years of entrepreneurial experience in various spectrums of tech. This includes system architecture, as well as development and design in different tech fields, such as mobile, web services, SaaS, and blockchain.

Rajat previously spoke/judged at multiple tech conferences and hackathons, including Messari Mainnet, ETHCC, ETHDenver, Schelling Point, ETHAmsterdam, NFT NYC, Liscon, HackMoney, EDCON.

The post Harsh Rajat, Co-Founder of Push Protocol, on Bringing Notifications to Web3, Token-Gated Messaging, Web3 Native Communication | Ep. 311 appeared first on Cryptonews.

After two years of hardship, crypto entrepreneurs are now seeing a potential shift in fortunes, with Bitcoin’s surge of over 30% in the past month reigniting interest in funding opportunities within the industry.

While still low compared to previous highs, VC investment in crypto startups edged up in Q4 2023, suggesting renewed interest in the sector, PitchBook data published this week showed.

Crypto Projects Score Big as VCs Pour Millions into Funding Initiatives

The funding figures are remarkable. VC giant Andreessen Horowitz announced this week that it injected $100m into crypto restaking startup EigenLayer. Additionally, Hack VC disclosed raising a $150m fund dedicated to supporting projects focused on decentralizing the internet.

Phillip Shoemaker, executive director of decentralized ID verification startup Identity.com, said he wishes VCs would be more cautious about investing in digital assets. But he doesn’t see any signs of that happening.

“It’s more a [Fear of Missing Out] thing, and this is standard for VCs,” he told Cryptonews. “There’s just so much VC money out there and they are going to continue to throw money around to see if something sticks. I don’t see any difference now when compared to previous cycles.”

1. Dream Big, Think New

One of the best ways for a startup to stand out is to present something new that the industry needs, said David Kemmerer, CEO of crypto tax software firm CoinLedger.

In his experience, one effective method to make an impact is to approach crypto from a more inclusive standpoint as “it can be an industry many people find confusing.”

Kemmerer believes startups that offer informative and inclusive approaches might attract more investments because they can be more profitable by appealing to a broader audience.

2. Fusing Passion with Potential

Brian Evans, CEO of Web3 advisory firm BDE Ventures, attributed the growing momentum in the VC space to a combination of factors, including a broader tech rebound and the crypto market moving past scandals like FTX’s collapse.

According to Evans, the ability to address real-world problems is crucial for a startup seeking funding. He noted that many VCs have become more cautious following the boom and subsequent bust of numerous projects in the digital asset realm over the past few years.

“We’re clearly rising again now, but VC capital is much more careful about where they invest,” he said. “There are so many aspects to the digital asset space that are growing fast, including DeFi, gaming, DePIN and other sectors. But it’s critical that VCs look at a project’s value proposition.”

Key checklist items for a startup looking for funding include: the need to check if the project tackles a real issue, assess the founders’ dedication, and see if their backgrounds match the project’s needs, Evans said.

3. Focused Target Market

Anthony Georgiades, general partner at Innovating Capital, suggests pinpointing a specific target market for a use case. He also highlighted the need for good technology.

As the digital asset space continues to grow, the industry will see a lot of VCs coming into the market with little experience in the industry, he said. So there is a risk of VC FOMO happening again, as it happened during the last cycle.

Projects with a clear value proposition and a defined target market, or those solving problems for real people, will stand out in the long run, Georgiades said.

4. Turning Connections into Catalysts

Don’t underestimate the power of your network. People genuinely want to offer support when they can.

Getting introduced to investors through mutual connections is often more effective than reaching out to them directly without any prior connections, according to Maksym Repa, an analyst at crypto-native fund Symbolic Capital.

“It’s about making those personal connections that can really open doors for your startup,” he said.

Repa suggested crafting a pitch that’s a one-two punch: clear and captivating. Imagine it as your elevator ride with an investor – you have seconds to hook them. Focus on the core value and leave them wanting more.

5. Put Trust Into Practice

Following a series of bankruptcies that impacted the crypto industry in 2022, it’s evident that VCs will prioritize transparency and honesty regarding internal operations.

Ramy Bekhiet, senior advisor at PDX Global, said crypto startups must be transparent and undergo thorough due diligence for Web3 venture capitalists to regain confidence in the market.

The post 5 Expert Tips for Crypto Startups Seeking Funding in Today’s Market appeared first on Cryptonews.

In an announcement, CoinShares revealed new changes in its executive management committee. Demirors stepped down from the executive management committee on December 31 as part of a transition.

