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RelayNode NYC #18 - September 9

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…

In the midst of crypto winter, I had the opportunity to join the inaugural Techstars Alchemist Blockchain Accelerator as a Business Associate. Over the course of 13 weeks, I worked in the trenches with 10 inspiring early-stage blockchain startups (Alkemi, AnyLedger.io, Autom(8), Blockade Games, Embleema, Gilded, Paperchain, Paperstreet, Trixta, Veracity Protocol) developing businesses across DeFi, IoT, developer tools, gaming, healthcare, accounting, fundraising, supply chain, and AI. Yes - blockchain technology will impact most industries in ways we can only begin to imagine. Watch the demo day here and read my weekly recaps of the experience here.

This experience taught me much about being founder-first and the value of supporting entrepreneurs in the early stages. I lived through the emotional roller coaster – the daily high highs and low lows -- of trying to find product market-fit. I learned first-hand the challenges with starting and scaling businesses, characteristics of successful founders, insights about different business models, and how to support innovative ideas with executable, quantifiable plans.

Most startups fail. Major layoffs and restructurings at high-profile startups highlight some of the challenges of unsustainable growth. BUIDL to build is a recipe for disaster. How do you find a group of customers interested in using and willing to pay for your product? How do you test and validate demand? How do you communicate your vision to prospective investors, partners, and employees?

Accelerator programs help first-time and serial entrepreneurs focus on what matters. They provide access to a network, resources, and ideas that help you achieve 12-months of work in 3-months. If you are interested in applying, applications for the second Techstars cohort are now open and the deadline to apply is October 13, 2019. Please DM if you have any questions or if I can be helpful! :)

RelayNode Links: Sign up | Submit events

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 - data analytics sector is on

  • Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm that helps crypto companies and financial institutions manage AML risk, raised $23M in Series B funding, led by SBI Group, a Japan-based financial conglomerate spun off from SoftBank. Funds will be used to expand into Asia, expand Customer Success and Support teams, and improve crypto assets coverage.

  • DappRadar, a decentralized app data and analytics platform tracking 2,500 dapps across seven blockchains, raised $2.33M in seed funding led by Naspers Ventures, with participation from Blockchain.com Ventures and Angel Invest Berlin. Funds will be used for R&D, developing new functionality to help the business expand its services.

  • Dapp.com, a blockchain-based application and on-chain analysis platform with ~3k dapps on its platform, raised $1M in pre-A round funding led by Hashed, with participation from Du Capital.

Macro

  • Nic Carter, Partner, Castle Island Ventures, pens an excellent philosophical essay on the Bitcoin revolution and its embedded political beliefs. “You may not need it now; you may not need it ever. But as we plunge into a more despotic, authoritarian, and chaotic world, you may one day feel comfort knowing that the world’s highest assurance wealth protection system in history is waiting patiently for you.”

Open Finance / DeFi

  • Gregory Rocco, Strategy Lead at Alpine, has a great article exploring the differences between Open Finance and Decentralized Finance. He argues that most of what has been built on top of blockchains has been Open Finance and not Decentralized Finance.

  • Graeme Boy, Director of Engineering at Dharma, breaks down Dharma's journey to V2 and discusses the evolution of Dharma’s technical architecture, business, and many lessons learned along the way.

  • Ameen Soleimani, CEO at Spankchain & Summoner of MolochDAO, provides an in depth analysis of the risks of using Compound. Protocols perform a delicate dance between centralization and decentralization, trading off between the ability to upgrade quickly and the centralized points of failure that they necessarily introduce in order to do so.

  • The Maker Foundation releases a post introducing exciting changes to the Oracles infrastructure and Oracles governance. This is one of the critical milestones that the Foundation highlighted in their “The Road to Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD) Roadmap” last month.

STOs / Stablecoins

  • Paxos, a New York-based exchange and stablecoin issuer, received NYDFS approval to launch a gold-backed digital asset called PAX Gold (PAXG) on the Ethereum blockchain. PAXG lets customers buy a digital token that is backed by one troy ounce worth of gold held in a London vault. White paper here. Will this product find product market with gold traders?

  • Franklin Templeton, a global investment fund with $700B in AUM, filed a preliminary prospectus with the SEC for a government money market fund with shares tokenized on the Stellar blockchain.

  • Binance, a crypto exchange, is launching a dollar-backed stablecoin in the U.S. called Binance USD (BUSD). BUSD is being built in partnership with stablecoin issuer Paxos, which will serve as its issuer as well as custodian of fiat reserves. In July, Huobi Capital-backed startup Stable Universal also launched a dollar-pegged stablecoin called HUSD in an association with Paxos. I am expecting more issuers and custodians to get into the “stablecoins as a service” line of business.

