Crypto Weekly 06/06/2022 by Cryptoweekly

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THE PUMP & DUMP Page 30

CRYPTO GRAFFITI ART Page 32

MOVE TO EARN Page 09

THE MARKETS MEANING NFT GAMING TECH

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METAVERSE DEATH Page 22

THE METAVERSE MEETS CRYPTO Page 26

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CONTENTS $2 cryptoweeklymag.com June 2022 | Volume 29

BTC to $100,000 Next Year, According to a Bitcoin Forecaster with a Solid Record

New York City Hotel Provides Booking Through NFTs for the First Time

Latest Crypto Gaming Craze is Solana's "Move-to-Earn" App StepN, where Players May Earn Thousands a Day!

A New 'Uncapped' Fund Available for Terra Projects on Polygon

Mark Zuckerberg's Platforms Have a Problem with Sexual Assault of Womens Avatars

Game-Changing Possibilities for NFT Gaming in the Metaverse

Asset Management is Made Democratic with Blockchain

How Does Death Work in the Metaverse?

Crypto Meets the Metaverse

How About a Bear-Market Merge to Affect Ethereum?

Pump & Dump Crypto Criminals Doing Well

Graffiti on the Streets How Bitcoin is Changing the World

Crypto has only been Used by 12% of Americans

The Meaning of Crypto for Global Financial Markets

The Metaverse Could Be One of the Most Unsafe Situations You've ever Experienced

Why Does Legacy Finance Hate Crypto?

CRYPTOWEEKLY CEO | Nathan Hill

LETTER FROM

THE EDITOR

nathan@cryptoweeklymag.com Publisher | Colin Woolley colin@cryptoweeklymag.com Editor | Robert Stone

Welcome to Crypto Weekly

editor@cryptoweeklymag.com Editorial | Anthony Burton editorial@cryptoweeklymag.com Features | Thomas Stokes tom@cryptoweeklymag.com Advertising | Philip Greenwood philip@cryptoweeklymag.com Design | Dilin Divan dilin@cryptoweeklymag.com

Hello, and a warm welcome to the 29th issue of Crypto Weekly. Crypto Weekly is the brainchild of the guys at CMC, and I am Rob Stone, Editor, and I hope to bring you an informative read on everything crypto, every week of the year.

Crypto Weekly Magazine is published by the Crypto Marketing Company 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ

Over the past few weeks, I have spoken with nearly two dozen people within, adjacent to, or critical of the crypto industry about what they see as the purpose of crypto. It was a picture that was both murky and clear, in that there isn't just one right answer. Despite its boosters' best efforts, much of what it does is trash, and some of it costs people a lot of money. Other parts of it are revolutionary and will change the world. Crypto has gone through plenty of booms and busts in the past. It would be unwise to say crypto will not be a game-changer; it would also be untrue to claim that it is already. It is definitely going places we have never been before and we will see what happens when we get there. I'm keeping my eyes and my mind open, and I suggest we all do. As usual, a lot of stuff has happened in the last week because the music never stops in the crypto sphere and the time keeps rolling on. I hope you all enjoy what we have brought together for you this week. 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

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NEWS

Crypto Weekly

BTC to $100,000 Next Year, According to a Bitcoin Forecaster with a Solid Record S

tocks are bracing for more volatile action as investors continue to review Federal Reserve minutes after Nvidia issued a warning late Wednesday night. Instead of Wall Street, we're talking about cryptocurrencies and a call from the President of macroeconomic research firm Lamoureux & Co., Yves Lamouret, who made some prescient predictions about the cryptocurrency market. It is predicted that Bitcoin's so-called winter is over for now, and it will reach $100,000 by the end of 2023, which could last until 2025. "I'm not giving a strong buy signal. I'm just saying yes, you can start buying little by little," Lamouret said in a recent MarketWatch interview. He said that Bitcoin meets most of his criteria for a bear market exit, hovering at $30,000 and down more than 55% from its all-time high of $68,990 in November 2021.

But the gist of his call is based on an eclipselike event expected in 2024 (he predicts around March) when bitcoin miner rewards will halve. The halving occurs every four years and is intended to limit the number of coins in circulation and support prices. The last one was May 11, 2020. "The primary driving force behind Bitcoin is its supply," he said. "Supply decreases so less comes to the market…which has historically always led to higher prices. I mean, it's out of the story right now." In April, Lamouret backtracked on his advice against chasing Bitcoin but said he had always expected a short-term bear market. He also predicted bitcoin's skyscraper peak in November when it reached that all-time high and predictions that came true in early 2017 and mid-2020. Additionally, Bitcoin sentiment is "very low," as seen at other

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major lows. Investors, he said, should buy little rather than bet big because there would be no straight road ahead. He said, "It's always the same." The price rises before the halving, then it pauses for a moment, then it rises sharply again," Lamouret said. When bitcoin reaches $100,000, it will attract a new wave of attention. He is a classic market-timer who excels at bitcoin because he buys and sells at the right time. The investment community has been soured on the crypto sector due to the stablecoin fiasco, concerns about further regulation, and a general bearish attitude towards assets like equities, as he said. "Bitcoin is the king, and that's where institutional money will flow first. Everyone wants to be Bitcoin, but they don't keep it simple. Always choose the best. Stick with Bitcoin," he said.

June 2022 | Volume 29

NEWS Crypto Weekly

New York City Hotel Provides Booking Through NFTs for the First Time C

rypto owners who want to mix their digital assets with something in the real world have a new option: Take a vacation. New York City's NoMo SoHo hotel became the first hotel in the United States to offer NFT reservations. The property is offering curated NFTs with stays in some of its guest rooms on Monday, May 16. Initially, only 300 NFTs will be released, priced at .41 ETH, or $836 at launch. Hospitality companies have jumped into the NFT game, but most have remained focused on the digital art aspect of the game. During this year's Art Basel Miami, Marriott Bonvoy gave away original art and 200,000 Bonvoy points as part of its loyalty program. Hotels around the world have set up NFT galleries, while the luxury Venetian hotel Ca' di Dio offered some exclusive experiences via NFTs in celebration of its opening in 2021. Sapir Corp CEO Sharon Raz said that the market is filtering out high-priced offers that don't provide real value for consumers from those that do. She called this new and innovative. "This is something that had already been done if you think about it." It will be seamless for buyers to book with the NFT package because it is similar to using a promo code. Depending on the NFT

they purchased, guests can book three- to six-night stays using a special code that offers a range of dates. The NoMo fills up its reservation books ahead of time, while the guest gets a competitive rate during a time when hotel rates in NYC are on the rise. Raz calls it a win-win situation that benefits both parties. With a total height of 26 stories, NoMo is the tallest building in SoHo, and its floor-toceiling windows offer stunning views of New York City. Guests can also enjoy perks like late check-out, free breakfast, a welcome amenity, and more when they book a room with an NFT. Razstresses that these services will be available to a small, select group of people, almost like a membership club. She hopes the NFTs will help attract a new type

of clientele to the NoMo. "I think the crypto community will now view NoMo differently, or as a better option, when considering options in New York," she added. “This is something that hasn’t yet been seen in the hospitality industry, which I believe will be huge once people realize the advantages.” Sapir wants to be at the forefront of innovation in the real estate and hospitality industries through NoMo SoHo NFTs. A condo in the company's previous development, the first development in Miami to facilitate such a transaction, sold for $22.5 million using cryptocurrency. Raz says, "that was the first time we connected this new world with old-time assets like apartments, rooms, things you can actually own.". "We discovered there was a lot of demand from people who owned coins and wanted to convert them or do something with them that belonged to the old world, as I call it." Now, Sapir is betting that people also want this sort of connection with hotels. It is possible that more packages with expanded offerings or opportunities will be released in the future, depending on how the NoMo's first NFT drop goes. At this point, however, the focus is on these 300 NFTs, which are available in time for summer travel.

June 2022 | Volume 29

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NEWS

Crypto Weekly

Latest Crypto Gaming Craze is Solana's "Move-to-Earn" App StepN, where Players May Earn Thousands a Day! Would you consider it a game? According to some, StepN and other playto-earn blockchain games like Axie Infinity are successful because they are essentially financial products with gamified features. To start earning tokens and logging their mileage, StepN users must first pay 12 sol ($600) for a pair of virtual shoes to start earning tokens and logging their mileage. Even though the digital shoes are nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that run on the Solana network and Binance's smart chain, so they can be sold later, the entry fee is still not a cheap amount for casual players.

tepN, an app that lets users earn tokens by walking and running, has become a household name in the months since it launched. StepN's co-founder Jerry Huang estimates that there are now two to three million active users every month. Even though it isn't close to the hundredmillion player size enjoyed by popular Web 2.0 titles, it's a significant milestone for a five-month-old app in the crypto world. As of May 22, StepN's native token GMT had around $860 million in market capitalization. In October, Huang and co-founder Yawn Rong debuted StepN at a Solana hackathon in Adelaide, Australia. As a result of coming in fourth at the event, it secured its first batch of beta users. A couple of months after it officially launched, the blockchain community had already heard about the app that lets you earn money for staying fit. Users signed up without any fancy marketing campaigns. The StepN team had to cap the number of daily registrations after

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growing so rapidly in just weeks. Huang says tens of thousands of new users join the app each day. At first, Huang, a serial entrepreneur, and Rong, a blockchain venture capitalist, selffunded the project because the pair was "financially stable." But in September, they realized that fundraising could provide other resources such as partnerships and publicity. The founders talked with over 100 investors and revised their pitch deck over 40 times before closing a $5 million seed round in November. We had no product at the time, and most investors did not understand what we were doing. Not Sequoia. We refined the product as a result of answers to investor questions. Currently, the fast-growing app appears to be self-sustainable. It generates $3 million to $5 million in net profit a day from trading fees and earns up to $100 million monthly. It received another round of funding from Binance in April.

