LATERALUS NWSLTR

💰 Startups Secure $115 Million in Crypto Funding for Gaming, Custody, and Institutional Services

• Eleven crypto startups recently raised a total of $115.5 million across various sectors, with gaming startup Proof of Play securing $33 million in seed funding, led by A16z's crypto arm, for its on-chain game studio.

• In addition to gaming, crypto custody and digital asset infrastructure also attracted significant investment, with startup Bastion raising $25 million, aiming to provide crypto custody, wallet management, and digital asset trading primarily for corporations, and Jiritsu securing $10.2 million for its verifiable computing platform, Tomei RWA, which employs zero-knowledge attestations for crypto asset management.

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🪙 Stablecoins: the better digital euro?

• Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank (EZB) acknowledges that it will take at least two more years for a digital Euro to become a reality, addressing privacy concerns and the need to debunk conspiracy theories surrounding the central bank digital currency (CBDC).

• The digital Euro is expected to offer data privacy without full anonymity, be user-friendly, free, and widely accessible. It faces competition from stablecoins, which could grow significantly due to market demand driven by concerns about cryptocurrency volatility. The timing of its introduction and its success may depend on factors such as trust, stability, and competition with existing digital currencies.

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⚖️ Lawmakers Call for Immediate Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs by SEC Chair Gensler

• A group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Mike Flood, Tom Emmer, Ritchie Torres, and Wiley Nickel, has urged SEC Chair Gary Gensler to promptly approve the listing of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

• Despite applications from major players like BlackRock and Fidelity, the SEC has not yet approved a spot bitcoin ETF. Additionally, there are concerns about the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) allowing registered broker-dealers with ties to the Chinese Communist Party to operate in the U.S., prompting further scrutiny from lawmakers.

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🇦🇪 UAE's Support for Innovation Drives Surge in Crypto Activity, Report Reveals

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered one of the world's leading crypto hubs due to its innovation-friendly regulations and government initiatives to promote crypto and blockchain technology.

• The UAE's pro-crypto stance has attracted significant investment, with $35 billion worth of crypto transactions in the year leading up to June 2023, and the establishment of offices by prominent crypto companies like Bybit, Crypto.com, and interest from the Winklevoss twins. This pro-crypto environment is supported by comprehensive blockchain strategies, the launch of the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), and federal reforms that encourage innovation while also maintaining a strict stance against fraud and misconduct in the crypto industry.

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⚖️ Impending US Government Shutdown: Potential Impact on Crypto

• The U.S. government is facing an imminent shutdown on October 1, raising concerns about its potential impact on the crypto industry, especially regarding ongoing lawsuits and ETF applications.

• A government shutdown typically involves the closure of non-essential federal agencies and services due to a lack of funding, which could affect various aspects of government operations, including regulatory bodies like the SEC. However, the impact on ongoing crypto lawsuits and ETF applications is expected to be minimal, with deadlines likely to be met unless the shutdown extends beyond a few weeks.

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🇦🇷 Buenos Aires Introduces Blockchain Digital ID

• Buenos Aires, Argentina, is implementing a blockchain-based digital identity system, allowing its 15 million residents to access essential credentials like birth certificates, marriage certificates, proof of income, and academic verification through digital wallets.

• The project utilizes QuarkID, a digital identity protocol developed by Web3 firm Extrimian, and zkSync Era, an Ethereum scaling protocol using zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) for enhanced security and efficiency. The initiative aims to expand this blockchain-based solution across Argentina by 2023, positioning Buenos Aires as a pioneer in digital identity technology in Latin America. However, it's worth noting that privacy concerns have arisen in relation to another digital ID initiative, the Worldcoin project, which collects retinal scans for user verification.

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🇮🇱 Israel Land Authority Examines Real Estate Tokenization Applications

• The Israel Land Authority is exploring the potential applications of blockchain technology in the real estate sector, including property registration, smart contract-based property transactions, and the creation of a blockchain-based national property registry.

• One significant application being considered is the tokenization of real estate properties, which could enhance liquidity, reduce intermediaries, and lower fees in the Israeli property market. This move towards blockchain technology could streamline real estate transactions, making them nearly instantaneous and secure, while also offering the potential for fractional ownership of properties through tokenization.

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👒 Gucci's Milan Fashion Week Spectacle Takes Center Stage in the Metaverse

• Gucci’s “Dream Big” division created a metaverse experience for its fashion showcase led by Creative Director Sabato De Sarno during Milan Fashion Week, spanning three major metaverse platforms: Roblox, Zepeto, and QQ.

• The digital experience allowed Gucci to replicate its original open-air event concept despite weather challenges and featured interactive elements, limited-edition rewards, and worldwide accessibility, building on the brand’s previous ventures in the metaverse, including NFT releases and partnerships.

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💃🏻 You Know What’s Better Than Watching Runway Models…?

• Paris Fashion Week introduced augmented reality (AR) kiosks at the Sphere showroom in the Palais de Tokyo, allowing attendees to try digital versions of designer looks from buzzy young designers via full-length AR mirrors.

• Visitors can snap photos in these virtual outfits, add virtual stickers, and download the images or print them as physical copies. The initiative, a partnership between Fabrix and DressX, provides a cultural and sales-enhancing aspect to the fashion event while offering valuable data insights for emerging designers to inform their future creations.

