Crypto Weekly Magazine 8/11/21

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KCC Launchpad

NFT’s

NEWS

A Safe Place to Launch

The NFT MekaVerse

The Feds Fear of Crypto

CRYPTO

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Undiscovered gems Decentrlizations Promise The Crypto Revolution

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EDITOR’S LETTER

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Crypto Weekly

Hello Welcome to Crypto Weekly

H

ello and happy to see all of you here for the second Issue of Crypto weekly

The guys at CMC Colin and Nathan, and I, as Editor Rob Stone, hope to keep you abreast of the latest happenings and ideas of the cryptosphere. Writing is something I can do from anywhere.. Anyone who knows me knows I have been from sea to sea and from Alaska to Mexico in just the last 5 years. It is primarily my writing that has made it possible. Now with The CMC and Crypto Weekly, I take it to a new level. Being here involved as part of the crypto revolution is a wild dream coming true. It's been a wild couple of weeks since the first issue of Crypto Weekly, and many things have happened in that time that keep life interesting in the crypto world. All of us must constantly be on the edge of our seats with all the twists and turns of events.

We've seen the U.S. gov. turning its big head to cast its foreboding gaze and yet survived to keep evolving as an industry as the rules of the game are contemplated and change beneath our feet.

We've seen China totally ban all things crypto but their own soon-to-launch digital Yuan. We've seen the U.S. gov. turning its big head to cast its foreboding gaze and yet survived to keep evolving as an industry as the rules of the game are contemplated and change beneath our feet. Life goes on, and the crypto revolution continues to inundate the world and evolve with every passing day. My colleagues and I continue to be proud to serve all of you as curators of the best information we know how to dig up to give you what you need to keep abreast of the industry's most recent developments. Hang on and welcome to the second edition of crypto weekly. You are again, and every week in for a wild ride! So without further ado, it’s time to turn the page, but please let us know your thoughts, and if you would like to see something featured, please do get in touch. editor@cryptoweeklymag.com

editor@cryptoweeklymag.com

cryptoweeklymag.com

Robert Stone Editor

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2

NEWS Crypto Weekly

Fed paper Says Crypto Challenges the U.S. Dollar for Supremacy

F

ed economists called the increase in cryptocurrencies a threat to the dollar's dominance. However, their research paper noted that this alone is unlikely to "completely offset" the dollar's status. It coincides with the publication of a highly anticipated report by the Fed. According to the document, the US dollar's dominant position in global markets should continue, but cryptocurrencies could pose a threat to that position. The reliance on the US dollar could be reduced through digital currencies like bitcoin and ether, wrote Carol Bertaut, Bastian von Beschwitz, and Stephanie Curcuru in their paper. "The International Role of the US Dollar." Updated products could alter the perception of costs and benefits, according to the authors. "Nevertheless, technology alone will be unlikely to change the landscape in such a way as to completely displace the long-

standing reasons why the dollar has been dominant," the paper concluded. Research on whether to issue central bank digital currency is expected to be published by the Fed in time for the release of a separate, highly anticipated report. However, key Fed officials are at odds. CBDCs have received some favorable remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, but other officials, such as Vice Chair Randal Quarles, are more cautious. "Although public interest in a digital dollar has reached fever pitch in recent years, the US dollar already has a high degree of digitization," Quarles said in July. According to a paper from Federal Reserve economists, two other near-term challenges may affect the international status of the US dollar. They pointed to the integration of Europe, a large economy with strong institutions and

free trade. The economists highlighted in particular how the European Union issued a jointly-backed debt during the height of the pandemic. Liquidity and a large market for EU bonds could make the euro more attractive as a reserve currency. Enhancing the corporate debt market infrastructure of the EU, as well as the introduction of a digital euro, could potentially speed up this integration." An additional risk is the accelerating growth of China, whose GDP is expected to surpass the US by 2030 in nominal terms. The investment bankers are nevertheless bullish on the US dollar. They added that unless there were significant changes to the world's economic or political systems, the dollar could remain the prevailing international currency for some time to come.  

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NEWS

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Crypto Weekly

Katie Haun: the U.S. should do the 'exact opposite' to China on crypto F

or ideas on regulating the crypto industry, the U.S. should look to China, said Katie Haun, an Andreessen Horowitz partner. In my opinion, the United States should be doing the opposite of what China is doing in this field, said Cory Haun, a former federal prosecutor who now manages Andreessen Horowitz's crypto investments, on Wednesday at CNBC's Delivering Alpha conference. China developed its own digital currency earlier this year, the digital yuan, which the People's Bank of China controls. Some of the cash in circulation will be replaced by the new currency.

The digital currency has been tested in a number of Chinese cities, including Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Suzhou. The only way to trust Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is because central authorities like banks or governments do not control them. Haun said, "China will essentially tie its trade, loans, and assistance to stability coins," which is a currency that is often backed by another currency. China's renewed efforts to crack down on the wider crypto market may have influenced the timing of the launch of the digital yuan. According to Haun, the U.S. has been taking the right approach towards central bank digital currencies so far. Haun also addressed the regulatory debate in the U.S., saying

it's a "myth" that the crypto industry is against all regulation. In fact, Haun said, the industry does want regulation. There is a need for clarity, but it also does not want to be treated as a monolith.  

Defi Put on Notice by the SEC with Coinbase Threat T

he US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning against decentralized finance and threatened to sue Coinbase last month if it went forward with an idea to allow users to earn by lending out the tokens they own. Coinbase then canceled the whole thing. Crypto enthusiasts are taking note. Government watchdogs have been indicating a resolve to regulate the industry and have been increasingly diligent of late.

have simply launched the product but we chose not to. This is far from the norm in our industry. Other crypto companies have had lending products on the market for years, and new lending products continue to launch as recently as last month. "

A Coinbase spokesman had this to say "Coinbase has been proactively engaging with the SEC about Lend for nearly six months. We're seeking to allow eligible customers to earn interest on select assets on Coinbase, starting with 4% APY on USD Coin (USDC). We could

The S.E.C.'s tactics in going after Coinbase divided securities lawyers. Attorney Daniel Hawke, a former chief of the S.E.C.'s market abuse division, said that trying to stop a product launch "sounds aggressive." Defi is booming. Defi platforms have

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seen billions of dollars in collateral put up, and assets deposited on those platforms dropped after news of the SEC's notice to Coinbase. China had also thrown a wrench in the works by outlawing crypto transactions, and markets have yet to recover fully.  



NEWS

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Crypto Weekly

Trump's retweets are being sold by Qanon radicals as NFTs T

he leader of Qanon is selling NFTs of old Trump tweets to raise money. They are nothing more than screenshots of old tweets. Watts is trying to raise money for a secret plan called the "Digital Bill of Rights.". Despite his best efforts, the NFTs can be had for only $600, which is a small price in the world of NFTs. Former 9chan and 8kun message board manager Watkins is selling five NFTS on his website that were retweeted by former president Donald Trump in

a series he calls the "Freedom Series". In essence, NFTs are cryptocurrencybased digital receipts, which recognize the holders as the owners of whatever they are holding - in this case, glorified screenshots from before Mr. Watkins and Mr. Trump were both removed from Twitter after the Capitol riot. Milliondollar sales of NFTs and celebrity interest made NFTs wildly popular in recent years. Sales performance hasn't been as good as expected. The top bid currently

stands at $608.85 on OpenSea, where he is selling his NFTs. Unfortunately, there is no reserve price listed. Watkins has previously denied involvement in QAnon.  

There's a rumor that Ethereum could be the next crypto exchange-traded fund A

s a result of the emergence of a bitcoin futures ETF, investors are wondering which cryptocurrency could be next. The most likely candidate is Ethereum, the second biggest crypto, according to social media speculations. It is only a matter of time before Ethereum becomes an ETF, say some crypto experts. This may happen soon, and Cryptocurrency investment firms are already working on an Ethereum

ETF. Over the summer, VanEck, and ProShares, the latter of which is behind the Bitcoin Strategy ETF, submitted their respective Ethereum futures ETF applications to regulators.

Gary Gensler prefers crypto futures ETFs to spot market funds. An Ethereum ETF could potentially follow a similar model to the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which is based on BTC futures.

However, those proposals were shortlived, as both firms pulled them from consideration. A few Ethereum ETF applications are pending at the SEC based on spot market prices, among them one from Kryptoin Investment Advisors and another from Gemini Trust Company.

