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RelayNode NYC #6 - June 17

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.

NYC Blockchain Week is finally upon us with many activities and events going on throughout the week.

RelayNode Links: Sign up | Submit events

RelayNode NYC is curated by:

David Gogel
Associate @ Techstars' Blockchain Accelerator fmr Co-president @ Wharton FinTech

Things to read

  • Decentralized Finance (aka Open Finance / DeFi) has grown to become one of the core drivers of usage on Ethereum. Justine Humenansky, from Blockchain at Berkley, explains what DeFi is and what DeFi is not. At the core of DeFi’s principles is the provision of a new, permissionless financial service ecosystem without any central authority, available to everyone in the world. Collateral locked on Ethereum-based DeFi applications are collectively worth $500+M (1.5+M ether). Binance published an excellent primer on the decentralized cryptoasset lending and borrowing landscape.

  • The Dai stablecoin continues to propagate through the Ethereum ecosystem at a rapid pace. Dai adoption is growing at ~20% per month, with top current use cases decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (~70% of total Dai transfers and volume) and increasing use of Dai in decentralized lending, where the likes of Nuo, dYdX, Compound, and Dharma account for 13% of Dai activity. Patrick O’Donnell provides a creative options-based approach to measuring the exposure profile and adjusted returns of a MakerDAO collateralized debt position.

  • The Block released a list of the inaugural partners of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project. The full list of initial backers is impressive and includes Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, PayPal, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Coinbase, Vodaphone, Mercy Corps., among others. Noticeably absent are traditional Wall Street, as well as Asian, Middle Eastern, and African partners. So many questions remain open on governance, token economics, and utility but this could be the iPhone / Netscape moment to bring mainstream users into crypto. Meltem Demirors, from CoinShares, has a great tweetstorm about the big picture and explains how Square and Microsoft embrace bitcoin and build on top of existing networks vs. Facebook’s approach of launching its own network. More details to come out on Tuesday, June 18. Stay tuned.

  • Facebook, Kik, Telegram… social networks differ in their approach to selling tokens. At the height of the ICO boom, Telegram, a popular encrypted messaging app (250M active users, 70B daily messages), sold its Gram token to accredited investors through a SAFT in a Reg D token offering - a sale that brought in $1.7B. The funds were used to develop the Telegram Open Network (TON), a blockchain meant to decentralize multiple facets of digital communication, ranging from file sharing to browsing to transactions. TON is expected to launch in 3Q19. According to Techcrunch, Gram Asia, a Korea based company claiming to be the largest holder of Gram in Asia, will be running a limited sale of tokens through the Liquid exchange before a tentative full public sale in October.

  • Grayscale published a thorough report on Bitcoin’s potential role as a hedge against liquidity risk and reviews Bitcoin market action in the wake of 5 macro developments, including the escalating US-China trade tensions.

  • Mary Meeker, co-founder of Bond Capital and long-time Kleiner Perkins partner, released her annual 2019 Internet Trend report. Unlike the 2018 report, which referred to Coinbase's user growth as an indicator for digital currency growth, the current issue does not directly mention blockchain or cryptocurrencies. However, various slides on open internet, privacy concerns, data, payments, and encryption explore the trends underlying the need for a censorship-resistant trustless environment. Will 2020 be the year that blockchain and cryptocurrencies get their own section in the deck?

Events this week:

Blockchain LatinX June Community Gathering at NYC Blockchain Center (Free)

When: Tue, June 18, 2019, 6:00–8:00 PM

Where: NYC Blockchain Center, 54 West 21st Street, Suite 1001, New York, NY

NYC Blockchain Center is happy to support LatinX Blockchain Group that brings together Hispanic and Latino New Yorkers interested in exploring and learning about blockchain technology and matches established blockchain entrepreneurs in the community with newcomers. During this meet up the group will discuss recent trends, use cases, workforce resources and start ups operating in the space.

DeveloperWeek New York 2019 ($150 for developers)

When: Wednesday, June 19, 2019, 8:00 AM –Thursday, June 20, 2019, 4:00 PM

Where: Brooklyn EXPO Center, 72 Noble St, Brooklyn, NY

DeveloperWeek New York (#DEVWEEKNYC) is the East Coast's largest developer & software engineering event with 3,000+ developers, engineers, architects, dev managers, IT professionals and tech execs. All will converge in New York City for a series of events covering the cutting-edge innovation in the developer technology industry: 6+ Conferences, Summits & Workshop Tracks, the 2-Day Expo, the DeveloperWeek New York Hackathon, Hiring Mixer, and Partner Events.

Enabling the Next Fintech Wave: Blockchain, Trusted Data & Identity (Free)

When: Thu, June 20, 2019, 6:30–8:30 PM

Where: NYC Blockchain Center, 54 W 21St Street, Suite 1001, New York, NY

Please join NYC Ethereum Community, Pegasys, UPort and Onfido on June 20th at NYC Blockchain Center for Enabling the Next Fintech Wave: Blockchain, Trusted Data & Identity event.

Workshop: create a token on Stellar network ($5 to RSVP, paid back in XLM at the event)

When: Thursday, June 20, 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.

Upcoming events

Hyperledger Fabric for the Enterprise - Privacy and Security Strategies (Free)

When: Monday, June 24, 2019, 6:00–9:00 PM

Where: NYC Blockchain Center, 54 W 21St Street, Suite 1001, 10th Floor, New York, NY

Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) blockchain’s architecture was designed from the ground up to be highly extensible with plug and play modules in order to meet most business cases. In this session, we will address the challenges of privacy and security by presenting the best patterns and methodologies, of how to implement enterprise-grade HLF blockchain implementations. Furthermore, we will cite real-world examples – illustrated with diagrams, code-patterns and in some cases short demos or video segments.

NYC Blockchain Center and BigApps present: Introducing NYC BigApps Blockchain Challenge: Propose a Blockchain Solution for NYC Government (Free)

When: Thu, June 27, 2019, 12:00–2:00 PM

Where: NYC Blockchain Center, 54 W 21St Street, Suite 1001, 10th Floor, 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.

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