Crypto

Technical due diligence, web3’s promise, how to hire well • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 25, 2022Posted in Crypto, due diligence, EC roundup, hiring, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Venture, web3No Comments

In films, screenwriters always include a moment known as the Promise of the Premise. It’s the part of the story where the audience settles in to the new world they’ve entered. One of my favorite examples is in the first Harry Potter movie, when Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, the magical shopping district that introduces him (and us) to the world of wizarding. So far, web3 has not paid off on the Promise of the Premise: open source software that runs live on the blockchain. “It’s still much easier to develop a Web 2.0 app simply because the ecosystem is mature and enjoys a large and thriving developer community,” says Devin Abbott, who specializes in design and development tools, React and web3 applications. Full ZebethMedia+ articles are only available to membersUse discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription According to Abbott, the web3 development community is approaching “an inflection point where our own tools are becoming quite powerful,” but “that doesn’t mean Reddit is moving off its Web 2.0 cloud servers.” So far, most of the hype for web3 is coming from investors and journalists, so Abbott’s perspective as a developer makes this a useful read. Most of web3’s early use cases don’t interest me. Then again, I’m not a developer, so I didn’t truly appreciate the value of mobile gaming, GPS and cloud storage until they’d achieved product-market fit and were integrated into my smartphone. Today, I wouldn’t consider buying a device that couldn’t help me find a restaurant or hotel. When it emerges, I suspect web3’s killer app will be similarly utilitarian. Thanks for reading, Walter ThompsonEditorial Manager, ZebethMedia+@yourprotagonist 3 ways to hire well for your startup Image Credits: AndreyPopov (opens in a new window) / Getty Images For early-stage startups “this is arguably one of the worst times to be looking for talent,” says Champ Suthipongchai, founder and GP of Creative Ventures. Opportunistic hiring managers might assume that widespread layoffs have shifted the balance in their favor, but “those were generally not employees executing core businesses.” Usually, startup recruiting resembles scenes from heist movies where the characters are putting a crew together: it’s an expedited process designed to fill knowledge or experience gaps, not necessarily find the best fit. “Whenever possible, it is far better to slowly integrate a great candidate in as an adviser or part-time contractor and let things play out,” writes Suthipongchai. “Just as a customer pilots the product, companies should pilot their most important hires whenever possible.” 8 questions to answer before your startup faces technical due diligence Image Credits: kutaytanir (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Outsiders study multiple facets of a startup to determine its value and quality, and codebase health is one of them. A pitch deck is just part of the story, writes Matt Van Itallie, founder and CEO of codebase analytics company Sema. After technical due diligence begins, no amount of storytelling can cover the secrets buried in GitHub and Jira. To help companies prepare for TDD, Van Itallie has written a primer with eight questions founding teams must be able to answer confidently. Tomorrow, we’ll run his detailed TDD checklist. To better thwart ransomware attacks, startups must get cybersecurity basics right Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / ZebethMedia Creating systems that are resilient against ransomware isn’t top of mind for early-stage startups, but many companies don’t even follow basic best practices, much to their detriment. “Enable multifactor authentication (MFA) on everything you have,” said Katie Moussouris, founder of Luta Security. “Enable it on every account that you have.” Last week at ZebethMedia Disrupt, Moussouris and Brett Callow, threat analyst at Emsisoft, spoke about the need to invest early in locking down their systems, starting with MFA. “It’s a matter of stacking security layer upon security layer,” said Callow. “MFA in conjunction with staff training — in conjunction with other things — all serve to reduce risk.” Black startup founders raised just $187 million in the third quarter Image Credits: Getty Images The downturn appears to be disproportionately affecting Black founders’ ability to raise capital. “When the venture capital industry catches a cold, underrepresented founders catch pneumonia,” said Tiana Tukes, an investor with Colorful Capital. In Q3 2022, Crunchbase reports that Black founders raised just $187 million, “a staggering decline from the nearly $1.1 billion they received in Q3 2021 and a sizable drop from the $594 million the cohort raised in Q2,” writes Dominic-Madori Davis. Investors are sitting on mountains of cash: Where will it be deployed? Image Credits: H-Gall (opens in a new window) / Getty Images No matter what’s happening in the public markets, bees make honey, and venture capitalists raise money: it’s just what they do. But since the “extreme valuation recalibration” in the public markets, VCs are amassing more and more dry powder, write Jeremy Abelson and Jacob Sonnenberg of Irving Investors. More frustrating news for founders: investor fundraising “is on pace to finish the year at $172 billion,” but capital deployment is way down. “Dollars are flowing and will continue to flow, but it will be more capital to fewer companies,” they write. Now that “traditional SaaS has become too expensive and secondarily saturated,” sectors like web3, life sciences and agtech will attract more investors, they predict.