To level up, StepN users must accumulate new kicks over time. It usually takes about a month for investors to see a return on investment. They may earn up to several thousand dollars per day depending on their level, activity, and the current price of StepN tokens. Therefore, the game can be quite profitable. GameFi apps, such as Axie Infinity feature cute creatures fighting in simple battles. Many gaming veterans regard GameFi apps as mindless and easy to use. Thus, Web 2.0 gaming incumbents are making GameFi their home, promising to restore quality to the industry. Huang disagreed. "Many triple-A games emphasize aesthetics and big budgets, but they lack innovation in gameplay, whereas simple-looking games like Plants vs. Zombies have brilliant gameplay that keeps them alive," Huang said before he moved to Australia a decade ago. It's hard to understand how our app's economics work when it looks simple," he

June 2022 | Volume 29

NEWS Crypto Weekly

said. "Many newcomers to GameFi seek triple-A productions blindly." "But why would they do that if their game isn't already successful online?

Can it be sustained? Some question its viability financially. As a result, such a business model requires either that the gameplay is so addicting that users cannot stop playing or that the app continues to attract new users who replace those who cash out. Play-to-earn has even been compared to pyramid schemes by critics. Despite its meteoric rise, Axie Infinity hasn't been able to sustain it. The Vietnamese gaming studio behind the game, Sky Mavis, was valued at $3 billion in a $150 million financing round last October. The token has lost over 80% of its value since peaking at $160 in November, and its sales volume has fallen from $754 million to just $5 million. Most of StepN's users are 20-40-year-olds from affluent nations like the U.S., Japan, and Europe, so losing a few thousand dollars isn't the end. Huang said that less than 5% of its users are from China, where crypto trading is prohibited. Many Axie Infinity's players

are located in developing countries, such as the Philippines and Venezuela, where many are staking a large portion of their savings on the game, which was their main income source during the COVID pandemic. The StepN approach proposes a two-pronged approach to sustainability. Initially, it's working on a price stabilization mechanism to make sure that shoes remain affordable for new users and not so inexpensive that existing users will lose motivation to mint new shoes. That is, create new shoes on a blockchain and sell them. The dual-token system allows for price manipulation. StepN will mint new shoes when the price of its "utility coin" GST gets too high and shoes become expensive. Players will be asked to burn the "governance coin" GMT. GST's supply increases, as a result, causing a sell-off and lowering its price. Axie Infinity is fundamentally different from StepN because of its fitness component, Huang added. "While users may make money from StepN in the early stages, they will also become accustomed to staying active, which means they will continue to walk or run regardless of financial rewards."

According to Curt Shi, founding partner of Welinder & Shi Capital and an early investor in StepN, many people don't think of StepN as a game. Other people do not consider it a running app because users can make money from it. "At this time, it's hard to determine, but time will tell." According to Huang, StepN can evangelize blockchain throughout the world. About 30% of the app's users have never used a blockchain service before. "We currently have the potential to onboard tens of millions of web3 users, and I think this is something very powerful. Many people have used centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. Still, few have ever heard of a DEX [decentralized exchange], traded NFTs on a marketplace, or owned a self-custodial wallet.." According to the founder, the sustainability issue is receiving too much attention. ROI might indeed slow over time, but all games have life cycles. You should also consider the value an app provides." Due to falling crypto values, the app's momentum might slow down sooner than expected. Startups are being warned to brace for a "crypto winter," and industry giants like Coinbase are slowing hiring. As consumers lose confidence in the market and are less willing to purchase tokens or NFTs, blockchain apps that depend on attracting new users may face greater challenges. Huang, despite the current crisis, sees a bright side. "There was a lot of instability in the market. Now that it's bursting, our shoes will be more affordable, and only the [blockchain] apps with real use cases will survive." "The market was frothy, so StepN's market cap has shrunk the past few days," said Shi. "Keeping a high market cap can be stressful for the team, but now the team will be able to focus on the product itself, so we anticipate StepN to outperform in bear markets." Now it's proving that the platform can bring in a steady stream of new users. StepN has built a team of 70 people across countries such as Australia, the U.K., the U.S., and Singapore. The company's next goal is to build a social network around the token holders.

June 2022 | Volume 29

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NEWS Crypto Weekly

A New 'Uncapped' Fund Available for Terra Projects on Polygon

olygon is calling upon thousands of developers who built their projects on Terra's inoperative blockchain to pick up the pieces of Terra's now-defunct economy. Ryan Wyatt, CEO of Polygon Studios, a layer-2 blockchain built on Ethereum, said he had launched a "relatively uncapped multimillion-dollar fund" to help Terra-built projects migrate to the Polygon blockchain. To fund the fund, Wyatt said the company would draw on the $450 million Polygon previously raised, its treasury, and a $100 million ecosystem fund. Wyatt said he doesn't want to set a finite limit to the

June 2022 | Volume 29

fund because the idea is to make sure we have enough capital to assist developers who want to migrate to Polygon. "Having it is very important since every individual's circumstances are different." Terraform Labs' algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and cryptocurrency LUNA plunged more than 99% within just a few days, dragging down the entire crypto industry. Wyatt said, "I find what happened with Terra an unfortunate event on so many levels." "It has significant second order effects on developers, founders, and innovators, so no matter where you're at, Polygon or the

greater web3 ecosystem, you want to do everything you can to help them." Wyatt says some projects had so much exposure to UST and LUNA that they no longer have the capital to run their company. He added that others have launched NFT projects or tokens or have deeply integrated on a technical level. Polygon will fund OnePlanet, an NFT marketplace based in Terra. About 30 people on the team previously worked at Apple, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, KPMG and PwC. Wyatt said that approximately 50 to 60 Terra projects had expressed interest in moving to Polygon. The timeline for the migration is not specified, but he expects all of these projects to migrate to a blockchain by the end of the year. Wyatt said Polygon will not announce that it has run out of money. Some projects will have to migrate faster than others, so we won't just give an advantage to those who had to migrate first, he said. "It's good for the ecosystem and good for the developers, so we realized we had to help them come up with a strategy to get Terra out of the way and back into an ecosystem and chain that is supported and has users," he explained.

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NEWS

Crypto Weekly

Central Banks Must Understand Impact of Digital Money, Fed's Williams Says

n his remarks Wednesday, New York Fed President John Williams said digital currency and payments technologies might change how the Federal Reserve conducts monetary policy and the composition of its balance sheet, issues the central bank must investigate.

"Digital transformation could impact how we interact with counterparties and conduct monetary policy," Williams said at a research conference at Columbia University. "The big question is how central banks will react to stablecoins and central bank digital currencies," Williams said.

Central banks will always provide money and liquidity to provide stability to the economy and financial system. However, "it's essential that we understand how these transformations could affect the economy and the financial system and monetary policy." Currently, the Federal Reserve is considering creating its own digital currency, and President Biden's administration is discussing the regulation of cryptocurrencies and related technologies like stablecoins. If the Fed creates a digital dollar, the development of a private currency network, the growth of stablecoins and cryptocurrencies, and the expansion of private payment options might have a profound effect on banks and the legacy financial system that a central bank relies on.

'Pay more attention' Ethereum Co-Founder Says of Recent Cryptocurrency Crash

fter a market crash that wiped out more than $800 billion from the value of cryptocurrencies, Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood said cryptocurrency investors should be more aware of what is backing their holdings. During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wood told Reuters that "people should pay more attention to what is under the currency's name." Crypto and blockchain companies were highly visible at this year's gathering of business and political leaders, despite the market's plunge in recent weeks. Luna, the eighthlargest coin, was practically worthless by the end of the week. The British computer scientist attended the conference for the first time to discuss a new partnership between his blockchain project Polkadot and billionaire Frank

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McCourt's Project Liberty. Cryptocurrencies and blockchains, which keep records of transactions on networks of computers, are largely unregulated. "The internet has no concept of legality because sovereign nations determine the legality," Wood said. Wood said the new partnership aims to decentralize control of the web and give users more control over their data.

"Technology can't prevent people from making mistakes, but it can help them understand their buying products," Wood said. Besides coining the term Web3, he founded the Web3 Foundation, which promotes a reorganization of the web away from big corporations such as Google owner Alphabet to individual users.