She no longer holds the position of head of strategy at Coinshares and is now in an advisory role. Demirors remains an active investor and advisor in the crypto space through her personal fund, Athena Capital. Coinshares announced it has appointed Lewis Fellas, as the head of the Coinshares hedge fund and he has become a member of the executive management committee.

In January, CoinShares announced it had it has secured an exclusive option to acquire Valkyrie Funds. This would expand European digital asset firm’s U.S. offerings. Valkyrie’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded (ETF) was approved by U.S. regulators.

Coinshares and Demirors were unavailable for further comment at press time.

The post Meltem Demirors in Coinshares Reshuffle, No Longer on Executive Committee appeared first on Cryptonews.

While a growing number of people are venturing into this decentralized space, security concerns, high transaction costs, and user-friendliness issues present major roadblocks.

The survey, encompassing over 3,300 users, developers, and decision-makers across the globe, revealed that nearly half (48%) perceive security risks as the biggest barrier to mainstream adoption. Additionally, 29% of respondents cited high transaction costs as a major deterrent, a stance shared by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Further challenges include the inherent complexity of blockchain technology and managing private keys. Another 24% mentioned a lack of user-friendly interfaces, highlighting the need for intuitive design to enhance user experience.

Exploring the Role of UX in Web3 Adoption

The survey report explored the role of UX in Web3 and how developers are shifting their strategy to include Web2 users. The report cited examples of the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, now providing the option to sign up through email and passcode, practically enabling users who don’t have a wallet yet to buy and sell in the marketplace without the hassle of setting up a crypto wallet.

Similarly, popular Web3 gaming projects like SkyMavis’ Axie Infinity and Animoca Brands’ Mocaverse have begun implementing email authentication and embedded wallet interfaces, making these decentralized apps feel more familiar to Web2 users.

Moreover, 79% of developers surveyed plan to implement mobile-responsive features, recognizing the importance of mobile-first user behavior.

Developing Countries More Open to Web3 than Developed Countries

A huge majority of the population, about 92%, already knows about crypto, although only 24% are familiar with the concept of web3. The report noted:

“Attitudes towards cryptocurrency vary globally, with noticeable differences between wealthier nations in Europe and Asia, such as Japan and South Korea, and developing nations in Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa. Wealthier nations tend to exhibit skepticism towards cryptocurrency, often associating it with negative concepts like scams, money laundering, and speculation. As a result, they adopt a cautious and reserved stance towards its adoption.”

Majority of Web3 Users Access dApps on Android Devices

68% of Web3 users access dApps from Android devices, while most applications are currently designed for computer screens. Recognizing this gap, 79% of developers plan to implement mobile-responsive features.

Despite one-third of crypto usage being in gaming (1.2 million daily active wallets), a Game Developer Conference survey reported that over 75% of game developers are not interested in blockchain.

Commenting on the report, Zhen Yu Yong, CEO of Web3Auth, emphasized the need for accessibility:

“If you’re building a city, the first step is widening roads and constructing more highways… Similarly, I believe that once we make Web3 accessible and interconnected with our existing digital lives, the floodgates of Web3 traffic will open to a mass audience.”

The post Security Concerns and High Transaction Costs Top Obstacles to Mainstream Web3 Adoption: Report appeared first on Cryptonews.

Additionally, Finland has a stable political and economic environment, which can be beneficial for long-term investments like crypto mining operations. However, factors such as electricity costs, regulatory environment, and infrastructure availability should also be considered and taken into consideration.

Miners in Finland see the country as an attractive location due to the unique situation of near-zero energy costs during periods of overproduction has attracted the bitcoin mining industry to the Nordic region, Lennu Keinänen co-founder of Once Mining, a crypto mining firm based in Finland told Cryptonews.com.

Finland remains Europe’s most unexplored Bitcoin mining frontier in Scandinavia although over the years its Nordic neighbours Norway, and Sweden have been seen as more desirable locations. Many crypto miners headed to the region to seek refuge from rising electricity prices in 2022.

Finland Offers Near-Zero Energy Costs  

In 2023, electricity prices in Finland fell below zero due to surging hydropower, nuclear energy, solar, and wind. That year the Nordic nation witnessed its first monthly power surplus in almost 20 years. Analysts forecast that 25 TWh of renewable energy will be built in Finland by 2030, which will push down prices further, according to a report by European energy markets newswire Montel News.

