Ethereum News and Links
Top
- Ethereum Research Update by Vitalik
- Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures invested in a $10m token investment fund. [Scroll down for more]
- Amusingly, this was just a few days after Coindesk owner Barry Silbert said, “You will never see institutional money move into Ethereum.”
Protocol
- The History of Casper, part 1, part 2 and part 3 by Vlad Zamfir.
- Even after part 3, we’re still not out of 2015.
- Even after part 3, we’re still not out of 2015.
- Expect Swarm alpha next week
- How will Ethereum implement zk-SNARKs? Likely precompiled contracts.
- Christian Reitwiessner zkSNARKs in a nutshell
- Vitalik explains zk-SNARKs
- Christian Reitwiessner zkSNARKs in a nutshell
Stuff for Dapp developers
- Raiden MVP release expected early 2017. Github tracker.
- State channels quite possibly will make Ethereum the backbone for Internet of Things transactions.
- State channels quite possibly will make Ethereum the backbone for Internet of Things transactions.
- Browser-Solidity update
- Digix’s Chris Hitchcott presentation on Javascript testing framework for Solidity
Ecosystem
- Akasha likely to launch for Linux beta testers “next week.”
- Chronicled talks CryptoSeal: tamper-proof microchip registered on Ethereum
- Ujo’s tech stack. Also, “We still aim to start onboarding artists by Q1 2017.”
- Adam Draper’s Boost.VC accelerator is actively searching for Ethereum startups
- Two Ethereum projects won 1st place at BlockchainHub’s DemoDay: Status.Im and EtheRisc’s Flight Delay insurance dapp.
- Rouleth looks pretty sweet. You can’t visit the site if you’re in the US, but you can see it on Reddit.
Token Sales
- Mysterium, the Decentralized VPN project from last week, announces a pre-token sale token sale. I’m all for experimentation, but this deal structure does not make sense to me.
- Iconomi’s Zenel Batagelj on token sale strategies for founders, particularly for deal structure and communications.
- Coinbase published and then deleted a blog post on a legal framework for token sales. I’m guessing they jumped the gun (USV, Consensys, and CoinCenter are listed as partners), but you can still see it.
- Not surprisingly, the proffered advice is on the conservative side – a BigLaw firm doesn’t want to take any risks! – but it is more or less what you’d intuit from Howey and watching the token sales so far.
General
- Why did Ether and REP have a large, quick selloff about a week ago? Bo Shen got hacked.
- Transaction costs in Ethereum vs Bitcoin.
- Pay with Ether and tokens using a Visa debit card? Details not yet offered.
- Gavin Wood video talk: Why is Blockchain a game changer?
- Circle is quitting Bitcoin.
- Synereo is in the midst of a crisis. I never felt like their biz/tech was aligned. Lots of accusations flying around, including explicit denunciations of bad faith.
- Ben Dickson at TechCrunch: Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the supply chain
- Piper Merriam’s guide to securing your digital life. Plus Vitalik comment.
VCs investing in quasi-VC token funds?
The announcement that USV and A16z are investing in Olaf Carlson-Wee’s quasi-VC token fund is fascinating to me. Two of the biggest names in VC doing something groundbreaking is a big deal. Some thoughts:
- The fund solves a need: both USV and A16z evidently wanted more exposure to Ethereum. But they have a fundamental problem: 1) they can’t possibly run the risk of getting hacked, because they would look bad to their LPs (investors), and 2) they aren’t equipped to deal with security and multi-sigs, etc.
- Hiring the Director of Risk from Coinbase to do a fund? Uniquely solves that problem.
- Hiring the Director of Risk from Coinbase to do a fund? Uniquely solves that problem.
- Speaking of Coinbase, one of the reasons I ultimately didn’t put money into Iconomi’s ICO is because I worried about their barriers to entry. Specifically, whether Coinbase would try to beat them.
- Well, that competition has almost sorta kinda happened?
- Well, that competition has almost sorta kinda happened?
- Deal structure: how do they have confidence that Carlson-Wee knows when to sell?
- I love the name of Carlson-Wee’s firm. Polychain Capital: down with maximalism!
- A month ago, I heard from a friend in the Valley about this “crypto hedge fund” that was getting started. I laughed, because the idea of doing stat arb or long/short in crypto is hilarious to me. But this is less hedge, more VC.
- As I discussed in my token sale doc, one of the main ways token sales differ from a venture investment is that liquidity comes very early.
- Selling is the arguably the hardest part of investing. VCs have never had the same temptation of holding liquid assets. To oversimplify: they just sell whenever the IPO market heats up.
- Selling is the arguably the hardest part of investing. VCs have never had the same temptation of holding liquid assets. To oversimplify: they just sell whenever the IPO market heats up.
- A month ago, I heard from a friend in the Valley about this “crypto hedge fund” that was getting started. I laughed, because the idea of doing stat arb or long/short in crypto is hilarious to me. But this is less hedge, more VC.
Dates of note
- Dec 12 – Branche price change
- Dec 12 – Ether.camp HackerGold price change
- Dec 13 – BlockCDN price change
- Dec 15 – vDice crowdsale ends
[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. This is not investment advice.]
1000 subscribers by year end?
Over the last 2 weeks, we went from 650 subscribers to 930. Thank you! Getting to 1000 by the end of the year went from being a “stretch goal” to something we might hit this week.
If this issue was useful to you, would you share it on social media or email it to a friend?
Just in case you want to send Ether (or tokens?): 0x96d4F0E75ae86e4c46cD8e9D4AE2F2309bD6Ec45