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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Mark Zuckerberg's Platforms Have a Problem with Sexual Assault of Womens Avatars verbal abuse, racial slurs, and invasion of personal space on a myriad of apps (not owned by Meta) such as Rec Room, VRChat, and AltspaceVR. "Many of these apps remain accessible via Meta's Oculus Quest," SumOfUs researchers wrote.

ccording to advocacy group SumOfUs, a woman's avatar on Facebook parent Meta's new Horizon Worlds platform was sexually assaulted. A 21-year-old researcher for SumOfUs was chatting in a virtual room on Horizon Worlds, a metaverse platform released last December in the U.S. and Canada. There were two male avatars in the room with her, and one of them was very close to her. They made crude comments to each other about her. This month's report focused on sexual violence, hate speech, and content moderation at Meta, and SumOfUs included a clip from the event.

platforms multiple times per week. Even though Meta has added some safety measures since these reports surfaced, the research group believes these actions are not enough to curb sexual harassment in the Metaverse. Additionally, these behaviors are happening across other apps beyond the ones owned by Meta. Many of them are accessed through Meta's Oculus Quest, the headset maker acquired by Meta in 2014. "These troubling events are not isolated to Meta-owned apps. VR users have long reported problems with sexual harassment,

Meta introduced a personal boundary zone of four feet in the VR platform. The Meta company added a personal boundary feature to Horizon in February that allows users to set a distance of four feet from other avatars. It is activated by default, but the user can turn it off. They can also block others on these apps and report them after a negative experience. "Developing for VR presents what are perhaps some of the hardest challenges we've tackled in a generation of computing now that fixed viewpoints and traditional flatscreen devices no longer limit us," the company said in the post. "Personal Boundary creates more personal space for people and makes it easier to avoid unwanted interactions between avatars. We will continue to iterate and improve as we learn more about how Personal Boundary affects people's VR experiences.."

SumOfUs has been researching sexual harassment on an ongoing basis. Another woman named Nina Jane Patel reported that she was "virtually gang raped" within a minute of logging on to Horizon earlier this year. Three to four male avatars groped and "verbally and sexually harassed" her avatar, which became "the target of suggestive and lewd remarks because of her avatar's outwardly female appearance," the SumOfUs report noted. According to the report, Chanelle Siggens was approached by a player in "Population: One," a VR game created by a publisher owned by Meta, when the avatar simulated "groping and ejaculating onto her avatar." Many others report harassment on these

June 2022 | Volume 29

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Game-Changing Possibilities for NFT Gaming in the Metaverse June 2022 | Volume 29

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NFT FEATURE

Crypto Weekly

egend has it that Vitalik Buterin created Ethereum because his warlock got nerfed. In one version of the story, Vitalik wrote, "I played World of Warcraft from 2007 to 2010." "At some point, Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock's Siphon Life spell. I cried myself to sleep, and I realized the danger of centralized services. I quit." The story is a metaphor for the power of decentralization. A game skill or item could not be nerfed or weakened, even if a company like Blizzard Entertainment wanted to if it were an immutable blockchain token. Additionally, since non-fungible tokens reside on public blockchains, they can be read by any game's software. Siphon

Life could, in the future, be used not only in World of Warcraft but also in Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, and possibly Tetris if it lived on a public blockchain. A winking joke ("I cried myself to sleep"?) rather than a serious design proposal, Vitalik was 16 when this happened. Nevertheless, some have taken it literally as a call for games that use immutable tokens to represent skills or equipment. World of Warcraft-like games proposed to do exactly that during the 2017-2018 initial coin offering bubble, selling virtual swords and armor before even starting development. Non-fungible items are facing increasing challenges. New blockchain gaming

projects, such as Ember Hearts and Mirandus have abandoned the concept. Leaders of blockchain gaming are generally unenthusiastic about the concept, and traditional game studios have little incentive to support interoperability. Counterstrike is looking less likely to feature bow and arrows from Horizon: Zero Dawn any time soon. New possibilities have emerged with the rise of the "metaverse" concept. Instead of NFT interoperability across games, innovators are increasingly expecting games to emerge from NFT ecosystems, like races between CryptoKitties or platform-jumping Bored Apes. Therefore, while Vitalik's warlock may not be safe from the nerf bat, NFT-based game assets may become even stranger. (Continued)

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June 2022 | Volume 29

NFT FEATURE Crypto Weekly

But why blockchain-based games? "I began getting YouTube ads for rune marketplaces a week or two after Elden Ring came out," said Carlos Perierra, an investor at Bitkraft Ventures. The currency of Elden Ring is the rune, a popular video game whose multiplayer features make it possible to trade or sell items. However, these are risky markets. Perierra explains the complex process for buying Elden Ring runes: "You have to enter PVP [player versus player], and the seller drops them for you." The seller says, "These behaviors have been around for a long time, but they have to be done on the gray market, which can be scammy.” "What's the point of not extending it to become more efficient and scalable?" Using blockchains to track virtual items makes sense from that perspective: Items are already being bought and sold at a furious pace, leaving players exposed. There is already a multibillion-dollar industry (yes, seriously) dedicated to transferring cosmetics between players involving a lot of trading and speculation. Many companies, such as Valve, moved to legitimize and shape the market without the support of game developers. The introduction of NFTs would make it easier and safer for players to buy and sell cosmetics or other items while at the same

time helping developers capture a larger share of revenues. Games like Counterstrike: Global Offensive, which has skin trading enabled, generate tens of millions of dollars for Valve and independent skin designers. NFTs would simplify and improve the buying and selling process while allowing developers to capture more of the value of their products. Skin trading generates tens of millions of dollars for Valve and independent designers alike in games like Counterstrike: Global Offensive. Nonetheless, Valve controls a significant portion of that market through Steam, the world's most popular digital games marketplace. Items for other games such as Elden Ring and World of Warcraft are also sold through Steam, but Valve takes a 30% cut. Such fees are why item sellers for games like Elden Ring or World of Warcraft frequently use awkward, unofficial workarounds that leave players vulnerable to scams.

'Pay to win' is an Issue In the meantime, there's a good reason these markets aren't official: While many players love them, others strongly oppose them. Specifically, in multiplayer games, players often see buying in-game achievements as cheating that devalues their achievements. Items that make characters more powerful or competitive are especially prone to be derided as "pay to win." Changing powerful

game items into NFTs isn't a foregone conclusion. Such a model would make any game "pay to win." It's probably impossible to make items or skills immutable within a single game for related design reasons. Many games now have multiplayer components, and character abilities must be adjusted so that the competition is even. While a teenage Vitalik was frustrated by losing power, nerfing Siphon Life made the game more fun for others - and World of Warcraft's success after Vitalik quit suggests that Blizzard actually got this and related tweaks right. (Sorry, Vitalik.) In addition, cross-platform transferability would cause balancing and player experience issues. An NFT is little more than a marker of ownership, and it would not consistently indicate the utility of game items. A moderately powerful weapon in one game could be made completely overpowering in another. "Even if we agree that interoperability is a good idea, it's still very complicated if we open the walled garden," states Pereira. "It gets a lot harder, a lot faster." There is also a challenge at the level of the graphical interface. 3D visual assets for games can be designed with various tools, such as Unreal or Unity. “The problem is that these proprietary formats are linked to specific rendering engines," Joel Dietz, CEO and Founder of MetaMetaverse told me. "It's not easy to integrate them." The goal of MetaMetaverse, Dietz said, is to enable interoperability across engines for assets. By developing standards for interoperability, for instance, much of this complexity could be moderated. "That is the Holy Grail. That is the dream," said Ahmed Al-Balaghi, cofounder and CEO of Biconomy, which builds blockchain games infrastructure. "But who will create these standards?" The company with the highest potential to lead that effort has squandered its position: "Meta cannot lead on standards," Al-Balaghi says of the company formerly known as Facebook, "given all the blowback they've gotten." Game publishers will have to figure out how

June 2022 | Volume 29

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NFT FEATURE

Crypto Weekly

CryptoKitties add-ons. Such virtual worlds have grown in popularity over the last four or five years, and blockchain gaming has taken on an entirely new meaning. Metaverses might provide a more streamlined, if less revolutionary, vision of NFT-based gaming, just as Otherside is more vertically integrated than KittyRaces.

to make money from NFT items, the biggest challenge. “From a business perspective, [traditional developers] sell in-game items that people are happy to buy. Still, they do not demand any reward for doing so." That may be a disincentive to tokenizing items, which is why Al-Balaghi says widespread interoperability of game items is "very far away." Despite this, it's not clear the incentives are much different for some current Web 3-centric projects. Many have pursued branded partnerships with celebrities and deals with designers. A major goal of those deals is attracting users to a platform, so making assets interoperable might not be appealing. "The Sandbox team is paying many people to develop on Sandbox, so even if the item works elsewhere, I'm sure they would have defensive licensing in place to prevent it. If you're pushing interoperability, that's a hard thing to deal with."