Due to Ethereum's dominance rate on CoinMarketCap of 18.4%, the possibility of an ETF is not too far-fetched. This year, the Ethereum price has skyrocketed as the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance has skyrocketed.

Most cryptocurrencies are still unsure about how they will be regulated, but according to SEC officials, Ethereum is not a security. SEC Chairman

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Despite Ethereum's year-to-date gains of more than 400%, analysts point out that it is far from over. Analysts at Fundstrat believe that Ethereum's price is likely to set a fresh all-time high and cross the $4,900 level soon. It is currently trading slightly below $3,900 at the time of this writing.  


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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Bitcoin Proven to Offer Criminals No Sanctuary

C

ontrary to popular myth, Bitcoin is a terrible option for criminals to use in their activities. The U.S. dollar has been the preferred choice for a long time, and that has not changed. Bitcoin's Role In Illicit Activity is a false narrative. Cryptocurrencies are not commonly used for criminal activities. According to a Chainalysis report, Criminal activity accounted for 2.1% of cryptocurrency transactions in 2019 (roughly $21.4 billion worth of transfers). A mere 0.34% of all cryptocurrency transactions were criminal in 2020 ($10.0 billion in transaction volume). The UN estimates that money laundering and illicit activities account for between 2% and 5% of global GDP ($1.6 trillion to $4 trillion) annually. Accordingly, criminal activity involving cryptocurrency transactions is not as widespread as fiat currency; its use is also declining yearly. In 2017, the Rand Corporation, which conducts research and analyses to help improve government policy and decision-making, conducted a study on cryptoeconomics and privacy coins. According to the report, despite the perceived appeal of cryptocurrencies to money laundering. . . The overwhelming majority of cryptocurrency transactions

take place through exchanges, which are regulated similarly to banks and exchanges." According to Danny Scott, CEO of Isle of Man-based Bitcoin (BTC) exchange CoinCorner, the sentencing of the CEO of the now-defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road, shows that criminals are no longer using Bitcoin. For managing the now-defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road, Gary Davis was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. Silk Road recruited the Irishman in May 2013 and served as a forum moderator and website administrator before extraditing him to the United States on July 26. Davis's sentencing shows that Bitcoin usage by criminals is in the past. Criminals do not use bitcoin anymore. U.S-based blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis reported that illicit transactions comprised less than 1% of all Bitcoin activity in 2021. It is a myth that Bitcoin is anonymous. Cryptocurrencies are pseudonymous, which means all transactions are recorded forever on a blockchain. This makes Bitcoin a poor currency for criminals to use. The misconception that Bitcoin enables you to operate undercover and in secret is ironic given that the Bitcoin ledger is both transparent and immutable.

Bitcoin's blockchain is a record of all its transactions, noting senders and receivers (by wallet addresses), timestamps, and other information associated with each transaction. With the distributed network of nodes, each holding a copy of the ledger, any attempt to alter the record will be impossible to conceal. The other nodes would immediately notice the discrepancy if one of the nodes submitted a new transaction while sneaking in an altered historical record. Although transaction IDs (wallet addresses) hide transaction actors' identities in the system, matching a wallet with an owner is all that stands between them and discovery. There’s no refuge. 

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KUCOIN COMMUNITY CHAIN

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Crypto Weekly

KCC Launchpad Creates KCL Wealth Airdrop DApp Service & NFT Minting Marketplace KCCLaunch celebrating 28x gains only weeks after launch, has just launched a new decentralized crowdfunding platform KCL Wealth, an Airdrop DApp Service & and KCL NFT Minting Platform & Marketplace

C

reated to provide a safe place for new emerging companies, KCC Launchpad running on the Kucoin Community Chain (KCC) gained mass approval and phenomenal 28x growth funded through the KCL Token after its recent launch only weeks ago. A new concept that is certified to be safe and "rug proof" by auditors. KCC Launchpad is creating blockchain solutions for the hardest to reach areas and most underfunded parts of the world with the new decentralized crowdfunding platform KCL Wealth, the KCL Airdrop DApp Service and the new KCL NFT Marketplace.

Visit the KCL Wealth website here >> https://kclwealth.com See the new KCL NFT Marketplace here >> https://app.kcl-nft.com

Kucoin Community Chain Launchpad is the next generation to emerge, countering Binance Smart Chain (BSC) to provide a safer place for new companies to appear on the market on the KCC Mainnet with the KCL token by which the Launchpad runs. At the root of the KCC Launchpad, the advanced code incorporates fairness and utility into the community-driven ecosystem created for new project IDO's emerging in the fastgrowing space.

KCL Wealth Decentralized Crowdfunding Platform Features KCL Wealth is a decentralized crowdfunding platform executed by eNebula Solutions audited smart contracts making it impossible to be scammed. Designed to help the KCC Launchpad community enjoy passive returns over a long period, joining KCL Wealth connects investors with a worldwide audience while protecting the identity of those investors. The code controls the execution, and transactions are trackable and irreversible. Smart contracts permit trusted transactions and agreements to be carried out among divergent, anonymous

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KUCOIN COMMUNITY CHAIN Crypto Weekly

KCL Wealth is a decentralized crowdfunding platform on Kucoin Community Chain that will provide daily passive earnings for investors in return for supporting company endeavors

parties without needing a central authority, legal system, or external enforcement mechanism. Tokens are paid to reward or referral balance from the purchases of other users as a share in the pool. Another novel and unique feature about the KCL WEALTH Platform is the novel fact Investors can terminate and withdraw their investments at any time and immediately send the funds to investor wallets. The KCL CEO explaining some attributes of the new KCL Wealth crowdfunding platform and Airdrop DApp, stated, "KCL Wealth is a decentralized crowdfunding platform on Kucoin Community Chain that will provide daily passive earnings for investors in return for supporting company endeavors. We are not limited to a launchpad project but also have a growing ecosystem to enable us to increase the utility of the ecosystem. We also have our swap- KCL Swap, where users can exchange or list coins for other stable coins, make passive income streams through Yield Farming, Staking, Lottery, playing of games for cryptocurrency & the KCL Airdrop DApp Service, which is the only such service on the KCC chain. The KCL Airdrop DApp will be the ultimate goto place for projects and developers on the Kucoin Community Chain & other Chains willing to send out airdrops en masse, be it during IDOs or as occasions

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may demand. The airdrop service is among many other use cases the team has developed & still developing behind the scenes to ensure that the price of $KCL is not limited to Launchpad, Swap, etc. To use the KCL AIRDROP DApp, projects and individuals will be required to pay for the service with $KCL. This will increase the $KCL buy pressure and use case. Funding provided through the KCL Wealth crowdfunding platform will also help the KCC launchpad to grow and thrive. Being concerned about the perceived safety we assure for new projects on KCC Launchpad, we hired the auditing firm eNebula Solutions to verify the code of the $KCL Token Smart Contract. By these increasing utilities powered by the KCL token, we envision an ecosystem that will not be affected by bulls and bear markets, the tweet of an influencer, nor news of a crypto crackdown from any nation." KCL Wealth has just been listed and ranked as #3 on the Kucoin Chain Discovery website Discover.kcc.io. The Kucoin BlockChain owns the Kucoin Chain Discovery website. The website monitors the best DApps/Projects impacting the Kucoin Chain and grades them for their legitimacy, performance, current engagements, and, more importantly, future possibilities. A testament to the KCC Launchpad team's silent behind-the-scenes work yielding results and recognition within the Kucoin Chain. The newest announcement to come from the company as an addition to the KCC Launchpad and just launched at the time of this writing is the KCL NFT Minting & Marketplace exclusively For KCL Wealth Users KCL token holders for minting and marketing their NFT's

Join the Telegram Community Chatroom >> https://t.me/ kcclaunchpadd to ask questions about KCL Wealth, the KCL Airdrop DApp, the KCL NFT Marketplace and the KCC Launchpad run by the KCL Token

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The Mission of KCC Launchpad KCC Launchpad was created to address the disadvantages of high fees and congestion associated with the Ether Chain. Hence, the introduction of many launchpads on the BSC (Binance Smart Chain) network. Due to the many demands/terms set by these established Launchpads on the BSC, many small but promising projects have been unable to launch on these launchpads in recent years, giving rise to many scam launchpads. The Kucoin Community Chain Launchpad (KCC Launch) on the Kucoin Community Chain was born from the desire to correct these anomalies. KCC is designed to streamline the project selection process and provide exclusive and secure opportunities for projects to impact the Defi scene. KCC provides investors and prelaunch projects with a single, safe destination. Through the Kucoin Community Chain, investors gain exclusive access to innovative, secure, and rewarding projects. With exclusive partnerships with leading blockchain companies, influencers, and better liquidity, projects benefit from increased exposure, complimentary audits, and a supportive community.