DAOs

  • OpenLaw will be launching the first limited liability for-profit DAO, named the LAO. The LAO will enable members to invest in Ethereum new ventures and generate a profit. A new era of DAOs is beginning.

⚖️ Regulatory / Legal

  • In May, a16z held a crypto regulatory summit, bringing together leading crypto experts and builders, other technologists, academics, industry executives, and government officials to foster collaboration and the exchange of ideas. The fund released several recordings of the sessions.

Layer 1

  • Joel Monegro, Partner at Placeholder Capital, blogged about how Ethereum’s lead. “Ethereum is the IBM of the smart contract blockchains: it may not be the “best” technology, but it works well enough and has amassed a distribution advantage that will be hard to overcome by its competitors.”

  • Vitalik Buterin shared a post about the resurgence of “semi-layer-2” protocols - “a category which promises less extreme gains in scaling, but with the benefit of much easier generalization and more favorable security models.”

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:

⚡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

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: Beginner Q&A

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

‍ ?pm - 9:00pm: Aragon DAO Overview

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

Best Investments in Blockchain - Investor Panel by MOAC (Free)

When: Tue, September 10, 2019, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT

Where: Distributed Global, 16 Vestry Street, New York, NY 10013

Panel of expert investors discuss best strategic investments in Blockchain today. Hosted by MOAC Foundation. Panelists include Cherie Liu (Managing Partner, Outpost Capital, Head of US , MOAC Foundation), Evan Feng (Founder, CIO: Tapestry Capital Group), Jackson Laskey (Token Economist, Partner: New Economy Fund), Kevin O’Brien (Managing Director: Rock Tree LEX)

[Whitepaper Wednesday] Quorum (Free)

When: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

Where: Rent24, 25 W 39th St, New York, NY 10018

This week, we are reading about Quorum, a permissioned fork of the Ethereum codebase. Banks like JP Morgan are experimenting with using Quorum for interbank settlement. We will talk about how Quorum is implemented and use cases for permissioned blockchains.

NYC Core Developers Meetup (Free)

When: Thursday, September 12, 2019, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

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

This is a series of regular monthly meetups for core devs - current and aspiring! The event will feature talks from R&D staff, core developers, protocol designers, and cryptographers working on various projects. After that, we'll open the floor for questions and discussions about topics of interest.

Upcoming events

⚡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.

BitDevs: Socratic Seminar 96 (Free)

When: Monday, September 16, 2019, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: NYU Stern, 44 West 4th Room 1-70 · New York, NY

If you can't make it to the main event please join us at BBar and Grill around 9:30PM. Thanks to our friends at NYU Digital Asset Forum and Chaincode Labs for food, refreshments and event space. Discussion topics: Please see our link aggregator for a list of potential discussion topics. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments section below. A final list will be posted the day before the event. https://www.zotero.org/groups/691739/devsny/items/collectionKey/A8LUFGXV

Blockchain and the Legacy Financial World - What would Satoshi say? ($6)

When: Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Where: Axoni, 156 5th Avenue, 7th Floor · New York, NY

In this session we discuss what makes DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology - to which blockchain is a subset) attractive for the financial world. What becomes possible? What if institutions would use the public blockchain? What are the risks of joining or missing opportunities to innovate?

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.

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!

CryptoMondays NYC Fireside Chat with Zac Prince, CEO of BlockFi (Free)

When: Monday, September 23, 2019, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: Lounge at the Rose Hill Hotel, 38 E 32nd St, New York, NY 10016

This CryptoMondays NYC will feature a Fireside Chat with Zac Prince, Founder & CEO of BlockFi, which offers a suite of financial products that enable cryptocurrency holders to put their crypto to work. The company services customers worldwide, including 47 U.S. states, with interest-earning accounts and low-cost USD loans backed by crypto. BlockFi is backed by leading institutional investors.

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

Building Crypto & Bitcoin Trading Apps with Python ($10 – $99)

When: Monday, September 30, 2019, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Where: MiT National Land Services, One Penn Plaza · New York, NY

This is an intensive full day loaded with learning and knowledge transfer, a course in building a crypto trading system using Python. You will walk away with a deep understanding of the skill needed to build these apps, core business concepts, how to work with exchanges, websockets, 0x exchanges, machine learning and more. We'll use libraries like pandas, matplotlib and NumPy to build a trading system and analyze trade data, time series and charting. Python experience is not required but basic programming experience is.

Speaker: Professor Jamiel Sheikh is a graduate professor at Columbia, NYU and CUNY, where he teaches blockchain, performance management and data science respectively. He has an MBA from Columbia University, BBA from Baruch College and is completing an MS in Artificial Intelligence from Georgia Institute of Technology.

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