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Grifter season in DeFi-land, and Uniswap v3 is here! Finance Redefined 4/28-5/05

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Lots of cons, no artistry

It’s grifter season: scams and opportunists run amok, and it’s harder than ever to tell who to trust.

Case and point: over the weekend, an influencer by the pseudonym “Crypto Spider” was found to have pumped-and-dumped a meme coin, $SELON — while publicly claiming that he had joined his followers in taking a loss.

The drama jarred me personally, despite the fact that I didn’t have any exposure to the failed shitcoin. The reason being is that I quoted Crypto Spider in a piece from January. Had I unwittingly aided a scammer?

I’d gotten his name from a trusted colleague. Part of my beat is emerging projects, and I’m always open to hearing from anon teams and sources — other cryptomedia outlets ignore them to their detriment, given that the largest digital asset in the world was founded by an anon.

When we spoke he told me about an algo stablecoin project, and I now realize that it was likely an effort to use the Cointelegraph platform to pump his bags. Thankfully, I did my due diligence while researching the project: the developers were clever and intrepid, but ultimately working in what appears to be a doomed vertical (though I suppose FEI and OHM are still giving it the old college try), and I profiled them as such.

While my reporting was unlikely to lead anyone astray, seeing Spider exposed as a fraud was nonetheless a jolt. It’s getting harder to tell who to trust out there — a point that Spider made himself.

I reached out to him over the weekend to ask for his side of the story, and he pointed to a Tweet thread from his alleged co-conspirator — one which, oddly, confirmed that he had promoted the project and then sold. He also sighed that he’d become “the target of anyone who shilled or created meme coins.”

It would take the moral nuance of a toddler to claim Spider’s actions are equivocal to the standard influencer cheerleading, but with all the money sloshing around more and more people seem to be getting mixed up with shady deals. 

Not even institutions are exempt: Alameda Research invested $20 million in Reef, part of what would have been a larger $80 million deal — but the two companies cut ties over a disagreement regarding Alameda transferring the tokens they purchased to Binance, presumably to sell. Alameda later said it was merely an OTC buy and not a longer-term “strategic investment.”

Anons lie, institutions lie, and despite the money pouring from the sky greed is still getting the better of people. Watch who you listen to and what you invest in — I know I’ll be even more careful going forward.

But here’s one principle that hasn’t led me astray yet: anonymity by nature encourages and enables both the best and the worst in crypto. An anon with integrity can be a guiding light in these choppy waters.

Uniswap v3 mewls out of the gate

After months of anticipation, Uniswap v3 is finally here. It may take a while before it gets its sea legs, however. 

In the first few minutes after launching the protocol had attracted $1.3 million in total value locked; at the time of publication it has since risen to $24.3 million. The majority of liquidity is in bread-and-butter trading pairs such as ETH/stable pairs, but specifics are hard to come by; while a blog post from Uniswap says that their info site has migrated to displaying v3 statistics, their top pools are still for Uniswap v2. 

Aside from the interface stumble, there is not yet sufficient liquidity to swap at any significant size. Quotes for ETH/stablecoin pairs led to double-digit slippage quotes on orders over 10 ETH or so, and the interface often suggests better prices on v2. (Cointelegraph has a policy in place prohibiting writers from making trades during business hours, so I’m only relaying the quotes I got for the trades).

The low liquidity woes may soon be ameliorated, however. As multiple Twitter observers pointed out, Uniswap is making it simple to migrate liquidity pools to v3 — including Sushiswap LP positions in what some have dubbed a “reverse vampire attack.”

Perhaps coolest of all however is that a long list of Uniswap v3 pool positions, which are represented as NFTs, are now on sale on Opensea. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams bragged about his, the first-ever v3 position. I expect a interesting market to develop over the comping days for early pool positions, and the first positions in culturally important pools may come to have significant value. What would the first EMN-DAI position NFT be worth now?

