27Media Coverage of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is Lacking

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Media Coverage of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is Lacking

There are many pieces from establishment media outlets that misunderstand what DAOs are and how they may work. The status quo financial system's defenders echo the talking points of old-guard media outlets, which fear and distrust the economic opportunities opened by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

Although publications rightly acknowledge the early growing pains of DAOs, this sort of hand-wringing fails to recognize the full impact of these initiatives.

There are more than 1.7 billion people without access to traditional financial services, and DAOs are crucial to the development of a decentralized financial system (DeFi) that can reach them. Through DeFi, everyone will have access to a reliable, and transparent, financial system with clear rules of the road.

DAOs and their potential.

While we're only scratching the surface of what DAOs can do for making our financial system radically more transparent and equitable, we've already seen projects emerge that are delivering value to real people around the world.

UkraineDAO, founded by Russian collective of Pussy Riot and Trippy Labs, raised over $6.75 million worth of Ether (ETH) that was donated directly to Ukrainian defense efforts against Russia during the war in the country. Although this amount may not swing the balance of the war, UkraineDAO demonstrates that decentralized financial technologies are capable of coordinating disparate global groups of individuals around a single cause to achieve tangible results.

The work of DAOs doesn't end with fundraising under duress. A DAO currently provides sustainable value to participants all over the world, and it utilizes blockchain technology to address some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change.

Today, DAOs are used to support charitable endeavors, remove barriers to crowdsourced fundraising, give donors more control over how funds are spent, enable low-cost borrowing, and support artists and musicians. These are all governed by transparent smart contracts that allow users to decide the direction and governance of the organization.

The use of new technologies by other DAOs directly combats climate change. I am a member of KlimaDAO, a subDAO of OlympusDAO, which has created an innovative way to remove carbon credits from the Voluntary Carbon Market and place them in the DAO's treasury, thus driving up the cost of carbon offsets and making carbon-intensive businesses more expensive.KlimaDAO has already accumulated over 17 million tons of tokenized carbon credits, surpassing Croatia's annual CO2 emissions. It is projects like this that are actualizing the promise of DeFi technology and paving a new way to do climate activism by infusing environmental concerns into economic activity itself. DAOs, like any groundbreaking technology, offer boundless opportunities for innovators to solve problems in new ways, but they are also attractive to scammers seeking to make quick money.

In the DeFi ecosystem, rugs pulls, where developers withdraw money from a project they have invested in, are serious issues that must be addressed. For the protection of consumers, we are committed to strengthening the regulatory requirements that ensure DAOs are secure and safe.

DAOs, and the entire DeFi ecosystem, are disrupting the traditional financial system, which has equitably benefited the wealthiest, while excluding the poorest and harming our planet. We cannot let the bad actors distract us from the true benefits of DAOs and the entire DeFi ecosystem. For the establishment media to paint a more true and nuanced picture of DAOs, we think it's imperative to look under the hood and paint a picture which reflects what all of us involved in DEFi know: that our efforts will be rewarded in the future. 

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The United Kingdom Plans to Become a CryptoTech Leader of the World

The British government will recognize stablecoins as valid forms of payment in order to make Britain a global leader in the crypto-asset industry.

Stablecoins will be regulated in the UK, enabling them to be used as a form of payment. The UK Government is proposing legislation for a 'financial market infrastructure sandbox' to help companies innovate. The FCA is launching a CryptoSprint, and the Royal Mint is developing an NFT.

In order to ensure UK financial services remain at the forefront of technology, attract investment and jobs, and enhance consumer choice, a package of measures is being put in place. These include: ƒ Firms can test new ideas by establishing a 'financial market infrastructure sandbox'.

ƒ To work closely with the industry, a

Crypto-asset Engagement Group will be established.

ƒ Examining how to improve the competitiveness of the UK tax system to encourage the development of crypto assets.

ƒ This summer, the Royal Mint will issue a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) to demonstrate the UK's commitment to the future.

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said today: “I intend to establish the UK as a global hub for crypto-assets, and these measures will allow firms to expand, innovate, and invest in the UK. By regulating effectively, we can give the businesses of tomorrow - and the jobs they create - the confidence they need to invest long-term here in the UK. We are taking this step to ensure that the UK financial services industry

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remains at the leading edge of technology and innovation."

In order to maintain a stable value, stablecoins are typically pegged to fiat currencies such as the dollar. If properly regulated, they could provide more efficient means of payment and increase consumer choice. Payments made using stablecoins will be brought within the payments regulatory perimeter, creating conditions for stablecoin issuers and providers to operate and invest in the UK. Recognizing the potential of this technology, and regulating it, will ensure financial stability and high standards so that these new technologies can be used safely and reliably in the future.