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🪙 Circle's EURC Makes a Stellar Debut

• Circle's euro-backed digital currency (EURC) is now available on the Stellar Network, offering a stable and reliable digital representation of the euro.

• This integration expands Stellar's capabilities and has the potential to significantly enhance European remittance corridors, cross-border payments, and aid disbursement, with crypto company Ripio already utilizing EURC on Stellar for Euro deposits and withdrawals, and collaborations with organizations like the UNHCR for humanitarian assistance underway.

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🚀 NASA Harnesses Blockchain Technology to Authenticate Upcoming Moon Landing

• NASA, in partnership with Lonestar and the Isle of Man, plans to send a payload to the Moon in February 2024 containing "data cubes" that will be secured and verified using blockchain technology.

• This initiative aims to provide indisputable proof of future lunar landings and ensure the integrity of data by creating digital stamps stored on the Moon, which can be verified via blockchain back on Earth. The blockchain-based verification will help address potential conspiracy theories and serve as a reliable record for future Moon missions, starting with NASA's Artemis 3 mission in 2025.

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🖥️ You Think You Can’t Find Jobs In Web3 - Think Again…

• A study by Coin Kickoff covering over 150 countries highlights the significant demand for crypto jobs, especially from major exchanges like Coinbase and Binance.

• Prominent findings from the study include software engineers at these exchanges earning up to $900,000 annually.

• Leading nations in cryptocurrency employment are Georgia, Singapore, Lebanon, Luxembourg, and Estonia, with impressive numbers of crypto jobs per million people.

• The list demonstrates that both small, adaptable nations and established financial hubs are actively embracing cryptocurrency employment.

• The study suggests that the adoption of crypto jobs is a global trend, with representation from nations across every continent.

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🖥️ Why Pay-to-Use Blockchains May Face Challenges in Achieving Mass Adoption

• Pay-to-use blockchains are not conducive to achieving mass adoption and suggests three major changes are needed for blockchain to become more user-friendly:

  1. Blockchains need to be free for users, monetizing indirectly like platforms such as Google and Facebook.

  2. They should offer a frictionless user experience, making it as easy to use as opening an app or playing a video game.

  3. Blockchain technology should be made familiar and user-friendly, eliminating the need for regular users to change their behavior to accommodate blockchain limitations.

• The challenges of current blockchain models, emphasizing the need for blockchain to become more accessible and align with mainstream user preferences to reach mass adoption.

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🖥️ Exploring the Current State of Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWA)

• The evolution of blockchain technology, starting with Bitcoin, has paved the way for RWA tokenization, offering transparency, efficiency, and self-custody for assets ranging from real estate to luxury goods.

• The adoption of blockchain technology can be evaluated using the Perezian framework, which identifies phases such as irruption, installation, bubble, and synergy.

• RWA tokenization is moving from the bubble phase to the synergy phase, with a focus on resilience through decentralization and smart contracts.

• Boston Consulting Group forecasts significant growth in on-chain RWA activity by 2030, reaching between $4 trillion to $16 trillion.

• Retail trader communication and social media platforms may play a role in the adoption of tokenized RWAs.

• The end-goal of RWA tokenization is to create a "computable economy" where all assets are tokenized and accessible on a public ledger.

• This represents a shift towards a new economic paradigm, driven by stakeholder capitalism and total asset accounting.

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🖥️ Bridging the Crypto Language Barrier with AI

• Smart contracts, despite their potential, are often difficult for non-developers to understand.

• AI has the potential to bridge the gap between smart contracts and non-technical users.

• AI, particularly symbolic AI, can make smart contracts more transparent, accessible, and precise.

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🖥️ Drawing Lessons from Burning Man for Wider Adoption of DAOs

• Current DAOs, while successful within the crypto industry, struggle to achieve mainstream recognition due to their crypto-focused nature.

• Drawing inspiration from Burning Man's governance model, DAOs can simplify their missions and embrace a semi-decentralized approach to appeal to a broader audience and gain wider recognition.

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🖥️ To Ensure Crypto Success, We Must Bid Farewell to X

• Crypto's image has been tarnished, partly due to its association with social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which has amplified drama, scams, and adversarial content within the crypto community.

• Many people now perceive crypto as "Scam City" rather than recognizing its positive potential.

• To succeed, crypto should disengage from platform X and embrace decentralized Web3 alternatives like Lens, Console, and Farcaster on Ethereum.

• By doing so, crypto can return to its subculture roots, promote its values of decentralization and ownership, and present a more positive image to the public, ultimately fostering its success.

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🖥️ Balancing On-Chain and Off-Chain Activity with Account Abstraction

• Account abstraction is a blockchain technology that allows users to use smart contracts as their accounts.

• Account abstraction and user intent mechanisms are being explored to find a balance between on-chain and off-chain activity in blockchain applications, reducing unnecessary complexity on-chain while preserving user outcomes.

• While some applications may centralize certain aspects for better user experience, this centralized approach carries a risk of censorship. Developers aim to strike a balance between centralization and decentralization and are willing to adapt based on user needs and regulatory considerations.

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