In all, a mixed-review launch. But that’s to be expected for a protocol only open to the public for the last few hours, and as Framework Venture’s Vance Spencer puts it, once it’s attracted significant liquidity v3 may well represent a new “era” for capital efficiency in DeFi:

Major stories this week

Balancer and Gnosis team up for Uniswap v3 rival Cowswap

Inverse Finance acquires Tonic in possible first-ever protocol merger

Lido looks to go cross-chain

Federal Reserve says DeFi may lead to “Paradigm Shift”

Grifter season in DeFi-land, and Uniswap v3 is here! Finance Redefined 4/28-5/05

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Seoul Government Confiscates Crypto worth $22M from Tax Evaders

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The city government of Seoul has confiscated cryptocurrencies worth $22 million from tax evaders. The digital assets were recovered from individuals and company executives.

The city of Seoul in South Korea has become the first in the country to confiscate cryptocurrencies that are held by tax evaders. The city government recovered $22 million worth of cryptocurrencies held by individuals and company executives who failed to pay their taxes.

In a report by Korea Times, the tax delinquents were identified after an investigation was conducted by the tax collection agency in the city. The investigation revealed 1566 people, including company executives, who had unpaid taxes. The office then seized $22 million worth of crypto held by 676 of the individuals who had accounts on three crypto exchange platforms.

South Korea’s strict crypto trading laws

South Korea has a strict law regarding crypto trading on which crypto exchanges are required to open and verify accounts under the real names of holders. Businesses dealing in crypto assets must also report under the requirements to avoid a jail term for executives.

The tax agency stated that the 676 individuals whose crypto assets were seized owed a total of $25 million in taxes. The city government stated that 188 of the individuals had surrendered $1 million in taxes to the government after the seizure.

South Korea Passes New Cryptocurrency Law

The Korea Times also highlighted a statement by the city governments in which the tax delinquents whose crypto was confiscated pleased for their crypto not to be liquidated. The holders had decided to pay taxes instead as they expected their cryptocurrencies to increase in value soon.

Out of the confiscated cryptos, Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for 19% of the total proportion. XRP and DragonVein accounted for 16% each, while Ether (ETH) accounted for 10%. The NTS has earlier revealed plans to investigate individuals who were evading taxes and using crypto to hide their assets. The body was investigating people who had over $8000 in tax defaults.

New cryptocurrency tax law

The government of South Korea is also set to launch a new crypto tax law that will go into effect on January 2022. The crypto tax law will deduct a 20% fee on gains of crypto trading worth more than $2300.

However, crypto investors in the country have cried foul over the new law. According to investors, the new law will not protect investors from fraud, which is the central area of concern that needs regulations.

Seoul Government Confiscates Crypto worth $22M from Tax Evaders

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Finance Education In The World

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The importance of finance education is increasing not only for investors but also for the average household that are looking to balance their budget, buy a property, and save for their children’s education and own retirement. There are several sources of finance education online and offline. You can obtain knowledge from books written by finance experts, economic websites and blogs, Crypto News, and educational material provided by brokers and forex robot developers. 

What is finance education?

Finance education lets us know how to manage our money best according to the objectives of our life and the economic and financial context. These days, it has become crucial as most western economies have entered recession. The problem is that the school system totally ignores this education and that is why most people have hardly heard of it. They never learn what they need to know in order to take control of their financial life. 

Finance education is defined as the process by which an individual can improve their knowledge of finance products, concepts, and risks. Through education, people can acquire the confidence and skills to take initiatives that are effective in improving finance well-being. 

Why do you need finance education?

The goal of it is to impart to the learner a set of knowledge allowing them to make relevant choices in the finance field. Among other things, this involves the ability to decide which types of investments and loans are the most relevant. 

The virtues of finance education are many, whether it is for the individual taken in isolation or for the society as a whole. Thus, everyone can optimize the management of their personal finances easily and speculate the unforeseen. Obviously, lowering the risks of financial exclusion also makes it possible to strengthen the integration of the most disadvantaged. 

