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At the time, crypto had no real use case. Four years ago your options were to buy, hold, or transfer. Sure, it met the use case as a means of transferring value, but at the time this was not really very revolutionary. Still today, I can transfer value quicker and cheaper with other methods via Zelle, Cash App, Pay Pal, and other money transfer services. Many use this fact as a reason why crypto will fail, but I think they fail to see the big picture. They fail to see the big picture because to a large extent the picture has not been drawn, and many cannot comprehend what they cannot tangibly interact with. They cannot envision a future that they themselves are not the architect of. The future needs to make sense. The problem with technology, however, is that we largely don’t know what’s coming, as incremental improvements over time lead to compounded returns in innovation and application.
One of my favorite articles to look back on was written by Clifford Stoll in 1995, titled, “Why the Web Won’t Be Nirvana.” I think the following excerpt will summarize his thoughts on the internet at the time:
Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.
What I believe Stoll missed in this article was what existed outside of his understanding. He was right, at the time the internet was largely useless. What he failed to account for was future minds making incremental improvements on something with vast and limitless potential. We have clearly not reached the peak of Internet potential, and we likely never will.
Similar to Stoll’s inability to see the potential in what was at the time unseeable, we see the same today from the critics of cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin will never be a currency!” Okay, you may very well be right. “If I can’t hold it, it isn’t real!” None-sense. “Regulators will destroy it!” How? Why? “It’s a Tulip Bubble!” Come on man. Humans are incredibly quick to categorize in an attempt to make sense of the world around them. Cryptocurrency needs to fit within a neatly packaged box for many to begin to even try to understand it. The reality is that nobody can categorize cryptocurrency because the use cases are still emerging. Crypto doesn’t fit one category, and it likely never will.
Many may also feel as though they were late to the party. The fact that so many people made fortunes early on is used as an example of why this technology will fail. This is the bubble theory in a nutshell. If you are one of these people, I hate to break it to you, but the world doesn’t care about your missed opportunities. Are you too late to invest today? I don’t really think so, but even if you were, that’s a representation of your failure, not Bitcoin’s.
I’m going to share my logic on why I’m invested in cryptocurrency, and maybe you’ll think I’m nuts. But If you do, I challenge you to really question how (for lack of a better word) smart you actually are, and why you feel the need to be right. I don’t need to know the potential use cases. I don’t need to categorize cryptocurrency. I don’t think that is even possible. So here is my entire investment thesis in one sentence:
"People much smarter than me from all around the world have the ability to develop use cases on top of a fundamentally sound and secure ledger (with inherent economic value) of information that can never be tampered with."
In summary: I have no idea what will come next for crypto and blockchain, but my investment is a bet on the individuals developing on it. That’s really it. Thanks to the economic model of most cryptocurrencies, the more use cases, and demand, the higher the token value.
Still confusing? Let’s look at it this way. Suppose the internet had limited bandwidth. As demand grew, participants would have to pay an increasing amount of money to move information from A to B. Now imagine a world in 1995 where you could buy some of that bandwidth as an investment. It would have been a blind investment, of course. However, as use cases grew along with demand, your bandwidth would have become incredibly valuable.
I have a unique vantage point within the blockchain space. On a daily basis, I interact with investors, thinkers, and developers from all around the world. At BSC News alone, we have a staff that spans nearly every continent on Earth. Blockchain development has become a space where the barriers to entry are practically destroyed, and anyone with an internet connection and the conviction to build is welcome to participate.
Having interviewed nearly two dozen project developers in a matter of weeks, I have discovered a common theme that rings true to nearly all of them. They are unbelievably devoted to what they are building and the impact they hope to have on the world. On a number of occasions, developers on the podcast have become emotional when discussing their journey in the space. It has been life-changing for many, and the work they are doing is really only beginning. You can feel the passion they put out, and it is inspiring.
The online space often referred to as Crypto Twitter is also fun as hell. Yes, it is obnoxious, inappropriate at times, and hilarious, but it is filled with incredibly helpful people looking to share this experience with one another.
If you are reading this as a developer, investor, or someone completely new to the space, I think it is important to step back and really look at what is going on in this space. Pay close attention to how it is described. Consider how quickly Defi has emerged and continues to innovate. Pay particularly close attention to the critics. Remember that space now has 2 trillion dollars of capital (on-chain) and thousands of developers constantly competing and innovating. If I had to place a bet again today, I really would not bet against it. A bet against crypto is a bet against human innovation.
Ethereum celebrated an anniversary Friday, July 30. The world-changing blockchain that brought us smart chain technology and major innovations in crypto like decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens, turns six years old.
From the depths of Berlin in 2015, the blockchain built to change the world is on the verge of potentially its most important blockchain forks -- London Hard Fork.
As of late 2020, Ethereum has grown too big even for itself. The anticipation around crypto could not be higher for the upcoming fork. The first mentions of these changes came in 2019.
