Messari's Weekend Reads 😎 - Unqualified Opinions
Self care, sleep, good content, and new features
Your daily snapshot from our OnChainFX markets dashboard.
Missing the daily dose of crypto? This week our subscribers got some highlights on the Zcash bug, musings on some recent market news, and a deep-dive into the token holdings of three OG crypto funds.
Subscribe to support our transparency efforts and get smarter on new crypto trends.
It’s Friday!
We’re keeping things light and teeing up our weekend reads and some new site features.
📚 Messari’s weekend reads:
Should everybody just work on Bitcoin? - Tony Sheng
Crypto bear market threatens to last as potential token supply weighs - Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
Tech is splitting the U.S. work force in two - Eduardo Porter
A MakerDAO case study - Vision Hill Advisors
Integrated music streaming service with the Lightning Network - Brandon Bailey
Bitcoin, Ven, and the end of currency - Stan Stalnaker
What Is the I.N.F. Treaty and Why Does It Matter? - Andrew E. Kramer and Megan Specia
How to be creative - Matt Richtel
🚨 New features on messari.io:
We’ve been hard at work adding features that help bring transparency and smarter decision making to the cryptoasset space.
Here’s what we have rolled out recently:
New registry participants
We are thrilled to welcome Gnosis, LTO Network, Maker, Polymath, Ripio, StoreCoin, Streamr, and Waves to the Messari Disclosures Registry. Our Registry participants have committed to providing ongoing updates and disclosures to help make the industry more transparent.
Head over to our Registry page to see more details on all participants.
Staking rewards
Our OnChainFX dashboard now has details on staking yields, staking amounts, and more thanks to our friends at StakingRewards. Check it all out on the dashboard.
Let us know what you think of the new features and this newsletter. Have a good weekend, y’all.
- The Messari Team
P.S. Share. Subscribe. Tweet at Messari for feedback, comments, or questions.
Messari Compression Algorithm
Content and thoughts from around the web as summarized by the Messari team.
🐻 [Analysis] Crypto bear market threatens to last as potential token supply weighs
Supply side evaluations point toward a prolonged bear market. Since early 2018, the total cryptocurrency market value has dropped 85% with coins failing left and right. SEC crackdowns and limited demand are the least of concerns, however. A glut of supply is coming down the pipe which will only further dilute the value of coins on the market. Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are built on the value assumption of their token's utility growth overtime. This growth is not happening, and now bag holders are looking at even worse conditions as inflation creeps in. One solution called token burning, where the issuing institution purposely loses private keys to shrink the total token supply, has been used by Tron ($TRX) and Binance. This method is self-defeating though: burning one's product to increase the circulating supply value is hardly a sustainable strategy. (share or read more)
😮 [Analysis] A startup is launching a solution that protects users from exchange hacks - Larry Cermak
Decentralized exchanges are failing: centralized exchanges coin holdings are larger than ever and DEX usage is dropping like a rock. The value proposition of DEXs still hold true, however. The added security from peer-to-peer (P2P) trading can easily be quantified: an estimated $1.4 billion has been stolen from exchanges to date. Arwen, a startup using Layer 2 Blockchain protocol like the Lightning Network (LN), is aiming to bring back the DEX by plugging P2P services into centralized exchanges. Like the LN, a protocol layer built on top of the Bitcoin ($BTC) state allows for users to fully control private keys when exchanging. Arwen, furthermore, is malleable and hoping to add other cryptocurrencies on top, such as Bitcoin Cash ($BCH). Although still in development, the project is gaining traction and was picked up in Beta by KuCoin last month. (share or read more)
Quick Bits (Don't read that, I read it for you)
Choke Points (Exchange News)
🚀 Voyager Digital Holdings is now Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd. after acquiring UC Resources Ltd. in a move to list on Canada's TSX exchange. Voyager allows retail and institutional investors to buy or sell crypto on one mobile app at the cheapest clearing prices available. Its beta version is running now with a full launch planned later this month. (share or read more)
📈 Major crypto exchange Huobi Global claims a 100% increase in trading volumes from 2017 to 2018. Huobi's staff has grown from 400 to 1,300 over the past year and now has offices in 12 countries. The lead products for Huobi include Huobi Cloud, a platform that helps build digital assets for initial coin offerings (ICOs), and its over the counter (OTC) trade desk. (share or read more)
Startup Signals (ICOs, Cryptos, and Startups)
🔨 In a letter to investors, Telegram has revealed its Telegram Open Network (TON) is 90% complete, up from its 70% September estimate. The TestNet launch was moved from Jan. 2019 to March as well. Telegram is working to have its native token, GRAM, listed in Asian markets first such as Binance, Huobi, and OKEx. (share or read more)
🤫 The Beam ($BEAM) development team announced a cooperative effort for Mimblewimble implementation onto Litecoin ($LTC) via extension blocks. On-chain conversions of regular Litecoin into Mimblewimble Litecoin and vice versa are being explored by Beam. The announcement comes a week after Litecoin creator Charlie Lee tweeted about the need for additional security layers for Litecoin transactions. (share or read more)
The Powers That Be (Legal/Reg/Policy)
👨⚖️ A U.S. District Court judge has ordered Winklevoss Capital to pay $45,000 of Charlie Shrem's legal fees from ongoing lawsuit. The Winklevoss twins accuse Shrem of failing to broker a Bitcoin ($BTC) purchase of some $750,000 in 2012. The case is set to go to court again in June. (share or read more)
Did I miss something?
Send me the link, your twitter handle and your best imitation compression algorithm write up. If I like it, I’ll include your bit next issue (with attribution).
Podcast Recap
🎧 ICYMI last week Ryan (TBI) and Arjun Balaji sat down for over an hour to discuss what they see happening in the industry during 2019. If you are a subscriber, make sure you have caught up on our two part series and check out Arjun’s theses for 2019.
You can view the full video here and as always you can listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts— on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here, and Google play here.
Shameless Plugs
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