The Web3 Rewind

A handful of the most interesting and current stories in the blockchain/web3 world not published on DeCential this past week in case you missed them

Hello and welcome back to the Web3 Rewind! Per usual with the industry, lots has happened this past week so without further adieu, let’s dive into this week’s news.

The Latest

For someone who has hitched a good part of their net worth and income generation to the crypto train, the ongoing bear market can get harrowing. DeCential Media certainly believes in the future of web3, blockchain technology and the innovation monster they’ve released. Yet, vibes. If one bubble has burst this year, another remains. It’s hard for people immersed in crypto to see the bigger picture. Their bubble stops at U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC).

That’s why it was a shock to have an investor tell me this week that the Great British pound is now almost as volatile as Bitcoin. When the Tasmanian Devil in a blue dress is elected Prime Minister and yo-yos one of the longest-standing economies in the world, sure, that will affect the value of a quid. Truss lasted six weeks, the pound is basically immortal. But I checked it out, and it’s true. Both currency’s volatility stands at about 21 percent, according to Bloomberg data. (I’d like to know the same for Ethereum but can’t find a reliable volatility measure for it. Anyone know one?)

Then there are the global stock and bond markets, which are taking a beating. The S&P 500 is down 18.1 percent over the past year. The Bloomberg Global-Aggregate Total Return Index, a measure of global bonds, has dropped 12.9 percent in that same time period. Inflation is hairy as anyone who’s renewed their health insurance or filled up at the gas station knows. So the big picture is bad. And I still have unanswered questions of how correlated crypto has become to the macro global economy. But maybe, I don’t know, it feels just a tad bit better to know the rest of the world isn’t humming along at 15 percent annual returns as crypto continues to languish.

In any case, we’ll have more on this soon as we’ll speak to Jeff Dorman, Arca’s co-founder and chief investment officer. Stay tuned. — Matthew Leising, Editor in Chief, DeCential Media

Transactions per second dept.

In what seems as elusive as the finding the Fountain of Youth, the hunt for a layer one solution that will gain the title of “Ethereum Killer” is yet again heating up. With Solana (SOL) having been the forerunner in this department for a few years, there appears to be a serious contender in Aptos.

The newer layer one has been courted by many of the larger venture capital players in the crypto space. With seasoned developers this project looks like it may have the ability to live up to the hype, especially after closing a $200 million “strategic funding” round in March, per Decrypt.

Moving over to the more technical chops of Aptos, the project claimed to have achieved 130,000 transactions per second (TPS) during testing. Compared to Solana’s roughly 3,000 TPS and Ethereum’s 30-35 TPS, Aptos definitely has a big leg up. The question that has been echoed by multiple folks in the industry, however, is whether or not this is sustainable, or in fact, even achievable once tokens have been properly distributed to the larger market with real trading volumes tracked.

With the mainnet going live on Tuesday Oct. 18, it appears that the results are inconclusive. Decrypt noted that “Aptos was reported to have a transaction per second of seven TPS (at launch), less than the Bitcoin blockchain.” Aptos co-founder Mo Shaikh acknowledged the less-than-stellar launch, attributing it to the network still gearing up to integrate with new projects. While the debate will undoubtedly continue as to whether or not Aptos can live up to the hype, it will be important to see if more clarity can be provided for the overall distribution of Aptos tokens, as their distribution and lock-up schedule has been murky at best. — Parker Dresdow, DeCential Media

Quick Bits

ParaFi Capital Among Backers for Web3 Fashion and Lifestyle Platform YoloYolo

• Amid an unstable geopolitical market and crypto winter, interest in NFTs seems to be teetering - investors who once touted their BoredApes collections are quieting down as prices seem to continually decline. However, one new startup hopes to turn the tide on this trend.

