Cardano Rumor Rundown July 23, 2021

Hey Everyone!

Let's go...

Newly covered today:

1. The mainstream press is suddenly realizing the behavioral economics tools that a central bank with CBDCs could wield. There is definitely a universe where this becomes a very dystopian and jarring introduction to virtual currencies for the mainstream. https://twitter.com/NeerajKA/status/1418168477429424135
2. Wolfram CEO, John Woodard, drops a guest article with IOHK on NFT liveminting. The article seems to have a good amount of focus on the community building potential of NFTs. I think that could be a big growth area for the future. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/07/22/wolfram-and-cardano-build-communities-with-nfts-and-liveminting/
3. IOHK has released its Conclave paper on collective stakepools. https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/742.pdf

Previously Covered but still interesting:

1. Reuters reports on an EU digital identity wallet project. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/eu-step-up-digital-push-with-digital-identity-wallet-2021-06-01/?taid=60b6e171efd84f0001b64ae1&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
2. Vitalik is saying it’s highly unlikely we see ETH 2.0 before late 2022. I’m guessing that means mid 2023 which will be after two years of Cardano slaughtering the entire ETH user base. Things are looking so bad that Vitalik says he doesn’t even like using the ETH 2.0 label anymore since he knows the changes will be more incremental. This is what early capitulation sounds like guys. https://cointelegraph.com/news/even-vitalik-buterin-is-surprised-at-just-how-long-eth2-is-taking
3. Cardano-Nervos cross-chain bridge to be built. This would be at least the second cross-chain bridge after the Cardano-AGI bridge. https://www.coindesk.com/cardano-nervos-force-bridge-network-first
4. And….still! Kings of the github! https://twitter.com/CryptoDiffer/status/1400744567956180993
5. Binance has 63 stakepools charging 6%. Please stop paying so much for the right to stake your ADA. You don’t have to pay that much. You have a huge number of better options. You are literally giving away your ADA rewards to a large corporation. It’s easy: just download the Yoroi Chrome extension, send your ADA there, and pick from the 2k+ available stakepools right inside Yoroi. https://twitter.com/BraveHeartStak3/status/1401204563189940231 https://adapools.org/groups/binance-20 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emurgo&hl=en_US&gl=US
6. Here’s a good Emurgo blog article on the use of Emurgo Trace in the Oil and gas industry. https://twitter.com/emurgo_io/status/1402339278097502210
7. IOHK gives us a closer look at everything being upgraded for Alonzo. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/06/08/a-close-look-at-the-software-running-cardano/
8. We’re currently at 71.52% of ADA staked. This is a pretty incredible ratio and shows the strength of the Cardano community. https://twitter.com/CardanoPoolPeek/status/1402378400803794950
9. El Salvador passes the statute to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country. https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402827595339681794
10. Cardano gets more positive coverage on the Nasdaq website with a second article following the one from April 7 earlier this year. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/be-part-of-a-historic-crypto-moment-with-cardano-2021-06-08
11. Prof. Aggelos Kiayias releases an article on a tri-coin system called Stablefees that could fix the problem of appreciating transaction fees in crypto. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/06/10/stablefees-and-the-decentralized-reserve-system/
12. Minswap gives us the dev perspective on why Cardano’s Plutus is such an improvement over Ethereum’s Solidity. https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1403411522110427137
13. Here’s a great ETH vs. Cardano DeFi project comparison infographic. https://twitter.com/Coin98Analytics/status/1403397242707320835
14. Zach Guzman and Mike Novogratz get an opportunity to prove once again how extremely threatened they are by the fact that they can’t frontrun Cardano at this point. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1404100510525841408
15. John O’Connor appeared on the Disrupt Network Podcast. bit.ly/3znqyB7
16. President of Tanzania calls on the central bank to prepare for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. I wonder what crypto ecosystem already has experience working with an African government on a big crypto project and has partnered with a mobile company that is already bringing connectivity to rural Tanzania? https://twitter.com/DocumentingBTC/status/1404126444863766533
17. With exploits like this one being all too common in the legacy smart contract networks, we’re not even going to have sell the Cardano use case for DeFi. The competitor networks have already made the case that something better must be on the way. https://twitter.com/zapper_fi/status/1404429179794362369