While the development of financial innovation is growing, its education has become a prerequisite for advising and selling financial products more than ever. Unfortunately, the initiatives of the public authorities are still not sufficient in most countries. So, you need to take matters in your own hands and learn as much as you can from online and offline sources available. 

Financial markets are becoming increasingly complex, and consumers do not only have a choice between the interest rates between two different bank loans or savings plans, but between a wide range of sophisticated borrowing and saving instruments with multiple options. At the same time, there is an increasing shift in the responsibilities and risks associated with financial decisions that are made by the individual. Moreover, financial decisions leave a major impact on the future of people, including pensions, from governments and employers to employees. 

With the increase in life expectancy and the prospect of enjoying a longer retirement, the issue of pensions becomes particularly acute. Individuals will not be able to choose the savings or investments that suit them and avoid the risks of fraud if they do not have a sound knowledge of financial matters. If they do, however, they would be able to save and encourage financial service providers to develop products that really fit their needs.

Furthermore, Individuals are increasingly being asked to take full responsibility for complex savings decisions and the associated risks, which were previously at least shared with the state or employers, such as investing for their retirement or their children’s higher education. However, how are workers or parents supposed to weigh up the risks and make responsible choices in an increasingly sophisticated financial market? 

The question arises even more in countries where consumers are familiar with financial instruments such as credit cards, mortgages, or even private savings to supplement company pension plans. The situation is even more difficult in emerging economies, where rapid development has allowed a large number of consumers with mostly limited experience of formal financial systems to access financial services.

Lastly, the rapid growth of trading which is a great source of passive income today has increased the importance of financial education even more. You must keep in mind that the world of trading is complicated and full of scams. So, you must have good knowledge to avoid the risks of losing your money and become a successful trader. 

Finance Education In The World

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The Emerging Trend of Security Token Offerings

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Codezeros

One of the advanced emerging technologies is blockchain. It supports crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ether, utility tokens, and security tokens. In the financial service marketplace, crypto-assets open a world of opportunities. Most of the people out there are familiar with utility tokens, but the concept of security tokens is relatively new.

A security token extracts its value from an external and tradable asset. The trend of security token offering development is emerging rapidly. To have a clear understanding, follow the article.

The Emerging Trend of Security Token Offerings

What is STO?

For the initiation of the projects, fundraising serves to be a crucial factor for the startup. In the past couple of years, several mechanisms of fundraising have assisted the startup. Several startups have implemented ICO (Initial Coin Offering) to fulfill their purpose of fundraising. But, currently, STO (Security Token Offering) has replaced ICO.

We need to understand that each fundraising version has its advantages and disadvantages. Those versions are used by competitors to bring out a necessary featureful device. The latest type of fundraising that is used by startups is STO. The other forms of fundraising offered by security token offering development companies are utility tokens given to the investors.

Differences between IPO, ICO, and STO?

IPOs are the common way for companies to opt for fundraising. Having an IPO (Initial Public Offerings), the company can sell shares with corporate rights like voting or dividend. Such shares are highly regulated securities.

ICO emerged in 2017. The startups or companies that deal with projects associated with blockchain make use of ICO. In exchange for the capital, it provides digital value to the investors. In the beginning, most of the investors were opting for ICOs to invest. But with time, the number of digital frauds increased over here.

This made ICOs ineffective, and STO solutions took over. The popular reason behind this is that STOs were able to provide security to their investors. Keep in mind that ICOs did not fail initially, as, at that time, the tokens they provided to the investors were based on the emerging technology of blockchain. The utility tokens help the investors to access any platform of products.

Because of their high liquidity, the investors of ICO got a new way to make use of the tokens. The token could be sold for higher charges. However, the companies could not finish with their products even after gathering money from the investors. Thus, it eventually led to the loss for the investors, and thus, ICOs failed.