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, described the UK's vision for becoming a global hub for cryptoasset technology during his speech at the Innovate Finance Global Summit. Additionally, he announced that the UK is proactively exploring the potential benefits of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in the UK financial markets, enabling data to be synchronized and shared in a decentralized way for greater efficiency, transparency, and resilience. Government officials announced they would begin a research program to determine whether DLT can be used to manage sovereign debt instruments and decide on its potential benefits. 'Sandboxes' for financial market infrastructure (FMI) will be created by legislation to enable firms to experiment and innovate in the provision of the infrastructure services that underpin markets, such as the use of Distributed Ledger Technology.

John Glen reports that the government will consult on regulating crypto-assets later this year.

Among the other measures are:

ƒ In order to make the crypto-asset market more attractive, the UK government is examining ways to increase the competitiveness of the tax system. DeFi loans - where crypto-asset holders lend them out for a reward - will be discussed

for tax purposes. Additionally, the government will consult on extending the Investment Manager Exemption to include crypto-assets. ƒ This summer, the Chancellor has commissioned the Royal Mint to create a Non-Fungible Token. ƒ The Financial Conduct Authority will hold a two-day ‘CryptoSprint’ in May with industry participants, seeking views directly from the industry on key issues relating to developing a future cryptoasset regime. ƒ The Cryptoasset Engagement Group, chaired by the Economic Secretary, will bring together key figures from the regulatory authorities and industry to advise the government on issues facing the crypto-assets sector.

The Chancellor outlined a vision for the future of financial services in his Mansion House speech in July 2021, including a plan to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of innovation and technology.

This was one of four key components of that vision, with the ultimate aim of building a financial services sector that continues to be one the rest of the world looks towards.

The government consulted on crypto-assets and stablecoins last year, and has published its response setting out the next steps. 

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A Bitcoin Billionaire and Greenpeace have Developed a Simple Way to Lower Bitcoin's Energy Consumption by 99%

Greenpeace has launched a campaign to convince Bitcoin to make a code change to cut its energy use. The crypto community was outraged by the campaign and immediately pointed out its problems. Find out what the crypto community is doing to push back.

Greenpeace USA and several other groups have launched a campaign to lobby Bitcoin to make a code change to reduce its energy usage. In collaboration with publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and social media platforms like Facebook, the "Change The Code, Not The Climate" campaign has been launched.

Among the targets will be executives, such as Fidelity's Abby Johnson and Twitter's Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Block. According to the first message, "Hey Fidelity. The Planet Is Not Ready for Early Retirement." The second message claims, "Bitcoin Would Stop Polluting the Planet if Only a Few Dozen People Agreed to Change It."

The campaign oversimplifies how Bitcoin works and repeats myths that many have spent years trying to dispel, according to the crypto community.

Bitcoin uses an energy-intensive system to validate transactions without requiring a third party, but it's also very secure. Greenpeace objects to the energy intensity of this system, which consumes as much power in a year as Greece, Sweden, and the Netherlands combined. Changes to the existing "proof-of-work" system to a "proof-of-stake" system will reduce the coalition's carbon footprint. In a press release, Greenpeace noted that Ethereum, one of Bitcoin's major competitors, has now transitioned away from this energywasting code to one that uses 99.9% less electricity without damaging the climate and pollution.

Changes of this kind can only be made by 50 Bitcoin miners, exchanges, and core developers. Throughout this article, I outline the six reasons why the community is upset

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about the campaign and why a code change will be unlikely anytime soon.

Would it remain Bitcoin?

Bitcoin pioneered the proof-of-work consensus mechanism that underpins its entire concept. Mining is the process of solving complex puzzles and being rewarded with crypto in exchange for computers running powerful algorithms. It is a decentralized, secured process. Using proof-of-stake, a network of "validators" contributes their own crypto to validate a new transaction, and when the blockchain is updated with that information, they receive a reward.

In an email to Insider, Diana Briggs, chief strategy officer at DeFi Technologies, said, “There is an unshakeable consensus that Bitcoin's proof-of-work code is not going to change. Despite being a very secure network, it cannot simply be replaced by proof-of-stake (PoS)." "At the end of the day, Bitcoin remains the most trusted digital asset. Security comes first," she added.

Riegle acknowledges Greenpeace's proposal would change Bitcoin's value proposition, even though his cryptocurrency uses a more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake mechanism. Proof-of-Work has traditionally been Bitcoin's security mechanism, and Riegle says climate activism is unlikely to change that. “The Bitcoin community and those who operate nodes do not want to change its code,” he writes in an email to Insider. "The bitcoin community and those who operate nodes will eventually migrate to more sustainable systems."

According to Professor Jason Lowery, a national defense research fellow at MIT who studies Bitcoin, countries that outlaw Bitcoin entirely could be disarming themselves if Bitcoin is now used for national security purposes.

There has never been a scaling of the proof-of-stake.

“A switch to proof-of-stake would be extremely risky as it would require a complete re-configuration of the blockchain,” said Derek Muhney, head of marketing at Coinsource, a Bitcoin ATM provider. “A solution should not be worse than the problem,” he said. Noelle Acheson, head of market insight at crypto trading firm Genesis, explains there is no solid evidence that proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms scale over time in a blog post. "A risky premise for changing a $900 billion asset," she said.