Dragonfly, Haun Ventures and Sequoia talk web3 and more at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 24, 2022Posted in blockchain, Crypto, Dragonfly, Haun Ventures, Sequoia, TC Sessions: Crypto, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022, Tom SchmidtNo Comments

While the overall crypto markets have been in a rough spot lately, web3 venture capitalists have never had more conviction — or more funding at their disposal — to back startups and teams building in the space. The big question on their minds is whether tokens and startup valuations have bottomed out, or if they need to wait a bit longer to score the best possible deal. When to place your bets is a delicate balance in any tech sector, never mind one as rambunctious as crypto. That’s one reason why we’re stoked that Chris Ahn, partner at Haun Ventures; Michelle Bailhe, partner at Sequoia; and Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly will join us onstage at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami. We’re looking forward to hearing Ahn’s take on how the regulatory landscape is evolving in crypto, both in the U.S. and abroad, and how web3 startups can effectively navigate political and legal uncertainty. We can’t wait to hear Schmidt’s take on what it’s like to be an investor at a crypto-native VC firm as more traditional venture firms move into the space. Is Dragonfly as optimistic about the crypto market as it was last April when the VC firm closed its third venture fund to the (oversubscribed) tune of $650 million? Inquiring minds want to know. Meanwhile, Bailhe brings valuable perspective — from her standpoint as a generalist growth investor at a venture firm that made its name in web2 — on how the web3 space is developing relative to the broader tech ecosystem. We’ll be sure to ask all three panelists how their firms are navigating the competitive dynamics between crypto-native investors and tech VCs with broader mandates for the best web3 deal flow. Chris Ahn, a partner at Haun Ventures, leads investments at both early and acceleration stages. Previously, Ahn was a partner at Index Ventures and led the firm’s crypto efforts, including investments in Fireblocks and Bridge. Prior to joining Index, Ahn helped build and lead the strategic finance and business operations teams at GitHub, and he led the acquisition with Microsoft. Ahn also spent time at Hellman & Friedman and started his career at Morgan Stanley. Michelle Bailhe, a partner at Sequoia, focuses on crypto, software and internet investments. She is involved with Sequoia’s investments in FTX, LayerZero, Fireblocks, Pilot and more. Prior to Sequoia, Bailhe worked at Hellman & Friedman, Google and McKinsey. Prior to joining Dragonfly as general partner, Tom Schmidt led product at 0x, and he worked as a product manager at Facebook and Instagram. Schmidt holds a degree in computer science from Stanford. Take advantage of early-bird pricing. Buy your pass today, and you’ll save $150. Then get ready to join the web3, DeFi and NFT communities at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami.