18. World Mobile CEO tweets out a tantalizing response to the Tanzanian President’s call for her nation’s central bank to prepare for crypto. https://twitter.com/MrTelecoms/status/1404375153191141377
19. If you are new to Cardano and you would like to get a handle on the terminology involved in the ecosystem, you may want to check out these Cardano flashcards produced by Coconut Pool. https://twitter.com/coconut_pool/status/1403442954434269185
20. While renewable energy is certainly a wonderful thing, there may be a problem with your technology when your path to compete on clean energy consumption involves you talking about harnessing the power of a whole series of volcanoes. Maybe just use fewer volcano’s and more proof-of-stake? https://twitter.com/_eLaPs_/status/1404125569093029889 https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1402718041557725184
21. The Charles/Lex Fridman podcast has dropped. This is a big deal. This is a fairly mainstream podcast with over 1 million subscribers. https://youtu.be/FKh8hjJNhWc
22. The bank of England is getting very serious about how it “may wish to limit migration” of money from the legacy system to stablecoins. Wow. Just another example of why it’s such an asset (no pun intended) that Cardano is prepared for regulation. https://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1405712468823842816
23. Check out the newly “pimped up” Cardano documentation. https://twitter.com/theSavaSavic/status/1405526615585480730 https://docs.cardano.org/
24. Runtime Verification (architects of K Framework which powers Cardano’s IELE & KEVM) raised $5.3MM in a round that included Cardano’s C Fund. https://runtimeverification.com/blog/runtime-verification-raises-5-3-million-to-advance-blockchain-security https://twitter.com/RosuGrigore/status/1405917218035097600
25. It’s a good sign that the top two crypto communities are spending so much time talking negatively about Cardano. You only focus your hatred on that which is most threatening. I’m glad to see we’re the biggest threat on their radar. https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1405194146063736840
26. We are crushing all the competitors in terms of assets staked! https://twitter.com/CryptoDiffer/status/1405854686209622018
27. All 345,501 of the people who have watched the Lex Fridman/Charles episode as of writing are realizing that Cardano could be the first project to put voting on the blockchain in a U.S. state. https://www.atalaprism.io/app
28. It looks like the second biggest ETH stakepool or it's custody provider has lost it’s users private keys to $75MM in ETH. Cardano doesn’t have this problem. We get to keep custody of our crypto because we found a better way than slashing. https://stakehound.com/blog-post/fireblocks-eth-2-key-management-incident/ https://twitter.com/JamesSpediacci/status/1407465311180255236
29. Draft table of contents for Mastering Cardano has been revealed. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1407165366355124225
30. COTI (a project with very close ties to Cardano) is coming to Ledger. https://medium.com/cotinetwork/coti-native-is-coming-to-ledger-c56b04df1253
31. The June Cardano 360 is currently available on Youtube. https://youtu.be/al5m14299ww
32. We saw segments on various newer partner entities like Nervos, Orion Protocol, and Revuto. Nervos is a UTXO proof-of-work blockchain which is building a cross-chain bridge with Cardano so that you can use your ADA on Nervos dApps and vice versa. Interoperability is a big theme for Nervos and they plan to have a working testnet within a month. Orion Protocol is building a terminal that will allow for decentralized non-custodial trading across centralized and decentralized exchanges. They say this would not require you to KYC or even have an account with any of these exchanges. Revuto is an online subscription management service that recently completed a $10MM token sale on Cardano.
33. It was also revealed that Wolfram Labs, COTI, and IOHK have a three-way partnership (a ménage à tech) to build an NFT auction site. The people from Wolfram were talking about very interesting things including live minting during streaming events and automated upload to IPFS. COTI will be building out auction and bidding mechanisms in ADAPay.
34. Professor Aggelos Kiayias gave us an update on research including that Ouroboros Chronos and Hydra papers have both been accepted into conferences/journals. Chronos will provide Cardano with a global concept of time that doesn’t rely on any outside timekeeper. Prof. Kiayias also pointed out that Hydra is distinguishable from other layer two protocols in that the scripting language is identical to that of the base layer in Cardano such that any dApp that can run on Cardano will run on the Hydra L2. This is a huge plus and superior to many other layer two solutions in other ecosystems where the base layer dApps will not run on layer two. Finally, the Mithril paper has been submitted for peer review. It will provide Cardano light wallets with Succinct Non-interactive Arguments of Knowledge that will give us the best of both worlds: no delays for syncing as in full node wallets while still preserving trustlessness.
