Cardano Rumor Rundown February 13, 2023

Hey Everyone!

Let’s go….

Newly Covered Today:

1. Now the SEC is going after Binance USD stablecoin issuer, Paxos. https://archive.ph/nrgeU
2. Jessie Powell (founder of Kraken) posted “I don’t think that any minor differences matter to the SEC, which views all forms of custodial staking as problematic.” If true, this is massively bad for Ethereum and confirms the advantage in Cardano. https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1623825932011155457
3. Here’s the actual complaint in the Kraken/SEC settlement. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2023/comp-pr2023-25.pdf
4. Coinbase has released a comprehensive defense against their “Earn” staking program being classified as a security under the Howey Test and vowed to fight if the SEC goes after them. While I don’t find their reasoning to be bulletproof or extremely persuasive. The value is in the commitment to fight. We need this hard line in the sand right now. https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbases-staking-services-are-not-securities-and-heres-why
5. The community is predictably conflicted about the possibility of contingent staking. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1624937015824510976
6. Here’s a fantastic thread by Sooraj explaining the huge innovative leap forward provided by Ouroboros Genesis for dynamic participation in proof-of-stake systems and making Cardano more secure than Ethereum or Algorand. This is by far the best explanation I’ve seen. https://twitter.com/Soorajksaju2/status/1623748877152034818
7. FutureFest obviously understands the importance of proximity audio chat in virtual worlds. https://twitter.com/coc_space/status/1623759580017614848
8. Congratulations to MinSwap for its highest one day volume! https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1623322182670508034
9. And just like that….the legend of “Corando” was born. https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1623322182670508034
10. Looks like 3D assets are live for Cardano Island cribs. https://twitter.com/k45tor/status/1623370449869541387
11. There’s 30 million ADA now locked in the Djed contract (as of Feb 10). Update as of Feb 12: 31.5 million ADA. https://twitter.com/DjedStablecoin/status/1622298562628407298

Previously covered, but still interesting:

