RelayNode NYC #17 - September 2

RelayNode
Written By David Gogel

Welcome to RelayNode NYC Area edition! The NYC blockchain ecosystem is growing rapidly. Our goal is to harness its energy and innovation for the benefit of New Yorkers and provide a weekly curated list of interesting content, upcoming events, and local jobs.

Some personal thoughts from this week…

The value chain for traditional financial products is divided into 3 parts: suppliers (central banks), manufacturers/distributors (banks), and users (consumers / businesses). Central banks gained a monopoly over the creation of money. The high cost of compliance, capital requirements, and regulation created banking monopolies who traditionally manufactured and distributed financial products to their locked-in customer bases. The fundamental disruption of blockchains, cryptonetworks, and decentralized finance lego blocks are turning this dynamic on its head. 

The value chain for DeFi products is now divided into 3 parts: suppliers (centralized & decentralized stablecoins), manufacturers (smart contracts), and users (consumers / businesses). Blockchains are commoditizing trust and reducing the cost & time to create digital financial products, neutralizing some of the advantage that traditional banks leveraged to integrate with central banks. While leverage for speculative trading remains DeFi’s main use case today, for DeFi to grow, it will need to address mainstream users’ financial needs: deposits, credit, payments, treasury management, capital markets, investments, and insurance. 

DeFi lego blocks come in different sizes & colors but can be utilized to construct a finished solution that has more value than the sum of individual parts. User-focused distribution remains a work in progress. Users struggle to compare legos and understand their choice. Vertically focused smart contracts, which dominate a segment by offering a product that is hyper-focused on a segment’s needs, will likely be disrupted by smart contract aggregators and distributors who understand mainstream users’ holistic needs and reduce channel barriers. Over time, I believe it will be standard for platforms who own the customer like exchanges, wallets, and custodians to integrate stablecoins using DeFi.

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RelayNode NYC is curated by:

David Gogel

Advisor @ Paperchain fmr Associate @ Techstars' Blockchain Accelerator, Co-president @ Wharton FinTech

Hsin-Ju Chuang

Director of Community & Growth @TQ Tezos, ex-Head of Growth @Stellar/Lightyear, Side Hustle @Dystopia Labs

Things to read

Funding & Exits

  • Algo Capital, the financial institution focused on accelerating access, adoption and liquidity of the Algo, the native digital currency of the Algorand blockchain, announced the closing of its Algo VC Fund at $200M. The fund will invest in category-leading businesses that are building on the Algorand technology platform and seeks to accelerate the use and acceptance of the Algo as a means of payment. Will developers now build much needed tooling on Algorand?

Macro

  • Libra, Venus, USDC, DAI - the stablecoin coin wars are heating up. According to Forbes, the plot thickens with news of China’s central bank launching a state-backed cryptocurrency within the coming months. The largest Chinese Banks (ICBC, Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China), two of China’s largest financial technology companies (Alibaba and Tencent) and Union Pay, an association of Chinese banks, will receive the cryptocurrency. Binance released an excellent report on the expected characteristics of the China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

  • James O'Beirne, engineer at Chaincode Labs, explores the macro backdrop and why he thinks Bitcoin is going to become increasingly important, even relative to traditional safe-haven assets like gold.

  • Blockchain technology is 10+ years old. Craig Burel, Partner at Reciprocal Ventures, published an anthology of top posts, papers, and guides here to conquer the crypto learning curve.

Trading

  • Florent Moulin, Research Analyst at Messari, published an excellent post on nuances around classifying cryptoasset projects based on outstanding, liquid and circulating supply. The ability to precisely even talk about supply across assets, let alone calculate it, is sorely lacking in crypto today.

  • Luka Jankovic & William Nuelle, quants at Galaxy Digital Research, released a quantitative assessment of bitcoin. TL;DR: Bitcoun remains a largely uncorrelated asset but it responds to specific and narrow sets of conditions, and in sometimes inconsistent ways. Christopher Brookins, Founder & CIO of Valiendero Digital Assets, provides an interesting quantitative critique of the narrative that BTC’s scarcity is the only factor driving price.

Stablecoins / Open Finance / DeFi

  • The crypto lending sector continues to bloom. Binance launched “Binance Lending” allowing holders of BNB, ETC, and USDT to earn interest on their funds.