Low energy prices are crucial for crypto miners because mining cryptocurrencies requires a significant amount of electricity. The lower the cost of electricity, the higher the profit margins for miners, as it reduces the operational expenses associated with running mining hardware. Since energy costs can heavily impact the profitability of mining operations, miners often seek locations with access to cheap electricity to maximize their returns.

“The unique situation of near-zero energy costs during periods of overproduction has attracted the bitcoin mining industry to Finland. Bitcoin mining requires substantial amounts of electricity, and the ability to operate at lower costs significantly enhances profitability,” said Keinänen.

Government Subsidies and Wind Energy

The Finnish government has been providing substantial subsidies for wind energy, aiming to boost renewable energy production and reduce carbon emissions, explains Keinänen.

While well-intentioned, these subsidies have led to a rapid expansion of wind energy capacity. This in turn has had an impact on energy production resulting in a significant increase in fluctuating energy production.

“Wind energy, by nature, is variable and depends on wind conditions. As a result, when wind conditions are favourable, there’s an overproduction of energy, leading to instances where the price of electricity can drop below zero, reaching as low as -0.3€/kWh. Conversely, during periods of low wind, underproduction can occur, causing electricity prices to spike, at times reaching up to 2€/kWh,” said Keinänen.

Finnish Tax Administration

The Finnish Tax Administration has made it clear that crypto is subject to tax. Miners have to pay tax on capital gains from disposing of cryptocurrency by selling, trading, or spending it, as well as Income Tax on any income earned from activities such as crypto mining.

“The mining industry is still in the infancy here but about to become quite significant in the next few years,” explains Keinänen.

He goes on to explain that there is huge interest in opening mining sites and there’s a continuous buzz of site scouting activities going on in Finland.

“Bitcoin mining cost efficiency is primarily determined by the price of electricity, as mining consumes significant amounts of power. Lower electricity costs increase profitability, as the expense of running mining hardware is reduced. Therefore, locations with cheap electricity are more cost-efficient for Bitcoin mining. Mining is not tax-free but can be organized quite tax efficiently,” adds Keinänen.

The post Why Finland Could be Europe’s Next Crypto Mining Giant appeared first on Cryptonews.

Yubo Ruan, Founder and CEO of Parallel Finance, addressed these cross-chain challenges in a conversation with Cryptonews.com. Ruan’s most recent work focused on developing solutions that aim to streamline the DeFi segments, making them more accessible for users by enhancing connections between diverse platforms.

Yubo Ruan’s L2 Visions

“There is tremendous growth in the number of Layer 2s and Layer 1s, which complicates the landscape for consumers,” said Ruan. “Astronomical growth in terms of numbers of Layer 2s and numbers of old Layer 1s.”

Ruan’s primary concern lied with the overwhelming options and technical barriers that average users face, stressing the importance of addressing these issues to move forward.

“Just today, there are about 30 unlaunched Layer 2s on the L2Beat website. But there are probably hundreds of L2s about to launch. Same thing for Layer 1s,” added Ruan. “It’s simply not going to work for consumers.”

He also mentioned how the developers can utilize the increasingly complicated yet powerful blockchain to manage latest and even future technologies, including artificial intelligence.

“Crypto is the only way that provides a method to control AI, especially on the data side,” said Ruan. “And I think it’s going to contribute to the AI safety in the long term.”

Parallel Network: The Omni-Chain Solution

Ruan discussed the Omni-Chain solution proposed by Parallel Finance as a response to the sector’s fragmentation. This project is central to his goal of improving the Layer-2 (L2) landscape, fostering a more integrated and efficient ecosystem.

Parallel Network is open for buildooors

As the first omni-chain L2, Parallel unifies liquidity from any chain into one place, providing the infrastructure to build a truly interoperable and omni-chain future for everyone.

Learn how you can get started pic.twitter.com/A9LtVEc6Ty

— Parallel Network (@ParallelFi) January 20, 2024

“Interoperability is not just a technical challenge; it’s about creating a foundation for innovation in the DeFi space,” said Ruan. “Omni-Chain is designed to unlock this potential.”

In January 2024, Parallel introduced the Omni-Chain project Parallel Network and published a whitepaper.

“The aim is for Omni-Chain to act as a bridge across various blockchain networks, simplifying the interaction between them,” Ruan explained. By natively supporting ERC4337 Account Abstraction and Intent-based execution, it is set to revolutionize the DeFi experience.

