RelayNode NYC #9 - July 8
Welcome to RelayNode NYC Area edition! The NYC blockchain ecosystem is growing rapidly. My goal is to harness its energy, expertise, and innovation for the benefit of New Yorkers and provide a weekly curated list of interesting content and upcoming events.
“On America’s independence day, it’s hard not to be excited about the new norms emerging with which developers and digital citizens can exert their liberty and shape a more dynamic, free and open technology era.” - Nathaniel Whittemore
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RelayNode NYC is curated by:
David Gogel
Associate @ Techstars' Blockchain Accelerator fmr Co-president @ Wharton FinTech
Things to read
Fundraising
Outlier Ventures released its “State of Blockchains Q2 2019” report indicating that blockchain startups raised $822 million across 279 deals in H1 2019. Seed stage deals captured more than half of all VC raises, indicating that entrepreneurial zeal in the industry has not declined in spite of the bear market. Corey Miller, investment analyst at Blocktower Capital, has a thoughtful tweetstorm about why smart contract platforms other than Ethereum are overvalued and holding the industry back. Are investors to blame for overvaluing projects that lack product-market fit and focusing on technology for the sake of technology?
Blockchain's research team, headed by Dr. Garrick Hileman, published a "General Cryptocurrency Investment Thesis", which outlines why an increasing number of people are choosing to use and own digital assets. Good overview report for newcomers to get up to speed with visual explanations.
Trading
Competition in the crypto derivatives market is heating up. Skew has a great medium post on Q2 developments in the derivatives market. I interviewed Arthur Hayes, CEO & Co-Founder of BitMEX, for a podcast in July 2017. In the last 2 years, BitMEX, which is based in Hong Kong, has grown to become the world’s biggest provider of leveraged futures trading in the crypto markets, surpassing $1 trillion notional annual trading volume. Changpeng Zhao recently announced his intention to launch futures contracts on Binance, the world’s largest crypto-to-crypto exchange. In the U.S., crypto futures are available on the CME, where bitcoin futures hit a record $1.7 billion in notional value traded on June 26, a 30% increase from its last recorded high. The CFTC also recently approved LedgerX’s application for a designated contract market (DCM) license and granted ErisX a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license, acting as a secondary approval on top of an existing DCM license that the exchange already held. The approvals mean the companies can launch crypto futures under the auspices of the U.S. regulator. Other firms, such as ICE’s Bakkt and Seed CX plan to enter this market. Avi Felman, trader at Wave Financial, has great tweets on crypto options volume, implied spot prices, and new product innovations.
Determining how much volume actually occurs on cryptocurrency exchanges has been a notoriously difficult problem to solve. It’s well-established that many exchanges likely engage in practices to inflate the volume they report in order to drive interest in their platforms and to attract new customers. Alamada / FTX released an in-depth analysis of potential fake vs. real exchange volume, building upon Bitwise famous report.
#DeFi
MakerDAO, which comprises a decentralized stablecoin, collateral loans, and community governance, is making progress towards launching multi-collateral Dai. The company announced that later this month, the Maker Foundation will ask the community to participate in a poll to prioritize the order in which new collateral types can be added to the system. Although Maker is at this time only considering digital tokens such as Basic Attention Token, Ether, Golem, Augur etc., how long will it be before we see real world assets such as real estate, invoices, or music royalties be included as well? Enter Centrifuge’s Tinlake, a platform built on decentralized financial infrastructure, that will enable borrowers to draw DAI loans against conventional illiquid assets. DeFi meets banking.
STOs
The Security Token Offerings (STOs) market for real estate assets is heating up. BTG Pactual, Latin America's largest standalone investment bank, together with Dalma Capital, a prominent Dubai asset manager, announced plans to utilize the Tezos blockchain for Security Token Offerings (STOs) and sell $1B+ worth of security tokens. Last February, BTG Pactual became the first major investment bank to launch an STO with ReiBZ, a security token backed by distressed real estate assets in Brazil. The token was launched using the Ethereum protocol, but will now be migrated to Tezos. Ryan Freedman and Daniel Fetner, from Corigin, provide a balanced deep dive of real estate tokenization.
Libra
Facebook raised the stakes with its Libra announcement. Amidst a wave of mixed opinions and calls from regulators to stop, Facebook’s David Marcus penned a post pushing back against concerns and answering key questions on his vision for decentralization, governance, financial inclusion, engagement with regulators and lawmakers, trust, and incentives for Facebook.
Other
Kinjal Shah, Senior Associate at Blockchain Capital, explains why “institutions have arrived,” in the blockchain / crypto industry and in a big way. We’ve finally seen real momentum from legacy tech and financial institutions — with Square, Microsoft, Fidelity, and Facebook all announcing their forays into this space.
Events this week:
Understanding The Libra Coin (Free)
When: Tue, July 9, 2019, 6:00–9:00 PM
Where: Gabelli School of Business, 140 West 62nd Street, Room 333, New York, NY
Industry practitioners and 2 professors analyze the Libra coin, its implications to the markets and what it all possibly means. Lectures, townhall style discussions, Q&A and networking.
Summer Series: Mesh Networks and How Bitcoin Can be Used to Incentivize Networks
When: Wednesday, July 10, 2019, 6:30–8:30 PM
Where: Chaincode Labs, 450 Lexington Ave 38th Floor · New York, NY
Join us for a Summer Series event with GoTenna (https://txtenna.com/) founder Daniela Perdomo and engineer Richard Myers who will introduce mesh networks and talk about Lot49 (https://global-mesh-labs.gitbook.io/lot49/) -- a Bitcoin Incentivized Mesh Network.