Insight about STO:

An investor always ensures that there should be no loss that he or she needs to face during the process. ICO did not facilitate security, and that is why these security tokens were launched to ensure a secure environment. Having real value, security tokens are the tradable assets’ digital representation.

While trading money from the companies the investors invest in, they will receive security tokens. The investment can be made peacefully, and one does not need to be worried about ROI (Return on Investment), as it is well-recognized by the law. The investment remains transparent because of the tokenization of securities.

Just like an ICO, an STO development company builds a smart contract on a network like Ethereum. To be more particular, what a usual contractor can perform, can be performed with a smart contract. There is no need for a middleman. It is fully digital.

Advantages of Security Token Offering:

We have understood that it helps in fundraising for startups and companies. But, apart from these are some more benefits that make it favorable for the companies out there. The popular benefits are as follows:

  1. The automated system eliminates frauds: Human intervention is eliminated because most of the transactions are performed on an automatic system. This means that there are little or no possibilities of extra charges or any fraud in the case of STOs. It not only improves the investors’ profitability but also increases their security.

2. Customization: Cryptocurrency can be easily customized. Any functionalities can be put, like dividends and transaction limits. The flexibility of digital assets not just makes it profitable but offers you customizable features as well.

3. No involvement of extra costs: In STOs, there is no existence of any middleman. Thus, one will never have to come across any additional costs, like a transaction fee. It increases profitability and makes the investment process less complicated for the investors.

4. One will not ever lose tokens: When a bitcoin is sent to avoid address, there is the involvement of risk up to a particular level. But the STOs can be programmed properly by the programs so that they can be recovered if stolen or lost. The only thing an owner needs to do is pass the procedures of stringent verification to acquire the tokens.

The popular STOs:

Among all the popular STOs, Nexo is comparatively more popular. It provides loans instantly with competitive rates. During the time of token sale, it raised 52.5$M successfully. Most of the shareholders of Nexo are also the most of Credissimo’s shareholders. The credibility of Nexo goes to the fintech group that is operating for several years.

Another successful STO is tZERO, which became the US’ first regulated security token exchange. At the time of token sale, they had successfully raised 134$M. CEO of Overstock was the founder of the platform. Overstock gives much credibility to the project.

In Luneburg, Germany, recently, a real estate object was tokenized. The platform was sold successfully for 1.5$M.

The future scope of the STOs:

Experts are expecting that security token offering services will enable many companies to improve their business’s liquidity by converting their valuable elements into an asset, which is more tradable. It will further leverage the company’s profit with newer investments.

To increase the fundraising capability, some startups are going to use the hi-tech blockchain feature of the STOs. They will do it by attracting global investors to make investments in their startups or companies.

Conclusion:

Compared to the ICOs’ security tokens, the STOs are more reliable and secured. This is the primary reason why most companies and investors are looking to turn their assets into tokens in the future. Moreover, STOs are now considered to be one of the most demanding investment mechanisms. We can conclude that STO will keep expanding in the upcoming future and tempt the companies and investors more towards STO.

The Emerging Trend of Security Token Offerings

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Blockchain Technology in Garbage Collection

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Blockchain Technology in Garbage Collection

Wondering if Blockchain can help in improving waste management? You have landed on the right page. This article talks about how Blockchain can tackle waste management and enlists some initiatives taken worldwide to deal with garbage collection.

Table of Contents 

  • A Glimpse of Blockchain Technology 
  • How Crypto and Blockchain Improve Waste Collection
  • Blockchain Has Already Entered Garbage Collection: Here is How
  • Concluding Lines

A Glimpse of Blockchain Technology 

In most simple words, Blockchain is a decentralized peer-to-peer ledger that maintains a complete copy of transactional records in a transparent and immutable manner. Instead of relying on a third-party intermediary or any centralized authority, it ensures complete decentralization. 