“Omni-Chain leverages the strengths of different blockchains, enabling seamless transactions and interactions without the typical barriers users face today.”

Besides using Optimistic Rollup to improve the efficiency, Parallel Network was also the first Layer-2 to launch with Arbitrum’s license, utilizing the network’s competitive performance and execution environment.

According to Yubo Ruan, Parallel Network plans to deploy L2s settled on numerous chains, including but not limited to Ethereum and Bitcoin to aggregate networks together. The Network would also offer a wide range of taking options for improved staking management capability.

The project’s whitepaper, Parallel’s Omni-Chain would reduce users’ spending by sponsoring gas fees for eligible transactions. Instead of being a straightforward promotion, the firm endeavors to create a new business model where the revenue source does not solely rely on fees.

Started in 2021, Parallel Finance has secured about $31 million in all funding rounds and was valued at $500 million in 2022.

Many Dropouts and More Companies Founded

Born in 1996, Yubo Ruan has already founded four companies.

Before his first and second dropouts of Stanford University, Ruan quitted high school to start his first company, Alisimba Technologies Inc. He invented an online piggy bank product that taught children about financial habits.

The company, though being the “least successful” for Ruan, received governmental grants as the initial capital and was eventually sold for over $4 million when he was 19.

Moving onwards, Ruan official stepped into the investment world by co-founding Skylight Investment, backing by one of the biggest education groups New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) and Taiyou Fund.

At Skylight Investment, Ruan invested in multiple high-tech companies that concentrated on disruptive technology innovations, including the Boston-based optic computing firm Lightelligence.

Ruan’s initial move in the crypto sector was founding one of the pioneering blockchain fund 8 Decimal Capital. The multi-strategy investment firm had more than 40 portfolio companies with assets under management (AUM) of over $60 million. It was widely perceived as a top 10 blockchain fund.

“I learned about programming when I was six, started to do competitive programming when I was seven, and then a lot of software and hardware combined,” Ruan reflected on his earliest coding memories.

Crypto-wise speaking, Ruan honed his professional developing skills through professional work. “It’s gained through a lot of full-time projects, assets management, and solidity programming,” said Ruan.

Looking back on his time at Stanford, Ruan still appreciates the education he once showered in. “I took Professor Dan Boneh’s CS 251: Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies. It’s super,” he recollected. “It was so good to learn so much about foundational cryptography.”

With 13 scientific and technological invention awards and five patents received in high school, a “30 under 30″ award by The Los Angeles Post, a Hurun US Innovation Outstanding Award, four companies founded and countless recognitions, Ruan is fully prepared for the next uncharted waters.

The post Parallel Finance Founder Yubo Ruan on Revolutionizing DeFi with Omni-Chain Solution appeared first on Cryptonews.

He told us how the game came to where it is today, despite the obstacle; how the team utilized the circumstances in the space and the knowledge they gained to set up a platform to help others launch Web3 games; and how user acquisition changed over the past six years.

In this exciting interview, Johansson discussed:

• the origin story of BLOCKLORDS and what inspired creating the game;
• BLOCKLORDS dropping 300,000 LRDS to mark more than 60,000 players;
• industry layoffs at companies such as Riot, Epic, Activision Blizzard, and what this means for the future of the industry;
• the possibility of AAA developers venturing into blockchain/Web3 gaming:
• the secret sauce of airdrops for Web3 gaming.

Check out the full podcast episode above, or read some of the many things Johansson and host Matt Zahab talked about.

Marriage Between Crypto and Gaming

Web3 games weren’t really a thing back in 2018 when BLOCKLORDS was born. Notably, this was always a Web3 game, its co-creator noted.

The pitch has always been the same: BLOCKLORDS is an MMO strategy game that’s designed entirely around Web3.

Per Johansson,

“I’ve seen many games come and go. And so definitely that’s one of our strengths as a team; we’ve stood the test of time, we’ve survived the bear market. “

Johansson’s work in the film industry in Hollywood, followed by the gaming industry in China, taught him countless invaluable lessons about creativity and the creation process. And then,

“In 2017, I discovered crypto. I fell in love with it.”

Wanting to start something new, he joined up with co-founder Nicky Li, with whom he has worked since 2014.

He learned about crypto, and as soon as he understood how smart contracts worked, Johansson realized that,

“Gaming and crypto are forever linked.”

Gamers are already used to digital ownership, scarcity, and value. They care about what they do inside a game.

