Top crypto stories of week 21, 2024
Mon 20 to Sun 26 May 2024
The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 20 to Sun 26 May 2024, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 34 comments in total. Most-shared sources: warpcast.com, decrypt.co, coindesk.com.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- $degen tipping is going to use social graph data instead of just engagement data (warpcast.com)
- Why prediction markets aren’t popular - Works in Progress (worksinprogress.co)
Prediction markets remain scarce even where they are legal, and the article's authors attribute this mainly to weak demand rather than to regulation. Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated market, lists contracts on topics such as Oscars winners and monthly tornado counts, and the UK permits prediction markets, yet Betfair offers only a few dozen markets, with about twelve million pounds in play on the US presidential election. The authors argue that savers, gamblers and sharps are each largely uninterested because prediction markets are zero-sum, negative-sum after fees, and lack long-run returns, so the price-correcting pressure that makes markets efficient never builds.
- What is the best way to eat a kiwi? (wikihow.com)
This wikiHow-style guide explains the best ways to eat a kiwi, starting with a simple approach: check ripeness by gently pressing the fruit, then bite into it like an apple or peach, since the skin holds much of its fiber, vitamins and antioxidants. The article advises trimming the inedible fuzzy stem end and washing the fruit under cold water first to remove pesticide traces. It also covers alternatives, including halving the kiwi and scooping out the flesh with a spoon, peeling it like a potato, and using kiwis in smoothies or as a topping for a pavlova.
- How to Find and Analyze Trends on Farcaster (read.cryptodatabytes.com)
The author presents a Farcaster Trends Explorer dashboard that combines Farcaster social graph data, onchain transaction data, and verified wallet-to-user links, built on Neynar and Dune and open for anyone to use. The dashboard runs a word TF-IDF query over casts from the last 14 days, filtered to "active badge" users, and ranks users and channels into tiers based on followers, casts, and engagement score. The author reports that about 3k of 83k users who sent a cast in the last 14 days qualify as higher quality users, and that the dashboard can surface trending channels such as "superbowl", "donothing", and "consumercrypto" that are popular with influencers.
- Ethereum-Based Twitter Rival Farcaster Raises $150 Million - Decrypt (decrypt.co)
Farcaster, a decentralized social media protocol, announced a $150 million Series A funding round led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Variant and Standard Crypto. The company told Unchained Crypto that the raise values it at $1 billion, making it the latest crypto unicorn. Co-founder Dan Romero said the company is focused on growing daily active users and adding developer features such as channels and direct messaging. The network, built on Optimism, an Ethereum layer-2 network, has claimed 350,000 paid sign-ups since its October 2023 permissionless launch.
- Bitwise Ethereum ETF approved (x.com)
- Investing in Farcaster (variant.fund)
Variant, a crypto investor, explains its investment in Farcaster's Series A, which it made alongside Paradigm, USV, and Haun, arguing that the network's core team, developer ecosystem, and user base reflect the best of crypto. The article describes Farcaster as a decentralized social protocol with identity tied to crypto wallets, native payments, and distributed data hubs. It says about 400k users have onboarded, mostly through Warpcast, the first client built on the protocol, which Merkle operates. It also cites frames, interactive mini-apps, as a notable use case, and names Botto as a project using them for significant auction volume.
- U.S. House Approves Crypto FIT21 Bill With Wave of Democratic Support (coindesk.com)
The U.S. House approved the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), a crypto market-structure bill, by a 279-136 vote on Wednesday, with Democrats crossing party lines to support it. The bill would set consumer protections, make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a leading regulator of digital asset spot markets, and more clearly define when a crypto token is a security or a commodity. Overall, 71 Democrats and 208 Republicans voted in favor, while President Joe Biden opposed the bill in a policy statement and SEC Chair Gary Gensler argued it was not needed. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it has no counterpart and its prospects are unclear.