There are various exciting features of this technology, but among them, immutability is unquestionably one of its key characteristics.

Although many people still relate Blockchain with cryptocurrency, today, the technology has its footprints in almost all industries, including supply chain, healthcare, logistics, finance, and with the continuous advancements in technology, garbage collection is no more an exception.  

Implementing Blockchain in waste management can enable governments to track and monitor waste right from its generation(source) to its disposal(destination), bringing a greener environment. 

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How Crypto and Blockchain Improve Waste Collection

Every day, the planet drowns under an ever-increasing amount of garbage, wreaking havoc on human health, the economy, and the atmosphere. Systematic and effective waste disposal has emerged as a major concern in several countries, including developing nations. The reason for this vast waste management is due to the increased pace of urbanization and accelerated rate of population.

Since the waste management process involves various steps such as segregation, transportation, recycling, disposal, tracking, and monitoring, such complicated processes are nearly hard even for government institutions. But such a process can be streamlined by having a single platform to track all waste management activities right from their origin to their disposal. 

Let’s delve deeper and explore how Blockchain can help in tackling waste management.

Prevents Fraud and Manipulation 

The present disposal of waste management is unfair, lacks transparency and proper documentation. What happens is when contractors dispose of the waste material, they submit a waste plan report to the municipality office for receiving the payment, which is based on the quantity of waste they are collecting and presenting. There is no proper channel that can check the submitted, and hence these reports are easily manipulated, leading to payment frauds at a large scale. 

Blockchain can eradicate this fraud by offering a single decentralized P2P platform where the whole process can be traced and cross-checked. 

Streamlining Documents

In traditional documentations, there are always the possibilities of loss of information. But having information on distributed ledger eradicates such problems as information is stored in an immutable and transparent manner, like forever. Moreover, technology permits a massive ledger of data to be accessed securely by various stakeholders.

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Blockchain Has Already Entered Garbage Collection: Here is How

Seeing the potential benefits of Blockchain, various players have entered this space to tackle waste management. Ivan Zubilewicz, an entrepreneur from Campo Viera in northeastern Argentina, has developed a cryptocurrency that he hopes would improve and enhance local waste management.

Although the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency hasn’t developed in Argentina yet, Viera will soon be utilizing JellyCoin (in a limited capacity) in order to deal efficiently with waste collection. 

Another similar community-driven approach is carried out by a nonprofit group called CITAG which stands for Citizen Involved & Technology-Assisted Governance) in Bengaluru city, India. According to Shobha Ananda Reddy, who is CITAG’s secretary and an environmental scientist, her municipal government, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, has a Blockchain-based app to manage waste management. For now, CITAG’s Blockchain is in a development phase, but Reddy believes that if successfully implemented, data tampering would become a non-factor, and the record of citizen complaint filings and collector-marked pickups would be more precise. In addition, it will also include feedback to higher-ups on who is doing well and who is not.

RecycleGO, based in New York City, is another Blockchain-driven waste management project that aims to integrate software and technology into recycling. CEO Stan Chen believes that the world needs extensive scalable solutions for tracking in terms of attaching data to human activity to provide social impact behavior to be monitored, measured, and credited. 

Concluding Lines 

This has brought us to the end of our discussion. There is no doubt regarding whether Blockchain can revamp the entire waste management industry or not. By maintaining accountability in waste management by placing producers, customers, and waste management workers into a network together, Technology can give a new definition to the environment.

Not only Blockchain, but, Blockchain coupled with IoT sensors can help in tracking how much waste has been collected, how much can be recycled, how much is hazardous and non-biodegradable, and everything, bringing a cleaner and greener environment for one and all. 

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Blockchain Technology in Garbage Collection

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A Comprehensive Guide on Private Blockchains

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This article talks about private Blockchains, how they differ from public ones, why they are crucial for enterprises, and enlists some of the sectors where private Blockchains can be applied for good. 