Meanwhile, crypto needs a better onboarding vehicle: a way to reach the masses. “Crypto people handle financial markets the same way gamers handle games essentially,” the CEO said. “So it was just perfect.”

From Zero to 15 Million

The BLOCKLORDS’ team is working on the game’s third iteration now. But the road to this moment was a bumpy one.

In the spring of 2018, the co-founders started looking for investors. However,

“Nobody believed in crypto gaming back then.”

On the gaming industry side, many would state that crypto is a scam. On the crypto side, particularly in the young decentralized finance (DeFi) space, many wondered why they’d bring gaming into a serious financial matter.

But in August 2018, the team won the Best Blockchain Game in NEO’s competition, earning $80,000. “That was essentially our seed funding,” Johansson said.

Building the game was difficult, and the funds quickly ran out. The team, however, won a TRON contest, receiving $30,000. So they launched on Tron, “and that did pretty well.”

However, noted Johansson,

“What we noticed right away from launching blockchain games was that it was easy to get users who were very dedicated and who would spend quite a lot on their game experience.”

But getting users was a problem.

The team of about half a dozen people continued building the game on various chains in 2018-2019, but it was a learning curve with numerous issues popping up. In addition to that, they were living off of grants.

And then, the DeFi Summer of 2020 arrived. By this point, the team had gained extensive knowledge in blockchain gaming.

“We started getting a lot of requests and demands [from other teams to help them make their games.”

That’s when the idea for Seascape came: to build a tech solution for NFT and DeFi gaming.

The Seascape Network launched in 2021. The team raised half a million dollars for it with Binance as the lead investor.

In 2021, following a number of questions about the status of BLOCKLORDS, the team created a new studio, formed a content team, and got to work on the new iteration.

“And investors really went crazy for it.”

The goal was to raise about $4 million, but BLOCLORDS ended up raising $15 million from a number of notable investors, including Makers Fund, Bitkraft Ventures, Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, WW Ventures, Spartan Group, Huobi Ventures, Funplus, YGG, and others.

User Acquisition Came Far Over the Years

Web3 user acquisition has matured quite a lot, David Johansson argued. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s definitely gotten better.”

Firstly, the ad platforms have opened up. Promoting blockchain games on social media sites, including Meta and Twitter, became easier.

“It’s much easier to get ads now, and it’s much easier to reach more users with the ads, which is great. And I definitely think our brand potential has grown with the ads.”

It’s not easy for Web3 gaming to go against Web2. It’s not only getting players that’s a problem, but keeping them. However, the ad system is essentially broken – as seen in Web2. And ironically, the way this is being revamped is through Web3.

Meanwhile, there are now many more sophisticated tracking tools, “so there’s a lot of experimentation” being done in targeting Web3 users that were active in the past.

Importantly, the community is a huge part of user acquisition, Johansson said.

“I would say that that is the vertical that really Web3 has an edge over Web2: the community is an integral part of your user acquisition and your user retention. So you need to put a lot of focus on that.”

Among other efforts, BLOCKLORDS rewards users with game drops where they distribute the game’s native token LRDS.

Shift in the Playing Field

Recruiting people to work in Web3 gaming has also become a lot easier. It is no longer a field from which people are running away.

For example, developers would previously not even entertain the idea of working on a free-to-play game. “And now basically every good game is a free-to-play game,” said Johansson.

“A lot of that hate is going to pass. I think there is a brain drain happening from Web2 to Web3.”

Additionally, talented game developers who want to start their own studio will have greater chances of getting the funding as a Web3 project than as a Web2 project.

“I think we would never have gotten the funding we got as a Web2 project. That’s just a fact. And […] strategy games don’t get a lot of investment generally.”

The capital is “much more fluid in Web3,” so projects are getting funded. Some are bad, and some are excellent.

There are more opportunities, so there is more capital in the space, creating more jobs – and all this will benefit the industry as a whole.

The Web2, or legacy gaming, has “a lot to figure out.” And Web3 will start taking some of its share over time, Johansson concluded.

____

About David Johansson

David Johansson is the CEO, Co-Founder, and Creative Director of Web3 strategy game BLOCKLORDS. He is also the CEO of Seascape Network and Metaking Studios, the creator of BLOCKLORDS.

A passionate gamer and industry veteran, Johansson has held numerous creative and production roles on some of the most successful products in their fields – including Crusader Kings, Liberators, and League of Angels – before turning his focus towards building out BLOCKLORDS in 2018.

He never looked back.