Build Back Backwards The most popular NFT implementation relating to in-game items has been Loot, a video app launched by Dom Hoffman in August 2021, who founded Vine before TikTok. Loot's NFTs are incredibly minimalistic: Each is just a list of adventuring gear like wands and cloaks. A few thousand dollars for these black-andwhite text blocks was greeted with disbelief by the general public, not least because the NFT market was in the midst of an irrational boom. As the market has dropped, loot prices have also dropped. Conceptually, however, Loot is one of the most interesting

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projects to date. The NFTs for Loot don't include any images or stats because they're "intentionally left out for interpretation by others." The idea was that items would be created by one entity, then the game would be built over top of the items. The Loot experiment hasn't produced a notable game, and it might end up serving more as a platform for games than a game itself. Even before the current NFT or metaverse craze, the general idea proved compelling and practical. CryptoKitties gave us 60 apps a few months ago, "Kitty hats, kitty races," says Mik Naayem, Dapper Labs' chief business officer. Naayem refers to KittyRace, a simple racing game where owners raced their Kitties. According to Naayem, it is a better model for NFTs in gaming than simply tokenizing in-game items. He said that "taking something from World of Warcraft and adding it to Need for Speed will probably not happen." But the moment developers see an audience for an asset, they'll start working on it." In general, that's what has happened with NFTs over the past few years. Yuga Labs, the makers of Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced a virtual environment called Otherside in April. Yuga will reportedly be able to import not just BAYCs, but CryptoPunks, Meebits, and other collections as playable avatars. Since CryptoKitties is built by the same company that made NFTs, it differs from what happened with CryptoKitties. However, it demonstrates the basic premise that NFT "items" can be used as the basis for a game rather than being created just for one. In addition to being an entire "metaverse," Otherside differs from the early, small-scale

The most important model for Charles Smith, CEO of Nifty Island, is the children's game Roblox, where a large world is filled with minigames, most created by users. Smith says Roblox is Roblox's first attempt at being the YouTube of gaming. A Roblox game can have more DAUs [daily active users] than most [big-budget game] titles at any time. There are still studios that act like old Hollywood, but the future is small developers who build narrow experiences in shared environments. One controlling entity can determine how items behave in the real world and transfer between games, thus enabling a limited degree of interoperability. Games are being developed across various blockchain ecosystems, and technical interoperability on the back end is still somewhat hazy, so keeping things confined to one chain is likely more practical for now. Al-Balaghi argues that having different experiences within one ecosystem will lead to more success in the short term. He said self-contained worlds are easier to make and easier to market, but if users push for them, they could become a platform for greater openness. Code must be changed for it to be interoperable. Can these semiopen systems be fully opened by their guardians?" I heard the most precise roadmap to the future of interoperable gaming while reporting for this story. But it echoes an increasingly evident sentiment: making good games is the key. As of now, there are no blockchain games that have caught on with users, except for "play-to-earn" games that emphasize financial elements rather than gameplay. A bear market may be a better environment for focusing on substance, exploring new NFT-based models, and attracting investors interested in more than simply watching numbers go up.

June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Asset Management is Made Democratic with Blockchain

he bottom half of adults own less than 1% of total wealth, while the top 10% own 88%, and the top percentile owns half of the total wealth. A major contributor to this inequality has been the financial system, which restricts access to premium services and systems to only the wealthiest people. Due to this, new platforms have been sought to provide individuals with decentralized, democratic, and transparent wealth management options. Innovation in the financial sector is a key to closing the wealth gap and restoring confidence in the sector.

June 2022 | Volume 29

Taking the Sector to New Heights Throughout history, technology has been instrumental in spurring unprecedented changes in finance. The blockchain revolution has changed how people think about currency, art, privacy, and the future over the last decade. Despite the recent popularity of products and services aimed at democratizing wealth management, there have been few attempts to use blockchain. To help bridge the global wealth gap and meet the needs of smaller retail investors, a concentrated effort must

be made to decentralize and democratize wealth management. Using blockchain technology to realize its potential fully, platforms such as Nous Systems can create automated, decentralized systems that can introduce increased levels of access, transparency, and efficiency into a sector that has remained the same over the years.

Decentralization, Openness, and Accessibility Large hedge funds typically require a minimum investment between $200,000 and $1 million to access their wealth

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Crypto Weekly

management products and services. Those figures reflect the high costs of traditional asset management, including an asset management fee of approximately 1-2% of your investment. Many people without access to vast amounts of capital find it difficult to access traditional hedge funds because of the costs involved. These high costs can sometimes be reduced or eliminated through blockchain technology. Platforms like Nous Systems eliminate the need for paper and multiple third parties to enforce contract terms, allowing anyone with a $100 and an internet connection to utilize their services.

Putting Transparency First

investment infrastructure while reducing the risk of arbitrary intervention and manipulation in decentralized automated asset management platforms.

Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts Accomplishes Both Goals Traditional asset management continues to lag behind modern wealth management practices and challenges. Still, blockchain platforms enable them to borrow the latest advancements in AI to offer better services than traditional hedge funds. Since blockchain technology is decentralized, programmers can easily incorporate the latest updates into their systems. Low entry barriers allow investors to access these

advanced AI systems and use advances in blockchain technology to ensure investors get efficient returns on their investments. Bringing Asset Management Into The Future Traditional finance is in decline. For smaller retail investors who recognize that the current system does not meet their needs, decentralized platforms represent the future of asset management. A company like Nous Systems can offer a more democratic, transparent, and efficient alternative method of wealth management that suits the needs and priorities of small retail investors. Platforms such as these are taking the first steps toward reforming and revitalizing the world of asset management by opening up access to smaller investors.

Nevertheless, granting access to these systems will not produce the fundamental changes required within the wealth management sector. Transparency is the biggest demand of the next generation of investors, as we have seen over the past few years. In 2021, Robinhood was fined USD 70 million for misleading its users with misleading information. Users complained that the platform's actions were not transparent, leading to suspicions that hedge funds and small investors had different rules. Retail investors' confidence in asset management platforms will be maintained if they are transparent with investors and prioritize their best interests. Smart contracts can facilitate a more open and transparent

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June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

How Does Death Work in the Metaverse? The co-founder of Ethereum, the most popular blockchain, believes he has found the next big thing in crypto. A distributed ledger would be used to create and manage our identities - both on and off the internet - using "soulbound tokens." Like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Buterin outlines cryptographic tools that can function as a living, transparent, immutable soul in "Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul," co-written by Flashbots' Puja Ohlhaver and Microsoft's Glen Weyl. Tokens provide digital media with a traceable identity and a market price. The soul-bound tokens would be similar in design, but

June 2022 | Volume 29

they would be unique to each individual. A credentialing system is attached to the blockchain. According to the 37-page research paper, "imagine a world in which most participants have souls that contain soul-bound tokens corresponding to affiliations, memberships, and credentials." Universities could issue graduates tokens as a digital diploma, or lenders could issue tokens to people who pay off a loan. It would be beneficial to record accomplishments that cannot be manipulated. SBTs may be revoked by institutions or burned by holders. Additionally, as crypto assets, these tokens

would be able to be integrated into the Web 3 ecosystem, potentially enabling a host of new "use cases." Additionally, they would give holders control over their important documents, potentially improving the current system where third parties maintain credentials and our fragmented identities. Last year, Ethereum propagandists at Bankless spread a meme that said someone's MetaMask wallet (a popular tool for interacting with Ethereum) was better than a resume. Blockchains keep track of people's actions in crypto; for example, if you want to demonstrate first-hand expertise, you could show what tokens you hold and

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NEWS Crypto Weekly

It is important to ask ourselves whether we want our achievements and life-defining associations to be visible. Additionally, it raises important questions about who we are online and whether we want our digital avatars to be carbon copies of ourselves.

Digital Identity

smart contracts you've engaged in. By the end of this year, Soulbound tokens could be operational, according to Weyl. Additionally, Buterin believes these assets will be crucial to the anticipated crypto hype cycle in 2024, similar to how ICOs dominated 2017 and NFTs gained traction in the previous two years. In addition to a tone-deaf brand name, SBTs do pose some risks. According to The Defiant, another crypto news service, you can permanently lose your identity because you hold the keys to your soul's tokens. You may also receive fake credentials from institutions.

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In the Metaverse: What happens when we die? Around the time Facebook announced its pivot to the Metaverse, a few people asked the very same thing. A ready-made meme said, "If you die in the Metaverse, you die in real life." The meme's origins are unknown and are not documented on the internet archival project Know Your Meme. However, Facebook's response makes sense in light of its current societal standing and track record. When Facebook adoption was accelerating in the early days of social media, the company operated around the idea that digital identity and real-life were coequal and that transparency would unite and improve society. In a previous interview, Stephen Levy, Wired's editor, told CoinDesk that Zuckerberg believed people should share more and that it would benefit his company as well. In his book, "Facebook: The Inside Story," Michael Levy argued that the company's fall from grace was a consequence of its enormous ambition to "connect the world."