Follow the Kucoin Community Launchpad @kcclaunchpad on Twitter Visit the KCC Launchpad website at >> www.kcclaunch.net Find the Telegram Community here >> @kcclaunchpadd

Disclaimer: The information on this page does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and should not be considered as such. In the following piece, a third party offers their opinion. This site does not represent any opinion or recommendation regarding any specific cryptocurrency investment or whether it should be bought or sold. Readers are encouraged to do their own research before making any investment decisions.


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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

cool as possible" to allow them to freely develop the universe. MekaVerse Mania has since consumed the NFT space and attracted NFT collectors old and new to the project - causing an unhealthy sense of FOMO and an eagerness to own one of the 8,888 MekaVerse NFTs. MekaVerse is managed by two freelance graphic and digital artists from Europe, Matt, and Mattey. Julien van Dorland is the man behind their Discord channel, an NFT icon in his own right. Together with Julien's brother Simon van Dorland, they drew in some of the NFT community's most enthusiastic Twitter users, including Loopify, who tweeted about the Mekaverse, which is how many people first learned about the project. The video of their announcement was viewed over 800k times on Twitter.

The Rise of the NFT MekaVerse

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he MekaVerse NFT collection was called one of the most hyped projects of the year by the NFT community. On August 30, the project opened its Twitter and Discord accounts to the public for the first glimpse of the artwork. With over 150k Discord members within 48 hours of starting the project, the #MEKAGANG community has grown from just 200 followers on Twitter. Currently, MekaVerse has more than 215,000 Twitter followers. Their Twitter account was created on August 28. Since then, they have continuously updated their community. After two months of anticipation, the #MEKAGANG were able to get their hands on the MekaVerse NFTs. The collection has yielded over $60 million in sales from the first mint and secondary sales. Buyers spent tens of thousands of dollars on something they could not even see before the event unfolded. Japanese

Mecha

universes

inspired

the team to launch this unusual project. There are 8,888 "Mekas" in the "MekaVerse". Each Meka has many different characteristics. Throughout the rendering process, a random pool of elements is compiled at random to generate each image. With its own color palette and creation, no two images are alike. They achieved their goal of making each Meka unique. Their goal was to put quality before quantity.

Before the historical event, even secondary market buyers were in the dark about the NFTs provided by MekaVerse. In advance of the collectionwide reveal on October 10th and 11th, every image on OpenSea was an animated placeholder. It was impossible to predict whether users would get an NFT with rare attributes or something less rare. The NFT itself is a blockchain-backed deed of ownership for a digital item, proving that your one-of-a-kind avatar truly belongs to you. Other types of NFTs include digital artwork, video files, and interactive video game items. The broader market has exploded in 2021, including $10 billion worth of

The MekaVerse team says that it is an ongoing long-term project, and they have a lot of exciting things in the works, including real-world collectibles. New ideas and questions are being explored. What if you could grow your Meka into a Super-Meka? How about combining your Mekas? Could you do battle with your Mekas? Community members were assured that "quality comes first." In the team's words, they aimed to make the first drop "as

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FEATURE

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Crypto Weekly

and minters sought to earn an early profit by 'flipping' their NFTs. The NFT demand continued to rise as time went on, with many now willing to pay up to 6.4 ETH (22k) for a "secret" artwork. Since its mint, the collection has dominated the volume charts on OpenSea, reaching a trading volume of 20k ETH ($70m) in its first week.

trading volume in Q3 alone, according to DappRadar. There was an immense demand for the minting process. Rather than holding an open mint, MekaVerse held a raffle to secure spots. The collection decided to open the 'raffle' to incentivize a fair minting process which involved users signing up with a wallet on the MekaVerse website and 'registering' interest in buying either one or two NFTs.

Despite its launch, MekaVerse was not without controversy. Several users complained that the raffle system demands users sign in with a Twitter or Discord account, for example, alleging that their data would be harvested. The project is being accused of being a rip-off, citing allegations such as an unverified Ethereum contract, a significant transfer of funds from the contract, and a lack of communication. Furthermore, there have been claims that similar artwork from Gundam Genuine and MekaVerse has raised copyright concerns.

On October 6, the raffle process opened for the public, which acted as a call to every NFT collector in the world. The collectible Meka NFTs can be minted by visiting the website and selecting the quantity of Mekas they wish to mint. Next, they will be asked to register and authenticate via Discord or Twitter. The minting lottery drew 661,737 unique visitors to the website, with an estimated 172k wallets registered for the drawing. The NFT community then returned to the website 24 hours later to see if they had won. MekaVerse NFTs had a deadline for the minting time of six hours if you won one. MekaVerse NFTs were then able to be viewed on OpenSea after they were minted for the lucky winners. In addition to minting NFTs - each for 0.2 ETH - the winners took to Twitter to show off their loot. Almost immediately after the mint, OpenSea sales started to flood in. A floor price of around 4 ETH was established,

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The project has also been criticized for becoming a 'whale's playground' where only those with large amounts of ETH can buy one. One user on Twitter - 'Iam0xB0B', who owns 56 Mekaverse NFTs - claimed whales holding large amounts of ETH were accumulating NFTs. Emerson Trung, a concept artist who has worked on the "Transformers" and "Doom" franchises, claims he was not fully compensated for his work on the project. Trung tweeted,

however, that the team would honor its original agreement, which included one MekaVerse NFT, following Twitter exchanges, including purportedly deleted tweets in which Braccini called Trung's behavior "disgusting."

It is only the very beginning of what is possible with MekaVerse. A few projects have long-term plans, as in the second roadmap for Bored Apes. As of now, the MekaVerse team is keeping the rest of the details under wraps.

As a Metkaver spokesperson stated, "the end goal is to deliver a quality product to the world of collectibles and a fresh perspective to the NFT market. We will be actively pursuing this goal and make MekaVerse more than just an online platform." 


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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

The Rise of the

NFT MekaVerse

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK Crypto Weekly

of the

week

CLICK HERE

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FEATURE

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Crypto Weekly

Crypto and

the Exchange Traded Fund Explained and Simplified

A

n exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities traded on an exchange like a stock. Crypto ETFs track the value of Crypto and trade on traditional stock exchanges rather than cryptocurrency exchanges. Investors can invest in crypto without having to go through the hassle of using a cryptocurrency exchange while getting leverage on the price. ETFs track the value of a particular asset or a collection of assets. Investors can diversify their holdings without actually owning the assets, except they work exactly like ETFs backed by traditional investments. It is easier for a general population to invest in crypto when an ETF handles the underlying asset for them. The advent of cryptocurrency exchanges has simplified the process of buying and selling cryptocurrency, but understanding how private and public

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keys work and setting up digital wallets remain obstacles to wide-scale crypto adoption. Investors can benefit from the new asset class with crypto ETFs using their existing brokerage account. Since Crypto ETFs trade on traditional exchanges and are highly regulated, they'd also make crypto safer for investors. As a result, regulators can monitor and analyze their performance and prevent price manipulation in the ETF markets. Despite this, unregulated crypto exchanges can still manipulate the price of the underlying asset. Crypto exchanges and wallets are also vulnerable to hacking and theft. Since you don't own any crypto, cryptocurrency ETFs protect you from these risks. A futures-backed crypto ETF does not own any crypto either. The ETF makes owning a diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies more

affordable. Buying a large number of cryptocurrencies requires opening multiple crypto accounts and managing many digital wallets. You can invest in a crypto ETF and gain exposure - though indirectly - to many crypto assets. Traditional managed funds usually charge higher fees than crypto ETFs. In some ways, crypto ETFs are safer than investing directly in cryptocurrencies, but they come with many of the same risks. Along with cryptocurrency ETFs, crypto-backed funds must also manage other crypto-related risks, such as hacking. These virtual assets represent a hedge against fiat currencies and the central banks and governments that control them. By definition, the government regulates bitcoin ETF, and investors wouldn't be buying any cryptocurrencies either. 