Building the bridge between Web 2.0 and web3 • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 24, 2022Posted in Column, Crypto, EC Blockchain, EC Column, EC Cryptocurrency, ethereum, Ethereum Merge, Google, Startups, Web 2.0, web3No Comments

Devin Abbott was founder of Deco (acquired by Airbnb) and specializes in design and development tools, React and web3 applications, most recently with The Graph. It’s too early to predict all the implications of the recent Ethereum blockchain Merge, but it definitely addresses the most frequent (and valid) criticism of web3 regarding excessive energy consumption. Critics may still find a new reason to oppose ETH, but my hope is this Merge will lead to something else: A chance for us to also merge what’s best about Web 2.0 with what’s most exciting about web3. There’s seemingly a growing rift in Silicon Valley, with the traditional Web 2.0 industry and the burgeoning web3 ecosystem depicted as being in opposition to each other. And trapped somewhere in the middle are emerging startups. I’m active in all three groups, and I believe most of this controversy is based on wild pronouncements and hype by VCs and other evangelists who are not developers. Incessant celebrity promotions of NFT drops, for instance, have contributed to the impression that web3 as a whole is a Ponzi scheme. In fact, NFTs are only a small part of the web3 ecosystem, and, in my view, not even the most interesting or potentially transformative. While Web 2.0 and web3 may seem incompatible, I believe it’s better to see technologies like blockchain and ETH as potential back-end solutions for scalability challenges that all companies face. In a similar way, web3 advocates should recognize that Web 2.0’s maturity makes it indispensable for many core use cases. Despite web3’s great potential, it’s still much easier to develop a Web 2.0 app simply because the ecosystem is mature and enjoys a large and thriving developer community. Let’s consider a couple examples where each side has something to contribute: From web3: An emerging revolution in open source To capture what’s happening in web3 development now, we have to go back to before the Web 2.0 era. During the dot-com boom, there was quite a lot of buzz over open source, Linux and hot companies like Red Hat. While very few consumers would go on to install Linux as their operating system, this buzz helped contribute to something equally important. In the background, with few people noticing, Linux quickly became the go-to operating system for running the back-end servers of 96.5% of the top million web domains — not to mention the massive Android market.

Alchemy, Ava Labs and BlockFi break down funding in a bear market at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 21, 2022Posted in Alchemy, BlockFi, Crypto, crypto markets, cryptocurrencies, Fintech, Flori Marquez, Nikil Viswanathan, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022No Comments

Bears hibernate during the coldest months, but there’s nowhere to hide from a bear market during a crypto winter. As the entire sector faces what looks to be a long stretch of uncertainty, young founders must find a way to keep the funds flowing. But how? This timely topic is why we’re thrilled that industry veterans Flori Marquez, founder and COO at BlockFi; Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder and CEO at Alchemy; and John Wu, president of Ava Labs, will join us onstage for a panel discussion called “Fundraising in Crypto Winter” at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami. If anyone understands the highs, lows and overall volatility of the crypto market, it’s the three people on this panel. Marquez’s BlockFi recently signed a deal giving FTX US the option to buy the crypto lender she founded. Viswanathan’s Alchemy, one of the fastest-growing companies in technology history, raised a $200 million Series C1 last February, giving the web3 developer infrastructure startup a valuation just north of $10 billion. Meanwhile, Wu’s Ava Labs is reportedly raising a $350 million funding round and looking at a potential valuation of slightly more than $5 billion. It’s a wild season for bulls and bears alike. We’re curious to hear the panel’s take on how fundraising, cap tables and valuations have shifted given the market conditions — and whether startups will see recovery within the near term. We’ll also ask these founders what they’re focused on when it comes to investing in crypto startups or projects, and which subsectors have the most opportunity for growth in a bear market. Learning how these three operators built and scaled their own startups through previous turbulent cycles in the crypto markets will be informative. Both Marquez and Wu entered crypto with traditional finance backgrounds while Viswanathan comes from Big Tech. Hearing how fundraising in the crypto space differs from those worlds — and how it has evolved from prior bear markets — will also be a worthwhile perspective. Don’t miss what’s sure to be a fascinating and valuable discussion. Flori Marquez, BlockFi founder and COO, oversees the company’s operations, client service, people, engineering and retail product teams. Since founding the company with Zac Prince in 2017, Marquez has built and managed critical functions, including the trading, risk, compliance and marketing teams. Marquez has spent her career managing alternative lending products. She served as head of portfolio management — and helped build, scale and optimize a $125 million portfolio — at Bond Street (acquired by Goldman Sachs). She managed all operations from point of origination through default and litigation. Prior to Bond Street, Marquez helped develop and maintain institutional partnerships at Oak Hill Advisors, a $30 billion fixed-income asset manager. Nikil Viswanathan is the co-founder and CEO of Alchemy, a leading blockchain developer platform valued at more than $10 billion. The company is backed by top investors, including Coatue, a16z, Lightspeed, Silver Lake, Pantera and many more. Viswanathan received his BS and MS in computer science from Stanford, and formerly worked in product management at Google, Microsoft and Facebook. A serial entrepreneur, Viswanathan co-created the social app Down To Lunch, and he was listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. As president of Ava Labs, John Wu aims to open up financial services and products for everyone. He brings more than 20 years of expertise as a fintech executive and technology investor to creating a blockchain-enabled solution for originating, issuing and trading financial assets. Previously, Wu built and led the digital assets business at SharesPost, where he served as CEO of the Digital Assets Group. Prior to that, he was a technology investor and the founder of Sureview Capital, a global hedge fund backed by the Blackstone Group. Wu began his investment career at Tiger Management before managing a global technology portfolio at Kingdon Capital. He received his MBA from Harvard University and holds a BS in economics from Cornell University. TC Sessions: Crypto takes place on November 17 in Miami. Take advantage of our Early Bird pricing and save $150. Buy your pass today, and then join the leading voices and visionaries in the blockchain, DeFi, NFT and web3 communities. Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Meta’s $10B metaverse investment is ‘not enough’ according to Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 21, 2022Posted in Animoca Brands, Crypto, Disrupt, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, web3, Yat SiuNo Comments

Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, has a lot of thoughts about the metaverse. That’s because his company owns The Sandbox and has investments in many different web3 companies, such as OpenSea, Dapper Labs and Axie Infinity. At ZebethMedia Disrupt, he shared his thoughts about Meta’s take on the metaverse. They said they’re going to spend $10 billion a year to make the metaverse work. Well, here’s the thing — we think $10 billion is not enough for Facebook to succeed. Billions of dollars are transacted in the open metaverse space — actually much more when you consider fungible tokens. Most of the value goes to the end user, so why would I transact on something like Meta — regardless of its visuals — when I have to give half of it to the platform? Whereas if I use Sandbox, I get 95% of it. It just doesn’t make any sense for me to do that, economically speaking. And because billions of dollars of value are already generated in an open way, why would I surrender that value? So Facebook would have to spend a lot more to incentivize people to go into its platform. But that doesn’t mean that Zuckerberg is the wrong person to head up this project. “I would say that certainly Zuckerberg did get it right in terms of construction. Remember, he tried to put out Libra, right?… So he understands blockchain,” Yat Siu said. But what is the metaverse exactly? A lot of people are still arguing about that. Some people think it’s online universes, while others think it involves virtual reality. According to Yat Siu, the key thing that makes a metaverse a true metaverse is property rights. “Just how George Washington said that you can’t have basically, freedom without property rights, we think the same is true with digital. You can’t have digital freedom without digital property rights. So our perspective on the open metaverse is that it has to start with a foundation of ownership. And that’s where The Sandbox stands out,” he said. Animoca Brands is much bigger than The Sandbox. There are 380 companies in the group and portfolio. Thirty of them are subsidiaries. Animoca Brands is technically an Australian company with a headquarters in Hong Kong and nearly a thousand employees. It’s quite easy to sum up Animoca Brands’ strategy. The company is investing in the web3 ecosystem because there are some strong network effects. It is betting on a web3 rising tide that could lift all boats. “The economy activity around the ownership of cars is much bigger than the sales of cars,” Yat Siu said. He mentioned Uber, Lyft and car washes as examples of businesses that work without selling cars. “For instance, when we made our first check in OpenSea, which had a very small valuation back in 2018–2019, it wasn’t because we hoped that OpenSea would be a decacorn,” he said. “We did it because OpenSea had lots of NFT work and relatively good NFT volume. We would help push that and we would have our own NFT sales and every company we invest in could sell on OpenSea.” In other words, if web3 becomes a huge thing, it’s clear that Animoca Brands is well positioned to become a key player in the space.