The post David Johansson, CEO of BLOCKLORDS, on Blockchain Gaming, Web3 Gaming Airdrops, and User Acquisition for Web3 Games | Ep. 310 appeared first on Cryptonews.

In this exclusive interview, Jon Trask talked about:

• blockchain and Web3 technologies revolutionizing agriculture across Africa and the globe;
• how Dimitra utilizes AI, machine learning, IoT, and data-driven insights to combat deforestation;
• Dimitra’s NFT Avocado initiative facilitating farmers with access to the necessary funds required for their farms to flourish;
• the future of blockchain tech in farming and agriculture;
• traceability and using blockchain to improve farmers’ lives.

Watch the Full Episode with Jon Trask

Check out below some of the many things Trask and Matt discussed.

From Farming to Big Tech

Trask noted that he grew up on his grandfather’s farm, after which he got into tech and supply chain business. He, in fact, worked for a number of multinational corporations in the food industry.

Six years ago, he built a blockchain-based identity system to manage businesses and farmers in Africa. Shortly after that, Trask traveled to DRC to witness some of the disparity between agriculture in Africa and agriculture in Canada, for example.

“There was a real need for things that we considered easily available and basic on farms in Canada,” he said, but farmers were not using it in Africa. This was due to availability, price, and technological accessibility.

“And we felt maybe we could do something about that.”

His colleagues and he started looking for other opportunities to expand upon the identity software that they had built. They created the foundation of Dimitra.

Dimitra Is Designed To Help Smallholder Farms

Smallholder farmers in the food industry make up just under 10% of the world’s population. But they’re very underserved from a tech perspective and earn very little for their effort.

Per Trask,

“A lot of them are really just focused on feeding their family and selling food into the community.”

He started working on bridging some of the gaps. For example, in Kenya right now, to be able to move their product out of the country and earn money for their product, need to meet several conditions. These include traceability, regulatory standards, satellite reports in order to tell if they’re deforesting their farm or not, etc.

“And we do that through working with cooperatives and governments in many of these countries. And I wake up with a smile on my face every day, I wake up happy to help and serve the community and work with all these great people around the world.”

Bringing Easy Access Through Mobile Apps

Dimitra has several valuable mobile applications. Farmers in the world, particularly in developing countries, have access to phones but don’t typically have laptops or PCs.

Dimitra has two Android apps focused on livestock, a government application that works on genetics, as well as apps for coffee and cacao farmers, among others.

The apps help farmers identify the aspects that work and those that need to be improved to increase and enhance production.

“Once they grow the crop, then we start to track and trace.”

In one of the examples Trask offered, he showcased how satellite analysis can help enrich solis with the correct supplements to boost crop output.

Solok Radjo in Indonesia is one of our cooperatives, 3300 farmers on the side of the mountain in Sumatra, all with coffee farms. And so we start with the satellite report and then we do some soil analysis. We know by the soil analysis that their soil is not pH rich. And if we can increase the pH by using calcium carbonate, we can increase their output. In some cases, we can triple or quadruple their output for a small investment.

Information like this is offered to Dimitra users throughout the ecosystem of mobile apps. Farmers get details about the soil, crop production, enhancements they can introduce and weather patterns they can expect. All in an easily accessible mobile app.

____

About Jon Trask

Jon Trask is the CEO and Founder of Dimitra and has been working with blockchain since 2017.

Prior to founding Dimitra, Trask had an extensive career building and developing enterprise software solutions to revolutionize supply chain processes and improve immutable traceability.

A recognized expert in his field, he is also the Founder and CEO of Blockchain Guru and a Partner with the Blockchain Training Alliance.

Trask’s mission now is to increase farming connectivity worldwide, particularly with those disenfranchised, and to leverage the power of innovative technologies to bridge farming and tech.

The CEO also won the 2023 Government Blockchain Association Annual Achievement Award in the “Social Impact” Category.

The post Jon Trask, CEO of Dimitra, on Blockchain Tech for Farming and Agriculture | Ep. 309 appeared first on Cryptonews.

In December, Indonesia’s Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, a vice presidential candidate in Indonesia’s election, said he aims to accelerate Indonesia’s position as a leader in the digital revolution by cultivating expertise in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Rakabuming Raka is the son of President Joko Widodo, speaking during an event on December 10 last year, the young mayor said: “We are preparing blockchain experts, we are preparing cybersecurity experts, we are preparing crypto experts,”

But it seems the Joko Widodo era is now coming to an end, as Prabowo Subianto gains favour in the Indonesian elections on Wednesday. During press time Subianto was leading in the polls.

