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RelayNode NYC #12 - July 29

David Gogel

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.

I went to 3 meetups last week: Tezos, Polkadot and DeFi. The quality of crypto meetups in NYC is excellent. Keep it up!

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​​

Fundraising

  • Digital Assets Data, the data analytics startup aiming to be the Bloomberg and Github of crypto, announced it raised $3.2M in new in equity funding (total of $9.2M), led by North Island, with participation from Morgan Creek Digital and Digital Currency Group. Chris, GP at Proof of Capital, provides a great market landscape of the crypto data & analytics space.

Macro

  • Ria Bhutoria, Senior Research analyst at Circle Research, released her 2Q 2019 Crypto respective covering big trends. A lot of great data in there.

Trading

  • Genesis Global, the lending arm of institutional OTC cryptocurrency trading firm Genesis Global Trading, announced in its Q2 2019 report its loan origination growth hit a new record. The NY-based firm added $746M of crypto loans in Q2, bringing its total originations to $2.3B since launching the business in March 2018. Growth was driven by a strong uptick in USD and stablecoin borrowing as well as the BTC price increase.

  • Grayscale released a study examining investor’s interests, perceptions, and misconceptions about investing in Bitcoin. The survey found that 36% of U.S. investors would consider an investment in Bitcoin.

  • Chris Burniske, GP at Placeholder VC, released the Network Value to Token Value ratio to assess relative valuations of smart contract platforms. The NVTV ratio divides the network value of a smart contract platform by the total value of all assets launched on that platform. By that metric, Ethereum’s NVTV is ~2x and EOS’s is ~234x. Interesting to see Waves’ low NVTV ratio. Waves is a popular smart contracting platform in Eastern Europe / Russia that is underreported on in the West.

  • Bakkt, the institutional derivatives platform from ICE, announced it started testing its first product, physically-delivered bitcoin futures. Bakkt has experienced multiple delays as regulators scrutinized its compliance procedures. But before Bakkt can realize its aim to create a regulated derivatives market and draw in institutional capital, regulatory hurdles still have to be cleared. Positive developments from the NYDFS (below) could accelerate this process. The Block has a post detailing a leaked version of the exchange’s initial plans.

DeFi vs. Web3

  • At the DeFi meetup last week, Messari questioned the next big thing in crypto: Web3 vs. DeFi. Kyle Samani, GP at Multicoin, released some thoughts on the Web3 stack and the unbundling vectors of centralization.

  • Post the reorganization at ConsenSys, select spokes are starting to break out through product announcements and executing on monetization strategies. Metamask announced a mobile beta to bridge the decentralized web with mobile users. Further, Infura launched its premium Infura + offering providing enhanced Ethereum blockchain infrastructure. Will other spokes figure out how to build a product with mainstream users and monetize? IMO, it’s unlikely that all 50+ spokes will make the jump to standalone profitable businesses.

  • Jeffrey Amico, lawyer at Fluidity, released the Tokenized Asset Portfolio (TAP), a standard model to enable real world assets to be pledged as collateral in decentralized credit facilities, including the MakerDAO multi-collateral Dai system. Fluidity has executed a pilot transaction to demonstrate how the TAP works, pledging U.S. Treasuries as collateral for a CDP loan on the Kovan testnet. Industry participants will now have access to credit from a fully open and permissionless financial system run by smart contracts. Preston Byrne wrote an interesting tweetstorm criticizing the design.

Regulatory

  • The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) created a new Research & Innovation Division that will oversee the licensing of cryptocurrency firms. According to the announcement, the division will be responsible for “licensing and supervising virtual currencies,” such as the BitLicense, address financial inclusion, as well as protect consumer data rights. Community members named include ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin, Global Blockchain Business Council CEO Sandra Ro, adjunct fellow at the foundation for Defense of Democracies Yaya Fanusie, co-founder of Blockchain at Microsoft York Rhodes, director of regulatory relations a Ripple Ryan Zagone, and professor of law at Cardozo School of Law Aaron Wright. Too little, too late?