Table of Contents 

  • What are Private Blockchains?
  • How They Differ From Public Blockchains?
  • Why Are They Gaining Momentum?
  • Use-Cases Where Private Blockchains are Applied
  • Concluding Lines

What are Private Blockchains?

A private blockchain is a permissioned blockchain. Private blockchains function based on access restrictions that limit individuals who may interact in the network.

In other words, it is a permissioned and restrictive blockchain that operates in a closed network. These are used mainly within an organization where only particular members are participants of a Blockchain network. These are best suited for enterprises and businesses that want to use Blockchain only for internal uses. The best part is that no one can enter this type of network without proper authentication. 

Recently such Blockchains have gained a lot of importance as they help in safeguarding companies’ sensitive information. If you want to learn more and become a Certified Blockchain Expert, get enrolled in Blockchain Council now!

How They Differ From Public Blockchains?

There has always been a battle between both types of Blockchains. Let’s briefly explain the differences between the two.  

Talking about Public Blockchains, they enable anyone to write to the Blockchain, and transactions are published to everyone on the Blockchain.

On the other hand, private blockchains enable users to be sure who’s participating, and organization controls write access to the Blockchain. Thus, private Blockchain maintains complete privacy by restricting unauthorized users.

Another difference is that public Blockchains are completely decentralized, whereas private ones are partially decentralized.

To get a more clear picture, let’s distinguish both in a tabular form.

Features  Public  Private 
Accessibility  Anyone  Single Person/ Central Incharge 
Who can join? Anyone  Permissioned and known identities
Consensus Mechanism PoS/PoW Voting or multi-party consensus algorithm
Transaction Speed  Slow  Lighter & Faster 
Decentralization Completed Decentralized  Less Decentralized 

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Why Are They Gaining Momentum?

  • Fees are lower

This network allows you to transact with the lowest possible fees, and most importantly, you may not even need a fee to start with most of the time.

  • Efficient 

Such Blockchains are more efficient, and this is because they have fewer participants, meaning they can move faster.

  • No Involvement of Unauthorized Parties

Private Blockchain does not offer any scope for any unauthorized/third party to enter the network, making it more secure and reliable.

Other benefits of such Blockchains are that they have higher transaction per second (TPS) and are highly scalable. 

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Use-Cases Where Private Blockchains are Applied

  • Real Estate

The real estate market is unquestionably stressful due to fragmented operations, criminal activities, monotonous paperwork, money expenses, and the possibility of fraud. 

Private blockchain companies can help real estate sectors by offering people ownership, securing payment, and getting rid of any underlying criminal problems.

  • Insurance 

Insurance sectors deal with complicated agreement issues, deceitful claims activity, third-party transactions, and handling tremendous data. Private Blockchains offer faster and better access that leads to smoother interaction between insurers and their customers. Moreover, technology can help automate the entire insurance claim process, saving the inconvenience of waiting in line.

  • Healthcare

The healthcare sector suffers from fragmented data, delayed communications between the participating parties, and a lack of interoperability. Private Blockchain companies can help maintain patients’ confidentiality and offer access to doctors with the consent of patients. Moreover, Blockchain technology can be efficient for assuring integrity in the drug supply chain, including tracking and tracing and the concepts of provenance.

KitChain, MELLODDY Project, MyClinic.com, Verified.Me are some of the top healthcare projects that are powered by Hyperledger.

It is important to note that private Blockchains are not specified to these particular areas; instead, they can be applied in many areas such as in banking and finance, supply chain, media, entertainment, and others. 

Concluding Lines 

Private Blockchains such as Ethereum, Hyperledger, Corda, Quorum are best suitable for enterprises who want to take complete advantage of the Blockchain technology but don’t want to expose their critical data. 

If the idea of building on a private blockchain sounds interesting to you, you can get enrolled in Blockchain Council and become a Certified Blockchain Expert. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

A Comprehensive Guide on Private Blockchains

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