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The Bear Market Is a Promising Time for Web 3.0 Startups – Here Is Why
Calling 2022 a challenging year for the crypto space would be an understatement. Rising inflation, record-high interest rates, and full-scale meltdowns such as Terra Luna have shaken the confidence of both retail and institutional investors.
As a result, many entrepreneurs and businesses may think twice before following through with plans to launch or further develop Web 3.0 projects. This article will explain why builders who have quality ideas and the willingness to adapt should embrace the opportunity to launch and build in a bear market.
Crypto winter – 2022 versus 2018:
First, it is useful to compare the current bearish cycle to the last one, which occurred back in 2018. DappRadar recently published this blog post, which seeks to compare and contrast the circumstances surrounding each protracted downturn.
The crypto world saw a surge in ICOs (initial coin offerings) in 2017, which led to the market becoming flooded with numerous startups that used cryptocurrency in order to fund their ideas.
Nearly any idea that included the words ‘blockchain’ or ‘crypto’ found itself able to raise large sums, drawing comparisons to the ‘dot com’ bubble’s use of the term ‘internet’ in the late 90s. Read More
Cardano-Based Stablecoin USDA To Launch In Early 2023
Emurgo, the commercial arm and founding member of the Cardano blockchain, will launch a newly regulated stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar, USDA, in early 2023.
Emurgo, the official commercial arm and a founding entity of the Cardano blockchain announced that it will bring a regulated stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar to market in early 2023. According to reports, USDA will the first fully fiat-backed, regulatory-compliant stablecoin within the Cardano ecosystem. Stablecoins are digital currencies backed by one or more assets and pegged to fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar in this instance and allow traditional market players to access the cryptocurrency industry. Stablecoins are more commonly used as mechanisms for trading, borrowing, and lending mechanisms across the digital ecosystem.
Emurgo Fintech Managing Director, Vineeth Bhuvanagiri, said in a press release:
The Cardano ecosystem was built on the ethos of bringing real-world applications to crypto and creating the foundation to build the economy of the future. The introduction of a fully fiat-backed, regulatory compliant stablecoin is the next step in realizing the future for our community. USDA is a native asset, freely exchangeable on Cardano, and backed by U.S. currency. This stablecoin not only offers stability to investors conducting financial transactions on the blockchain but advances a path forward for the Cardano ecosystem to address a problem we are uniquely positioned to solve — banking the underbanked, he added. Read More
Decentralization index from Cardano builder, U of Edinburgh will help users understand assets
In an industry first, Input Output Global and the Scottish university will provide continuous tracking of digital assets by a methodology that has yet to be determined.
The University of Edinburgh and Input Output Global (IOG), the builder of the Cardano network, have teamed up to create a blockchain decentralization index, IOG announced on its blog. The new service is the first of its kind and will use a “research-based” methodology developed at the university.
The Edinburgh Decentralization Index (EDI) has been in development for several months and was introduced in Edinburgh on Nov. 18, but it is not yet operational, according to IOG:
“The first step for the tracker is the creation of research papers detailing decentralization metrics and a considered methodology for compiling them into an index, created by researchers at the University of Edinburgh. It will then operate in the same way as other industry indexes.”
When launched, the EDI will provide live tracking of assets “underpinned by a continuously calculated and reviewed methodology.” Read More
FTX Collapse Is Yet Another Nail In The Coffin For Centralization
The volatility of the crypto industry was laid bare for all to see earlier this month when FTX went from being one of the top three cryptocurrency exchanges to filing for bankruptcy within the space of just 7 days.
The rapid downfall of FTX came as the company found itself embroiled in a liquidity crisis and pleaded for help from its industry rivals. It agreed to sell itself to its rival Binance - the world’s biggest crypto exchange - only for that deal to fall through within less than 24 hours. Binance said FTX’s problems were just too big to fix, leading to customers fleeing the exchange while they still could.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried warned investors earlier in the week that, unless the company received a cash infusion of $8 billion, he would have no choice but to file for bankruptcy. The cash never materialized, and Bankman-Fried promptly followed through.
So how did FTX go from being one of the biggest and most successful crypto firms to bust in such a short space of time?
FTX was established by Bankman-Fried in 2019 as a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange, and it very quickly became one of the biggest in the business. Through its exchange, customers could buy, sell and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets. Read More
HVC is poised to triumph in the crypto economy.
Markethive is a monolithic blockchain project currently operating as a social network, an entire inbound marketing platform with email, blogging, and digital media capabilities that broadcast to the vast internet. It’s a complete Market Network and the first of its kind.
Markethive is predominantly a free system where users can access a platform that can cost more than $2,500 offered by other marketing platforms. There are, of course, upgrades that open up more tools and monetization opportunities, the first being the Entrepreneur One Loyalty Program, and coming soon is the Premium Upgrade.
The many domains Markethive has and its autonomous cloud systems that ensure its sovereignty and longevity make it untouchable and immune from the tech giants’ rule and biased agenda. But can still remotely infiltrate the social media platforms and reach the multitudes either locked in or looking for an alternative meritocratic medium.