  • Despite NY State’s attempt to be more crypto friendly, more regulatory clarity is required at the federal level. According to an announcement, Circle is heading to the shores of Bermuda, a move that might provide a much-needed boost for the cryptocurrency exchange operator. The new outpost will serve its non-U.S. Poloniex clients.

  • The U.S. SEC has issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters (PoQ), a gaming startup looking to issue tokens on the ethereum blockchain. DLX law’s submission to the SEC is a great guideline for other companies. Is gaming the path to mainstream adoption of crypto?

Layer 1

  • Nic Carter, Partner at Castle Island Ventures, explores settlement assurance in public blockchains and enumerates the variables which are critical for evaluating these assurances, especially those built on proof of work.

  • IDEO announced a global online hackathon in partnership with CoinList and the foundations and development teams of five leading blockchain protocols: Ethereum, NEAR, Oasis, Stellar, and Tezos. Focus is on UX, specifically making blockchains useful & usable.

Other

  • Ash Egan, VC at Accomplice, released a great article on the rise of the new crypto mafia, spanning from Wall Street, crypto, tech and and academia. It’s too bad most of the mafia are men - we need more diversity in our industry.

Events this week:

CryptoMondays NYC Fireside Chat with Mike Dudas from The Block (Free)

When: Monday, July 29, 2019, 6:30 -- 9:00 PM

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

This is going to be a truly historic CryptoMondays NYC featuring a Fireside Chat with Mike Dudas of The Block. We'll also hear from 13 year old George Weiksner who's Pocketful of Quarters project got the SECs first no action letter for an ERC-20 Token sale.

Slicing Through The Hype Around Tokenized Securities (Online)

When: Tuesday, July 30th, 2019, 10:00 -- 11:00 AM

Where: Online

This webinar is meant to slice through the hype surrounding digital securities and to develop the vision for creating a robust ecosystem for issuers, asset-managers and investors.

  • Max Dilendorf, Esq., Managing Partner of Dilendorf Khurdayan

  • Rika Khurdayan, Esq., Managing Partner of Dilendorf Khurdayan

  • Will McDonough, Chairman & CEO of Diginex Americas

  • Juan M. Hernanzez, CEO of Openfinance

  • Joshua Stein, CEO of Harbor

IDEO CoLab + Coinlist: Hackathon Prep Workshop (ONLINE)

When: Tuesday, July 30th, 2019, 1:00 -- 2:00 PM

Where: Online (sign up to get the recording)

We're supporting the IDEO CoLab + Coinlist Hackathon that's starting on August 5th. There are over $25,000 in prizes as well as other non-cash prizes like a residency at IDEO CoLab in SF or Boston. Note: Tezos will be giving a surprise gift to ALL participants who finish the hackathon (and build on Tezos).

[Whitepaper Wednesday] Adding Economic Guarantees to Blockchain Oracles (Free)

When: Wednesday, July 31, 2019, 12:00 -- 1:00 PM

Where: Rent 24, 25W 39th Street, 14 FL

This week, we’re reading about the UMA Data Verification Mechanism, an an economic approach to incentivizing oracles. At the meetup, we will talk about oracles. What are they for? Why do we need them? Why are they so difficult? Does this mechanism help?

Blockchain Summer: The Road to Mainstream Adoption (Free)

When: Wed, July 31, 2019, 7:00 – 9:00 PM

Where: Kadena Terrace, 92 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231

The Kadena Team is excited to present Blockchain Summer! Please join us as we host a live panel on The Road to Mainstream Adoption with guests such as Elizabeth Polanco formerly of J.P. Morgan, Arianna Simpson from ASP, Tarun Chitra from Gauntlet Networks, and our very own Founder and CEO, Will Martino. Journalist Jon Victor from The Information will moderate the panel.

Upcoming events

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.

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