1. Whale is 100% correct here. Everyone is sleeping on the biggest dApp in all of crypto. https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1614253315642228744
2. Cardano Staking also is the only large DeFi dApp that could mount a robust defense against the regulatory hammer. https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1614247869359480832
3. Native assets are a huge advantage over tokens enslaved to smart contracts. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1614505271833006081
4. A good security reminder. Use a hardware wallet. NEVER input your seed phrase ANYWHERE! Put it on steel and lock it up. https://twitter.com/NFT_GOD/status/1614442055417077763
5. MuesliSwap says their concentrated liquidity pools have passed their audit. Stablecoin swaps are also apparently on the way. https://twitter.com/MuesliSwapTeam/status/1612801296938967041
6. According to a new study, 19% of US Adults say they own crypto with 4% owning Cardano. Cardano owners are the least likely to have sold in the last month. https://morningconsult.com/cryptocurrency-insights-hub/
7. Here’s a screenshot of the crypto rankings from January 2018 for comparison to 2023. If you remove the stables and swap BNB for BCH, Cardano has defended its position perfectly for a half-decade. https://twitter.com/ApeDurden/status/1614820882962337792
8. Looking like we’re going to be good on smart contract programming languages. https://twitter.com/k3engine/status/1614759932816916481
9. Daedalus 5.2.0 is out and available for download! Remember, there is no “Daedalus Mobile”. That is a scam. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1615072725105516551
10. Twenty-five pools retired in a single epoch last month. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1615155890453368834
11. Emurgo has published a guide to online Cardano communities. https://emurgo.io/best-cardano-communities-online/
12. This is not a joke: The 3AC boys are trying to raise $25 million for a new exchange they want to call “GTX”. https://fortune.com/crypto/2023/01/16/disgraced-3ac-hedge-fund-bros-seek-to-raise-25m-for-new-gtx-crypto-exchange/
13. Over 50k unique wallets now hold ADA Handles. https://twitter.com/adahandle/status/1615399826572869634
14. The era of AI influencers is upon us. We probably already have some laying the groundwork right now in Cardano. https://twitter.com/alex_valaitis/status/1615179733645369346
15. MinSwap now has multiple token harvest. https://twitter.com/MinswapDEX/status/1615213160297889794
16. Wow. I missed this. COTI is launching with Minimal Djed?!? https://twitter.com/RichardMcCrackn/status/1615351297636433921
17. Check out page 10 of the Djed whitepaper if you want to understand why the Minimal Djed launch (vs. Extended Djed) is surprising people. https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1069.pdf
18. Ergo’s implementation of the AgeUSD protocol for their SigmaUSD stablecoin also revealed some lessons for implementations of this type of triple asset Stablecoin system. https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2021-05-13-bearwhale-saga/
19. There is now an automotive project on Cardano. https://twitter.com/Yevhen_ADA/status/1615808805358473229
20. The IMF thinks that global regulators “must act fast to stem risk” from crypto. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIMF/bulletins/3437c32
21. Matthew Plomin brings us a great thread summarizing recent suggested crypto regulations from the Bank for International Settlement. Yep…as you would expect, they don’t love us. https://twitter.com/MatthewPlomin/status/1615810227898617856
22. Garlinghouse is saying he’s looking for a decision in the Ripple case this year. He’s indicating the chance of settlement is a Venn diagram with no overlap. https://twitter.com/i/status/1615748401098022915
23. Charles may be pondering an acquisition of CoinDesk from DCG. Interesting times! https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1616149970348040193
24. Luckily for those of us who already know, the asymmetry of information regarding Cardano is still very strong. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1612953545376161796
25. In-game transactions are now available on CardaStation! https://twitter.com/JoyeousT/status/1616192980192493568
26. The Web3 talk with Charles at Google is now available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPr3qHbHvmU
27. SEC declares war on “so-called governance tokens” in press release regarding Avi Eisenberg charges. https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1616521824216702977
28. There was a network anomaly last night that caused 50% of nodes to disconnect and restart. The network behaved as expected and impact was low…similar to delays sometimes seen at epoch boundaries. IOG is investigating. https://discord.com/channels/826816523368005654/892793958097375282
29. Cardano is one of the top 3 most loved cryptocurrencies when counting which coins are the most loved by count of countries in which they are #1. https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1617029590261858304
30. ChatGPT just got a B or B- in a core Wharton MBA course. Imagine what it will be able to do in a few more years. https://www.ft.com/content/7229ba86-142a-49f6-9821-f55c07536b7c
31. Apparently, ChatGPT has also passed the USMLE. https://twitter.com/noor_siddiqui_/status/1617194845810077697
32. Charles released a video to address the network anomaly. He says it appears to have been a transient issue probably due to a collection of different factors happening simultaneously and doesn’t seem to be reproducible. The network behaved as designed and self-healed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJvy2tqkE4U
33. Here’s some actual spying for you. This report just came in related to the unusual looking photos we examined on the channel in CRR #522. https://twitter.com/scottj44/status/1617341712724299776
34. Big things happening in Cardano streaming media! https://twitter.com/Padierfind/status/1617620083005886464
35. Just in case this wasn’t already clear. https://twitter.com/TheCryptoCPA/status/1617666138292490241
36. Apparently book.io will be minting on both Cardano and Ethereum? https://twitter.com/book_io/status/1617180699970392068
37. A16Z is (like many) pushing for regulation of the user interface instead of the protocol. They want business regulated instead of software in crypto. https://twitter.com/milesjennings/status/1617938092203311105
38. The difference in regulation of protocols vs. dApps may end up being more practical than conceptual (protocol is already deployed and out there on-chain maybe by anon devs while somebody who can be served is currently paying to host the dApp on servers). https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1617950253201883137