35. Finally, the Goguen Summit will be in late September. Sign up now at summit.cardano.org.
36. The Fed is once again STRONGLY signalling to us that they are going to regulate stablecoins. The Fed is also specifically calling out Tether for the first time. You need to be thinking about how stablecoin regulation might affect your favorite Cardano DeFi or other project. https://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1408500265397985282 https://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1408572624125534212
37. People are starting to realize that the Stakehound private key loss in ETH may attract unwanted regulatory attention to Ethereum 2.0 while this problem could never have occurred in Cardano. Also, only a few days later another ETH stakepool (this time SharedStake...the sixth biggest ETH Stakepool) allegedly experiences a rugpull that some are valuing at over $30MM. This is another problem that could not happen in Cardano staking. It feels like we stepped into the ring, they rang the bell, and ETH just started punching itself in the head. Eventually it’s going to KO itself. https://twitter.com/Madror7/status/1408505144984051716 https://twitter.com/JamesSpediacci/status/1407761823143645189 https://twitter.com/MeiTrades/status/1408117430656905219 https://sharedstake.medium.com/the-sharedstake-story-by-kairos-44d37aa7837a
38. Here’s another great Cardano data site. This one is from the Cardano Fans stakepool. https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/3136c55b-635e-4f46-8e4b-b8ab54f2d460/page/r2LQC
39. John O’Connor of IOHK points out that France still controls the monetary policy of 14 countries in Africa. There is definitely a built in market on the continent for a project that delivers monetary sovereignty to the people. https://twitter.com/jjtoconnor/status/1408978882129272832
40. Here’s a great new interview with the CEO of World Mobile from Cardano Chats. https://youtu.be/w0Z2RP6a9HE
41. New article from the Cardano Foundation on Governance. https://forum.cardano.org/t/blockchain-governance-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/65493
42. Sebastien explains some Alonzo HFC event changes. https://twitter.com/SebastienGllmt/status/1409485560012414978
43. IOG Research update from Prof. Aggelos Kiayias. Really interesting bit right at the beginning on the history of cryptography as a field of study. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UAL_6f7PFw
44. Sebastien of dcSpark submits a Cardano Improvement Proposal to allow wallets to implement collateral. https://twitter.com/SebastienGllmt/status/1409910858117877763
45. New Plutus Pioneers Class starting July 1!
46. Charles says it looks like we will hit Alonzo white on Monday. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1410279529021648896
47. Coti update from Shahaf Bar-Geffen. https://twitter.com/COTInetwork/status/1410644013863124992
48. The Mithril paper (allows for trustless light wallets) is now available for your reading pleasure. https://iohk.io/en/research/library/papers/mithrilstake-based-threshold-multisignatures/
49. The Ouroboros Chronos paper (allows for the blockchain to be its own timekeeper) is also now available. https://iohk.io/en/research/library/papers/ouroboros-chronospermissionless-clock-synchronization-via-proof-of-stake/
50. Cardano is now a small part of Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund. They actually sold off current holdings in other coins to buy ADA. This is big for institutional adoption! https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1410945118228692994
51. Catalyst Fund 4 results are here. https://adapulse.io/fund-4-results-are-here/
52. Robert Kornacki of dcSpark releases an article on why every Cardano dApp will use NFTs. The article contains some very interesting discussion on smart contracts in the EUTXO context including language instructing that “UTXOs have smart contracts attached to them and not the other way around” and “[...]the simplest way to think about it is that when a UTXO is created it has the option to have a smart contract attached to it.” https://medium.com/dcspark/every-eutxo-dapp-will-use-nfts-and-heres-why-fd87e6a8c9a6
53. A very interesting medium article on the concurrency problem in eUTxO blockchains such as Cardano. (Article by Occam Fi....thanks to Muggy Pool for sending it my way). https://medium.com/occam-finance/the-occam-fi-technical-series-on-concurrency-cd5bee0b850c
54. The concurrency issue in plutus smart contracts has also been recently commented on by Lars and Sebastien. https://twitter.com/LarsBrunjes/status/1390331642103877633 https://twitter.com/LarsBrunjes/status/1403761666383306757 https://twitter.com/SebastienGllmt/status/1410983827481108480
55. The Cardano Foundation has released a video on its short and long-term strategies to get to one billion users by 2026. https://twitter.com/CardanoStiftung/status/1412137365318127626
56. Ben O’Hanlon sets the record straight on developer interest in Cardano. https://twitter.com/benohanlon/status/1412136150404370432
57. As always, Cardano is straight killing the competition in terms of assets staked. https://twitter.com/StakingRewards/status/1412389781003194395