  • Nadav Hollander, Founder at Dharma, announced version 2 of the popular protocol and a new mission to build the first internet-native, borderless bank. The company is pivoting from its existing product and will focus its efforts on seamless fiat on & off ramps and a new platform connected to Compound to issue borrowing and saving at fixed interest rates. Since Compound issues variable loans, Dharma will issue interest rate swaps. "This is a 10x reduction in onboarding friction to DeFi."

  • OpenZeppelin released a timely positive assessment of Compound’s smart contract risk. Compound Finance is a protocol, currently deployed on the Ethereum network, for automatic, permissionless, and trust-minimized loans of Ether and various ERC20 tokens. OpenZeppelin discusses some of the risks, and how they are expected to be managed.

  • Starkware’s StarkPay, which offers an improved lightning network solution on Ethereum, now supports instant payments. StarkPay differs from traditional payment processors in 1) their use of on-chain security deposits (which are locked up in on-chain contracts that are unique to a specific merchant) and 2) their willingness to counter-sign customer payments which helps guarantee that merchants will receive the funds. Because of this method, it becomes possible to introduce immediate payments because there are reserves on hand which can be redeemed immediately.

Gaming

  • Blockade Games released "The Ledger of Szabo", an 8-bit adventure game with 1 BTC hidden in Bitcoin and Ethereum puzzle prizes. It is the first blockchain game to use a mix of Bitcoin and Ethereum technology to provide a unique game experience for the player. For the first time, players can buy Ethereum Non-Fungible Tokens using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

⚖️ Regulatory / Legal

  • Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart produced a court order indicating that “the evidence establishes that (Craig Wright) has engaged in a willful and bad faith pattern of obstructive behavior, including submitting incomplete or deceptive pleadings, filing a false declaration, knowingly producing a fraudulent trust document, and giving perjurious testimony at the evidentiary hearing.” The judge recommended that plaintiffs (the Kleiman estate) be awarded 50% of the bitcoin as well as 50% of the IP that Wright owned prior to Dec. 31, 2013.

Layer 1

  • Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, pens his views on cross-chain infrastructure and lessons from building on “Ethereum killers.” He expresses challenges building on EOS and how strong Ethereum's network effects have become.

  • Tezos launches Agora, a new platform to support the Tezos on-chain governance & amendment process. This governance explorer enables the Tezos community to keep apace with the amendment process, including proposal details, voting participation, and whether a proposal has achieved the necessary supermajority and quorum thresholds required to advance to the next stage.

  • The Electric Coin Company (ECC), the for-profit company that supports the development of the zcash cryptocurrency has issued its Q3 transparency report.

Highlighted Industry Jobs (non-exhaustive list for NYC / remote):

If you would like to highlight jobs or internships in future editions, please email links here.

Events this week:

CryptoMondays (on Tuesday!) NYC Fireside Chat W/ Jake Brukhman, CEO at CoinFund (Free)

When: Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: Lounge At The Rose Hill Hotel, 34 E 32nd Street · New York, ny

This CryptoMondays NYC will feature a Fireside Chat with Jake Brukhman, CEO of CoinFund, a blockchain-focused fund founded in 2016. CoinFund was one of the world’s first diversified portfolios of crypto assets, and Jake was one of the first investors to view cryptocurrencies and tokens as a new asset class.

Connecting the Americas (North & Latin) with Real World Blockchain Use Cases (Free)

When: Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: Distributed Global, 16 Vestry St, New York, NY

Chainhaus and BALA (Blockchain Association Latin America) bring together industry leaders to discuss Blockchain applications in LatAm. Come join us as we discuss how Blockchain solutions are being applied to various industry issues and why the technology is positioned to make an impact in Latin America. We will review videos of some real world use cases followed by an engaging discussion with Alvaro Belevan, Head of Latin America Mining Finance at Societe Generale.

[Whitepaper Wednesday] tBTC (Free)

When: Wednesday, September 4, 2019, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

Where: Rent24, 25W 39th Street 14 Fl · New York, ny

This week, we are reading about tBTC, a new way to wrap Bitcoin as a token on the Ethereum network: http://docs.keep.network/tbtc/index.pdf. There are many types of Bitcoin-on-Ethereum, and they all make slightly different tradeoffs about who to trust and how custody works. tBTC makes a new set of choices about who custodies the Bitcoin and recourse of the holders of the wrapped asset.