N26 adds crypto trading with new Bitpanda integration • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in challenger bank, Crypto, crypto trading, Fintech, N26, StartupsNo Comments

Challenger bank N26 is launching a new trading feature in its app — N26 Crypto. Users will be able to easily trade crypto assets using money in their N26 account. Behind the scenes, N26 is partnering with Bitpanda to handle trading and custody. N26 is going to slowly roll out N26 Crypto across Europe. At first, only some users in Austria will be able to access the new feature. Other countries should get the feature at some point over the next six months. N26 will let you buy, sell and hold 100 different crypto assets. The startup plans to add another 94 crypto assets later down the road. And I’m sure the company will expand to stocks and other asset classes soon. N26 Crypto will be accessible from the second tab, which has been renamed “Finances”. From this screen, you will find your spaces — those are sub-accounts that you can use to set some money aside in a different pocket of money. Spaces can also be used as shared accounts with someone else. Below your list of spaces, there is a new “Trading” section with your crypto portfolio. N26 lists all your crypto assets, the value of your positions and how they have changed over the last 24 hours, week, month or year. Whenever users want to buy or sell some cryptocurrencies, they can hit the buy or sell button, choose a crypto asset (or search for it) and enter an amount. N26 displays both the exchange rate and how much you will pay in fees. Image Credits: N26 N26 plans to charge 1.5% for bitcoin trades and 2.5% for all other cryptocurrencies. That’s the same fee that users pay in Bitpanda’s own app. Users who pay €16.90 per month for N26 Metal will pay 1% and 2% in transaction fees on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies respectively. The main advantage with N26 Crypto is that it is directly tied with your existing bank account. You don’t have to upload money to a different trading account, switch to the Bitpanda app (ot another app) and then start trading. Similarly, when you cash out with N26 Crypto, you will get EUR in your main N26 account — no need to transfer money back to your bank account. N26 isn’t the first fintech startup that builds a deep integration with Bitpanda. French payment app Lydia also partnered with Bitpanda to introduce the ability to trade stock, precious metals, cryptocurrencies and ETFs in its app last year. In my experience, it works really well. Last week, N26 shared its 2021 financial results. While gross revenue grew by 50% to reach more than €180 million, its operating costs also grew at a rapid pace, resulting in a €170 million net loss. Of course, N26 has also raised hundreds of millions of euros. Thanks to these deep pockets, the company has plenty of time to figure out how to get more revenue from its users while keeping its operating costs under control. As N26 and Bitpanda have likely agreed to share revenue coming from N26 Crypto, the new feature should contribute to the company’s bottom line.

BetterData taps the blockchain to help create better synthetic data • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Battlefield, battlefield 2022, BetterData, Crypto, Disrupt, StartupsNo Comments