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NEWS Crypto Weekly

Central Banks are Considering Issuing Their Own Digital Currencies A

growing number of central banks, such as the Fed, are considering issuing their own digital currencies (CBDCs), fearful of losing control over the economy as the cryptocurrency boom hits. Some CBDCs would be equivalent to cash, issued and backed by central banks, and would differ from cryptocurrencies typically run by private actors or electronic money used in billions of daily transactions by commercial banks. Soon, the Fed is expected to release a report on a potential digital dollar. In partnership with MIT's Digital Currency Initiative, the Boston Fed is studying whether and how the U.S. should issue a central bank digital currency or CBDC. Former Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said the Fed would back a digital dollar that will operate alongside digital assets like bitcoin. Rosengren expects the Boston Fed and MIT to create a digital version

of the Federal Reserve Bank notes Americans use every day for daily cash transactions. Tests of the system have shown it to be extremely fast. "We have the technology," Rosengren said. According to Rosengren, it will take much more time to resolve the policy debate about what a central bank digital currency would be like, what kind of privacy and security features it would have, how it would integrate the existing retail banking industry, and other regulations that will be involved. In his opinion, when the central bank does ultimately issue a digital version of the dollar, it will likely coexist with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether and with stablecoins, or digital assets that attempt to maintain a constant value in relation to the dollar. Given potential financial stability concerns, he agrees with the Biden administration's desire to regulate stablecoins strictly. Governor Powell, Treasury Secretary Yellen, and other

regulators have called for aggressive action on stablecoin regulation. This month, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets is expected to release a report recommending a regulatory framework. Due to bitcoin's volatility and the time and energy it takes to settle transactions, Rosengren believes bitcoin's future lies as an alternative asset class that is "less correlated to other financial assets" and not as a payments mechanism. Digital dollars are not expected to replace stablecoins like Tether, which will continue to facilitate transactions between digital assets, he added. Rosengren predicted that if the U.S. launched its own digital currency, it would have an important role to play in retail payments. "It is really a digital version of cash," he said. This is a payment system with the finality of cash. You make the transfer, and it's done, and you don't need to worry about anything else."  

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NEWS

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Crypto Weekly

Payment Company Stripe Reenters the Crypto Market A

ccording to public statements posted on Twitter on Tuesday, Stripe is creating a crypto team to help develop the "future of Web3 payments." Stripe, which supported Bitcoin payments before leaving the market a few years ago, has been waiting for the right time to get back into the market. However, it is still unclear how those plans will play out. After being contacted for comment, Stripe declined to provide additional insight or details about its strategy, pointing only to its new public statements and its earlier blog post. The company announced it was ending bitcoin support in January 2018 for many reasons, including the cryptocurrency becoming less useful for payment purposes. The company noted that transaction confirmation time had increased, which led to an increased failure rate, and

fees had also increased significantly. However, Stripe said it remains "very optimistic" about cryptocurrencies overall, including Lightning and other projects that enable faster payments. Additionally, it mentioned other developments such as OmiseGO and said there were several high-potential projects based on Ethereum as well. Stripe is now entering the crypto market after sitting on the sidelines for years. Stripe is looking for Web3 engineers and designers to fill out its new crypto team, according to a post by Edwin Wee on Stripe's user relations team. The post by Wee offers more insight into Stripe's CEO, Peter Wee, said cryptocurrency can make payments faster and more affordable, especially in underserved markets. "In 2018, we said Stripe was reviewing ways to add crypto support to the product. We are

now doing that," he said. Stripe isn't harming anyone by once again dabbling in crypto, but it's unclear at this time how significant this announcement is for Stripe's strategy overall. After Stripe's exit from the crypto payments market in 2018, the market for crypto payments has heated up. PayPal has also been making significant moves to embrace crypto recently, adding to a growing number of crypto payment startups and the popularity of crypto among brands and retailers. According to PayPal, U.S. users can now buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies on the platform starting in November 2020. Recently, Venmo was expanded to international markets. Further, it expanded the use of crypto to make online payments by enabling PayPal users to use their cryptocurrency at any PayPal merchant. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has partnered with e-commerce giant Shopify to offer crypto payments, while Coinbase integrates PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay to help make crypto more accessible to consumers. Stripe is not alone in thinking of the potential of crypto in "underserved" markets. As a part of its $100 million investment, Square has allocated $25 million to community development, with $5 million of that amount going to the Square, Inc. Bitcoin Endowment. "From people without credit histories who can't open bank accounts to those living in areas with limited banking access to populations that have historically been discriminated against, Bitcoin can assist in leveling the playing field," Square had said. Now Stripe seems to agree.  

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FEATURE

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Crypto Weekly

Privacy and How They Rank

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hrough the use of privacy coins, a user can gain complete anonymity when making blockchain transactions by concealing their origin and destination. Users' identities and the source of their transactions are entirely concealed. Using these coins, senders and receivers can remain anonymous with different levels of privacy, like hidden wallet addresses and transaction balances. Payments remain private using privacy coins. These anonymous cryptocurrencies conceal a user's real wallet balance and address and mix multiple transactions to elude chain analysis. Bitcoin and other non-private blockchains allow anyone to view public addresses and transactions, making it relatively easy to track deposits and withdrawals. Privacy coins manage anonymity and untraceability in different ways. Untraceability renders it difficult for third parties to follow transactions

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using services like blockchain analysis, which hides the identity behind a transaction.

Let's explore some privacy tokens and their features that keep users' identities hidden.

Bitcoin itself has never been private despite the initial popular opinion hatch by the media. Many newbies believe that Bitcoin transactions are anonymous, but anybody who understands the technical aspects of how Bitcoin transactions work and how the blockchain operates can trace transactions. Since Bitcoin is based on a public blockchain, it offers less privacy than fiat currencies since anyone with sufficient expertise could potentially learn the real identity of a public address.

Monero is the most popular privacy coin.

How private are cryptocurrencies?

As a result of its ability to help anonymize users, Monero's (XMR) popularity has been on the rise. Monero transactions are harder to track since they use ring signatures and stealth addresses. Through these methods, the identities of the sender and receiver are hidden. RingCT also conceals the amount of the transaction, ensuring greater privacy. The market value of Monero is about $3 billion, making it one of the top 40 privacy coins.

Today, we have so many privacyfocused coins on the crypto market that it's hard to choose which ones are best.

With Zcash, members are able to shield transactions using the Zero-Knowledge Proof cryptographic tool. Participants


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can transact without revealing their addresses to each other, and ZeroKnowledge Proof also obfuscates the transaction amount. Zcash ranks in the top 70. DASH's Private Send feature allows users to decide whether or not their transactions are anonymous and private. It enables users to stay within their countries' regulatory standards. The feature obscures the source of your funds. If you choose the private send option, the fee will be slightly higher. By utilizing a decentralized network of servers called master nodes, DASH achieves this through a mixing protocol. DASH ranks just below Zcash in the top 70 cryptocurrencies. Horizen (ZEN) offers privacy-protected Z-Addresses and public T-Addresses similar to Bitcoin. When funds are sent from a Z-Address to a T-Address, the amount received will be displayed. Moreover, Horizen boasts a vast node network, which enhances anonymity, and Horizen is also among the top 120. Verge (XVG) relies on the tested technology of The Onion Router (TOR) and the Invisible Internet Project (I2P) to protect users' identities rather than cryptographic techniques. TOR bounces communications over a global network of relays and tunnels run by volunteers, so the user's identity is hidden. I2P encrypts user data before

Bitcoin itself has never been private despite the initial popular opinion hatch by the media. Many newbies believe that Bitcoin transactions are anonymous, but anybody who understands the technical aspects of how Bitcoin transactions work and how the blockchain operates can trace transactions. sending it over an anonymous, peer-topeer, and volunteer-run global network. Participants' IP addresses and locations can be hidden. Verge ranks among the top 160 in the world. With Beam, you have complete control over your privacy along with other security-focused features. By default, all transactions are private, and no addresses or other private information is stored on the blockchain. This cryptocurrency claims superior

scalability due to its compact blockchain size, opt-in auditability, support for online and offline transactions, and hardware wallet integration. Launched in January 2019, Grin, which shares the same Mimblewimble blockchain as Beam, is among the top privacy coins that are censorshipresistant and scalable. Grin sets itself apart by being independent of its anonymous founder. As such, developer incentives come mainly from donations. Miners receive the same rate of rewards indefinitely, which implies that a miner that joins the network in December 2030 will receive the same amount of rewards per block as the first miner in January 2019. The network uses a uniform transaction standard called Slatepack to enhance developer and user experiences and provide privacy, security, compatibility, and enhanced file handling. PIVX — which stands for Protected Instant Verified Transactions with a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism PIVX is an anonymous cryptocurrency whose primary focus is to protect user data. Users can choose four types of transactions in the PIVX ecosystem: transparent, shielding (transparent to shielding), de-shielding (shielding to transparent), and shield. The virtual world brings privacy with it, but it comes with the perils of a large criminal element. Malicious participants are constantly trying to hack cryptocurrency operators, and the government often investigates people with large transactions. However, government agencies still prefer bitcoin over all other options. As a result, tracing Bitcoin transactions has become relatively easy, creating an incentive to switch to more private cryptocurrencies. Several government agencies monitor and target Bitcoin transactions due to users' desire to protect their identities. Users are compelled to opt for more private cryptocurrencies like those listed here due to their excellent performance in tracing Bitcoin transactions. 

