March 16, 2021 Robert Paulson
Hedge Fund CIO: "Ethereum Now Races Toward Becoming The Foundation Of A New Global Financial System"
"We now live in a world where a Beeple can produce a virtual image, tokenized into an NFT, and purchased in a virtual auction by a Metakovan for 38,382 ether, settled on the Ethereum network, instantly, securely, all in the cloud, without the need for a legacy bank, or a single dollar.
Everything you will ever own or have ever traded will be tokenized someday in some way. Take art. A token will be generated by a smart contract and permanently linked to the work. Both ownership and authenticity of the art is verifiable. That token can be traded. Ownership can be split, allowing fractional tokenized ownership. When the piece is sold in the future, the artist can earn a portion of the proceeds if that was built into the contract. Anything can be built into these new contracts, embedded into the code, instantly processed, in perpetuity.
The hostile pundits, of course, see manias in all things digital. But throughout human history, not a single bubble ever burst when virtually no one understood what was going on. Rather, that was when the fun had only just begun. And Ethereum, despite almost no one understanding what it is, now races toward becoming the foundation of a rearchitected global financial system.
It is not that they are going to change the world. It is that they are already quietly changing the world, markets, and beneath the surface the process is accelerating faster than you can imagine."
See Also: Mattereum Asset Passport
Indian Government Officials Give Mixed Signals Over Planned Crypto Legislation
"As one government official says the planned legislation would completely ban cryptocurrency use, another stresses that is not the case.
As reported by Reuters on Monday, trading, mining, issuance and possession of cryptocurrencies are expected to be criminalized in India under an upcoming legislative bill. The official, who was not named, said the legislation is likely to make it through Prime Minister Narendra Modi's majority-controlled parliament.
On the same day as the Reuters report, the Deccan Herald, an English-language newspaper in India, cited Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman as saying the government is not planning to completely bar cryptocurrency use.
From our side, we are very clear that we are not shutting all options. We will allow certain windows for people to do experiments on the blockchain, bitcoins or cryptocurrency."
Nearly $40B in US Stimulus Checks May Be Spent on Bitcoin and Stocks: Mizuho Survey
"The survey by Mizuho Securities estimates that 10% of the $380 billion to be issued as checks could be spent on bitcoin and stocks.
Nearly two in five of Americans expecting to receive checks in the coming days anticipated using a portion of them to invest. Bitcoin is expected to account for 60% of the total invested, which could add add as much as 3% to the cryptocurrency's market value."
Sophia the Robot Set to Auction Personal NFT Digital Artwork
"The popular humanoid robot will become the first artificially intelligent being to create nonfungible token-based artworks. The social humanoid robot will hold an NFT auction via the Nifty Gateway platform on Mar. 23. Sophia's NFTs are reportedly based on the works of artist Andrea Bonaceto.
We fed Andrea's works into Sophia's own neural networks, along with many of Sophia's latest paintings. Subsequently, she generated a powerful series of new images, which she then rendered both digitally and as brush strokes, which she painted with her own hands."
See Also: Elon Musk Sells Techno Song About NFTs — As An NFT
Bitcoin Finding Support at $54K After Failing to Hold Above $60K: Technical Analysis
"Bitcoin (BTC) made a new all-time-high this weekend, but the move was short-lived. The uptrend from January continues to slow, which is probably causing some profit taking. Traders will likely defend lower support.
Initial support is around $54,000 on intra-day charts. On the daily chart, the uptrend remains intact, with lower support around $45,000."
See Also: Supply chain tokens see triple-digit gains as the global economy recovers
Bitcoin 1Q Retail Flow Exceeding Institutional Investment: JPMorgan Strategist
"Bitcoin (BTC) retail investors have picked up the slack amid an apparent decline in institutional inflows so far this quarter.
Retail investors have purchased over 187,000 bitcoins so far this quarter, compared to roughly 172,684 by institutional investors. Institutions were heavy buyers in Q4, far outpacing retail investment."
See Also: Bybit Climbs Past CME to Become Second-Largest Bitcoin Futures Exchange
Self-sovereign ID + UBI
ConsenSys Confidential: Ethereum Builder Is Back in Growth Mode, Document Reveals
"The internal ConsenSys document provides an interesting view into the restructuring of the sprawling Ethereum studio.
In 2020, ConsenSys split into two companies. ConsenSys AG (rebranded as ConsenSys Mesh) became a home for all the firm's investments, incubated projects, ongoing software work, R&D and accelerator activities. A new Delaware corporation was also created, the aforementioned CSI, focused on infrastructure, developer tools, fintech and enterprise related services.
The complexity of the original company, ConsenSys AG, made it hard to drum up investment. Some investors wanted to invest in the venture side of the business, others wanted to invest in the software business, but nobody wanted to invest in both, the document said.
The idea of splitting the company in two was not taken lightly, but was well received by potential investors. JPMorgan led a $50 million capital raise, and the bank itself made a strategic $20 million investment in ConsenSys last year. A source within ConsenSys told CoinDesk the next installment of that fundraising is soon to be announced.
As such, ConsenSys is moving from being mainly a consulting and services company towards being one focused on product revenue."
Nigerians Turn to Stablecoins for Protection Against Inflation
"In Africa, around 350 million adults do not have bank accounts, according to the World Bank.
Devaluation is a problem because if you check the last two years, 20,000 naira doesn't really have a lot of value now. What if I can actually invest this money somewhere or probably save it somewhere and the value doesn't go down? Then I can use it for something better. Why not?
In Argentina, another inflationary economy, people are increasingly turning to DAI, a stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar, after the government imposed restrictions on the amount of dollars citizens could purchase.
Ugochukwu is introducing community cooperatives and credit unions to stablecoins. Through Xend, community savings groups and larger credit unions in Nigeria will have the opportunity to maintain the value of their savings and even earn higher yields by converting their funds to stablecoins.
Xend Finance, which can be accessed via a mobile phone, will enable groups to directly store their funds in stablecoins like USDC without a middleman while earning interest on the funds. The platform is set to officially launch at the end of March."
Polygon: Ethereum's Internet Of Blockchains Explained
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