Facebook pages have been public by default for years. Furthermore, the company developed apps such as Beacon to update your status on social media without your consent based on where you were or what you were doing. Users could also access the email addresses on their Facebook accounts. "Privacy was a secondary consideration, and there are numerous instances in the book where Zuckerberg prioritizes growth and "sharing" over his executives' objections," Levy said. Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, the company has changed course and introduced stronger privacy protections. What is digital identity? People we interact with online are extensions of our total experience in many ways. On the other hand, the Internet profoundly alters our behavior or decision-making in other ways. The consequences of cyberbullying are not as severe as experts predicted, so it is rampant. The tools and platforms that we use are currently mediating our online identities. Twitter is different from Facebook, and you write differently whether you're writing an email or posting on Medium. A Metaverse is a way to connect all of these digital environments while also enabling more lifelike experiences. In the Metaverse, you're not just logged in. In the Metaverse, static

June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

digital avatars, controlled through ownable assets like NFTs, could also move gracefully from one location to another. If you die in the Metaverse, you will die in your real-life since a permanent, controllable digital self has been created. You lose something of value because the whole idea is to treat your "hyperreal" self as an actual person and not just an account owned by Facebook. Buterin may not have considered the Metaverse when theorizing SBTs – but the tools want to enable similar things. "Souls can encode the trust networks of the real economy to establish provenance and reputation," he wrote. SBTs and the Metaverse are about establishing real reputations online. People can already feel a great sense of loss when message boards die out or when their pseudonyms are kicked off Twitter – and this

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feeling could be heightened if we successfully integrate more real-life attributes into the digital world. SBTs, permanent personal records, are the apogee of this. We do not yet know how well we can integrate the worlds of bits and atoms - but it's not a bad idea to give digital environments and people a greater significance. Many on social media know the feeling of being harassed or disrespected. Some of this must be caused by the distance between people when they're online, geographically and metaphysically. You will continue as a living, breathing being when you die in the Metaverse. Likewise, there are now attempts to extend human life using digital tools.

with the right combination of drugs and lifestyle. Or we might carry on as a floating consciousness uploaded to a computer. HQ Han, who leads ecosystem growth at Protocol Labs, told CoinDesk that in the Metaverse, code is law, not legal processes. Consequently, Han said, “We need tools to manage inheritances and recover digital assets in case of death.”

Beyond the Human

I don't know what is possible to create eternal digital lives. I don't know if that is desirable. However, I know that the digital world is becoming increasingly salient and important – if only because people like Buterin keep pushing in that direction. Crypto assets, at their best, allow the digital to be valuable.

Buterin reportedly subscribes to some transhumanist views or the idea that the natural limitations of the human condition can be transcended. We might live forever

So, what happens when we die in the Metaverse? What may be "more important," Han said, "is the guarantee that there is something to leave behind in the first place."

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in Cryptocurrency!

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June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Crypto Meets the Metaverse June 2022 | Volume 29

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There is no longer a distinction between science fiction and the Metaverse. Technological advancements usually do not come as a surprise. Many modern technologies, including the internet, smartphones, and the cloud, had their origins in science fiction. With the arrival of the "next big thing" of the digital age, everyday life may change forever. We call it "the Metaverse." Virtual reality, augmented reality, and the internet are combined into the Metaverse. Although no one knows exactly what the Metaverse will look like, its basic characteristics are well established - it combines both physical and virtual worlds, has a fully functioning economy, and allows users to travel between its different "places" while keeping their purchased goods and avatars. Like a virtual theme park with no limitations to size or creativity, users will be able to travel effortlessly from one location to another within the same virtual world.

Why is the Metaverse Important? A collective virtual experience may bring new opportunities to creators, gamers, and artists in the same way that non-fungible tokens have reshaped and invented the creator economy even if the Metaverse fails to achieve the epic vision many have for it. Described as a successor to the Internet, the Metaverse could become a trillion-dollar industry. It's a destination for entertainment, commerce, and for some, even a place of employment. Blockchains and decentralized applications are used to build it. Matthew Ball believes that the Metaverse will become "the gateway to most digital experiences, a component of every physical experience, and the next great labor platform." It will be a driving force behind a new generation of companies, similar to how the Internet created new companies. In an interesting twist, the rise of digital platforms could lead to the fall of incumbent industry leaders.

Consider Facebook Facebook announced in June that it would be working on "bringing the Metaverse to life." Instagram's Vishal Shah will lead the project along with Vivek Sharma and Jason

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What role does crypto play in the Metaverse?

Rubin from Facebook Gaming. Zuckerberg discussed his ambitions for the Metaverse in an interview with The Verge. During his talk, he introduced the concept of virtual workspaces, which he called "infinity offices." Working in VR, he argues, allows for increased multitasking, and meeting in a virtual, metaverse-like environment can be more effective and productive. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he already prefers to hold his meetings in VR if possible since Zoom calls have obvious limitations. According to Zuckerberg, Facebook plans to invest heavily in this area. Currently, it owns Oculus, the maker of the popular Quest VR headset. According to Zuckerberg, VR technology will be capable of enabling metaverses "within the next decade."

Tech giants stepping into the Metaverse include Google and Microsoft Although no single person or company can control the Metaverse, the usual suspects of the tech world have already staked their claim. Facebook has joined Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony in the XR Association, a group of technology companies working on the evolution of "experiential reality." Games have pioneered many aspects of metaverse technology and could continue to do so. The concept of in-game economies has been popular in video games for years, where players can buy and sell items with no real value outside the game itself. Fortnite is the most recent example, but Grand Theft Auto V is a longer-standing example. Although released almost seven years ago, the game grossed over a billion dollars in profit in 2020, thanks to a large, active online community. In the Metaverse, these in-game economies are unified under one cohesive virtual experience. Metaverse is not based on objective standards, as is the case in video games. It will be more like the way we treat the Internet than some sort of virtual roleplaying game.

The Metaverse is driven by the need to deliver permissionless identities, financial services, and high-speed exchanges. It will be necessary to store and serve data to millions, if not billions, of users. Cryptocurrencies provide a solution to these problems. Virtual worlds such as Decentraland and The Sandbox, which incorporate cryptocurrencies, allow gamers to create virtual casinos and theme parks, which can be monetized. Decentraland's currency is known as MANA, and it can be purchased on exchanges like Coinbase. Decentraland even has casinos where you can gamble in MANA, with dealers paid in MANA to show up for work. Metaverse NFTs will also play a crucial role in allowing people to own their characters, game items, and even virtual land. A virtual estate consisting of 259 parcels in Decentraland recently sold for over $900,000, making it the largest sale so far. Interoperable marketplaces will eventually allow the purchase and sale of virtual goods from different games and universes. In Decentraland, a person could sell their virtual plot of land and use the money to buy Fortnite skins. NFTs could be the only legal tender used in the Metaverse, with all virtual objects and intangible items expressing themselves in cryptocurrency. "Players are truly blown away by the amount of money they spend on digital assets. These digital assets are worth hundreds of thousands and probably millions," said Arthur Madrid, CEO of The Sandbox. "Building a NFT economy will add another layer to that existing marketplace." The Metaverse's growth is inextricably linked to the role cryptocurrencies play. No one can predict what the final form of the Metaverse will look like, but the impact of cryptocurrencies is certain. As we monitor the advancements in technologies like virtual reality, and how current industry leaders like Facebook are getting involved, blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency sector will also play an important role in shaping the Metaverse's future.

Robert Stone Editor

June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

How About a Bear-Market Merge to Affect Ethereum? D

uring the past couple of weeks, crypto has seen some of its most turbulent times. Terra's stablecoin ecosystem collapsed spectacularly, wiping out over $40 billion in value and causing ripple effects across decentralized finance (DeFi). The price of Ether (ETH) has fallen to levels we have not seen since 2021 as the broader cryptocurrency and equity markets plunge into bear market territory. This comes on top of a controversy that has recently engulfed one of the largest nonfungible token collections, placing its creator at the center of a racist online cult. However, all is not lost in the cryptosphere. Markets are falling, and reputations are plummeting, but Ethereum's community is still hard at work preparing for the Merge, the transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. Vitalik Buterin said at a Shanghai event last week that it may finally be ready by August, despite signs that the Merge upgrade would be delayed yet again through the summer.

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In addition to improving Ethereum security and decreasing energy consumption, the PoS Merge should also make the network more efficient and improve fees. Yet the recent market downturn raises an important question - will a bear market blunt the upgrade? Ethereum's tokenomics are altered slightly by PoS, but the Ether's price - like that of most other cryptocurrencies - reflects general market sentiment. It has been predicted that the Merge will boost the price of Ethereum's token to sky-high levels, perhaps even surpassing the price of Bitcoin (BTC). This bear market seems poised to last through to August. Though little has changed in the Merge, in light of Ethereum's current down market, the upcoming Merge will have significant implications for its community and investors.

Crypto in a Bear Market Despite crypto's recent market downturn, prices shouldn't be the sole focus, and it's

not too difficult to predict what sour market conditions could mean for the industry at large. The less money flowing into crypto (and other speculative asset classes, one would presume), the fewer people will invest in crypto for short-term gains. Furthermore, many investors and developers who entered the crypto market at the height of crypto's bull market are likely to flee in search of greener, more stable pastures. In the coming months or years, many people who find jobs in crypto are likely to work for companies like Coinbase (COIN) rather than riskier DeFi bets and newer blockchains. The startups that survive will do so on the strength of their talent and technology rather than their ability to attract crypto-crazed valuations and short-term mercenary capital. However, there's a possibility that scammy NFT projects and Ponzi-like DeFi protocols will continue to attract investors looking to

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Crypto Weekly

make a quick buck - especially when the stock market can't be relied upon for high returns. Even though there will be some degeneracy mixed in with everything else, it's hard to imagine big-name investors investing hundreds of millions of dollars in unproven experiments like Terra anytime soon.