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Crypto Weekly

What is the Real Impact of Bitcoin & Altcoin Mining on the Environment? The amount of electricity used by cryptocurrencies is now almost equivalent to that of Malaysia. However, when you look at the current financial system and all that goes into it, that is a very small number

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ince Bitcoin has become increasingly mainstream, investors and the general public have naturally had questions about how it works. A question has been raised about the potential environmental impact of mining, which generates and verifies bitcoin transactions. According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), comparisons suggest the bitcoin network uses more than 121 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, which would rank it in the top 30 electricity consumers worldwide if it were a country. This is about 0.55% of global electricity production or about the same as the annual electricity consumption of small countries like Malaysia or Sweden. That certainly sounds like a lot. However, what is a sensible amount

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of energy to use by a monetary system? Bitcoin's surging price has fueled the rise in energy demand in recent months, which has seen it rise to close to $50,000 today. Bitcoin's network's energy consumption did not rise to critical levels until 2017 when a significant price jump drastically pushed up its energy needs to the level of a small country. Market prices dropped in the years that followed, and so did energy demand, although consumption now is more than double where it was five years ago. As a result, the longterm forecasted energy demand is even greater than before. Bitcoin's carbon footprint will grow exponentially as its price rises due to

increased competition for the currency, resulting in more energy consumption. In other words, bitcoin miners gravitate toward cheap electricity, indicating the fundamental problem is not bitcoin, but an insufficient supply of renewable energy. Incentives encourage miners to find the most cost-effective sources of energy. Due to the storage issues associated with renewable energy sources, excess power generated from those sources is generally wasted. More than half of the world's mining took place in Sichuan, China, where excess hydroelectric power allowed mining to be powered by 95% renewable energy. Recent political proclamations have caused these companies to leave China, and they are mainly going to North America, where more renewable


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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

clean energy is available. Currently, these sources are much cheaper than not using renewable energy sources. Researchers behind the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index concluded that Bitcoin's environmental footprint is currently marginal at best. Environmentally friendly mining facilities are already operating in many countries worldwide, with mining companies actively seeking solutions. Hydroelectric and geothermal energy are inexpensive sources of energy in Iceland and Norway, where nearly all energy production is renewable. Cryptocurrency miners there take advantage of both sources. These same facilities are also located in colder climates in the United States and Canada, helping to control the energy consumption of worldwide financial networks. 76 percent of cryptocurrency miners use renewable energy sources to power their operations, according to the University of Cambridge's third Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study last year. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/ faculty-research/centres/alternativef inance/publications/3rd-g lobalcryptoasset-benchmarking-study/. Globally, the trend toward renewable energy sources is expected to continue, with the International Renewable Energy Agency reporting that renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly more cost-efficient at the expense of fossil fuels. https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2020/06/renewable-energycheaper-coal/ There is no reason why Bitcoin miners could not change from fossil fuels to renewable energy as soon as the bitcoin protocol offers incentive structures for them to do so. A similar comparison could be made between Bitcoin and the energy consumption of other store-ofvalue assets. Gold mining consumes enormous amounts of electricity every year. If bitcoin can become the digital currency originally imagined, we need to consider all the electricity consumed during currency creation, destruction, transmission, securitization, loss, etc. Climate change is a major issue in our world today. However, those who oppose bitcoin believe it will result in

The practice of flaring by natural gas producers harms the environment as well and benefits no one. Using blockchain technology, value can be increased while emissions are minimized.

even more environmental destruction, not realizing that bitcoin actually works as a catalyst to save our environment.

way to maximize profits. With Bitcoin, renewable energy can become more affordable and accessible for everyone.

In addition to changing the underpinning technology to use less power, alternative cryptocurrencies also aim to solve bitcoin's current environmental issues. That ` s why we have the Lightning network. Built on the back of Bitcoin, it makes things a lot more efficient. A 'Proof-of-Stake' blockchain, like Cardano, validates transactions based on how many coins a network participant holds instead of how much computational power they have, making it 4 million times more energy-efficient than Bitcoin. Cardano, which is expected to confirm its stake by the end of the year, and Ethereum both serve global businesses and consumers by scaling to meet their needs. Both run at higher volumes and faster speeds than the existing global financial infrastructure.

The fact is, renewable energy sources tend to have excess supply. Power is wasted when the grid is not able to handle it. The practice of flaring by natural gas producers harms the environment as well and benefits no one. Using blockchain technology, value can be increased while emissions are minimized. By placing mining operations at the source of the green energy, utility companies can monetize their excess supply of green energy. One publicly traded power company has explored participating directly in mining as a means of capturing value from an oversupply that can be used to create sustainable energy operations.

With both green energy and crypto technology maturing, the reverse scenario seems to be more likely. Mining bitcoins is incentivized by the cheapest power. Using fossil fuels might result in some difficulties for miners, but finding areas with excess supply is the best

With Bitcoin, companies can build more green infrastructure and reduce the cost of clean power in the long run. Bitcoin makes renewable energy more viable by ensuring viable markets. Using this virtuous cycle will be helpful rather than hurting anything in combatting climate change. — Robert Stone

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Crypto Weekly

PROJECT 1

quantumworks.co.uk

Project Quantum (QBIT)

t.me/projectquantum

Calling themselves the future of gaming, Project Quantum is taking AAA gaming into the 21st Century with cryptocurrency at the core of its economy. The model allows gamers to enjoy the high-stakes competitive action of a AAA first-person shooter, while simultaneously earning real-world currency. Project Quantum is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game or MMOFPS for short, focused on acquiring loot. Drop into a map alone or as part of a squad. Fight other players for their equipment, hunt powerful monsters, mine for resources, and search for ancient technology. Then extract yourself before you lose it all. Project Quantum is a looter-shooter treasure hunt to

PROJECT 2

pruf.io

projectquantu

the death set within a battle-royal esc format where in-game items can be crafted and traded using our own real-world currency, QBIT. Step into the shoes (or Exo-suit) of a “Seeker” to explore a rich new sci-fi universe full of lore, mystery, and danger. Meet the split personalities of Amelia, the former AI pilot of The Jericho, now the self-declared mayor of a thriving market fortress. Venture out into the dangerous wilds to be the first to claim unique alien technology. Uncover the truth behind how Colony One met its fate at the hands of The Scythe and use that knowledge to uncover rich hidden vaults from the past.

PRüF (PRUF)

t.me/pruftalk

prufteam

PRüF launched in 2020 for tokenizing real-world objects to prove ownership, provenance, and authenticity. When the NFT scene exploded, PRüF developers saw serious issues with indistinguishable fakes, temporary media storage, and lack of brand sovereignty, and decided to make sure that PRüF`s standards-compliant protocol solved these problems for digital assets.

PRüF provides enterprises and creators with their own unique blockchain minting identity, empowering brands to quickly and simply create digital or physical assets verifiably tied to their trade and media presence. By verifying authenticity and provenance, PRüF fights counterfeits and protects brand integrity while allowing artists and brands to control and curate the customer experience.

PRüF offers a trusted, no-code solution for brands and creators to bring NFT assets to a multi-chain, distributed ecosystem. PRüF enables brands and creators to manage their blockchain presence, to provide curated customer experiences with featurerich tokenized digital and physical offerings.