As the global data privacy regulatory landscape gets more convoluted and constrictive, engineering teams looking to use structured data to improve their products and AI models are being pushed to jump through plenty of hoops to stay compliant. BetterData, which is launching onstage at the ZebethMedia Disrupt SF Battlefield startup competition, is aiming to help customers quickly generate representative, synthetic structured data so that technical teams can work with data in a compliant way without waiting for months to gain clearance to use actual user data or generate their own. The company’s product helps generate the AI data in a secure way that allows clients to upload real user data and securely transmit and convert it without a copy of the data landing on BetterData’s servers. User data is tokenized and stored on a blockchain which is only accessible with a user’s private encryption keys. Image Credits: BetterData The generative data copy maintains the key properties of the original structured data while anonymizing and scrambling the information. This enables teams to train models and create products that are capable of parsing organic user data, but helps them avoid lengthy bureaucratic processes often required to gain access to user data. The startup’s co-founders, CEO Uzair Javaid and CTO Kevin Yee, have backgrounds in AI data generation and blockchain security. They met at the Entrepreneur First program in Singapore. The duo have raised $770,000 in funding and grants so far and are in the process of closing a seed raise. “We’ve spoken to hundreds of data teams… and they all face the problem which is access to data,” Yee told ZebethMedia in an interview. “It takes a long time to access data under data protection rules… They’re trying to innovate, but it takes so much time.” Image Credits: ZebethMedia The company announced onstage that they will be expanding the private beta after a number of successful pilot programs. BetterData is particularly targeting customers in the Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) world, as well as data and AI teams at tech companies. Yee and Javaid hope their product can not only help those teams stay compliant with the increasing sprawl of data privacy regulations but can also help them avoid data attacks and leakages by tapping encryption and the blockchain. The blockchain element will also allow customers to have an immutable access log and a full breakdown of data lineage so they can ensure that data is never being mishandled. For now the company’s product focuses exclusively on processing and generating structured data, but as they build out their functionality, they plan to start generating text data using natural language processing models. They are planning to launch a public beta of their cloud services solution by the end of this year.

Stablecoin demand maintains pace as other cryptocurrencies tumble • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Crypto, crypto ecosystem, cryptocurrencies, EC Blockchain, EC Cryptocurrency, stablecoin, stablecoinsNo Comments

More investors are swapping cryptocurrencies for stablecoins, signaling a potential shift toward the less risky asset. Stablecoin dominance is near 16%, about 2.7 percentage points away from an all-time high set in mid-June. (This percentage is determined by how much of the total crypto market capitalization is made up of stablecoins; it is, from one perspective, a bearish indicator the stronger it becomes.) “Stablecoins have been growing independently of market cycles simply because of their ability to improve financial inclusion,” Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of the world’s largest stablecoin by volume, Tether, said to ZebethMedia. “Stablecoins are also created based on market supply and demand, so when some crypto prices fall, traders may see this as a buy opportunity to use stablecoin to move in and out of positions.” The total stablecoin supply peaked in early April around $182.6 billion but has since fallen about 22% to $141.3 billion as of October 18, data from The Block shows. Even with that said, stablecoins have expanded in volume vastly over the years, and will continue to grow as the crypto market develops, Ardoino added. “Stablecoins are able to make the economy much more efficient by bringing digital dollars to the real world, putting U.S. dollars on a blockchain, attracting liquidity to the currency and allowing it to increase its dominance.”

Solana’s web3 phone is an ‘opportunity’ against Google and Apple, co-founder says • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 20, 2022Posted in Crypto, crypto ecosystem, cryptocurrencies, smartphones, SolanaNo Comments