39. A very good point about closed source “dApps”. https://twitter.com/berry_ales/status/1618002911262560257
40. ETH withdrawals are set up so that it would take one year for everyone to unstake? Yes…yes…sounds very pro-consumer. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1617565965923024896
41. ADA Handle released a post-mortem on the emergence of a double mint. This is commendable transparency. https://twitter.com/adahandle/status/1617946159980634112
42. Paima Studios is developing a player vs. player tower defense game. https://twitter.com/PaimaStudios/status/1617961261165334531
43. Djed launch is scheduled for next week. https://twitter.com/COTInetwork/status/1617952207357509632
44. Liquid is launching next week! https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1618339547292782593
45. There are reports of a hack of the Mutants NFT platform. https://twitter.com/JSHyCS/status/1618112742531174402
46. Speculation is that the reported Mutants NFT Hack may have been due to mishandling of franken addresses. https://twitter.com/SebastienGllmt/status/1618172928906125312
47. Seeing reports that Djed will launch with only one wallet (Nami). Is this why? https://twitter.com/Jennycitalinda/status/1618416739397832704
48. The first Cardano 360 of 2023! https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1618274840934494208
49. The World Mobile sidechain is being built on IOGs new Sidechain Toolkit and will be Tendermint based. This is a big step forward toward the Cardano Layerverse. https://twitter.com/WorldMobileTeam/status/1618675139239096324 https://worldmobile.io/blog/post/working-towards-an-interoperable-future
50. Here’s a good very simple explainer article on Tendermint from Binance on Tendermint. https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/tendermint-explained
51. Here’s an interesting back and forth thread around how big Cardano projects are addressing Oracle solutions. https://twitter.com/SCATDAO/status/1618652821343313922
52. The Dragon wants to turn miners and validators into money services businesses and also “address a major gap with respect to unhosted digital wallet.” Thanks, SBF! I was hoping we would get back to this instead of some kind of positive comprehensive framework for crypto. https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1618676772266217472
53. Ongoing aftermath updates in the Mutant NFTs hack. https://twitter.com/JSHyCS/status/1618373108590837760
54. Very interesting post regarding potential World Mobile expansion. https://twitter.com/CloverNodes/status/1618709821867302912
55. Stripe apparently just blocked NMKR’s business account. We are still so early. https://twitter.com/Padierfind/status/1618555942727208962
56. Anticipation is building for what’s coming in Cardano this year and next. https://twitter.com/conraddit/status/1618409005621342208
57. Charles dropped a video on the settlement layer vs. the computation layer. https://youtu.be/cvROzVEAxAM
58. Here’s a great thread on validator recovery in Cardano (Nakamoto consensus) vs. BFT (Solana, Aptos, Cosmos). https://twitter.com/hans_the_crypto/status/1619513935656542209
59. The value of Cardano’s true liquid staking is being massively slept on when liquidity-by-derivative staking arrangements are subject to depegging that has toppled even large crypto institutions in the past. https://twitter.com/jconorgrogan/status/1619782908826521600
60. Coti has dropped a new article describing Shen stakepool delegation & minting/burning minimums. https://twitter.com/COTInetwork/status/1619784132447567873
61. The Cardano Foundation has released a video on its core focus areas: 1) operational resilience, 2) education, and 3) adoption. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89d8t72C4Uk
62. Liqwid has deployed to the preview testnet. https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1620198616550998016
63. New messaging on crypto from the Biden Administration. Apparently, deeper ties between crypto and tradfi would be a “grave mistake”. https://www.whitehouse.gov/nec/briefing-room/2023/01/27/the-administrations-roadmap-to-mitigate-cryptocurrencies-risks/
64. This CoinDesk article from a former regulator makes the point that regulators think we already have regulatory clarity on crypto. What we really want are changes to the status quo. https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/01/27/regulatory-clarity-financial-watchdogs-could-not-be-more-clear/
65. Coti has announced that the Djed minimums are to bootstrap liquidity at launch and may be reduced in the future. https://twitter.com/DjedStablecoin/status/1619962502418407426
66. Djed is now live. https://twitter.com/COTInetwork/status/1620392034124328960
67. SundaeSwap has announced their own Governance Portal. https://twitter.com/SundaeSwap/status/1620485846125412357
68. Given the history of AgeUSD type algorithmic stablecoins, some ecosystem members are expressing heavy doubts regarding the future position of Shen holders. https://twitter.com/zygomeb/status/1620427967179681794
69. Paima Studios has joined the Microsoft for Startups Program. https://twitter.com/PaimaStudios/status/1620335885131862017
70. It looks like FutureFest debuted some new features in their event on Feb. 1 with Fever Dream Friends and Skull Candy. https://twitter.com/futurefestxr/status/1620902250720927744
71. This is actually very big progress on the mainstream exposure front courtesy of Lex Fridman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beZdNf_mO1o
72. The UK Treasury has released its long awaited proposal for crypto regulation. Looks like they’re trying to be technology agnostic and focused on a principle of “same risk, same regulatory outcome”. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/future-financial-services-regulatory-regime-for-cryptoassets
73. The Fed has hiked the federal funds rate by 0.25% bringing the target range to 4.5-4.75% This is a much smaller raise than the 0.50% in December and the four consecutive 0.75% increases just prior to that. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/fed-rate-decision-february-2023-quarter-point-hike.html
74. Here’s a great thread from Sooraj of This Week in Cardano on the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) vs. Cardano Computation Layer (CCL) and Cardano Sidechains including the new Cardano Sidechain Toolkit from IOG. https://twitter.com/Soorajksaju2/status/1620564722515861505
75. Here’s an interesting new Cardano statistics site. https://peerreview.money/
76. Liqwid has launched on Mainnet (Feb 2). https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1621129278518890497
77. Cardano is now arguably “DeFi feature complete” depending on your definition. https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1621092500093145088