Economical blockchain storage creates permanent artifacts onchain, delivering intrinsic value and physicality to NFT media.

With features like non-perishable storage, presentation control, and verifiable provenance, PRÜF enabled physical and digital assets are what, NFT’s should have been all along. Verifiably authentic, permanent, decentralized, and blockchain agnostic.

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To put it simply, PRüF Protocol makes it easy for content creators or manufacturers to tokenize their products, adding value, security, and provable authenticity for users. PRüF lets businesses or artists manage their blockchain presence in much the same way they control their website and social media. PRüF gives brands and creators tools to curate the customer experience, eliminating unfavorable comparisons to inferior products or imposters.


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HIDDEN GEMS Crypto Weekly

PROJECT 3

pawnmynft.io

Pawn My NFT

t.me/pawnmynft

Pawn My NFT is a revolutionary new project launching on Binance Smart Chain. It uses a platform and smart contract to support lending on Non-Fungible Tokens. PawnMyNFT.io will initially offer lending on Ethereum Blockchain NFTs with other Blockchains following after. Upcoming compatibility to be available on Solana, Polygon-Matic, Binance, and more. Pawn My NFT is innovative due to the ability to make instant offers. An instant Pawn My NFT offer will be made

PROJECT 4

truworldtoken

pawnmynft

immediately for selected NFT collections. Users will be able to use Pawn My NFT to pawn their Non-Fungible Tokens with each other with transactions that are verified and secured by smart contracts. NFT Projects will be able to buy ad space on the PawnMyNFT website. Users will be able to start a personal profile and participate in an upvote system. Developers will also be able to list their NFT projects on the Pawn My NFT Rarity Tool with users being able to use this tool to check the rarity of their NFT.

Truworld (TRU)

t.me/truworldtoken

TruWorld Inc is a community of entrepreneurs, in crypto, committed to creativity and innovation to develop a new crypto, music platform with plans to monetize music by creating a tokenized ecosystem. The goal is to own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content in more than 60 territories by identifying and developing the talents of recording artists and songwriters. TruWorld wants to develop new services, platforms, and business models for the delivery of music and related content empowering innovators to allow new commercial and artistic opportunities to flourish. In order to do this TruWorld plans on developing crypto spaces for the music and entertainment industry and a music-hungry fan base across genres that is young and mobile-friendly. Major labels are showing renewed interest in doing business

TruWorldToken

with crypto-related assets that improve and solidify copyright, structures, and the rights of artists so labels and governments may understand the value of collection services and provide copyright protection. TruWorld wants to create a crypto guild representing and promoting the rights of owners across the crypto spheres, providing a forum for cross-border discussion within the entertainment business community and capable of lobbying at an inter-governmental level. TruWorld believes crypto ideally will facilitate the launch of many music streaming platforms carrying “Crypto” artists. There is a recognized need to develop adequate concert venues, physical and virtual, and establish a network of talent agencies and management and simplify the movement of performing artists throughout the crypto-sphere and.TruWorld wants to make that happen.

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HIDDEN GEMS Crypto Weekly

PROJECT 5

discoburntoken

Disco Burn Token (DBT)

t.me/DiscoBurnPartyToken

Disco Burn Token is a hyper-deflationary token that was founded by a group of pyromaniacs that love to throw crypto-burn parties and burn other projects' tokens. The goal of DBT is to bring the infamous Disco Burn parties to the entire crypto space. Disco Burn Token raises the price floor of other crypto projects by buying and burning that project’s token or coin. DBT also reflects and burns itself with every transaction. The buys and burns are first voted on by the DBT community. Every third month, DBT will hold a community vote to buy and burn off another project. Up to five projects will be listed on the ballot after the qualification and vetting process. Once approved, the project will be added to the card and can compete to earn the community members’ votes. One representative from each project will have a chance to speak directly to DBT holders to

PROJECT 6

unipilot.io

DBT_BSC

win their vote debate style. Seven days prior to the buy and burn, each holder will be airdropped one voting token. Five empty wallets will be created and assigned to each project. After the seventh day of voting, the project wallet that holds the most vote tokens wins. By hosting community votes, DBT is being introduced to new holders and communities thus expanding its reach while also introducing other projects to the safe and vetted token communities of DYOR and SEEK. DBT will continue to burn until there are 50 million tokens left in circulation. Once the burn goal is reached, the burn wallet will become excluded from reflections and more tokens will be distributed to DBT holders

Unipilot

unipilot_io

Unipilot, also known as the Pilot Protocol optimizes your concentrated liquidity so you can earn up to 100x more fees on autopilot. The Pilot Protocol aims to maximize the liquidity earning of the users while saving gas fees and manual oversight and achieves this via a decentralized mechanism known as concentration incentives. Concentration incentives allow anyone to send a transaction to vaults which adjust the vault in the optimal range. Along with that, there is Pilot Governance which is the community-organized and operated process of managing the various aspects of the Pilot Protocol. Liquidity concentration gives liquidity providers (LPs) the ability to concentrate their capital within custom price ranges, providing greater amounts of liquidity at desired prices. By concentrating liquidity, LPs can provide the same liquidity depth as previous

unipilot_io liquidity pools within specified price ranges while putting far less capital at risk. Liquidity concentration enables higher capital efficiency by allowing LPs to specify ranges instead of the entire pricing curve. Through liquidity concentration, capital can effectively be multiplied thousands of times compared to previous liquidity pools. The challenge with concentrated liquidity is keeping it in the active price range so that it consistently earns fees through trades. The more time the capital is locked in the active price range the more trading fees it earns. If price fluctuates and capital goes out of the price range it does not earn any fees. Unipilot solves this problem by allocating capital to the narrowest price range to earn the maximum amount of fees. Even minor optimizations in price ranges can impose drastic changes in terms of capital efficiency.

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Crypto Weekly

PROJECT 7

koda.finance

Koda Cryptocurrency (KODA)

t.me/kodakingofdogaltschat

Koda Cryptocurrency (KODA) token is a community-driven cryptocurrency and is a trusted advanced cryptocurrency token currently promoted by Summit Better Crypto Limited (SummitBC). Koda Cryptocurrencies will be the native tokens on SummitSwap," a platform for everyone". The aim is to make crypto accessible to everyone with a community built to help one another. The KODA community is encouraged to support the long-term progression of the token and supporting projects. Transacting with KODA cryptocurrencies will generate wealth in the community through automatic liquidity, staking model and reflective static rewards. KODA cryptocurrencies are designed to support long-term growth by not only benefitting the long-term holders but also constantly

coinkoda

incentivising new investments through our unique staking model as well as promotional activities. The long term goal for Koda Cryptocurrencies is to not only be transactable cryptocurrencies where people will be able to swap for tangible goods and services as an alternative payment method (i.e. we aim to have shops and other merchants accept them as payments), but also for our systems to allow holders to earn an income without having to sell their tokens. The idea is for all Koda holders to have a voice, join the community on all social media platforms and the promotional events, help others break into the crypto market and generate wealth for all involved with Koda cryptocurrencies.

Koda Apex (KAPEX)

PROJECT 8

koda.finance/kapex/

t.me/kodakingofdogaltschat

Koda Apex (KAPEX) is the sister token of Koda. KAPEX is designed as a utility token, to reward the KODA stakers, and to be used as a payment method for products and services. The fees for transacting with KAPEX are designed to be far less than KODA. The Kapex presale started on the 21st of September and is still open for the whitelist. The KAPEX token is designed to improve web3 payments. Value is backed algorithmically with a controlled supply and a rising value mechanism. There is no team allocation with automatic liquidity & a multi-pairing mechanism. Any holders with over 100m or 50m Koda are able to take part in a voluntary swap of Koda to Kapex to get increased and guaranteed whitelisting for presale. This is similar to what the

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coinkoda

largest holders did, to support the project and reduce Koda supply. Large holders are given the option to swap either 15% or 25% of their wallets if over 50m or 100m respectively. There is no option to swap any other amount. Koda Apex will be a reward token when carrying out certain activities with Koda such as staking. Each Koda transaction provides liquidity to Koda Apex, this is an innovative development which hasn't been seen before. Koda Holders who stake are directly rewarded from each transaction made with Koda Apex. Aside from presale, to acquire KAPEX tokens you will be able to stake KODA, and you can trade KAPEX on the designated exchange/s.