It’s been almost four months since the layer-1 blockchain Solana announced its web3-focused smartphone Saga and as the phone is approaching its official release date, the plan has shifted. “Our goal isn’t to sell 10 million units,” Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, said onstage at Disrupt 2022. “We would be very happy with 25,000 to 50,000 units sold in the next year, that would be awesome.” While it’s not easy to launch a new phone successfully — as we’ve seen with countless other companies’ efforts — Solana is looking to approach the launch differently, Yakovenko hinted. This is a tool to attract developers, Yakovenko added. “This is a developer play.” Prior to launching Solana, Yakovenko spent most of his professional career at Qualcomm and has helped other major tech companies like Facebook and Windows create mobile phones. It’s worth noting a bunch of those failed. But the main difference now is it’s not as capital intensive, Yakovenko said. “This is one of the moon shots,” Yakovenko said. “The reason why we can do this is because it’s cheap enough to try. It’s not going to break the bank or anything like that.” The phone market has matured to a point where teams can build a device quickly with small modifications to an Android so it can enable a web3 experience, Yakovenko noted. “The opportunity exists right now because we don’t need to get $10 million sales off the bat. We can actually target a very small niche audience which is crypto-heavy web3 users.” If there’s a web3 distribution channel for mobile crypto developers, it can open up opportunities for them to build experiences outside of the laptop-centric digital asset ecosystem, Yakovenko said. Users won’t have to sign into four different applications to create a crypto transaction, he joked. “Those are the flywheels we need for the next cycle.” “Imagine you have 50,000 to 100,000 people who trade daily on Magic Eden,” Yakovenko said. “That’s a more lucrative distribution channel for developers than the app stores with hundreds of millions of users. For web3 all the money is in these small niche groups right now.” Separately, the web3-focused phone will allow content creators and platforms to enable digital ownership rights to both organizations and users – opposed to handing over the 30% tax Apple and Google have for in app sales. The idea of true digital ownership means the digital items have to be treated like physical ones, and this isn’t something Apple or Google are built around, Yakovenko said. “They’re built around a rent-seeking model where all the content is owned by the creator and you as a user rent it. When you buy a video from Amazon, you don’t actually own it; everyone realizes that you don’t own it.” So neither Google nor Apple want to really take on web3 because true digital asset ownership disrupts their business models, Yakovenko said. “When you’re the content creator and you have an app on the iOS store, you can take the 30% fee and eat it and give it to Apple. Magic Eden can’t sell a $10,000 NFT for $13,000 on the iOS app, they can’t tack on tax nor can they eat it because that’ll destroy profits.” “The opportunity is here right now,” Yakovenko said. “Both Google and Apple, I don’t know what’s going to have to change internally for them to give up the 30% tax on apps. It’s just too good for them to give it up in the next five years.” So while those two mega companies continue implementing their 30% tax, there’s a “wedge that exists.” Saga plans to implement digital asset products and services, so users can transact with their cryptocurrency through the device, opposed to a laptop browser. In addition to the announcement of Saga, it is also launching Solana Mobile Stack, or SMS, which is a web3 layer for Solana built on the phone. “Let’s say crypto actually grows from 10 million monthly active users to 100 million monthly active users in the next five years I would imagine so does the SMS stack or the phone itself,” Yakovenko said. Then, maybe Google or Apple might change their mind on the tax and would allow for similar web3 experiences that Saga is hoping to have. “That would be a win,” Yakovenko said. “We would have won for everyone in crypto. That would be awesome.”

Eswatini’s central bank mulls issuance of a digital currency • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 19, 2022Posted in CBDCs, Crypto, eswatiniNo Comments

The kingdom of Eswatini is considering the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), joining the growing list of African countries exploring the viability of an e-currency. The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) said it has appointed German technology group Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to research and explore the possibilities of a digital Lilangeni (the country’s currency) to complement banknotes. The CBDC project will involve a design concept, and other considerations such as governance, accessibility, interoperability, security and programmability of the potential digital currency. The consultants are expected to help the CBE make an informed decision on whether or not to adopt the e-currency, and the best ways to roll it out. The project follows the completion of the first phase of a 2020 CBDC Diagnostic study by the CBE, which “presented the strongest and direct opportunity for the adoption of a digital currency in Eswatini.” “The Central Bank of Eswatini is delighted to have engaged G+D as a technical consultant to walk with us in our journey as we explore and formulate the foundational policy considerations and use cases of a localized CBDC. We are confident that G+D’s technological expertise and their strong regional presence in our continent will allow us to realize all possible advantages of a Digital Lilangeni and ensure we’re fully equipped to issue a CBDC in the future,” said CBE Governor, Dr. Phil Mnisi. G+D recently helped Ghana to pilot a retail CBDC, making it the second country after Nigeria to run such a trial. Nigeria’s eNaira was introduced in October last year and had by August 2022 been used to carry out transactions worth ₦4 billion ($9.2 million). Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia are some of the other African countries eyeing digital currencies to enhance their access to financial services, cost reductions, interoperability and enhanced cross-border payments. The CBDCs, unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are developed by central banks and are pegged on countries’ fiat currencies.