58. Between Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 of the Plutus Pioneers program there have been 4,300 potential future Cardano developers involved. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1412465643245424649
59. Here’s an interesting chart purporting to show the dates on which various Cardano DeFi projects might have finished products. https://twitter.com/Cryptokev84/status/1412343821757730820/photo/2
60. IOG says they have started onboarding new SPOs and developers to Alonzo White this week. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1412847798274478084
61. Charles also confirms that Alonzo White may start Friday but probably Monday due to a natural (and warranted) desire to avoid executing a rollout at the start of a weekend. https://youtu.be/yd1eg4QopV8
62. Daedalus 4.2.0 now adds Ledger & Trezor Catalyst Registration. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1413176419186774018
63. Yoroi 4.5.7 extension release now adds Ledger Catalyst Registration. https://twitter.com/YoroiWallet/status/1413128256836997120
64. Here’s the voter registration schedule for Catalyst Fund 5! Get yourself registered now even if you’re in cold storage on a hardware wallet! https://iohk.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/900006490763-Project-Catalyst-FAQ
65. Cardano Gainz Calculator now has a graph showing 10 year growth. https://twitter.com/lesquive1/status/1413249312465866757
66. Emurgo has released a guide on how to register for Catalyst voting with your Ledger Hardware Wallet. https://github.com/Emurgo/yoroi-mobile/blob/develop/catalyst5-instruction.md
67. Great new interview with World Mobile’s Mickey Watkins, Charles, and John O’Connor. https://youtu.be/WSSpI8Rtif0
68. This infographic shows just how big the Cardano DeFi space is getting. https://twitter.com/BPE_Crypto/status/1413973912396963840
69. This infographic shows just how much DeFi volume is out there for Cardano to steal. https://twitter.com/Coin98Analytics/status/1413514041029394439/photo/1
70. There is a new stakepool explorer available. https://www.cardanoworld.io/
71. Very interesting timing with a) Grayscale Buying $50MM ETCG, b) Grayscale adding ADA, and c) Charles joining the ETC Cooperative board given that two of the members of the ETC Cooperative board seem to come from Grayscale and DCG. Maybe the world is starting to understand just what Charles and IOHK have been able to accomplish over the last few years. https://twitter.com/ETCCooperative/status/1410439775950082051 https://twitter.com/ETCCooperative/status/1413328106568421377 https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1410945118228692994
72. There is a new Cardano wallet being introduced by u/berry_ales from the Berry Pool. I have no idea if it will be good or bad at protecting your ADA. Just reporting that it exists. https://twitter.com/berry_ales/status/1414548062207361025
73. There is currently a lawsuit challenging the notion that staking rewards should be taxed as income. The plaintiff argues that newly created property isn’t taxed as income and that this should also apply to staking rewards. A win here would be very nice for Cardano delegators. https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-staking-rewards-and-their-unfair-taxation-in-the-us
74. The Cardano Foundation’s Cardano Developer Portal is now up and running. https://twitter.com/CardanoStiftung/status/1414640913612255234
75. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s party has won re-election in a landslide election. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57791868
76. Avanti Bank of Wyoming files comments with the Federal Reserve on their new guidelines that could massively impact how the traditional banking system interacts with cryptocurrencies like Cardano. Given what role ADA is likely to play in the future of crypto financial transactions, this is extremely relevant for ADA holders. https://avantibank.com/press/avanti-submits-comments-to-federal-reserve https://twitter.com/CaitlinLong_/status/1414783323193364482
77. Cardano is still destroying everyone in terms of value staked! https://twitter.com/StakingRewards/status/1414895205384327168
78. The Cardano ecosystem maps keep getting bigger and more complicated. https://poolg.de/Eco/CardanoEcosystemMap.html
79. In news that could have significant repercussions for many stablecoin reliant Cardano DeFi projects, Fed Chair Jerome Powell gave some hard signals that they will regulate stablecoins in House Committee testimony. He revealed that the Fed will issue its long-awated paper on stablecoins, CBDCs, and other digital assets in September. Powell also went as far as to say "You wouldn't need stable coins you wouldn't need cryptocurrencies if you had a digital US currency, I think that's one of the stronger arguments in its favor." https://twitter.com/Nate_DiCamillo/status/1415349008034418691
80. We experienced a successful fork to the Alonzo White testnet! https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1415399456841863177
81. Very serious accusations are laid out against the Meld project. https://twitter.com/Bobme808/status/1415283648438358016
82. The European Central Bank drops news of “a project to prepare for possibly issuing a digital euro.” A digital Euro is coming and regulation of private fiat-pegged stablecoins is coming with it. https://twitter.com/ecb/status/1415273625385644036
