Cardano Rumor Rundown August 3, 2021

Hey Everyone!

Let's go...

Newly covered today:

1. A quarter million votes were cast in Catalyst Fund 5 voting! Apparently, this is over 10x what we saw in Fund 2. https://twitter.com/danny_cryptofay/status/1422253955816505345
2. Here’s a very good read on one vision for prosperity via CBDC and how such a currency should interact with existing blockchains like Cardano. https://twitter.com/RealNatashaChe/status/1422270993498705921
3. The Cardano rate on Celsius has been revealed. But, it’s currently lower than common staking rates? https://twitter.com/Mashinsky/status/1422252594957799429

Previously Covered but still interesting:

1. 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
2. Draft table of contents for Mastering Cardano has been revealed. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1407165366355124225
3. The June Cardano 360 is currently available on Youtube. https://youtu.be/al5m14299ww
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Finally, the Goguen Summit will be in late September. Sign up now at summit.cardano.org.
8. 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. Here’s a great new interview with the CEO of World Mobile from Cardano Chats. https://youtu.be/w0Z2RP6a9HE
13. New article from the Cardano Foundation on Governance. https://forum.cardano.org/t/blockchain-governance-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/65493
14. Sebastien explains some Alonzo HFC event changes. https://twitter.com/SebastienGllmt/status/1409485560012414978
15. 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
16. Sebastien of dcSpark submits a Cardano Improvement Proposal to allow wallets to implement collateral. https://twitter.com/SebastienGllmt/status/1409910858117877763
17. New Plutus Pioneers Class starting July 1!
18. Charles says it looks like we will hit Alonzo white on Monday. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1410279529021648896
19. Coti update from Shahaf Bar-Geffen. https://twitter.com/COTInetwork/status/1410644013863124992
20. 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/
21. 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/
22. 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
23. Catalyst Fund 4 results are here. https://adapulse.io/fund-4-results-are-here/
24. 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
25. 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
26. 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
27. 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
28. Ben O’Hanlon sets the record straight on developer interest in Cardano. https://twitter.com/benohanlon/status/1412136150404370432
29. As always, Cardano is straight killing the competition in terms of assets staked. https://twitter.com/StakingRewards/status/1412389781003194395
30. 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
31. 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
32. IOG says they have started onboarding new SPOs and developers to Alonzo White this week. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1412847798274478084
33. 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
34. Daedalus 4.2.0 now adds Ledger & Trezor Catalyst Registration. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1413176419186774018
35. Yoroi 4.5.7 extension release now adds Ledger Catalyst Registration. https://twitter.com/YoroiWallet/status/1413128256836997120
36. 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
37. Cardano Gainz Calculator now has a graph showing 10 year growth. https://twitter.com/lesquive1/status/1413249312465866757
38. 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
39. Great new interview with World Mobile’s Mickey Watkins, Charles, and John O’Connor. https://youtu.be/WSSpI8Rtif0
40. This infographic shows just how big the Cardano DeFi space is getting. https://twitter.com/BPE_Crypto/status/1413973912396963840
41. This infographic shows just how much DeFi volume is out there for Cardano to steal. https://twitter.com/Coin98Analytics/status/1413514041029394439/photo/1
42. There is a new stakepool explorer available. https://www.cardanoworld.io/
43. 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
44. 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
45. 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
46. The Cardano Foundation’s Cardano Developer Portal is now up and running. https://twitter.com/CardanoStiftung/status/1414640913612255234
47. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s party has won re-election in a landslide election. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57791868
48. 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
49. Cardano is still destroying everyone in terms of value staked! https://twitter.com/StakingRewards/status/1414895205384327168
50. The Cardano ecosystem maps keep getting bigger and more complicated. https://poolg.de/Eco/CardanoEcosystemMap.html
51. 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
52. We experienced a successful fork to the Alonzo White testnet! https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1415399456841863177
53. Very serious accusations are laid out against the Meld project. https://twitter.com/Bobme808/status/1415283648438358016
54. 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
55. IOHK releases a paper on a crypto-backed algorithmic stablecoin. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1415531260470972423
56. 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
57. Always the GitHub activity champs! https://twitter.com/ProofofGitHub/status/1416065097794002946
58. We are now seeing the advent of a so-called “Fair Initial Stakepool Offering”. https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1416110973690122240
59. The weekly development update is out. https://roadmap.cardano.org/en/status-updates/update/2021-07-16/
60. 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
61. 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
62. Liqwid says it is on target to be live on day 1 after the Alonzo hardfork combinator event. https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1416363542975074305
63. 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
64. There is actually a chart showing where all the Meld ISPO delegators came from now. https://twitter.com/stakenoble/status/1416189846054387712
65. The IOHK mid-month development update for July is out and available for viewing. https://youtu.be/U9K-8jILGcg
66. Apparently “unsigned Phalices” are a thing in the Cardano ecosystem now. https://twitter.com/unsigned_algo/status/1416909454100992000
67. 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
68. 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/
69. Sebastien of dcSpark was recently on Cardano Live to discuss Alonzo. https://youtu.be/lejoT_odbOY
70. 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
71. 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 used for KYC/AML. https://twitter.com/Wiiinnie/status/1417575921565978628