There's more to it than a simple code change.

Many people who have been in crypto for many years know that the code change isn't the result of a handful of miners, exchanges, and developers. As a result, a hard fork of the blockchain in 2017, that became known as Bitcoin Cash, was created by users without consensus. Several years ago, a proposal was made to reduce transaction fees by increasing the size of Bitcoin's blocks. Bitcoin's block size was proposed to the community a few years ago in order to reduce transaction fees. Due to the lack of consensus, Bitcoin Cash was created as a result of a user-driven hard fork in 2017.

A book named "The Blocksize War" was based on the debacle.

Genesis's Acheson writes in a blog post that, “It took years of intense development and broad agreement from the very beginning to change Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.” Acheson noted that getting that level of consensus is unattainable, even if the change were a good one. This would inevitably lead to another Bitcoin fork.

In an email, Tyler Benster, technology adoption lead for Kadena Eco, explained that the fork is predicated not only on the support of 50 major miners, exchanges, and developers but also on the community recognizing the fork as legitimate. Muhney said, “Greenpeace appears to be working off of the idea of a normal fork.” "Bitcoin can definitely be forked. That's how we got Bitcoin Cash (BCH), but it's a totally different coin now, and most people don't care about it," he said.

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Ripple's co-founder plays an important role.

Chris Larsen, chairman and billionaire cofounder of Ripple, has invested $5 million into the campaign. In the Greenpeace press release, Larsen said, “The campaign is not anti-Bitcoin but anti-pollution. As some have suggested, the issue is not to power Bitcoin with clean energy. We need that limited supply of clean energy for other essential uses. The issue is to change the code to use far less energy. That's the environmentally responsible approach."

The project isn't being worked on by Ripple, but Larsen has skin in the game. Insider requested a comment from Ripple, but the company did not reply. XRP, the native token of Ripple, is used by the company's own network. The Securities and Exchange Commission is involved in a court case with the company regarding the token's marketing. Larsen said on Twitter that this is a personal project and he still wants Bitcoin to succeed. “The fact that someone with years of experience in the crypto industry does not understand how Bitcoin code changes works is shocking,” said Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, a Bitcoin-focused company. "Code changes take months. Major code changes take years and rarely happen. They are discussed and debated extensively across tens of thousands of stakeholders."

Neglecting clean energy innovations.

"Bitcoins consider decentralized global sound money a good use of energy," said Klippsten. “Greenpeace and its partners are worried about mining continuing to rely on fossil fuels. Some people think Christmas lights are a good use of power, and others don't. However, cleaner energy sources are beginning to emerge.”

“Bitcoin, like almost everything that adds value to our society, consumes resources, but the majority of that energy comes from renewable sources," said Colin Pape, founder of decentralized search engine Presearch, in an email. Briggs notes that mining operations are beginning to use renewable energy sources, such as hydro, solar, wind, and nuclear power. Some organizations use natural gas that would be consumed otherwise. Hive Blockchain Technologies, for example, only uses renewable energy.

"At the moment, crypto's energy use is high, but as adoption increases - and I believe it will keep growing exponentially - the energy per unit of economic activity will decrease dramatically," said Kadena Eco's Benster.

The campaign has not followed a proposal process.

Despite all the talk about Bitcoin making a code change, the campaign has yet to submit a formal proposal to the Bitcoin network to start the code change process. 

Crypto Weekly

Investors Say New York has Surpassed Silicon Valley and Hong Kong as the Nation's Crypto Capital

The cryptocurrency capital of America is likely to become the next Wall Street. Suppose the title doesn't go to Wall Street itself. With the potential to become a primary gateway into the ever-growing digital asset world, just as Silicon Valley has been for big tech and New York has been for big banking, establishing a crypto capital in the U.S. makes sense. From Wyoming's state capital to Miami's city hall, local governments have been fighting for years to attract the crypto and blockchain industries to their areas. Hence, mayors, governors, and lawmakers have been making their pitches: Lower taxes, friendlier regulations, warmer temperatures. The list goes on.

However, there are signs that New York City, the epicenter of senior finance since the Buttonwood Agreement, may be gaining ground. New York City already has a thriving crypto community with Tyler Winklevoss' Gemini, the NFT marketplace OpenSea, and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. However, recent activity has picked up.

Investment funds are pouring billions into New York's crypto startups; Wall Street banks and money management companies are entering the market; and New York City's newly elected mayor, Eric Adams, has gone so far as to declare the city "the center of the cryptocurrency industry" -all of which has put New York City on a trajectory to become non-fungible to the industry's evolution eventually, executives and investors say. "It's kind of like a person who's got a 100-yard dash, and he gets to start at the 50-yard line," Ava Labs President John Wu says. "It's for New York to lose." 