As the confetti settles from the birthday bash, Ethereum is set to make major changes in the functionality of its blockchain. On August 4th, Ethereum will complete its hard fork and take a critical step toward an overarching scalability upgrade of the network. But while all of crypto waits with bated breath, the Ethereum team appears unphased.
“Originally we envisioned something more like a big grant event where all the good things would happen at the same time and [Ethereum] would be a new blockchain and it would be a new protocol and people would have to take a lot of efforts to migrate over but later we've slowly changed the roadmap over to something that's much more incremental,” Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, told the Lex Fridman Podcast in June.
The hard fork results in a new transaction validation system due to the EIP 1559 proposal that passed. The chain will utilize a proof-of-stake system, allowing for more scalability and environmentally friendly consensus.
“Proof of stake happens kind of overtime, and then sharding is added over time, and all of these features get added over time. And so the experience for just a regular Ethereum user will still feel very seamless. It's maybe a little bit more complex than the hard forks that we've already done, but from a user's point of view not by that much,” Vitalik continued.
The updates will incorporate cutting-edge blockchain technology like sharding and move the chain from proof-of-work versus a proof-of-stake. The implications of these changes could bring a more efficient, secure, and sustainable Ethereum blockchain.
The hard fork will integrate five immediate updates called EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals). Each change aims at optimizing and improving the network.
The most controversial and anticipated upgrade, dubbed "London," is EIP 1559. The EIP 1559 will make Ethereum less inflationary and is controversial because it will begin burning fees that previously went to miners.
This upgrade is the central improvement in an attempt to generate greater bandwidth and reduce transaction fees on the chain and is critical to the changeover to Proof-of-Stake.
“I like proof of stake. And I've liked proof of stake for many years, basically because it just requires much less ongoing resource consumption.” Buterin explained to Fridman. And about the benefits of adding validators, Vitalik added: “This is good for a few reasons: one is the kind of environmental rationale that you're not breaking the environment. The second is that you're not taking away electricity and other resources from other people.”
The hard fork does not come without criticism. There is the issue with miners losing their fees and the questions around Miner Extractable Value (MEV) remain unanswered.
Some argue that proof-of-stake will increase the centralization of the chain as well. Vitalik celebrates the environmental benefits of the overall transition and the preferred long-term benefits of the updates.
He welcomes the criticisms as good problems to have and looks forward to solutions. Despite being ‘controversial’ it is still likely the most anticipated fork in crypto history.
As Vitalik told Fridman on the podcast, the user will not see too many changes in how Ethereum will work––the major changes come behind the scenes. The Ethereum chain has fought hard in seeking to solve major scalability issues like congestion and latency.
Throughout, it still holds strong as the second most important blockchain, and rightfully deserved. But if it wants to keep competing, it will need to try and catch up to the speeds and transactions of newer chains like Binance Smart Chain and Solana.
The new updates and their incremental applications should make the next few months––and years––an exciting race for the top crypto and blockchain.
ApeSwap has shifted the date for its seventh Initial Ape Offering (IAO) with play-to-earn protocol, Dragonary, following a change in IAO vesting process enacted by community votes.
BSC.News earlier reported ApeSwap’s partnership with Dragonary on July 29th to collaborate for its seventh Initial Ape Offering (IAO 007). The Decentralized Exchange (DEX) protocol scheduled the IAO for August 2nd. However, due to some quality changes that arose from the new IAO vesting proposal, the ApeSwap team has decided to postpone IAO 007, according to its Tweet, from 30th July.
“With that in mind, we will be delaying IA0 007. The new date for Dragonary’s IAO is set for August 7th at 16:00 UTC,” read the official ApeSwap Twitter communication.
An IAO is a unique innovation created by the Binance Smart Chain-based DEX, ApeSwap. It was designed to support promising projects with fundraising by listing their tokens.
Projects like ApeRocket, Bitfresh, Hifi DeFi, JediYield, HyperuleSwap, and Bishares have shown massive development since utilizing ApeSwap’s IAO platform. Dragonary is the latest to join.
The new vesting process requires that 25% of tokens will be distributed immediately and the remaining 75% of tokens will be distributed over three months.
Notably, the change was provoked by community votes after many ApeSwap users proposed a change in the vesting process. Users voted on a new token claim structure, and the campaign lasted for five days (July 17 to July 21).
To satisfy the needs of its users, the ApeSwap team has created a whole new set of smart contracts. The new smart contracts come with new audits to ensure that users' funds are safe and secure. According to the update, the date for completing the audits has been set, but there will be a need to test, review, and possibly re-audit codes if necessary.
Therefore, the postponement of the IAO is attributed to the fact that the ApeSwap team wants to make sure that the new smart contract codes, including audits, are working effectively. In essence, they want to have enough time to test the smart contracts before launching the IAO with Dragonary.
With this, ApeSwap ensures that the safety of the community is its number one priority. In addition, users can anticipate a flawless IAO for Dragonary.
