VeradiVerdict - Scalability - Issue #4
VeradiVerdict - Scalability - Issue #4
Hi, I am Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the oldest and largest institutional investors focused on investing into blockchain companies and cryptocurrencies. I focus on early investments and want to share my thoughts and what’s going on in the industry in this weekly newsletter.
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Editorials
Scaling Ethereum and other blockchains has been a priority for investment for most funds this year. While many dapps have been launched since last year, this year we’ve seen more scalability projects than ever.
Pantera has invested full-stack, ranging from new blockchain solutions to scalability solutions to dapps.
One scalability solution that we’ve invested into is called Starkware and they use Zk-Starks which offers a promising way to compress large amounts of information into small proofs, named starks, and can use zero-knowledge proof to preserve the privacy of that information.
As Vitalik mentioned recently, technologies like Zk-Starks and Zk-Snarks provide the ability for blockchains like Ethereum to scale without layer-two scalability solutions like Plasma or Raiden, “scaling to 24x for ETH transactions and ~50x for ERC-20 transfers”.
I’m sure there will be many other ways to scale blockchains and we’re excited to see what gets traction.
Digests
Regulators Land Punches, But There's a Long Fight Over Crypto Ahead
Michael J. Casey is the chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board and a senior advisor for blockchain research at MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative.
A Brief Study of Cryptonetwork Forks
The vast majority of child networks resulting from chain forks are in disuse and have lost significant value relative to their parent networks. Despite lower use metrics, child networks trade at higher user and transaction value multiples than their parent networks. Users and developers tend to remain loyal to the original network, while most miners are loyal to economics only, directing hash power to the most profitable network of the moment.
Games Will Be the Catalyst for Blockchain Mass Adoption -- Loom Network
If you’ve been following us, you’ve noticed that our announcements have been largely focused around our blockchain-based collectible card game, Zombie Battleground, and the Kickstarter we used to…Why do you guys keep talking about this game?! What is Loom Network, an Ethereum scaling solution, or just a game company?!
In the Tweets
Crypto Exchanges Don’t Need Licenses in Colorado, Positive Development https://t.co/87tbveHWZO
9:23 AM - 24 Sep 2018
I absolutely believe that fundamental factors drive prices, but like Bloomberg and CNBC I do not have a clue what fundamental factors really mattered until a year after a trend is over.
6:52 PM - 23 Sep 2018
smart contracts are a compression format for human trust
compression (.mp3, .jpg, .zip) enables rapid distribution at internet scale
5:24 PM - 23 Sep 2018
News
'500 Transactions a Second': Vitalik Says Zk-Snarks Could Scale Ethereum
A form of cryptography pioneered by zcash might help scale Ethereum, the founder of the platform Vitalik Buterin said on a research forum Saturday.
The Latest Bitcoin Bug Was So Bad, Developers Kept Its Full Details a Secret
The bug originally rocked the bitcoin world when it was reported the vulnerability could be used to shut down a chunk of the network.
Coinsquare Lists Blockchain ETF On Toronto Stock Exchange
Coin Capital Investment Management Inc., the portfolio management division of the Coinsquare digital asset trading platform, has listed a blockchain ETF, the STOXX Blockchain Patents Innovation Index Fund (LDGR), among two new ETFs the company has listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Bitcoin Mining Pool AntPool to Sponsor NBA's Houston Rockets
Bitcoin mining pool AntPool, a Bitmain subsidiary, has signed a deal to sponsor the NBA’s Houston Rockets for the upcoming season.
The unexpected flipping: XRP battles for second on the crypto charts
The price of Ripple’s digital asset rose more than 50 percent.
Meet The Man Who Tracks Kidnappers Using Blockchain
CCN interviewed Ben Strickland, who uses blockchain technology to track kidnappers, paramilitary groups, and other nefarious entities.
Thailand’s Kasikornbank to Pilot Visa’s Blockchain Cross-Border Payments Platform
The biggest bank by market cap in Thailand, Kasikornbank, has become the first financial institution in the Southeast Asian country to get on board the Visa B2B Connect platform.
Regulations
U.S. Lawmaker Introduces 3 Pro-Cryptocurrency Bills to Congress
U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), a Congressional Blockchain Caucus co-chair, has introduced three pro-blockchain and -cryptocurrency bills into Congress.
US Navy Launches Blockchain Research in Mission to Improve Tracking System
The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) – which provides material support for aircraft and airborne weapons systems for the navy – announced in a press release Friday it is investigating whether blockchain could trace parts through their life-cycle more efficiently and cost-effectively than with current methods.
Binance and Kraken May Be Operating Illegally in NY State
Three crypto exchanges namely, Binance, Kraken and Huobi, may be in violation of digital currency regulations in New York state.
Singapore Central Banker: No Securities Crypto Token Approved To Date
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city state’s de-facto central bank, highlighted in interview today that no tokens representing securities have been approved to date.
New Products and Hot Deals
This Off-Grid, Solar-Powered System Sends Crypto Through Radio Waves
Developer Daniel Jones has developed an off-grid, solar-powered system that uses radio waves to send crypto payments from areas with poor infrastructure.
Coinbase and Caspian Partner to Drive Institutional Participation in Crypto
Coinbase, the easiest and most trusted platform to access, buy, sell, trade and store digital currency, has partnered with Caspian, the first institutional grade full-stack crypto trading and risk…
Introducing expo – dYdX Protocol
Expo is the first completely trustless way to margin trade. Expo is built on the dYdX Protocol, and will be the easiest way to buy and sell short and leveraged tokens.
Introducing Braiins OS, open-source system for cryptocurrency devices
We are Braiins — a company that has been developing and operating Slush Pool since 2013, mostly without drawing much attention to itself. But that is about to change. Apart from the pool, we are…
Meet with Me
I will be traveling this fall for certain events, and to meet with investors. Let me know if you and your colleagues would like to meet in person.
San Francisco, SF Blockchain Week, October 9
Las Vegas, Money 2020 USA, October 21-24
Prague, DevCon 4, October 30-November 2
Macau, Sora Summit, November 13
Hangzhou, Money 2020 China, November 14
New York, Consensus Invest, November 27