- How do layer 2s really differ from execution sharding? (vitalik.ca)
- Solana Dev Hospitalized Trying to Pump Meme Coin (decrypt.co)
A Solana meme coin developer, Mikol, was hospitalized with third-degree burns at a Miami trauma center after he doused himself in isopropyl alcohol and had fireworks shot at him during a livestream six days after creating the DARE token on Pump.fun. Friends livestreaming on Twitter tried to put out the flames with only a couple gallons of water, and they ran out. Michael Valentine, a viewer with five years of fire department experience, estimated that 35% of Mikol's body was burned, though he said it could be more. Investors reacted with mixed concern, and the DARE community has been raising money for equipment, a car and an apartment for Mikol.
- The OpenAI board was right? (garymarcus.substack.com)
OpenAI pulled a voice character from a recent demo after backlash over its resemblance to Scarlett Johansson's AI character in the film Her, with the company alleging the resemblance was purely a coincidence. The author rejects that claim, citing a post by Sam Altman referencing Her shortly after the demo and a statement Johansson sent via her publicist to NPR's Bobby Allyn saying she had been asked and refused. The author also cites Altman's past candor problems, including the board's November firing of him for not being consistently candid, and says Gary Marcus hopes the new board recognizes that Altman's behavior does not fit a nonprofit that has pledged to help humanity.
- Privacy, human rights, and Tornado Cash (citationneeded.news)
Privacy is described as a bigger concern than crypto crime, with the conviction of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev cited as an example. Pertsev was sentenced in the Netherlands to 64 months (over five years) for money laundering tied to the mixing service, which is said to have enabled criminals to launder billions of dollars in illicit funds. Holding someone liable for merely writing privacy-protecting code because criminals later used it is called extremely concerning, and a judge's statement that Tornado Cash "suits criminal use" is quoted. The piece also argues that US financial privacy is weak, since cash transactions over $10,000 must be reported.
- Ether ETFs Filing Process Sees Abrupt Progress (coindesk.com)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked exchanges seeking to list spot ether exchange-traded funds to update their 19b-4 filings on an accelerated basis ahead of a key deadline that week, according to three people familiar with the situation who spoke to CoinDesk. The move suggests progress, though approval is not guaranteed, because the S-1 applications must also be approved and the SEC could take an indefinite time on those. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart raised their odds of approval for a spot ether ETF to 75% from 25%, later clarifying that the odds related to the 19b-4 approvals, and the SEC is expected to decide on a VanEck spot ether ETF on May 23.
- Paid social may be the hero we need in the age of misinformation (blog.teji.io)
- Julian Assange Wins Right to Appeal on 1st Amendment (rebelnet.me)
- Top Ten “Awesome” Security Incidents in 2023 (blocksecteam.medium.com)
BlockSec published a list of the top ten security incidents of 2023, stating that these cases offer lessons showing security should be a priority for the community. Selected cases include an April 3 attack that exploited a Flashbots relay vulnerability to profit around $20 million from MEV bots, and a March 13 Euler Finance flash loan attack with losses of nearly $200 million. Other entries cover a November 23 KyberSwap attack with losses over $48 million and July 30 Curve exploits traced to a Vyper compiler bug.
- Dappcon: Fireside chat Vitalik Buterin (warpcast.com)
- Onchain advertising is here (blog.spindl.xyz)
Spindl, Daylight, Serotonin and Collab.land have announced a partnership to offer onchain advertising, combining publishing, monetization technology and a marketing agency to target, attribute and pay for ads across the marketing funnel. The article says Collab.land's ad unit, shown during its Discord sign-in process used by over 5,000 Discords, has produced a clickthrough rate above 10% across several advertisers. It reports effective CPMs peaking at $50 and never falling below $10 in several live campaigns. Daylight, which surfaces airdrops and NFT mints in wallet apps, is said to reach roughly 5 million transacting wallets.
- Constitutions of Web3 (constitutions.metagov.org)
- Should the Ethereum Foundation dissolve? (mirror.xyz)