72. 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
73. Emurgo is hiring for community management/product support! https://twitter.com/emurgo_io/status/1417870195952168964
74. 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
75. 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
76. 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/
77. IOHK has released its Conclave paper on collective stakepools. https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/742.pdf
78. It looks like Cardano will be included by Celsius soon. With these types of services, never forget the old adage “not your keys, not your crypto”. https://twitter.com/CardanoDean/status/1418632715012878343
79. Here’s the IOHK Development Update for July 23! https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1418635822987943939
80. Cardano received some coverage in the Motley Fool as an eco-friendly crypto! https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/cryptocurrency/articles/4-eco-friendly-cryptos-you-should-know-about/
81. The Cardano Foundation is looking for a Content Writer! https://jobs.lever.co/cardanofoundation/da4104e2-178e-43b5-9016-48b612fdcd52
82. Big lesson for future Cardano DeFi projects: Uniswap Labs just had to censor the Uniswap UI to ban synthetics of underlying securities. Bucket shops have been around for 150 years and illegal for 100 years. It turns out that you can’t do it in crypto either. https://twitter.com/Uniswap/status/1418697012095164420 https://twitter.com/haydenzadams/status/1418961999539712006
83. Gerowallet has withdrawn their Project Catalyst proposal. https://twitter.com/GeroWallet/status/1419041835331117056
84. Check out this new video of the World Mobile Team on the ground in Zanzibar. Doesn’t this feel like a better mission for our ecosystem than DeFi? https://twitter.com/WorldMobileTeam/status/1419051567878221828
85. Reports are coming in that Amazon plans to integrate Bitcoin, Cardano, ETH, & BCH in the very near future. This has apparently been a work in progress for several years. https://www.cityam.com/amazon-definitely-lining-up-bitcoin-payments-and-token-confirms-insider/
86. Adam Dean brings us open source code to accept ADA in your Woo Commerce store. https://twitter.com/adamKDean/status/1419495005983371264
87. Weiss Crypto has very good things to say about Cardano. https://twitter.com/WeissCrypto/status/1419685634566938634
88. Check out this new bot that tweets every time it discovers a Cardano Giveaway Scam! The tweets show ISP and geolocation info for the scammers. Follow this bot and report the scammers! Brought to us by @nicknikiforakis. Thanks for building this, Nick! https://twitter.com/CardanoPhishing
89. The regulatory purge of stablecoins is getting into full swing now with Bloomberg running a piece on a DOJ criminal probe of the Tether founders. Of particular note for the Cardano ecosystem is that the first attack surface for regulators is the relationship of the stablecoin with legacy banking institutions. This is something that Cardano ecosystem stablecoin, Djed, may already fix with its own crypto backed reserve system. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-26/tether-executives-said-to-face-criminal-probe-into-bank-fraud?srnd=economics-vp
90. Nami Wallet now allows you to mint NFTs for no extra fees (only Cardano network fees) inside the wallet. https://twitter.com/NamiWallet/status/1420031000017608717
91. More pressure for Crypto regulation is coming to bear today in the U.S. This time it comes in the form of a letter from Senator Elizabethe Warren to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (in her position as Chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council which brings together 10 different financial regulators including the SEC, CFTC, and the Federal Reserve). The letter was sent after a Senate Banking Committee hearing titled “Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?” https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/27/elizabeth-warren-presses-yellen-financial-regulator-to-manage-crypto.html
92. Stephen Wolfram does the first NFT liveminting event where he creates NFTs of cellular automata from the computational universe while live on stream. The first two created were “Crashing Waves” and “Down Arrows”. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1420087229104283656
93. A new Cardano NFT Marketplace is now live and receiving a lot of attention. https://twitter.com/CNFT_IO/status/1419655915226152961
94. Lecture Five of Plutus Pioneers Iteration #2 is now up. https://twitter.com/LarsBrunjes/status/1420301011172925446
95. Project Catalyst now has 30k members! https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1420474342253678599
96. Emurgo has released an article about what we can expect from the Yoroi dApp Connector. https://emurgo.io/blog/emurgo-is-thrilled-to-announce-the-yoroi-dapp-connector
97. Reports are coming in that the new bipartisan Infrastructure Bill contains new provisions that might require a whole host of actors within crypto ecosystems like Cardano to report transactions over $10k. https://www.coindesk.com/new-infrastructure-bill-looks-to-raise-30b-through-crypto-tax https://www.marketwatch.com/story/crypto-allies-rally-against-ignorant-new-tax-rules-in-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal-11627578844 https://twitter.com/jerrybrito/status/1420724068286926853
98. But this bill is an even bigger deal. If passed as-is, we can probably say RIP to the Wild West Era of crypto (2009-2021). https://beyer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5307
99. The July Cardano 360 can now be viewed on Youtube. https://youtu.be/AG5DspF9tuA
100. John O’Connor was on SkyNews discussing the Ethiopian Ministry of Education project! He stressed that this was not a profit center for IOHK, and had a chance to refute the “crypto colonialism” strain of thought. https://vimeo.com/581137605
101. We are kings of the github commits once again! https://twitter.com/ProofofGitHub/status/1421138529908842502
102. The differences between the currently dominant smart contract blockchain and Cardano’s upcoming smart contract architecture keep getting highlighted by dramatic failures of the former. https://twitter.com/WeissCrypto/status/1421064543900418048
103. The Cardano subreddit has now crossed 550k members. https://www.reddit.com/r/cardano/
104. Don’t forget that registration for the Cardano Summit is live. https://summit.cardano.org
105. In case you missed the July Cardano 360 and don’t have a lot of time. Here is the always great Cardano 360 Mini! https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1421803459997835266
106. Reports are coming in that we’ve got final language from the crypto tax reporting piece of the Infrastructure Bill. It’s better but not great or even good. https://twitter.com/jerrybrito/status/1422002228102107142
107. The Charles AMAs returned on August 1 after a brief break. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKY6VwVq02s

~Army of Spies