BitAngels NYC July Event ($25)
When: Thu, July 11, 2019, 9:00–11:00 AM
Where: Ideanomics (18th Floor), 55 Broadway, New York, NY 10006
This BitAngels event will be hosted in conjunction with Trending Topics in Finance and FinTech at Ideanomics. BitAngels is a group of cryptocurrency investors helping to grow the blockchain ecosystem through community events and company spotlights. The brainchild of industry leader Michael Terpin, BitAngels launched in 2013 as the world's first angel network for digital currency startups.
Libra NYC Launch Event + Panel Discussion (Free)
When: Thursday, July 11, 2019, 6:00–8:00 PM
Where: Axoni, 156 5th Avenue 7th Floor · New York, NY
This is our first genesis meetup. We do have a panel discussion planned with experts / do-ers from blockchain community
Upcoming events
NYC / XRP: The First Meetup! (Free)
When: Tuesday, July 16, 2019, 7:00–9:00 PM
Where: Tanner Smith's, 204 W 55th St · New York, NY
We invite the community to join us for our first "in person" meetup, held at the one and only Tanner Smith's at 204 W 55th St in Midtown NYC. This will be an informal social gathering, with the intent to provide our community a chance to meet each other in person and discuss things such as the direction in which we want to go, what we can do to contribute and support the greater global #XRP movement, logistics for future meetups and events, etc.
NYC BigApps Blockchain Challenge: Propose a Blockchain Solution (Free)
When: Tue, July 16, 2019, 6:00–8:00 PM
Where: NYC Blockchain Center, 54 W 21St Street, Suite 1001, New York, NY
Do you have an idea for how New York City government agencies could use blockchain? NYC BigApps Blockchain is SecondMuse x NYCEDC’s open innovation challenge that asks startups and entrepreneurs to design meaningful blockchain solutions that will improve the efficiency, security, and transparency of public sector services in New York City. Come learn about the Call for Proposals, the Challenge Areas, meet with government leaders, and connect with fellow innovators from across the city.
Blockchain & Women Tech Founders: Shape the Future! ($6)
When: Wednesday, July 17, 2019 6:30–8:30 PM
Where: R/GA, 450 West 33rd Street 12th floor, New York, NY
Whether you're a VC searching for new investment opportunities in cutting-edge technology or a young woman who's considering entering the STEM fields, here is your invitation to help shape the future. Introducing Nisa Amoils, an accomplished blockchain investor who will talk about her book: WTF Is Happening: Women Tech Founders on the Rise. Nisa will talk about these female pioneers making remarkable strides across a wide range of emerging tech fields--from robotics to virtual reality to drone technology and autonomous flight and how they are receiving only a small fraction of the available funding, an inequity that harms both innovator and investor alike. Along with Nisa there will also be 2 of the featured tech founders… both from our own Women in Blockchain community, Tongtong Gong and Cristina Dolan to briefly talk about their work and inspire others to join them on their path of impacting the future.
When: Thu, July 18, 2019, 6:30–8:30 PM
Where: General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Join us to learn how MythX, a smart contract security platform, and ConsenSys Diligence, a security-focused group, are working together to build, test, audit and secure smarts contracts so what happened in 2016 doesn’t happen ever again because of a vulnerability in the smart contract. They’ll talk about other recent hacks and what they're doing to keep the Ethereum ecosystem secured.
Banking On Blockchain: Exploring Decentralization ($25)
When: Thu, July 18, 2019, 6:30–9:00 PM
Where: General Assembly New York, 10 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010
We are the biggest NYC blockchain community, and we are always striving to improve and bring you the best and the latest events, insights and news on blockchain. Panel speakers include Ian Harvey (Technical lead at MakerDAO), Gal Eldar (Product Lead at AirSwap), and Peter Borovykh (Blockchain Solution Architect at BlockchainDriven).
Workshop: create a token on Stellar network ($5)
When: Thursday, July 18, 2019, 7:00–9:00 PM
Where: The Brass Factory, 185 Wythe Ave F2 · Brooklyn, NY
For developers interested in learning more or building things with Stellar, a decentralized protocol for sending and receiving money in any pair of currencies. At this inaugural meeting, we will be joined by Stellar Development Foundation's Solution Architect, Tomer Weller.
Socratic Seminar 94 (Free)
When: Thursday, July 25, 2019, 7:00–9:00 PM
Where: NYU Stern, 44 West 4th Room 1-70, New York, NY
BitDevs is a community for those interested in discussing and participating in the research and development of Bitcoin and related protocols.
Mondo.NYC music festival & global music / tech business conference ($99 - $598)
When: Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 4:00 PM – Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 5:00 PM
Where: Williamsburg Hotel, Brooklyn, 96 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, NY
Mondo.NYC is the first music festival and global business conference focusing on the intersection of emerging music discovery, blockchain and other frontier technologies, and how these new applications and economies will significantly impact both music and tech industries. Emerging artists, innovators and industry insiders will connect and collaborate with fans in a mission to advance human creativity in an ever-changing world.
Notable Conferences
July 19 - BuildETH (SF)
July 24 - Mining Disrupt (Miami)
August 17-18 - BitBlockBoom (Texas)
August 20-29 - Berlin Blockchain Week (Berlin)
September 8-15 - Tel-Aviv Blockchain Week (Tel-Aviv)
September 11-12 - Consensus Asia 2019 (Singapore)
October 8-11 - Devcon 5 (Osaka, Japan)
October 15-16 – Crypto Invest Summit (Los Angeles)
October 15-18 - Mondo (New York City)
October 21-23 - ACM: Advances in Financial Technologies (Zurich)