Dot-com Case Study Despite all the bad news, the cryptocurrency space has been extremely positive in several ways for the past two years. We've probably seen some risky but solid investments get funding that would have been dismissed in more conservative times because VCs are willing to fund anything and everything "crypto." Furthermore, a boom in these sectors has introduced a much broader audience to crypto despite the wider market downturn that has crushed the NFT and DeFi markets. This period in crypto could be compared to the dot-com boom and bust of the early millennium, if unoriginally. Although many companies funded before the bubble burst ultimately failed, the initial boom still paved the way for much of what came afterward.

Silicon Valley sage Ben Thompson wrote in one of his newsletters in 2021: During the early days of the internet, websites proliferated like wildfire, as did dreams of what the technology might be capable of. This mania resulted in the dot-com bubble, which sparked massive investments in telecom infrastructure. The companies that made these investments went bankrupt, but the foundation for widespread high-speed

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connectivity had been laid. Those who were funded alongside shallower bets like Pets. com, as well as future technology titans like Google (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), and eBay (EBAY), went into heads-down mode after the dot-com bubble burst. Companies like these would not have succeeded without the infrastructure funded during the internet era's initial ill-fated funding craze.

Looking ahead to the Ethereum merger We are currently working on the Ethereum merger. Rain or shine, the merger is likely to happen. If developers are to be believed, it will still have lasting effects on the network even if the price of Ether doesn't increase much. The Merge of the Ethereum mainnet may take place in August after two successful forks of the Ethereum mainnet, one on May 12 and another on May 20. The shadow fork is Ethereum's test run to transition to proof-of-stake, as you may recall from previous issues of this newsletter. To determine when the network is ready for an upgrade, developers must complete shadow forks on the mainnet, which simulate the PoS transition under the most intense, realworld conditions. The forks went smoothly despite a few very minor hiccups. In recent weeks, Twitter discourse in the Ethereum developer community has been aware of wider market conditions, but the news that the Merge is near completion has been pretty positive. Ethereum's price may not reflect this level of excitement to come to the Merge, but these past few weeks have reminded us that prices are one of the least interesting aspects of this space.

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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

only profit if they got in and out quickly. "In any pump and dump scheme, everyone is convinced they are the pumper," said behavioral economist Stuart Mills from the London School of Economics. In reality, almost everyone would have lost money. Those who organized the scam were the only ones guaranteed success because the price spike lasted just minutes.

Crypto Criminals Doing Well Earlier this month, the price of an obscure cryptocurrency called Enzyme was plummeting along with its peers. But something unusual happened on May 15. According to CoinGecko, the value of Enzyme, also known as MLN, soared from 30 cents to 47 cents in just minutes, and daily trading volumes soared from around $3 million to more than $100 million. Soon after, it dropped to 35 cents. Traders conspired to pump and dump the coin at a hefty price to make a quick profit, an age-old scam. Mircea Mihaescu of compliance outfit Coinfirm says criminals take advantage of the weaker regulatory framework around crypto assets because pumps and dumps are illegal in the stock market. Recent weeks have been a disaster for the crypto economy, with hundreds of billions knocked off the value and some currencies collapsing. Despite this, scamming remains a significant industry. Chainalysis data estimates that it was worth $7.8 billion last

year. Telegram and Twitter are fertile ground for scammers, who pose as benevolent heroes helping the crash victims. Crypto investments are cult-like, according to the rationale, but experts say this is not the truth. Wall Street Bets posted the call to arms on its Telegram group on May 15. Following several messages building the hype, the group wrote: "The coin we are buying is $MLN. Tweet it to make it trend." Twitter immediately exploded. CryptoSanta, a nickname for mega-rich investors, tweeted: "Whales accumulating, worth a shot!". A company called Enzyme Finance, which owns the MLN coin, but is not connected to the Telegram channel, immediately calmed things down. "Beware of fake accounts trying to operate pump and dump schemes," the firm tweeted, attempting to distance itself from the feeding frenzy. Nevertheless, everyone who saw the Telegram messages or saw the hype on Twitter knew they could

Telegram is home to many groups openly pumping coins. A pump timed for next week has already been announced on Kucoin Crypto Pumps Trading. The Monaco Pump Group claims to be run by "two of Monaco's richest whales." Matt Ranger, a data scientist, thinks that most scams involve groups of chancers and low-level scammers who specialize in one skill: marketing. He said, of the pump and dump schemes, "You don't have to know how to write a line of code." Crypto-economy groups enable young people to air their grievances about mainstream economic institutions failing them. As a result of this signal, everyone should be able to recover from the recent Luna events, WallStreetBets said, referring to the failure of the Terra/Luna crypto project. As a result, the group thanked "mega whales" for pumping up the value. In the crypto world, billionaires sacrifice themselves for the good of the community in the form of fiction. There is a popular conspiracy theory that investment firms like BlackRock or Citadel orchestrated the crypto crash. The theory goes that these companies deliberately crashed Bitcoin to buy into it at a lower price. According to Stuart Mills, this allows pump and dump organizations to dehumanize their victims and boost their own sense of grievance. "Suddenly, these unethical means seem more justified," said Mills. "I was screwed, so I'm screwing over the baddies." Matt Ranger points out that such scams quickly become unsustainable during slumps such as this. He said, “The only people who can buy are in that Telegram group and Twitter. Everything collapses when you reach the last one because there's no more organic demand."

June 2022 | Volume 29

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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Graffiti on the Streets

How Bitcoin is Changing the World

June 2022 | Volume 29

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FEATURE

Crypto Weekly

There has been a new wave of artists that have used the cryptocurrency's symbolism in several different ways as bitcoin and the idea of decentralized technologies continue to disrupt the economy. Several of these street artists employ graffiti in their works to describe Bitcoin's revolutionary aspects in a rebellious manner.

The Bitcoin/cryptocurrency phenomenon has gained popularity over the past few years, and last year it entered a new stage of attention when mainstream observers finally took notice. As with most evolutionary concepts, Bitcoin is no exception since its logo can be found on clothing items, coffee mugs, as well as murals and paintings. There is certainly a lot of street art that features Bitcoin and other crypto symbols all over the world as the following examples demonstrate.

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June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

The infectious spirit behind Bitcoin has seeped into our everyday lives, making it a renaissance of economics. Just a glimpse of what's to come is shown in these street murals. As you can see, many of the graffiti-masters displayed above have their QR codes on their paintings, and some of these artists have collected thousands of dollars from passersby.

Many lives are being changed by crypto today, and the streets around the world can attest to this paradigm shift by some of the messages sprayed in multicolored arrangements across our concrete jungles.

June 2022 | Volume 29

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HIDDEN GEMS Crypto Weekly

PROJECT 1

atsnft.io

Apes Together Strong (ATSNFT)

atsnft

When the initial design of our Ape was being drawn, many important long-term variables were considered. The main goal of this collection was to create something different from what has been depicted in other Ape collections. As this collection was inspired by the movie “Planet of the Apes,” our Ape is extremely detailed for a 2D collection, it is front-facing, and will be the King of the Apes; we are not a copy-cat collection. Beyond that, involving our community has always been a top priority and from the beginning, we have had a dedicated channel that our community can use to collaborate with the artist. We have taken suggestions and illustrated the best ideas into the collection. We continue to work on progressing and refining our ultra apes, our traits, and our backgrounds to make it the best possible artwork for our community. Let it be

PROJECT 2

estatex.eu

known that our artwork is created with a 300DPI, which allows for it to be printed without degrading the quality. This will be important if you want to print your unique Ape, especially with the ownership utility arriving post-mint.

Creating an Organic, Cohesive Community-Phase 2 The strength of the community is the single most important aspect of an NFT collection. It allows for a family atmosphere, where everyone will win. WAGMI. As our collection is inspired by the “Planet of the Apes,” we plan to use our community to help our end goal: to take over. Exclusive invitations were given out to form our base community, and bringing in users that have an aligned vision of our future will continue.

EstateX

estatexofficial

EstateX enables the tokenization of real estate through new and highly advanced blockchain solutions. With this, anyone can get into real estate with as little as $100. Using these solutions, EstateX is able to trade real estate security tokens on their secondary market 24/7 without financial, or country, barriers. The advantage of fractional ownership is that it removes entry barriers and lowers entry and exit costs. Previously, non-accredited individuals could not participate in the real estate market due to restrictions and limitations. By using smart contracts, blockchain offers safe, secure, and transparent transactions that are not controlled by humans, preventing human error and wasting time. It is now possible to buy a fraction of a property and enjoy

June 2022 | Volume 29

atsnft

estatexeu

perpetual returns, without the need to maintain the property. We all know that the old-fashioned system is in need of an update. And that update seems to be coming; EstateX offers good, realistic solutions to open up this market. Although it seems that the big players and banks don’t like to see this system change, it’s a matter of adapting or giving up for these parties. Blockchain, which is going to be as big as the rise of the Internet, will bring about this revolution. EstateX is acting smartly and is one of the first parties to offer a new way of investing. The only question that arises isn’t or but when will the big banks, real estate parties and investors join the queue behind EstateX

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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Crypto has only been Used by 12% of Americans 12% of American adults used cryptocurrency as an investment last year rather than as a currency, a Federal Reserve survey shows. 12% said they bought or held the cryptocurrency for investment purposes, and 2% used it to buy something or make a payment. A further 1% used it to send money to friends and family, according to the annual survey that surveyed over 11,000 U.S. adults between October and November 2021 about their economic well-being.

