The Week To Be In Crypto [11/12/2018]
Market Overview
These prices are……….. familiar
One of the most talked about events of the week was the SEC settling with the founder of etherdelta. For those unaware, etherdelta is/was a platform for trading erc-20 tokens that became popular through the bull run a the end of 2017. It had a poor user experience but it was the most popular “decentralized” exchange out there, meaning that no 3rd party took ownership of your funds and the trades were settled peer to peer. It was great because tokens didn't even need to be listed to be traded, you could and still can trade using the contract address of any erc20 as long as someone was on the other side of it.
My takeaways from the settlement are:
- Etherdelta wasn’t/isn’t (the defendant sold it, and it’s still up and running) fully decentralized. The orderbook was stored on central servers, and in general, if there can be a CEO, it’s probably not decentralized.
- The violation is running an unregistered exchange on which securities were traded. Soooooooo some of these tokens ARE securities, but we don’t know which ones. Not shocking but interesting to see formally called out.
- Compared to what he made running etherdelta the settlement was pretty modest so when the hammer starts dropping more frequently maybe it wont be as bad as people feared.
I think right now, if the user experience is bad enough and you say it is decentralized most people will believe you. But, as I have discussed before, decentralization is on a spectrum, it isn’t black and white. We are years away from fully decentralized apps that have any real use. This is a pretty decent litmus test though — (in Jeff Foxworthy voice)
“If you can sue the founder, you’re probably not fully decentralized.”
What I’m Buying
Sold my BAT when it hit coinbase (has since dropped to pre-coinbase-news levels) and moved it into some tokens that seem to be gaining some hype among the folks I follow and groups I am in. I haven't done much research on them directly so just dabbled a little bit and may put more in if/when I get time to take a closer look. If there is a big move before then I will gladly be taking profits. Worth checking out if you have the time.
XHV —Platform for stable assets with “privacy features”
XYO — Protocol for location specific smart contract operations
Recommended Media
Read
Ethereum in Emerging Economies
Mass adoption will start where decentralization is necessary
medium.com
Listen
From the Slack
A collection of content from The Bitcoin Podcast slack group the past week
a great call out by truth, relevant for anyone with crypto gainz
Follow Me
twitter: https://twitter.com/Tompkins_Jon
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathantompkins
steemit: https://steemit.com/@j-o-n-t
telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/FqrpRUo8CKHV8gGKRuNNNQ(we have a few people now, join in!)