ApeSwap is a top name in the BSC network. It is the leading DEX on the BSC, which offers users the best trading experience. ApeSwap is a blend of a decentralized exchange, yield farming, staking, and an automated market maker (AMM). ApeSwap users are urged to partake in its liquidity pool offerings via yield farming to earn its native BANANA token. What's more, these earned tokens can be used to stake and earn other tokens and unlock deluxe features.
For more information about ApeSwap, visit the platform's media links:
When I first took the time to learn about cryptocurrency, or blockchain specifically, what really caught my attention was not the promise of Lambos on the moon or even the tech, what stood out to me was what the tech-enabled: People.
At the time, crypto had no real use case. Four years ago your options were to buy, hold, or transfer. Sure, it met the use case as a means of transferring value, but at the time this was not really very revolutionary. Still today, I can transfer value quicker and cheaper with other methods via Zelle, Cash App, Pay Pal, and other money transfer services. Many use this fact as a reason why crypto will fail, but I think they fail to see the big picture. They fail to see the big picture because to a large extent the picture has not been drawn, and many cannot comprehend what they cannot tangibly interact with. They cannot envision a future that they themselves are not the architect of. The future needs to make sense. The problem with technology, however, is that we largely don’t know what’s coming, as incremental improvements over time lead to compounded returns in innovation and application.
One of my favorite articles to look back on was written by Clifford Stoll in 1995, titled, “Why the Web Won’t Be Nirvana.” I think the following excerpt will summarize his thoughts on the internet at the time:
Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.
What I believe Stoll missed in this article was what existed outside of his understanding. He was right, at the time the internet was largely useless. What he failed to account for was future minds making incremental improvements on something with vast and limitless potential. We have clearly not reached the peak of Internet potential, and we likely never will.
Similar to Stoll’s inability to see the potential in what was at the time unseeable, we see the same today from the critics of cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin will never be a currency!” Okay, you may very well be right. “If I can’t hold it, it isn’t real!” None-sense. “Regulators will destroy it!” How? Why? “It’s a Tulip Bubble!” Come on man. Humans are incredibly quick to categorize in an attempt to make sense of the world around them. Cryptocurrency needs to fit within a neatly packaged box for many to begin to even try to understand it. The reality is that nobody can categorize cryptocurrency because the use cases are still emerging. Crypto doesn’t fit one category, and it likely never will.
Many may also feel as though they were late to the party. The fact that so many people made fortunes early on is used as an example of why this technology will fail. This is the bubble theory in a nutshell. If you are one of these people, I hate to break it to you, but the world doesn’t care about your missed opportunities. Are you too late to invest today? I don’t really think so, but even if you were, that’s a representation of your failure, not Bitcoin’s.
I’m going to share my logic on why I’m invested in cryptocurrency, and maybe you’ll think I’m nuts. But If you do, I challenge you to really question how (for lack of a better word) smart you actually are, and why you feel the need to be right. I don’t need to know the potential use cases. I don’t need to categorize cryptocurrency. I don’t think that is even possible. So here is my entire investment thesis in one sentence:
"People much smarter than me from all around the world have the ability to develop use cases on top of a fundamentally sound and secure ledger (with inherent economic value) of information that can never be tampered with."
In summary: I have no idea what will come next for crypto and blockchain, but my investment is a bet on the individuals developing on it. That’s really it. Thanks to the economic model of most cryptocurrencies, the more use cases, and demand, the higher the token value.
Still confusing? Let’s look at it this way. Suppose the internet had limited bandwidth. As demand grew, participants would have to pay an increasing amount of money to move information from A to B. Now imagine a world in 1995 where you could buy some of that bandwidth as an investment. It would have been a blind investment, of course. However, as use cases grew along with demand, your bandwidth would have become incredibly valuable.
I have a unique vantage point within the blockchain space. On a daily basis, I interact with investors, thinkers, and developers from all around the world. At BSC News alone, we have a staff that spans nearly every continent on Earth. Blockchain development has become a space where the barriers to entry are practically destroyed, and anyone with an internet connection and the conviction to build is welcome to participate.
Having interviewed nearly two dozen project developers in a matter of weeks, I have discovered a common theme that rings true to nearly all of them. They are unbelievably devoted to what they are building and the impact they hope to have on the world. On a number of occasions, developers on the podcast have become emotional when discussing their journey in the space. It has been life-changing for many, and the work they are doing is really only beginning. You can feel the passion they put out, and it is inspiring.
The online space often referred to as Crypto Twitter is also fun as hell. Yes, it is obnoxious, inappropriate at times, and hilarious, but it is filled with incredibly helpful people looking to share this experience with one another.
If you are reading this as a developer, investor, or someone completely new to the space, I think it is important to step back and really look at what is going on in this space. Pay close attention to how it is described. Consider how quickly Defi has emerged and continues to innovate. Pay particularly close attention to the critics. Remember that space now has 2 trillion dollars of capital (on-chain) and thousands of developers constantly competing and innovating. If I had to place a bet again today, I really would not bet against it. A bet against crypto is a bet against human innovation.
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