83. IOHK releases a paper on a crypto-backed algorithmic stablecoin. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1415531260470972423
84. A crypto media personality recently uncovered links between the Priviledge EU Project, Horizon Europe Grant Agreement 780477, and Cardano. https://twitter.com/BreakingADA/status/1415653936703295488
85. Always the GitHub activity champs! https://twitter.com/ProofofGitHub/status/1416065097794002946
86. We are now seeing the advent of a so-called “Fair Initial Stakepool Offering”. https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1416110973690122240
87. The weekly development update is out. https://roadmap.cardano.org/en/status-updates/update/2021-07-16/
88. Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, is calling a meeting of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets to discuss stablecoins on Monday. Prepare for regulation. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0276
89. Coindesk really hates us. Now they are writing articles about Cardano and using words like “crypto-colonialism”. https://www.coindesk.com/the-headache-of-crypto-colonialism
90. Liqwid says it is on target to be live on day 1 after the Alonzo hardfork combinator event. https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1416363542975074305
91. According to maximalists you’re apparently not allowed to be busy with your company authoring papers if you’re in Cardano. https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1415761569082789890
92. There is actually a chart showing where all the Meld ISPO delegators came from now. https://twitter.com/stakenoble/status/1416189846054387712
93. The IOHK mid-month development update for July is out and available for viewing. https://youtu.be/U9K-8jILGcg
94. Apparently “unsigned Phalices” are a thing in the Cardano ecosystem now. https://twitter.com/unsigned_algo/status/1416909454100992000
95. The El Faro article reporting meetings between Cardano, Whizgrid of Cyprus, and the brothers of President Bukele of El Salvador definitely contain some extremely interesting details related to a possible Salvadorean national stablecoin by the end of the year and a possible digitization and blockchain storage of a wide range of government related documents next year. This could be huge!!!!!! https://elfaro.net/en/202107/el_salvador/25611/Bukele-Plans-to-Launch-a-National-Cryptocurrency-This-Year.htm
96. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told regulators in the Presidents Working Group on Financial Markets that they must move quickly to regulate stablecoins. So, a Salvadorean market for stablecoins might be good for Cardano. https://www.reuters.com/technology/yellen-says-us-must-move-quickly-establish-stablecoin-rule-framework-2021-07-19/
97. Sebastien of dcSpark was recently on Cardano Live to discuss Alonzo. https://youtu.be/lejoT_odbOY
98. Notable news for upcoming Cardano DeFi projects. There may be slightly less competition in the “get a return on your crypto assets” game very soon. The New Jersey AG’s office has delivered a cease and desist letter to BlockFi. The AG’s press release cited BlockFi’s interest bearing deposit accounts as unregistered securities and also mentioned the lack of FDIC or SPIC insurance for it’s depositors. This leaves some lingering questions for Cardano DeFi projects that might be planning to accept deposits or other transfers of value and offering a return of sorts. You could argue that these projects are decentralized where BlockFi was not. But, the AG’s press release seems to cite decentralization as one of the risks of DeFi projects. Also, as a practical matter, there is a question whether decentralization will be a good shield from regulators since many of these projects have companies and real humans with faces and names behind them unlike a truly anonymous founder such as Satoshi Nakamoto. https://www.njoag.gov/new-jersey-bureau-of-securities-orders-cryptocurrency-company-blockfi-to-stop-offering-interest-bearing-accounts/ https://twitter.com/BlockFiZac/status/1417316834244796416
99. EU is planning to introduce regulations on anonymous crypto wallets. This is a big deal. But, Cardano is probably more prepared than any with its identity solutions that could be sued for KYC/AML. https://twitter.com/Wiiinnie/status/1417575921565978628
100. Cardano didn’t come up in the Cathie Wood, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk panel discussion at “The B Word” event. But, given how Elon repeatedly shot down maximalist explanations for the shortcomings of proof-of-work chains in energy consumption and throughput, the whole thing ended up sounding like a long-form pitch for proof-of-stake and Cardano. Seriously, you should check it out. https://www.thebword.org/c/track-2-Bitcoin-As-A-Tool-For-Economic-Empowerment
101. Emurgo is hiring for community management/product support! https://twitter.com/emurgo_io/status/1417870195952168964
102. Gary Gensler, SEC Chair, indicates that crypto assets providing synthetic exposure to securities will be regulated as securities. This should be scary news for any Cardano projects that are aimed at exactly that! https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/gensler-remarks-aba-derivatives-futures-law-committee-virtual-mid-year-program-072121

~Army of Spies