In other words, wherever you go, Markethive is there, anywhere and everywhere, delivering its message via its community of entrepreneurs to a far-reaching audience. This next-generation social market media is poised in the wings, and when the time is right, it will emerge as a shining light to lift people up and bring financial sovereignty and hope in this gloomy and uncertain world.
The video platform, conference rooms, the unique four specific news feeds currently in development, and many other projects and incentives add to the credibility and need for an ecosystem in the social media and digital marketing space. Read More
DeFi Is the Answer to the FTX Crisis—But We Must Get Better at Communicating It
In the swirling crypto liquidity storm, DeFi offers a way forward.
For those of us building in decentralized finance (DeFi), the events of the last two weeks are singularly disheartening. Innocent users were harmed and in some cases lost their entire life savings. As the scope of fraud, negligence and malfeasance at FTX is revealed in court filings and leaked documents, the crisis has already undermined the credibility of our entire ecosystem.
It is a bitterly ironic turn of events, since the vision of DeFi is a financial system where what happened at FTX is not just improbable, but impossible.
This loss of credibility is because the general public does not know that the misuse of user funds at FTX—where FTX apparently secretly transferred user funds to Alameda Research—would be impossible with a true on-chain decentralized protocol. Where FTX apparently concealed their insolvency with creative accounting, such opacity would be impossible on an open, immutable blockchain. It would be impossible for a true permissionless DeFi protocol to selectively discriminate against users as FTX did when the exchange transacted with Bahamian residents last week as it was collapsing. And, perhaps most importantly, where FTX users are facing the possible total loss of funds, such a calamity would be impossible for users of a self-custodied DeFi protocol.
This is not to say that DeFi in its current form is flawless. Smart contract risk, technical knowledge gaps and slow-moving decentralized organizations all have their downsides. Meanwhile, some regulated, centralized entities have demonstrated that they can be valuable and trustworthy partners to DeFi. Read More
Kraken Founder Jesse Powell Predicts Next ‘Big Event’ That Pushes Crypto Out of Bear Market
Crypto veteran Jesse Powell is weighing in on the state of the industry following the collapse of FTX, giving a prediction for what will propel the space out of its bear market.
In a new interview on the Bankless podcast, Powell says with billions of dollars now gone and a reputation to repair, the industry will need time to recover from the FTX debacle.
The Kraken founder says that the Bitcoin (BTC) halving, which will likely take place sometime in the first half of next year, could be the next bullish catalyst for crypto markets.
“It’s just a massive hit to lose $10 billion in capital from this industry. To have that just stolen away, that could’ve gone to great stuff and moved this industry forward. So that’s going to take some time to recover from.
Obviously, prices are depressed as a result of all this as well, so I think we’re going into an even deeper bear market winter. It might be protracted, we don’t have another Bitcoin halving until March 2024. It’s going to be some time, and I think that’s sort of the next kind of big event that might cause us to bounce out of a bear market.”
Powell says that bad actors and unfortunate events will continue to happen to crypto, but he remains bullish on the long-term prospects of the industry. Read More
Crypto Scammers Hiring KYC Actors to Build Trust and Defraud Investors: Report
A new report from blockchain security firm CertiK revealed that a large group of professional “Know Your Customer (KYC)” actors are being employed by dubious blockchain developers and scammers to defraud crypto investors.
KYC verification systems are used by crypto projects in the Web3 space to establish customer identity and qualify the source of funds. The process helps the platforms protect themselves from fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing.
Crypto Fraudsters Hire KYC Actors for Scams
According to CertiK’s report, the actors are hired to complete the KYC process on behalf of fraudulent project owners who want to gain the crypto community’s trust before executing an insider hack or exit scam, popularly known as rug pull.
During its investigation, the security firm identified a KYC actor who agreed to share detailed information about the industry. The actor claimed he had been in the business for three years and provided links to marketplaces where he got his gigs.
The marketplaces are mostly hosted on Telegram, Discord, some low-requirement phone apps, and ads on gig websites. Upon agreement, both parties will use an escrow service for the payment. Read More
Heroic Story raises £5m to create web3 roleplaying game
Web3 gaming company Heroic Story has raised £5 million in a seed round led by Upfront Ventures for a blockchain-based tabletop roleplaying game (RPG).
The funding will be used to launch a live beta of the game, develop blockchain technology for a multiplayer version of the game, and hire more talent.
Other participants in the round included Multicoin Capital and Polygon Technology, along with strategic angels such as Team Liquid CEO Steve Arhancet and Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma.
The round brings Heroic Story’s total funding to £6.2 million.
Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures, said: “We fell in love with the vision for Heroic Story because they are building authentic online RPG experiences for large, global audiences passionate about the tabletop RPG genre.”
Past investors in the gaming company have included the co-founder of streaming platform Twitch, Kevin Lin, and the CEO of Thirdweb, Furqan Rydhan.
Heroic Story was founded in 2019 and develops multiplayer iterations of popular tabletop RPGs, or TTRPGs. It strives to combine storytelling with blockchain tech to create immersive experiences for players.
Jay Rosenkrantz, CEO at Heroic Story, said: “The intersection of storytelling and technology has been the theme of my career, from my early years as a top online poker pro and entrepreneur, to designing and directing one of the first adventure games for consumer VR.” Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