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BEGINNERS GUIDE Crypto Weekly

How to Set Up a Crypto Wallet: Choose the Best One for You

a bank account or credit card. You can also transfer your existing coins over to your new hosted wallet.

Non-custodial wallets A non-custodial crypto wallet empowers you to maintain complete control over your digital assets.Noncustodial wallets are different from other types of crypto wallets because they don’t rely on a third party to keep your crypto secure. While providers of the software for keeping your crypto provide security features that help you protect it, they do not manage or keep a copy of your password. If you lose your private key or seedphrase, there’s no way to access your cryptocurrency. If someone else discovers your private key, they'll have access to all of your assets so be careful!. If you are new to the crypto world, a crypto wallet is one of the first things that you will need. A crypto wallet is a place where you can store your cryptocurrency securely. There are many different types- hosted wallets, non-custodial wallets, hardware wallets- but the most popular ones have hosted wallets and hardware wallets. The main difference between these two types of crypto wallets is their level of security.

Hosted wallets Among the most popular crypto wallets is a hosted wallet. When you buy crypto using something like Coinbase, your digital currency will be automatically stored in a hosted wallet. It’s called hosting because it holds your coins for you and takes care of all the typical security tasks that come with owning digital currency: storing your keys, keeping it offline or on storage media like an external hard drive or USB drive that can maintain extra copies of data if

needed for backup purposes, etc. People often talk about losing keys, but when you use a hosted wallet, you don’t have to worry at all. One of the benefits of a hosted wallet is if you ever forget your password, you will still be able to access your cryptocurrency. The drawback is that certain features and coins are not always available with a hosted wallet. Luckily, as technology advances, some of these things may change in the future.

How to set up a hosted wallet: When choosing a wallet, your main considerations should be security, ease of use, and compliance with government regulations so choose a company that you trust.Create your account by entering personal info and choosing a secure password. Always use 2FA for extra security! To buy or transfer cryptocurrency, many platforms and exchanges allow you to purchase with

What are the benefits of a noncustodial wallet? In addition to being in full control of your security, you will also have access to more advanced crypto activities like yield farming, staking, lending, borrowing, and more. If you just want to buy, sell, send, and receive crypto without holding onto it long term or storing it yourself in a specialized device like a hardware wallet (though these allow for more complex cryptocurrency transactions), then you should use a hosted wallet. How to set up a non-custodial wallet: 1. Download and install a wallet app. Popular options include Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask. 2. Create your account. You don't need to share any personal information to create a non-custodial wallet, not even your email address. 3. Write down your private key in a safe place. If you lose or forget this 12-word

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BEGINNERS GUIDE

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Crypto Weekly

2. Download/install the software. Each company offers their own software for setting up your wallet. Access the official company website and follow the instructions to create your wallet with the downloaded program.

phrase, which looks like gibberish, there’s no way to restore access to your crypto. 4. Transfer your cryptocurrency into your wallet. You can't always buy crypto with traditional currencies ina non-custodial wallet, so you'll need to deposit cryptocurrency from somewhere else into your noncustodial wallet first.

Hardware wallets Hardware wallets are physical devices that store your private keys offline. Hardware wallets have increased complexity and cost, but they do have some benefits — for example, they can keep your crypto secure even if you are hacked. A hardware wallet is, therefore, the most secure option for crypto storage, but they are not convenient to carry and too expensive.

How to set up a hardware wallet: 1. Decide which hardware to buy. The two more popular hardware wallets are Ledger and Trezor.

3. You should then transfer crypto to your wallet. A hardware wallet typically doesn’t allow you to buy crypto using traditional currencies (like US dollars or Euros), so you’ll need to transfer your crypto before buying more.

your needs, it's important to consider the following: ¾  Do I want access to my coins 24/ hours a day? ¾  What size amount do I have in total — and what percentage should be stored on an exchange or hosted account? ¾  How much control over security do I need (wouldn't someone else having custody over my private key pose too great of a risk)?

Now, let’s explore the benefits and disadvantages of each crypto wallet type.

¾  Am I willing to spend money now for more features that could come with future hardware wallets?

Hosted wallets

¾  Is there any other special circumstance that might influence how safe and accessible my crypto will be at all times.

•  You can store a small amount of crypto on these wallets (typically up to $100) for free without paying fees or having an account with the hosting company

Non-custodial wallets •  These are great if you want control over your private key but don't need access to many coins at once —they're also cheaper than hardware wallets in most cases.

Just as there are many ways to store cash (such as in a bank account, under your mattress, or in a safe), there are also plenty of ways to keep crypto stored safely and securely.

•  If you have a lot of cryptos that you think might increase substantially in value, then it may be worth investing in one of these devices which will protect them from hackers. Multiple types of Wallets? Yes! If you're not sure what type of crypto wallet is best for You can choose between a hosted wallet, onwhich you don’t have full control, but it is easier and safer if you are not responsible for your private keys; a noncustodial wallet that essentially puts the choice of what to do with your private key in the hands of another party while still allowing access to spend cryptoassets; or a hardware wallet, which offers more protection from cyber theft and is not accessible through the internet. We hope that provides you with a good foundation on the differences between wallets. Good luck out there! What's in your (crypto) wallet?

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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Cryptocurrency is a Revolution of Money that Can't be Stopped

O

ne day neither governments nor central banks will control the money. With cryptocurrency, people are taking their power back. Throughout most of recorded history, religion and the state's power have been ruthlessly linked by the power of laws contrived to serve their interests and the threat they have always maintained over the people. In more modern times, we all became exceedingly freer when we separated religious morals and authority from the power of governments. One of the most critical developments in history for world freedom has been the separation of church and state. But the state retained an unjust, unequal level of control & limitation on freedom by

monopolizing the same tool we use to express the sweat of our brow and the value that it holds. The separation of money and government is the most essential evolution of civilization ever.

The Separation of Money and State Money is more important to many people than being allowed to choose a religion. Separation of money and state might be as – if not more important than – freedom of religion. Money is just as fundamental to our lives as religion, and it affects how our lives are led. The choices that we make about money dictate the ramifications of our

lives and those of our communities. And as Erik Voorhees, founder of the Shapeshift exchange, has said, "to have an institution like money so controlled by a central entity — by a monopoly — is absurd, and it is immoral." We, as free human beings, must abolish it. Globally, the idea of free markets is still somewhat popular, but this logic does not seem to hold true for money. Although many conservatives often espouse the benefits of a free market in various speeches, almost none of them mention the idea of competing currencies. Politicians worldwide tend to be selective in allowing the market to function without government interference.

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Crypto Weekly

Crypto is a tool that can solve money problems more efficiently - optimizing costs, providing additional benefits, providing better security, better speed, better flexibility

There is an underhanded monopoly on money due to the power government thugs hold around the world. There has always been a battle to convince politicians that fiat currency can compete with other forms of money. Cryptocurrency has created a situation where governments don't have a choice in the matter. Long-term, governments have very little control over the decentralization cryptocurrency will maintain. Every country of the world will have to join together in partnership to stop it by turning off the electricity. We know that will never happen. The competition in money is necessary, just as competition in finances is permitted and applies to religion. It is okay to have different churches. Our children will someday look back and realize how apparent removing state control over money was when they learn the history of government power over people and their money. Governments are way too prone to corruption and too prone to thinking short-term. Most people are not good at managing things most efficiently. Crypto represents immutable truth by

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a logical consensus-driven force called the blockchain, an unhackable code for all practical purposes. We, the people, have the power to choose or not a system that overcomes the weaknesses of the human spirit and those who choose to control us. It is truly up to us and not the bullies who would control us. Crypto is a tool that can solve money problems more efficiently - optimizing costs, providing additional benefits, providing better security, better speed, better flexibility. Still, it doesn't mean that everything will be replaced immediately. Like all innovations, it will take time, and like all tools, will slowly be replaced by a more efficient tool as a matter of natural selection. The idea of "survival of the fittest" is seriously at play here.

The Will of the People Everything comes down to the people's will – what they believe has value and what they choose to use. It's only a matter of time and what people demand. We all intuitively know the current system is broken, and many people opt

out of the fiat system whenever they get a real chance. If enough people do that, a tipping point will be reached. The new system is more efficient and uncheatable. Crypto is a safety mechanism that gives people their freedom, and the people will take it because it belongs to them. Freedom is ours and not for governments to take. The people have the power to shape what is coming by the choices about it we make but honestly when it comes to the movement itself, whatever our feeling likes, or dislikes history is being made regardless. I merely report to you and everyone who reads this an inevitable future. The 19th century marked the separation of church and state. The 21st century will be defined by the separation of money and state. It may be a rocky transition but ultimately governments will become like corporations competing for talent. Security will be privatized and DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) will thrive. There is nothing that can be done to stop it. Bans, legislation, laws, will have the effect of slowing its progress but that is all. Welcome to the Crypto revolution. May it serve us well. 