Stellar Meetup w/ Stellar Development Foundation & Blockchain Innovation Assoc. (Free)

When: Thursday, September 5, 2019, 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Where: 10 Crosby St · New York, NY

Having witnessed universal transition to electronic execution, clearing and settlement since the end of the last century, Alex (founder of Blockchain Innovation Associates) will talk about why blockchain and crypto-assets will be the next breakthrough in the evolution of global capital markets. Kyle from the Stellar Development Foundation will discuss Kelp, the new free and open-source trading bot on Stellar.

Upcoming events

⚡Dapp Overview: Kickstarter Clone | AragonOS Overview ⚡(Free)

When: Monday, September 9, 2019, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: WeWork Dumbo Heights, 81 Prospect St · Brooklyn

he Flatiron School // Access Labs are proud to support the Ethereum Blockchain Devs Study Group. This is a regular gathering for Blockchain Devs of all levels to learn, present, work on in collaboration with one another or on solo projects in this fast-growing field. Our community is a welcoming space where any Ethereum and de-centralized ledger related question is fair game, be it beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

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AGENDA ‍️

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6:30pm - 7:00pm: Beginner Q&A

7:00pm - ?pm: Dapp Overview: Kickstarter Clone

‍ ?pm - 9:00pm: Aragon DAO Overview

8:50pm - 9:00pm: wrap up

⚡UMA: Intro to Decentralized Finance & Financial Derivatives on the Blockchain⚡(Free)

When: Monday, September 16, 2019, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: WeWork Dumbo Heights, 81 Prospect St · Brooklyn

The Flatiron School // Access Labs are proud to support the Ethereum Blockchain Devs Study Group. This is a regular gathering for Blockchain Devs of all levels to learn, present, work on in collaboration with one another or on solo projects in this fast-growing field. Our community is a welcoming space where any Ethereum and decentralized ledger related question is fair game, be it beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

6:30pm -7:00pm Intro to #DeFi, or Decentralized Finance

7:00 - 7:30pm: Intro to financial derivatives on the blockchain and demo of UMA’s infrastructure

7:30pm -8:15pm: Workshop to create synthetic assets on testnet

‍ 8:15pm - 8:30pm: Workshop to create synthetic assets on testnet

8:30pm - 9:00pm: Q&A

Second Annual Blockchain and the Law Conference (Free)

When: Monday, September 16, 2019 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)

Where: Cardozo School of Law, 55 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003

Blockchain technology is poised to transform the financial services industry and raises significant regulatory issues. Join us at Cardozo Law School for a unique conversation with current top federal and state regulators to discuss current challenges facing blockchain technology, virtual currencies and the law. A reception will follow the program.

NYC / XRP Part II: The Blockchain Strikes Back (Free)

When: Thursday, September 19, 2019, 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Where: 265 W 37th St, 265 W 37th St · New York, NY

Promo Video: https://starwarsintrocreator.kassellabs.io/#!/BLmlBCI5_0daxXsjxJOL. This month's meetup will be in a Tech Talk format, with the feature presentation being: "An Intro to XRP". Light refreshments will be provided and the group will have a chance to socialize & network before we start the slides. Afterwards we may go out to a bar or restaurant, so don't run off!

Introduction to Decentralized Exchanges (Free)

When: Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 7:00 -- 9:00 PM

Where: 142 W. 57th Street, New York, NY

During this meetup we'll talk about Ethereum, smart contracts and how they are used to build decentralized exchanges. We'll learn about what decentralized exchanges are and how they have the potential to revolutionize how securities are traded. Then we'll take a look at Metro, a project that I have been working on during nights and weekends that attempts to provide a central location to validate and settle trades on the Ethereum network using these three protocols allowing the trading of tokens, debt instruments and options on the blockchain. During this talk we will cover the following technologies: Ethereum, 0x, dYdX, and Dharma.

Security Token NYC - Networking Event (Free)

When: Thu, September 26, 2019, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT

Where: Sunset Terrace at Chelsea Piers, 61 Chelsea Piers, #2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011

An informative panel discussion will take place, featuring Security Token Academy Professional Members -- attorneys specializing in securities, securities regulation, corporate and commercial finance. Panelists include:

David G. Adams, Senior Associate at Clifford Chance

Aryeh Friedman, General Counsel at SeedInvest

Jason P. Gottlieb, Partner & Chair, White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement at Morrison Cohen, LLP

Robin Sosnow, principal of Sosnow and Associates PLLC

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

David Gogel https://www.definancier.com
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RelayNode NYC #16 - August 26