78. Plus….Liqwid has dark mode on Day 1. Let darkness reign! https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1620985328118157313
79. The World Mobile exhibit (fan built) in Carda Station looks pretty good. https://twitter.com/JoyeousT/status/1621225742435745793
80. World Mobile says it’s going to increase its Youtube efforts. This will be good for visibility of a very large Cardano RealFi project. https://twitter.com/WorldMobileTeam/status/1621191509218365444
81. Paul did a great interview with DC and Florian of Liqwid today (Feb 2). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8F_f4rLipA
82. COTI has published a Djed launch recap. https://medium.com/cotinetwork/djed-launch-recap-b5ec293e20dd
83. Charlie Munger at 99 years old thinks we should ban Bitcoin. Also thinks the leader of the CCP is awesome. https://twitter.com/ODELL/status/1621151302838525952
84. There is now a proposal in the Liqwid governance forum to reduce LQ token emissions. https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1621351623887917056
85. ImperatorLang made a great thread about how to get started building on Cardano with no prior programming experience. https://twitter.com/ImperatorLang/status/1622283773759950849
86. Shocker! VCs are not going to do what’s best for crypto communities. https://twitter.com/Dogetoshi/status/1620602151830704129
87. Some are pointing to A16Z’s involvement in a rival bridge and calling it anti-competitive behavior. https://twitter.com/ChrisBlec/status/1622201701921964035
88. Apparently, there is now 30 million ADA locked in the Djed contract. Not bad in the first week. https://twitter.com/DjedStablecoin/status/1622298562628407298
89. Behold the Cardano media blackout in all its glory! https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1622528162499383299
90. At Messari you can see that our recent 24h active address count is 73k (as of Feb 6). https://messari.io/asset/cardano/metrics/all
91. Having watched Martin throughout the '90s and Bad Boys (about a million times), it's surreal & amazing to see that the content is interesting to a guy who entertained me so much. Thank you immensely! https://twitter.com/realmartymar/status/1622710686647287808
92. Binance dot com (but not binance dot US) has announced a temporary pause of US dollar & US bank transactions. https://twitter.com/binance/status/1622669988560609293
93. Some are linking this to issues with its banking partner, Signature. https://gizmodo.com/binance-bank-transfers-crypto-ftx-1850079035
94. Liquid has published a summary of what’s happening with LQ tokenomics and utility. https://liqwidfinance.substack.com/p/lq-tokenomics-and-utility
95. A very legitimate point about the stark contrast between ETH and Cardano on governance. Do you want a bunch of guys locked in a room for a week or transparent on-chain governance? https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1623064762610499586
96. If you held all of the Cardano Summit 2021 NFTs at the Virtua snapshot in November and still haven’t grabbed your free miner bot, there is a window open right now (Feb 7). https://twitter.com/landbots_virtua/status/1623005985324380181
97. Some in the traditional finance world already see where crypt is going. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2023/02/07/how-mastercard-goldman-sachs-and-other-tradfi-titans-are-using-blockchain-to-rewire-global-finance/
98. Here’s the one-tweet summary of that article if you run into the paywall. https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1622966028299902977
99. Artifact Moon has released their beta 3d Moon Map with the ability to buy parcels from the map. Seems beautiful and responsive. https://twitter.com/ArtifctApp/status/1623045948690800640
100. Fed Chair Jerome Powell was interviewed at The Economic Club of Washington today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkC4LuuxOg4
101. CoinDesk wrote an article about the activity in SundaeSwap governance. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/02/08/cardano-dex-sundaeswap-floats-first-on-chain-governance-proposal/
102. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present the king of all bad crypto policies. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1623459203150131201
103. Unsurprisingly, the crypto crackdown that was long predicted for after the mid-term elections is also taking place via banking access (once again). https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1623346563069116417
104. Nice try, Coin Center! The real difference is between custodial staking and non-custodial staking. https://twitter.com/NeerajKA/status/1623469303545593856
105. Liquid protocol was temporarily paused via multisig today for a security issue fix. https://twitter.com/liqwidfinance/status/1623345076016406530
106. The UK has released a consultation paper on plans for the Digital Pound saying “it is likely” to be needed. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1134845/CBDC_WEB_PDF_-_7_FEB_2023_1130am.pdf
107. Apparently, you can now invite the public to come check out your Cardano Island Crib. https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1623365199032946697
108. Get ready for lots of Cardano essays. Twitter Blue people now have 4k characters. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1623411400545632256
109. Looks like Kraken was the first staking target of the SEC. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-25
110. Gensler released a video which very specifically described staking in terms of “escrow” or “if you transfer your tokens to a staking-as-a-service provider”. Neither of these is common in normal Cardano staking or delegating. But, it sounds a lot like the Ethereum staking world. https://twitter.com/GaryGensler/status/1623777842000539648
111. Rumors are that other exchanges & stablecoin providers will receive letters outlining charges soon. One posted rumor is mentioning Circle (USDC) & Paxos specifically. https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1623785788725944322
112. Here’s some wild speculation from one poster: if Circle agrees to limit/censor USDC in some way, it might lead to demands from ETH users to employ some kind of social slashing, which could cause a schism (and create fork potential) in that ecosystem. https://twitter.com/jessebabies/status/1615769704353734656
113. Charles posted a reply to Brian Armstrong’s staking tweet that savagely highlights the regulatory problem with Ethereum’s custodial/slashing based staking. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1623530227870896130
114. Charles also dropped a video explaining how (in the very worst scenario) Cardano staking could still operate via “contingent staking” even if SPOs were regulated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7y2tvpHY5w

~Army of Spies