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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Blockchain & The Promise of

a Decentralized Internet

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he Internet has given us a new frontier to explore through the blockchain revolution, like the "wild west" of old. Bestowed a gift on which to build a new foundation free from the power of those who have controlled humanity's recent destiny. An exciting concept revolving around the decentralization of the Internet is evolving that the world is beginning to embrace. The idea may seem overwhelming at first. There will be a bit of learning and teaching involved because this new technology isn't the Internet we're used to. Yet, it might be an alternative in the future to break the Internet's monopoly and stop the privacy, intrusion, and security breaches that users face every day. Web 3.0 will ultimately come from developers freeing us from the centralized megacorporations. For mainstream, internet users applications are coming within our grasp to rid ourselves of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft forever. In today's world, just a few large tech companies control most of the Internet.

New technologies like blockchain, backed by decentralized protocols, can ensure that the web will remain userfocused and community-oriented, just as it is intended to be. However, there is one problem. The original vision of the Internet as a peer-to-peer information system has been lost. Instead, we've created a highly centralized internet that obscures its initial promise.

The Problem of Centralization on the Internet By centralizing, you rob ordinary internet users of control and power. During the early years of the Internet, ordinary users had almost complete control over their online data. However, most of the data circulating on the Internet is collected, packaged, shared, and moderated by big data giants like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google today. Most of the data on the Internet is controlled by a few dominant players. Their rules also govern how people engage with each other. All others have to

follow their rules. Therefore, innovators face an expensive entry cost, they are locked into proprietary platforms, and all data is controlled. Why do the big companies do this to us? Data. Money and power come from it. It's not about profiting off smart devices. Monitoring and surveillance are being carried out to gather data about what you do. Marketing, advertisements, online content, and knowing their buying habits will be more effective if companies have more information about their consumers. People are beginning to feel powerless online, and they believe the Internet has betrayed them by taking away their privacy. Blockchain is a better way to do things and is a critical key to transforming how people use the Internet in the future. A less centralized internet would put power back in the hands of the people who use it. The web needs to be more private, reliable, secure, and open. There are many winners on this web, and it restores the original concept

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of the Internet and the world wide web. By removing intermediaries, blockchain technology allows clients and freelancers to transact directly. You won't be charged extra transaction fees for money transfers or fluctuating exchange rates. In contrast to the current platforms, which take days to complete transactions, they can be conducted instantly. There is no doubt that decentralization is fundamentally an idea that will impact how information technology is used in the future. By decentralizing the web, we can enable a freer, more innovative, and more democratic Internet. The Internet must go to a new level. There is a global trend toward decentralization that is not just in the U.S, and it is occurring worldwide. These efforts and concepts have yet to be fully developed. Decentralized Internet is the future, but predicting when mass adoption will occur is impossible. Information technology and internet functionality are set to be decentralized in the near future. Our ability to decentralize the web will allow us to make it more economical, more innovative, and more democratic. Now

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is the time to take the Internet to the next level.

analysis done without the involvement of intermediaries.

How the Internet will be Decentralized

To maximize decentralization's potential, blockchains aren't enough. A new generation of Web 3.0 protocols can help.

Technology is the key to decentralization. Our goal should be to decentralize the Internet by creating systems that operate without the need for central authorities or intermediaries. Currently, several technologies are being developed that may help facilitate a revolution in decentralized information processing. One of them is blockchain, and another is decentralized protocols, and yet another is peer-to-peer technology. For example, blockchain technology permits continuous data addition from anyone in the network while simultaneously empowering that network to verify information stored within it using a fully decentralized system. It is possible to operate decentralized marketplaces using cryptocurrencies, create remote copyright and notarial services supported by smart contracts, and build trustless apps such as DApps for big data

Protocols like these affect how the Internet stores and exchanges data. Today, you must connect to a centralized server to access any file, website, or piece of data. Recently, technology has advanced rapidly. Among the hottest trends have been artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and, of course, cryptocurrencies. Having decentralization on the web is the next big step. Utilized together, these technologies can improve the web on crucial issues like data privacy, censorship, innovation, and network security. Decentralized web services will have the potential to deliver free, universal internet access once they are scaled and developed fully -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg when compared with the many decentralized technologies being developed. We will see the same kind of game-changing revolution as the Internet did in the 90s with decentralized web technology. 


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The Great Chinese Cryptocurrency Crackdown

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tate regulators in China are trying to make sure that the average Chinese citizen does not have access to cryptocurrencies while embracing blockchain and limiting cryptocurrencies as much as possible. The result is a strange world where the Chinese state censors posts against blockchain while the Chinese central bank says it will clamp down on all things cryptocurrency except for the digital Yuan of course. It makes sense when you realize that the Chinese state is afraid of cryptocurrencies because it is afraid of losing control and power. It is fearful of the freedoms cryptocurrencies represent.

the Chinese government a wealth of financial data, revealing what foodstuffs are consumed, what toys are bought, and where people travel. It will also provide insight into who is reading proreform or dissident magazines and what shops they frequent.

A tracking and digitization system from beginning to end is what the Chinese really want. A digitized Yuan will give

Chinese authorities had previously banned initial coin offerings, which are cryptocurrency equivalents of initial

Beijing's actions could be the beginning of a global crackdown on cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets by regulators. It was a key player in this new financial ecosystem. It would be unfortunate if this happened. The underlying technology behind cryptocurrency has many flaws, but it holds great promise.

public offerings. China then took steps to limit Chinese financial institutions' dealings with cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets. But the latest move goes much further. The government has banned all domestic cryptocurrency transactions. A transaction of this nature can be carried out, in principle, without the direct knowledge of the government. Few Chinese citizens or financial institutions are likely to risk the government's anger. Beijing's actions indicate how national governments and central banks are increasingly worried about cryptocurrencies destabilizing their financial systems and causing negative consequences for the complete government control of everything Chinese leaders crave.

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In the past, Bitcoin fuelled illicit transactions on the dark web. Now, it facilitates ransomware attacks. Over the past few years, it has become evident that Bitcoin is not suited to everyday transactions at this time. Bitcoin's value fluctuates wildly, and its network cannot handle large volumes of transactions quickly or efficiently, though the issues could one day be solved.

governments. China's government was clearly not interested in this, even though it is already facing backlash for trying to stop the speculative bubble in housing markets that it once encouraged.

As a result, Bitcoin has become a purely speculative digital asset with no intrinsic value. Its entire value proposition is based on its scarcity. In contrast to fiat currencies, which central banks can print as they wish, Bitcoin has a hard cap on the total number of digital coins that can be minted.

Cryptocurrencies undermine specific, tangible Chinese state objectives. China's economy depends heavily on the control of capital inflows and outflows. Unlike in other countries where central banks have near-complete political independence, in China, the yuan must remain within a certain range and is regulated by the State Council and China's political leaders, not the People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank. In recent years, central bank money has become increasingly irrelevant.

The prospect of households investing their savings in crypto assets, leaving them vulnerable to a bursting of the speculative bubble, is worrying to

Similarly, Beijing has been wary of cryptocurrencies called stablecoins, which maintain a stable value by being backed by fiat currency stores and could

serve as alternatives to those same currencies in making payments.Also under attack are crypto mining operations, by which massive amounts of computing power is devoted to verifying transactions on the cryptocurrency's network. Due to the easy accessibility of cheap energy and computer hardware, China had become the global center of such mining. In terms of financial assets, cryptocurrency's future is murky. The revolution they set off will make lowcost digital payments widely accessible. As these new technologies develop, they will also enable low-income households and others underserved by existing banks to have access to basic banking and financial services. These kinds of freedoms are just way too incomprehensible to allow by the government of China, one of the most authoritarian regimes on the face of the planet. 

The government has banned all domestic cryptocurrency transactions. A transaction of this nature can be carried out, in principle, without the direct knowledge of the government. Few Chinese citizens or financial institutions are likely to risk the government's anger

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