• YoloYolo, a platform connecting NFTs with brands and creators for merchandise collaborations to boost utility, just announced $3.5 million in seed funding from ParaFi Capital, Mirana Ventures, Morningstar Ventures and others. As CoinDesk notes, the collaboration YoloYolo is looking to create is nothing new, as brands like Gucci and Tiffany’s have launched their own NFT collaborations. But the question remains: if the stack will be as “critical” to the landscape as YoloYolo investor Anjan Vinod claims.

DAOs Aren't People, Crypto Lawyers Tell Court in CFTC's Ooki Case

• In an ongoing lawsuit by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against Ooki DAO, a group of lawyers and developers said the CFTC should serve individuals it believes broke the law rather than the DAO in its entirety.

• The amicus briefing was filed by LeXpunK Army, “community of lawyers and devs dedicated to providing open source legal resources and support for the DeFi industry,” according to its website. The attorneys noted, “if the CFTC alleges that individuals it cannot identify are responsible for [Commodity Exchange Act] violations, the solution is to name them as fictitious defendants until such persons can be identified…and given an appropriate opportunity to defend themselves.”

Coinbase CEO To Sell 2% of His COIN To ‘Fund Scientific Research’

• Even as stock prices tumble, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Twitter he’ll be selling 2 percent of his stake in the company to “fund scientific research and companies NewLimit and Research Hub.”

• When the C-Suite begins selling stock, it oftentimes signals a lack of confidence in the future of one's company, either from a leadership or performance standpoint. Armstrong, however, made it clear that this move is no signal of any intentions to move away from company leadership but merely an act of fueling his passion. Furthermore, Armstrong was amongst several other figureheads at Coinbase and elsewhere that opted to begin selling large swaths of their stock as early as the IPO, Armstrong in particular was said to have sold around 1.5 percent of his COIN shares.

Walmart CTO Weighs in on the Role of Crypto Disruption

• Retail giant Walmart claims to be keenly aware of the customer movement and interest toward web3 and is actively pursuing further involvement in the space, said Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit.

• Kumar believes crypto will have significant impact on “product discovery, payment, and delivery” and as Walmart customers begin to accept crypto more widely, the company will ensure a frictionless experience. Walmart has also stacked its board with seasoned crypto industry leaders including Tom Horton, who also serves on the board of Blockchain.com, and Sarah Friar, former CFO of Square and who also sits on the board of ConsenSys, according to Blockworks.

Latest Podcast

DeCent People Podcast With the Solana Foundation’s Head of Comms Austin Federa

In the latest DeCent People podcast, Austin Federa, head of communications for the Solana Foundation, which supports the Solana blockchain, talks about growing up in western Massachusetts, the prevalence of ultimate frisbee in hippie towns, going to a DIY college and eventually his foray into web3 and blockchain.

You can download and subscribe to the podcast here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music and Audible.

Good Podcasts Outside DeCential

On the a16z podcast “general partner Chris Dixon and Proof Collective co-founder Kevin Rose take a tour through current tech trends in web3 and beyond, from NFTs and art to AI, copyright, communities, the growing tech scenes in LA and NYC, and more.”

And last but not least

EU Commission warns crypto mining may be halted in energy emergency

As much of Europe has begun making moves to conserve power for the coming winter in light of reduced energy supplies from Russia, the crypto industry may feel the effects of the war in the Ukraine. While the order isn’t immediate, the EU Commission has indicated that proof-of-work (PoW) miners may need to halt operations, according to The Block.

The European Commission also has mining in its sights for the long term as more wide-reaching environmental legislation and regulation is potentially coming. These headwinds will likely not stop in Europe as miners worldwide have come under fire, particularly in recent months, for their perceived gross energy consumption and its environmental impact.

With Ethereum’s recent transition to proof of stake, PoW systems are in need of contingency planning as they contemplate how to position themselves in a world that is increasingly conscious of its environmental impact and the newer reality of resources that actually are limited. — PD

Out of the Ether: Special NFT Edition

Have you read the definitive history of Ethereum? No? Well then get your special edition of Out of the Ether while you can. There are only 1,000 that were printed and each copy is an NFT that can be registered on the Lukso blockchain’s Universal Profile protocol.