1confirmation Newsletter - Issue #88
There are many similarities between the yield farming boom we're currently in the middle of and the ICO boom of 2017: greed is the main driver (this time it's the desire to find the next 1000% APY farming opportunity instead of 100x ICO opportunity) and the permissionless nature of Ethereum makes it easy for anyone to participate (so there are lots of scams and low quality projects involved). These factors make it easy for outsiders to dismiss what's happening as an irrational short-term blip.
We think yield farming is important to pay attention to and here to stay though. In a zero interest-rate environment globally, the demand for yield is stronger than ever before. The 1000% APY opportunities may not be sustainable and the future of yield farming may look much different than the current form, but we believe that the masses are coming to crypto for yield and many options of different forms bodes well for the future.
Required reading this week
Coordination, the ability for large groups of actors to work together for their common interest, is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Vitalik Buterin explores the different dimensions of coordination.
Escaping the Dark Forest — samczsun.com
Sam is the most prolific white hat in crypto and this piece describes his latest effort to save funds for Ethereum users.
Scaling DeFi — Layer One — blog.0xproject.com
Ethereum gas costs have risen dramatically over the past few months as demand in DeFi has skyrocketed. Remco Bloemen examines layer 1 limitations and layer 2 options.
You’re Sleeping on Crypto Art — medium.com
Derek Schloss and Stephen McKeon explore the intersection of digital art, virtual worlds, DeFi, and the social experience.
No creator has had more success selling their digital art on Ethereum than Pak, who has earned $350,000+ worth of ETH selling PNG, GIF and MP4 files directly to collectors in the past seven months.
Uniswap | Introducing UNI — uniswap.org
UNI, the Uniswap Protocol governance token, is live now on Ethereum mainet.
1confirmation portfolio reading this week
What’s been going on? | Nexus Mutual — medium.com
DeFi is developing faster than you can say ‘protect me from the risks in DeFi’. Nexus Mutual has been working on progressing the mutual to meet the ever-changing demands of the ecosystem, while building a robust system that stands the test of time.
Polkadot-Based Acala Raises $7M as DeFi Grabs Land on Another Blockchain — www.coindesk.com Acala, a DeFi startup building on the Polkadot blockchain, has closed a $7 million simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) led by Pantera Capital.
A new Polymarket is coming — medium.com
Stage 2 includes unlimited free trades with instant execution, debit/credit card deposits and email login, and no-limit trading on more markets with 10x more liquidity.
3 Reasons Why you Want to Test Cosmos Stargate Today — blog.cosmos.network
IBC is coming soon to the Comsos Network and Stargate is a big piece of that.
How Dai Is Becoming the Currency of the NFT Digital Art and Culture Market — blog.makerdao.com
Dai usage is growing and an important use case for it is buying and selling NFTs on marketplaces like Opensea.
Augur AMM, L2 & Para Augur — www.augur.net
Augur announces a new proposal to the community to improve Augur v2 that includes AMMs and L2.
On-chain metric to watch