Survey respondents could select multiple answers. In contrast to how cryptocurrency is often portrayed as a payment vehicle that promotes financial inclusion, the results indicate that the asset class is primarily viewed in the U.S. as an investment vehicle. Investing in cryptocurrencies makes sense since their market capitalization grew by 86%, from $335 billion to $2.54 trillion during the survey period, according to CoinMarketCap.

Only 46% of self-identified crypto investors earned $100,000 or more, while 29% earned less than $50,000. Ninety-nine percent of investors did not have retirement savings but had a bank account. In contrast, 2% of people who used the asset class for financial transactions were unbanked, low income, and did not have a credit card. A survey conducted from late November to February, after the crypto market peaked at the beginning of November, found that 20% of U.S. adults owned cryptocurrency. According to other surveys, such as one from cryptocurrency exchange Gemini at the start of April, the Fed's figures fall short of the level of U.S. crypto adoption. In contrast, data from both surveys and Chainalysis's largest geography study suggest that cryptocurrency isn't primarily used for payments in developed countries. The U.S. ranked eighth in the study overall for crypto adoption, third for total crypto activity, and fourth among non-professional, individual crypto users. Despite this, the U.S. ranked 109th in peer-to-peer exchange volume.

June 2022 | Volume 29

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FEATURE Crypto Weekly

The Meaning of Crypto for Global Financial Markets Robert Stone

Crypto has changed the way people think about finance. Crypto concepts eventually transformed into something that reimagined an entire industry and fundamentally changed people's perceptions of managing and handling their finances.

ryptocurrencies and digital money have enabled people to regain control of their finances, enhance their privacy, and bypass borders when making international payments. Since the industry is still in its infancy and is only just starting to gain mainstream acceptance, where cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) are becoming legal tender in some countries, understanding their impact on global financial markets has never been more crucial.

Taking the Plunge to Digital Money Digital money is any form of payment that can only be made electronically. Because these currencies aren't physically tangible, they cannot be held like a dollar bill, a euro, or any other coin. Global money transfers have become cheaper and quicker using digital money, which streamlines the current financial

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infrastructure. Crypto, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and stablecoins are examples of digital money. Although historically, digital money has been vulnerable to hacks and could potentially compromise user privacy if mismanaged, leading to a high level of concern. However, there are a few sectors within the cryptocurrency sphere where things are looking up.

Comparing Central Bank Digital Currency and Stablecoins Digital currencies issued by central banks are also known as CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies). Although they are more centralized, they are pegged to a country's FIAT currency value. Typically, these coins are issued and regulated by a nation's monetary authority or central bank. A monetary or fiscal policy can be simplified and can promote financial inclusion. CBDCs have become increasingly important in helping to stabilize

economies and financial networks in many countries over the past few years. CBDC is most dangerous when citizens track the money or exercise centralized control. This could result in a lot of risks within these systems.

They are structured as follows:

Central Bank Core Ledger - this is a fast and highly secure platform that enables users to make payments quickly. It is called the "Core Ledger."

API access enables private-sector payment interface providers to connect to the aforementioned ledger and block unauthorized access. As a result, only regulated entities can access the ledger.

Furthermore, payment interface providers are regulated and authorized companies that offer user-friendly interfaces for interacting with the ledger.

Last but not least, users can register with the payment interface providers and access these CBDCs.

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Stablecoins are not expected to compete directly with CBDCs but will be more popular among privacy-conscious crypto enthusiasts. They are cryptocurrencies with their value pegged to the value of an external currency, most commonly the United States dollar. They are not limited to this peg, however. In addition, they can be pegged to gold or can even be algorithmic stablecoins that, theoretically, control the supply. Due to the recent surge of cryptocurrencies, the desire to know what cryptocurrencies may contribute to the global financial markets is on everyone's mind as advanced economies migrate to a cashless system.

What Will Digital Money Mean for the Global Financial Markets? When it comes to cross-border payments, digital currencies can help increase efficiency. The payment settlement time has been one of the main issues surrounding global payments for years. This could take from the same business day to five business days in some cases. Verifying the sender and recipient's information has also always required human interaction. This may include anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing.

Since digital currencies use decentralized ledgers, they can move money within seconds, 24/7, 365, since the digital ledger never sleeps. Specifically, CBDCs can contribute to a healthy global financial market. Control is essential because it insulates economies, facilitates real-time payments, fights dollarization, increases inclusion, and lowers cross-border costs. However, they can also create unfair competition and have

less lending capacity on the flip side.

A Bigger Change in Global Banking As a Result of Stablecoin Regulation Stablecoins are under continuous regulatory scrutiny due to their rapid market capitalization growth and their potential impact on financial systems. A leading central bank globally, the U.S. Federal Reserve calls for a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins. Stablecoin regulation goes beyond avoiding destabilizing runs that may negatively impact financial stability, even though it is welcome news that financial regulators are working to reduce their risks. However, these regulators should also consider operational resilience standards and customer data protection.

Moving Forward with Payments Digital money can boost economic growth as it bypasses any global restrictions. The future of payments will likely be inexpensive, easy, and fast. To put stablecoins and CBDCs in front of the applications of billions of people, blockchain networks need to solve specific issues and limitations, such as scalability and throughput (transactions per second). There are two types of digital currency currently available: the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and Stablecoin.

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June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

The Metaverse Could Be One of the Most Unsafe Situations You've ever Experienced

n the future, virtual worlds will replicate the physical world. There are concerts, casinos, cafes, and even lounges sponsored by your bank where you can meet friends. Regulating these digital spaces is subject to code and terms of service agreements instead of real-world law, leaving some to wonder if this is sufficient. Does your avatar have the same legal rights as you in the metaverse?

experience real consequences and injuries in these virtual spaces. Nina Jane Patel described a "virtual gang rape" she experienced in Meta's Horizon Venues in a Medium article. Horizon Worlds now includes Horizon Venues.

Regulatory authorities often struggle to understand their jurisdiction in the metaverse and apply civil and criminal laws to digital assets, land, data, and privacy - civil and criminal laws that deal with interpersonal interactions are left out of the discussion.

Trying to get away, they yelled, "Don't pretend you didn't love it," and "Ruff yourself off to the photo," the 43-year-old mother wrote. The experience was described as a surreal nightmare. It was not an isolated incident. A Horizon Worlds beta tester reported being groped in December 2021. According to her post on Horizons' official Facebook page, "I was not only groped last night but there were others in the Plaza who supported it, which made me feel isolated."

As the metaverse promises to play a large role in how we interact in the future, this is even more important. While the metaverse gains momentum and regulators will grapple with this question as real people

Human interaction in the real world teaches us that more stories like this are likely to emerge. A staggering 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men reported experiencing some form of sexual violence

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or assault in their lives, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, an American nonprofit organization. Is it possible to be sexually assaulted in the metaverse? For Patel and the beta users, Meta launched a new solution called Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds. It prevents others from entering your avatar's personal space, "helping you avoid unwanted interactions." However, such fixes are not without their own challenges. Meta's unique boundary feature remains on default for "nonfriends," and users can adjust the settings themselves. When users cross boundaries and are sexually assaulted, what happens to them? Are they to blame? How does one navigate the settings if they are not tech savvy? A woman would feel like a victim of sexual assault if she was told that she was attacked for wearing too revealing clothing. What is the point at which an avatar

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becomes legally responsible for the actions of its owner? Rape is defined in the U.S. Code as committing an act of sexual violence against another person.

Inflicting unlawful force on that person.

Using force that causes death or grievous bodily harm to anyone.

Threatening or inducing fear that the victim will face death, grievous bodily harm, or kidnapping.

People can suffer psychological damage, unlike avatars. It's unclear how the metaverse would mediate mental harm, even though people can be awarded damages for psychological injury.

A new definition? She described the experience as so horrible that she was unable to think, she could not put a safety barrier in place, and she just

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froze. Meta developed the safety barrier only after this experience. As the Horizon Worlds beta user noted in her Facebook post, those who experience this type of harm often feel isolated. We have seen virtual assault and harassment leading to feelings of isolation and helplessness before, and the metaverse is no exception. Due to the social media revolution, it has become easier to communicate behind screens, resulting in harassment. Cyberbullying and cyber assaults have been brought about by social media, but no specific laws apply to interpersonal harm. 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons committed suicide in 2013, leaving her community devastated. After pictures of her alleged gang rape surfaced online, Parsons suffered from mental health issues. The government of Newfoundland passed the Intimate Images and Cyber-Protection

Act to address the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and cyberbullying and to give victims a remedy. The law reacted to this situation. If the legal system had kept up with technology, could Parsons' life have been saved? As far as user interaction in the metaverse is concerned, legislators can learn from the past and take proactive measures. The psychological safety of every person should be protected if avatars are representative of real-world people. To assume that the darkest parts of the physical world will not be reflected in the virtual world is naive. In addition to breaking a company's terms of service, it is not clear that the companies or platforms will be held responsible if things go wrong by enabling new types of experiences. Ifyou access the metaverse from the comfort of your own home, you could find yourself entering one of the most dangerous situations you've ever encountered. How's that for meta?

