BlockNovum — April 2019 Update
Dear reader,
As always, I’m happy to present to you the newest issue of BlockNovum’s monthly newsletter. I’ll give you a brief overview about the crypto markets, share my favorite crypto & investing articles that I’ve read in the last few weeks, and highlight some new interesting projects
Let’s get started.
📈BlockNovum & Market Updates
Markets:
- BTC price jump: BTC prices continued trending slightly upwards in April and one BTC is priced at around $5370 right now. The current price momentum is almost neutral but there are signs that it might decline again (many Short orders piling up).
Furthermore, with the next Bitcoin halving expected in May 2020 we’re about one year away from this milestone, which also might impact price developments in the next months. - New York Attorney General and Bitfinex: New York attorney general probes crypto exchange Bitfinex over alleged $850M fraud. Bitfinex was facing a large loss and let themselves borrow money from Tether to cover the loss. Consequently, the stablecoin Tether is probably not fully backed by USD (Tether already faced several accusations regarding their USD backing in the past).
In my opinion, one more reason why stablecoins that are backed by real assets (that can be moved / seized) can not be fully trusted and won’t succeed in the long-term. Possible exemption: A hypothetical stablecoin issued by a sovereign central bank. - Maker price decrease: Maker DAOs (the decentralized autonomous organization behind the Dai stablecoin) price fell from around $700 at the end of March to around to around $530 today. Since I’m quite bullish regarding Maker’s role as a leading DeFi (Decentralized Finance) company that could become one of the main hubs for a decentralized financial system, I’m following this development with great interest.
This might indicate a good opportunity to invest in Maker.
🔍Recommended Reads
Find below a selection of this month’s articles that I recommend to read:
- Investing in Bitcoin — Hasu & Su Zhu:
Great article that values bitcoin using a high-level approach that evaluates three significant trends in the world and suggest how either one of them could lead to an increased demand for neutral, private money in the future. - The Distributed Computing Update #3 — Union Square Ventures (Dani Grant):
Interesting write-up by USV about how distributed compute platforms, by the nature of being built on crypto, can promise developers a level of integrity that no centralized cloud platform can (AWS etc.). Therefore, Dani argues that instead of undercutting centralized public cloud providers on price, distributed computing platforms win by providing better developer integrity. - DeFi Liquidity Models — Placeholder VC (Alex Evans):
As always when Placeholder publishes an article, a must read for me that observes the current state of DeFi. Quote: “Protocols that concentrate liquidity into a smaller number of markets and assets [e.g. Maker, Uniswap] have thus far had a much smoother path to adoption” compared to those that require a discrete counter party for each trade (e.g. 0x, Dharma). This highlights that liquidity is one of the most important factors for decentralized finance mainstream adoption (next to UX). - The Ultimate Guide to Decentralized Prediction Markets — Augur:
If you have never heard of prediction markets, are confused by them, or just like to learn more about the incredible possibilities and advantages of decentralized prediction markets like Augur or Gnosis, look no further. Great article that I recommend reading. - Where Smart Money VCs Are Betting In Blockchain, Despite ‘Crypto Winter’ — CBInsights:
Well-researched article that examines where 23 smart money VCs have made investments since Bitcoin’s peak in December 2017. Some great graphics in there, as well as another proof that crypto is not dead.
💡Interesting New Projects
Here a few cool projects I came across and that might be worth keeping in mind:
- Ramp Network:
A new protocol powering fiat to decentralized crypto exchanges. → Decentralised, secure P2P fiat on-ramps. To date if you wanted to buy crypto with fiat currency, you always had to use a centralized service provider like a centralized crypto exchange combined with a credit card / bank wire. This might change with Ramp Network. It’s basically a fully decentralized fiat-to-crypto decentralized exchange!
I’m very excited about this project that is also backed by some notable VCs like Firstminute and Fabric Ventures. - Balance:
Could become a central app for the whole open / decentralized finance space. Balance allows you to add all of your Ethereum wallets and keep track of your tokens, loans and investments via integration with Maker, Compound, Dharma. - Dezentrum:
A Zurich-based Think thank for decentralization. They are working on some fascinating experiments with fully decentralized autonomous objects. For instance, they are working on a project that experiments with a decentralized house that is owned by nobody and manages itself (via a DAO). Sounds very futuristic, but could lead to some cool insights.
🚀Startup Data Entry
Another call for new crypto startup founders to approach me if you are…
… a Founder of a new exciting startup (preferably Crypto, but I’m also interested in FinTech, Wearables, E-Commerce, Media, Gaming etc.) and would like BlockNovum to know about you / include you in upcoming research, feel free to send me the following at info@blocknovum.com :
- Name of your startup + website
- Industry
- Short description of the company / your mission
- Funding category (bootstrapped, VC, Token sale etc.)
- Location (where are you based)
🙏 Thanks for your interest.
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Best wishes,
Remo / Founder BlockNovum
About BlockNovum
BlockNovum is a Swiss Blockchain and Cryptoasset investment research & consulting firm. We provide professional assessments, fundamental valuations, and market research reports for the emerging asset class of cryptoassets & blockchain startups.