What Does This Mean for Crypto?

Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, has banned the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. However, the country does allow investment in digital assets.

“Indonesia’s position in the global cryptocurrency landscape, securing the 7th spot in Chainalysis’s crypto adoption rankings, is a testament to the region’s strong inclination towards digital currencies, despite its fluctuating political climate,” said Sung Min Cho, CEO and co-founder of Beoble, a Web3 messaging platform based in Asia, told Cryptonews. He further explained:

“This achievement is part of a broader trend in Asia, which is marked by high rates of blockchain technology adoption, underscoring the region’s significant role in the global arena.”

Whoever Wins Indonesians Remain Enthusiastic for Crypto 

Min Cho goes on to explain that what stands out is the clear enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies among Indonesians, with over 14 million actively trading, surpassing traditional stock traders.

“This not only speaks to the country’s digital literacy and entrepreneurial spirit but also highlights the effort to bring financial services to the unbanked population. Even with regulatory uncertainties, this trend reflects a broader movement in Asia towards embracing decentralized financial systems, showing that neither businesses nor individuals in Indonesia have been deterred from exploring the potential of digital currencies,” said Min Cho.

Indonesia Sees Sharp Decline in Crypto Tax Revenue

In January, the Indonesian government reported a significant decline in crypto tax revenue for 2023, amounting to $31.7 million (Indonesian Rupiah 467.27 billion), according to a report by local news outlet Kontant.

The fall marks a sharp 63% drop compared to the partial collection period in 2022 when the crypto tax regime was introduced. This is one of several new taxes on the “digital economy” introduced in 2022 as part of an Indonesian tax reform. The government has stated that it expects the tax reform will “improve tax collection,” and ultimately lead to a “healthy and fair taxation system.”

The post How Indonesia’s Election Outcome Will Impact Crypto appeared first on Cryptonews.

In this exclusive interview, Li talked about:

• the future of modularity and how modular execution can help secure, lower the cost, and expedite the flow of transactions;
• the central role of user experience (UX) in a Layer 2 (L2) context and how it optimizes user engagement;
• simplifying adoption for widespread impact: zk-enabled applications can continue enabling both DevEx and UX;
• pioneering modularity in 2024: no blockchain can have all three tenets – decentralization, scalability, and security – perfectly balanced;
• revolutionizing cross-chain interoperability, functionality, and decentralized applications (dapps).

Watch the Full Episode with Kenny Li

You can also continue reading to learn what Li told us.

Manta Network’s Success Exceeds Expectations

Manta Network has experienced tremendous growth in a short amount of time.

Manta Pacific officially launched its Mainnet Alpha on September 12, 2023.

“Alongside Celestia and Polygon Labs, we are excited to unveil the next chapters for the Manta Pacific journey, one that will result in Manta Pacific as a modular zkEVM using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK),” according to the team’s detailed roadmap.

The team has been building Manta for the past three years, Li said, with two and a half of them primarily focused on the technology and the development.

“Once we realized that this project is pretty much good to go, we shifted gears and really pushed hard on the marketing side.”

However, by that point, the L2 was already up for about six months and has grown to become the largest modular L2, says Li.

Furthermore, it’s the third largest Ethereum L2, behind Optimism and Arbitrum, and it’s got over 180 ecosystem projects deployed already.

@MantaNetwork's adoption is on display! TVL jumps to over $429M,

Take a look at the amazing deep sea of 185+ dApps on #Mantanetwork and discover the future of finance. pic.twitter.com/aaONggsAlY

— CRYPTUNEZ (@Talkmuzikdotcom) February 13, 2024

Moreover, Manta is the first L2 to leverage modular data availability network Celestia, which has helped save users $1.5 million in gas fees over just the past month.

“That’s almost like $20 million in savings and gas fees over the course of a year.”

Li noted that he’d lie if he said that the team expected such excellent results and that “it was a mastermind achievement.” However, it was simply a lot of hard work from a dedicated team trying to get the best outcome possible and making adjustments on the fly.

“And the best outcome exceeded all of our expectations,” Li said.

Re-thinking Yield-bearing

Li noted that he greatly respects the Ethereum L2 Blast, which introduced native yield for ETH and stablecoins.

Yield-bearing assets are a huge value proposition to users, especially for L2s, he argued.

In discussions with partners, including Binance, Manta came to the idea to pursue something similar to what Blast came up with.