June 2022 | Volume 29

FEATURE Crypto Weekly

Why Does Legacy Finance Hate

Crypto? Key Points

Former European Central Bank President Christine Lagard said cryptos were "worthless."

In the eyes of central banks, they are a threat to the implementation of their own digital currencies.

Because crypto cannot be controlled, banks are fearful of it.

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The price of a Bitcoin is currently just over $30,000, but Christine Lagarde thinks Bitcoin and other crypto assets are "worth nothing." In an interview on Dutch television aired on May 22, Lagarde said that she has maintained "all along" that crypto assets are "highly speculative, very risky assets." The speculative part is well known, but Lagarde added: "My humble assessment is that it is worthless; it is not based on any underlying assets, which can act as a safety net."

What Central Banks Hate About Crypto Cryptocurrency is vehemently opposed by central banks and their leaders for several reasons. They plan to introduce central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in competition with decentralized digital assets. In her next statement, Lagarde confirmed this. "I will guarantee any digital euro that we have by the central bank. This is a very different concept from those others." CBDCs will be fully controlled by the central bank. Using the blockchain, all transactions will be traceable, so banks will have even more control over people's finances than they already do. Crypto is not under the control of banks, so they will do anything to quash it. Banks are also responsible for profiting from deposits made by their customers. Banks operate on a fractional

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reserves system, in which they lend out and invest the money their customers deposit, leaving just a fraction as a reserve. The bank would collapse if everyone went to the bank at the same time to withdraw money. When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin in response to the 2008 financial crisis, which banks were largely responsible for, he warned against exactly this. Inflation is ravaging the world, and central banks are printing more money in the name of stimulus packages that only serve to devalue the currency. Bankers have stepped up their anti-crypto rhetoric in response to the global economic crisis. The ECB and Lagarde called for tighter crypto controls earlier this year, citing sanctions evasion as the reason.

Unlike traditional markets, crypto markets fluctuate. Massive crypto market crashes are nothing new; it happened in 2018 and before that in 2014, when Bitcoin lost about 80% of its value before regaining its value a year or two later. The crypto bear market of 2022 was predicted, so this wave of mainstream media, policymaker, and banker FUD is largely unwarranted. The crypto markets are currently down 56% from their peak of just over $3 trillion in November 2021, so there is still a long way to go before this current cycle bottoms out.

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BEGINNERS GUIDE Crypto Weekly

What is Decentralized Finance? The decentralized finance movement uses blockchain technology to enable peer-topeer payments as part of a new banking and financial services vision. The DeFi blockchain enables "trustless" banking, bypassing traditional financial intermediaries such as banks and brokers. What does this mean for investors? DeFi allows investors to become "the bank" by lending peer-to-peer and earning higher yields than traditional bank accounts. A digital wallet allows investors to send money quickly and access their funds without paying fees associated with traditional banking methods. This is how DeFi operates, how it can benefit individuals, how it challenges traditional banking and the risks.

How Decentralized Finance Works With DeFi, customers and businesses will be able to access many of the financial services they are currently used to - loans, interest on deposits, payments - but with decentralized technology. Rather than changing what, DeFi changes how the industry operates. As a result, DeFi provides similar financial products and services through new infrastructure. Blockchain is a system of digital ledgers that keeps track of all transactions in a financial platform. The blockchain acts as

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a chronological log of all transactions on that particular blockchain. The ledger will permanently timestamp every payment made by Person A to Person B. A smart contract and blockchain technology, among other tools, enable it. According to Oleksandr Lutskevych, CEO and founder of CEX.IO, a company that facilitates DeFi and cryptocurrency, the core of DeFi is smart contracts, which are executable codes that store cryptocurrencies that interact with the blockchain. DeFi is enabled by smart contracts that automatically execute transactions among participants. When the contract's conditions are met, the instructions are self-executed. David Malka, CEO of YieldFarming.com, a cryptocurrency income-generating site, says DeFi replaces traditional intermediaries, such as banks and brokerage firms, in peer-to-peer transactions. "In DeFi, peerto-peer transactions can include payments, investments, and lending.”Cryptocurrencies have become the de facto currency for transactions and records globally. "DeFi is the natural evolution of the vision of electronic cash outlined in the Bitcoin white paper, so this is an exciting time for the industry," Malka says.

Primary Benefits DeFi could potentially offer individuals greater security, potentially lower costs, a

greater variety of services, and the capability of earning higher income from crypto holdings. Decentralized apps from a variety of groups allow for these benefits and more. "Decentralized apps, or dApps, enable people to move capital anywhere in the world (with fast settlements and a low cost), peer-to-peer borrowing and lending, crypto exchanges, NFTs, and more services, such as crypto wallets and storage solutions," Lutskevich says. "DApps are pre-programmed by developers and can be used to execute transactions on a specific blockchain network, settle agreements between buyers and sellers, or move assets from a decentralized exchange to a decentralized lending platform," he says. Your only limitation is your ability to create an app that follows your commands. One of the biggest benefits of cryptocurrency investing is the possibility of generating income. For example, crypto staking allows coin owners to help support a coin's ecosystem and earn income by validating transactions. This is called yield farming and has proved attractive when interest rates at banks have been at rock bottom for years. YieldFarming's Malka says that anyone can provide crypto assets as liquidity or loans through yield farming, which pays the depositor with interest and fees. "Yield farming is the process of generating passive income with cryptocurrency." DApps need liquid cryptocurrency to run, offering

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income to investors who put up their funds for a period. This is similar to interest paid on deposits at traditional banks but with a greater risk.

are so many DeFi applications and investment possibilities," Malka says.

Different dApps offer different ways for cryptocurrency owners to farm yield, including: Offering liquidity in an exchange

Smart contracts allow lending to borrowers

peer-to-peer

who can borrow against their holdings and farm the coins they borrow

using coins such as Ethereum

Investing in yield farms is a great way for investors to find profits, but just like traditional income sources, crypto profits are taxed in the same way. "Even low-risk yield farms can easily return rates several times higher than those of savings accounts in banks," says Malka. "This is particularly important during bear markets when cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum decline."

Theft: As well as outright scams, crypto coins can also be stolen via exploits, as some dApps have vulnerable coding. "Funds can be lost in these exploits, and it is up to the core team behind the DeFi project to decide how to compensate the victims," says CEX.IO's Lutskevych. Cost: As with any transaction, smart contracts require a gas fee to make them work. "Fees can top $200 on a round trip," Lutskevych says. Several steps along the way could add up quickly, which could be especially costly for those with modest bankrolls.

Volatility: While yield farming can help mitigate your downside in the volatile world of cryptocurrency, you will still have to deal with stunning fluctuations to earn what may be modest yields. In one day, cryptocurrency could easily lose a year's yield.

Volatile Fluctuating Yields: DeFi participants have to contend with fluctuating yields and fluctuating cryptocurrencies. As supply increases, yields can fall.

Dying projects: A given dApp can die on the vine as the core team behind it pursue other endeavors. "If, one day,

Investors Face Various Risks Even though DeFi seems like a brave new world for finance, it does present some drawbacks and risks to potential participants: Complexity: There is more to DeFi than going to a local bank. The onboarding process can be confusing for some people because they must transfer money from an exchange like Coinbase to a noncustodial wallet, such as MetaMask, to begin using DeFi. "DeFi can be hard to navigate for beginners because there

Frauds and Scams: Several fraudsters are trying to entice new crypto investors with yields that may be drastically better than those offered by traditional financial institutions. A high return may not be what it seems.

the team decides to quit, the protocol will carry on as before, but no further upgrades will occur," Lutskevych says. Investors thinking of participating in DeFi need to know about these risks ahead of time.

How does DeFi challenge traditional banking? A major claim of DeFi proponents is that this new financial technology will disrupt traditional banking. In extreme cases, DeFi will eliminate the middleman in financial transactions, replacing it with decentralized networks of peers.

Why wouldn't banks take advantage of DeFi, which is so powerful? In the coming years, you'll see traditional financial institutions increasingly using blockchain and distributed ledger technology, says Malka of YieldFarming.com. "All of these institutions understand the inherent security of blockchain technology." "Traditional banks will offer yield-farming opportunities to their clients to remain competitive and relevant," Malka predicts. According to CEX.IO CEO Lutskevych, however, such a change would be easier on paper than in practice due to the regulatory burden, causing complications for traditional businesses that are even contemplating it. The implementation of blockchain technology would entail revisions of many well-established processes while exposing them to additional risks. "In addition, these institutions would need regulatory approval for these activities."

Summary If you're looking to get started in DeFi, go slow and ensure you work with a reputable counterparty. While the yields offered by DeFi are enticing, don't let the potential gain blind you to the other risks. A downturn in cryptocurrency markets could quickly wipe out any small gains from yield farming, and outright scams or theft could further wipe out your crypto wealth.

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June 2022 | Volume 29

Crypto Weekly

of the

week

NFT

Silent Hack How Government's Devalue Your Cash & Force Their Digital Currency

June 2022 | Volume 29

Crypto Weekly 06/06/2022

Articles inside

28Crypto Meets the Metaverse

40Crypto has only been Used by 12% of Americans