“I think that what they did was really amazing. […] And so from there, we went to the drawing board, and we’re like, okay, let’s see how we can make this happen.”

The team needed to find a way to make it work for 180 ecosystem applications. “So that’s exactly what we did.”

So they launched their yield-bearing asset campaign, New Paradigm, with Phase 1 ending on January 16.

It was a success. “That just snowballed. It was pretty insane.”

Why Another Yield-bearing L2?

As the only live yield-bearing L2, Manta Pacific gives immediate token access on the L2 after depositing ETH or USDC on Ethereum. pic.twitter.com/x8KZhZoZ8I

— Manta Network (,) #MantaNewParadigm (@MantaNetwork) December 14, 2023

Importance of Modularity

Building Manta has always been product-focused and user-oriented, said Li. This is what allows it to be an early adopter, adapt as it goes, and integrate services like Celestia.

They can do this due to this new buzzword: modularity. This term is now popular as ZK was a year ago, Li opined, and added:

“But modularity itself is more of a philosophy, an approach to how to build.”

Basically, there are two schools of thought when it comes to building in Web3, especially on the infrastructure level:

1. Do everything in-house: build nearly everything from scratch; utilize base technologies, and build other components yourself. This is already somewhat modular.
2. Modular school of thought says we’re living in a world of blockchain now where there are all of these amazing, specialized services and technologies that other people are building out. So, instead of trying to do it all in-house, we can integrate the necessary pieces into our systems.

The second one allows developers to have “a plug-and-play sort of design” that continually can improve the system over time to stay powerful for many years.

L2 Must Be Able to Evolve With Web3

As an example, Yi gave the history of blockchains. If we take the giants – Bitcoin and Ethereum – we find numerous forks that aimed to improve speed, block size, fees, or something else.

But they all built it monolithically, which is the first school. They forked blockchains, made minor modifications, and then tried to compete with the original with no room to grow.

In the meantime, the Web3 space grew. It continued to evolve.

“But those projects now, because they’re building monolithically, they can’t really adapt to this new value proposition. […] I think at the core of the modular approach is being able to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the Web3 space.”

They can’t have decentralized apps (dapps) deployed on them, for example.

And now, in 2024, Bitcoin and Ethereum still stand. No so-called killers can match them.

The same scenario is now playing out with L2s. Many are launching with minor nuances in how they function. They are “racing against time in order to try to fight each other on market share.”

But Li asked,

“What happens in 2027? What happens in 2030 when the industry continues to evolve? How do you adapt at that time? I think that if you take the modular approach, then you are able to adapt because you can continuously take new technologies and integrate them into your systems.”

Manta took a modular approach to its architecture, which allows it to take the needed technologies and plug them in specifically for the purpose of deriving further value for users. The users don’t even notice when a new one is included as, for example, there is no downtime.

This year, Manta is switching to zkEVM, taking the modular approach using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK).

Technology Could Be Amazing, But Product Useless

Li said that we should differentiate between technology and product. We often focus on the underlying technology in this space, but the end product is crucial – it’s what the users get.

Manta gets inquiries and requests for partnerships and integrations all the time, said Li. But they first ask what the clear value proposition to the user is.

“And honestly, I’m a little surprised at how often that question can’t really be answered.”

Therefore, something may be an amazing technology, but it’s not an amazing product, Li said.

Discussing the three tenants of blockchain – decentralization, scalability, and security – Li suggested that one can’t really measure either of those three things. It’s contextual and subjective.

These terms are qualitative and nowhere near a black-and-white issue.

For example, how does one define or measure decentralization in various contexts? Are we speaking about the architecture and the nodes, as is often the case, or do we look at who around the world is contributing to the core technology that is being presented as the network, and not just the core contributors?

Both are significant components of decentralization, Li argued. Manta Pacific, for example, is not one project built by a core team of contributors, but it’s “the result of all the efforts that all these other individual components and the contributors of those components have been bringing to the table.”

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About Kenny Li

Kenny Li is Core Contributor for Manta Network and the co-founder of p0x Labs, the firm developing technologies behind projects, including Manta Network.

Prior to this, Li received an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2020. Whilst at MIT, he was a teaching assistant for several courses, mainly blockchain-based. He also worked with the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI).

Moreover, Li has started, advised, and invested in startups for over a decade.

The post Kenny Li, Core Contributor of Manta Network, on The Future of Modularity, Decentralization, and More | Ep. 308 appeared first on Cryptonews.