Disclaimer: Everything we write in "The Crypto Insider Report" is an x-ray of the industry as we see it, through the lens of publicly available information. We are not financial advisors.
Please also note that an audio version of this report is available on all streaming platforms including Spotify.
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KPMG Purchases its First NFT for 25ETH
"Nothing is stronger than an idea for which the time has come" - Victor Hugo
A few weeks ago I came across the quote above and every time I read news like the one I’ll talk about today my mind quickly runs back to it marking another moment of enlightenment. It might seem like we have an obsession with the ‘big 4’ as their names and blockchain-related activity seems to be a recurring theme in our newsletters but bear with me. I can explain.
During this week’s It’s NFTime episode, Endi and Cosmin announced that KPMG Canada made two more bullish moves after adding Bitcoin and Ethereum to their treasury. Firstly, they registered their ENS domain (kpmg.eth) for 5.2 ETH on ENS Registrar (probably nothing). Secondly, THEY purchased their first-ever NFT for 25 ETH (roughly $73,000 at the moment of writing this) from the World of Women collection, marking the global accounting firm’s foray into digital collectibles.
World of Women NFT - Woman #2681
"This acquisition reflects our belief not only in the continued growth of NFTs but in the value of WoW and its mission. Having now gone through the process, we are well-positioned to guide our clients around building a corporate NFT strategy, including, acquiring, and safeguarding NFTs " says Benjie Thomas, Managing Partner, Advisory Services, KPMG in Canada.
According to KPMG's Nancy Chase, Partner, and National Risk Consulting Leader, this move was also an attempt to draw more women into the sector. "By all accounts, women are underrepresented in the world of all things crypto, which makes us proud to make our first NFT acquisition in a collection that supports women," According to a recent KPMG poll, 53 percent of Canadians say the NFT market opens the door for women artists to promote and monetize their work in ways that weren't previously available to them. Two in five (40 percent) think avatars, crypto wallets, and digital goods will become the norm. As well, 8 percent say they already own an NFT, indicating that Canadians are slowly starting to explore the market.
I insist on highlighting such moves because as someone that has worked for one of KPMG’s competitors and knows how conservative and careful they are with such statements, such strategic moves are incredibly bullish. And during times like this, when hope is scarce we need someone to point out the light at the end of the tunnel.
Evelyne
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Blind Signing - Always Verify
CoinTelegraph recently interviewed Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet, who used the opportunity to warn users about the risks involved with approving smart contract calls. This was prompted by the recent phishing attack on OpenSea which tricked users into essentially signing agreements to sell all of their NFTs for 0 ETH to the attacker.
Almost all Crypto interactions performed using a wallet (other than basic transfers) involve smart contract calls, and they have to be blindly signed, as Ledger calls it. This essentially means that users have to approve smart contracts interactions without actually seeing the code that is executed. And even if they did, not everybody is technically savvy enough to review every interaction.
As Crypto adoption keeps growing and areas such as DeFi and NFT keep on getting traction, smart contract calls will become ubiquitous. The advice users are given is to always verify the messages they are signing. Wallet makers such as Ledger are trying their best to help with that - showing information such as (1) the application interacted with and (2) the operation being performed - relevant clues to make sure that the signed message is the intended one.
Mihnea
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In a world ruled by AI, with access to all the human knowledge, a great story projects us towards a kick a$$ 3D good looking NFT project, that sends the mind straight to the metaverse, at least from the look-and-feel point of view.
Just a small quote from the full story, that can also be read on their Discord:
"Like their human creators, they will be his lieutenants, with their warrior skills, and will pay tribute to them. The Spartans for their unfailing courage, the Samurais for their devotion, the Vikings for their strength, the Tuaregs for their adaptation to hostile environments. Here we are at the gates of the biggest war of all times for Man, who by his greed and ego, has condemned his own survival"
The team behind the project is fully doxed, as it can be seen on the main website themetatribes.com, and the guys, by their experience, skills, and stability, seem to explain why this project has that "je ne sais quoi".
Since joining Twitter in November, the metatribes account is getting closer to 100k followers and the discord server close to 75k members.
By the time you read this article, Phase 1 is already up and running, starting from 1ETH and going down with 0.05ETH every 20 min (don't rush, DYOR). And there will be 3 Phases:
Phase 1: Public Dutch Auction March 4, 2022, 5 PM UTC
Phase 2: Private Whitelist Sale March 5, 2022, 5 PM UTC
Phase 3: Public Sale March 6, 2022, 5 PM UTC
But before you rush onto minting one, first DYOR the project yourself.
They all sound great before the launch, but few manage to deliver after cashing in the money.
Start your DYOR with the map of consciousness: https://themetatribes.com/#map
Until next time, stay safe and send a helping hand to those in need!
Cosmin
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$1 billion for the Web3 economy
2021 was a record year in terms of crypto start-ups’ financings. On March 1st, Electric Capital announced it raised $1 billion of capital across two crypto-focused funds. The total amount of the Palo Alto-based VC raise includes a $400 million fund closed last year (unannounced at the time) to make equity and crypto token investments and a $600 million fund closed last month to make token-only purchases.
The VC is led by Avichal Garg (a previous guest at The Stakeborg DAO Talks) and Curtis Spencer. It differentiates from similar funds by being staffed only with engineers. The pair aims to be in a position to better understand and assist with its portfolio companies’ technical operations. Electric has a comprehensive understanding of the space spanning from its previous investments across L1 (Near), DeFi (dYdX, Tokemak), infrastructure (Genesis, ConsenSys, Aurora), CeFi (Bitwise), Web3 (RabbiHhole, Gitcoin, Layer3, LlamaDAO) and NFTs (Unblocked).
Ticket size is between $1m-20m per project while the funds are geared towards five key trends that the team considers will define the 2020s, namely:
DAOs: empower global communities to allocate resources in new ways
NFTs: form a new asset and infrastructure layer for Web3
DeFi: democratize access to financial products
Decentralized infrastructure: allow engineers to build the next generation of apps w/o a central point of failure or control
Accessible UX: onboard one billion users to Web3
On the DAO front, the team seeks a number of specific ideas to fund:
Mechanisms that allow more people to onboard onto DAOs based on merit
Platforms that aggregate proposals in a more user-enhancing experience and make participation easier
Distributed decision-making mechanisms, which move away from the current framework
Compensation mechanisms
DAO discovery platforms: aggregators of existing DAOs that enable potential members to easily find the right ones where they fit in
Recruiting platforms: projects that fit at different stages throughout the recruiting pipeline and that help DAOs identify and recruit the best talent (e.g. RabbitHole=on-chain resume and skills builder)
Treasury management: economic tools that empower DAOs to effectively grow and leverage their treasuries (e.g. LlamaDAO=tooling and consultancy services to assist in treasury management decisions)
Razvan
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For more educational crypto content check out the links below:
The Stakeborg DAO Talks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOrFZZifNn4Nx4nSQL3WS52ALPXgrTSVG
Discord channel: https://discord.com/channels/901898461568442458/903006233584341052
StakeborgDAO Quarterly Reports: https://docs.stakeborgdao.com/reports/dao-quarterly-reports
The Crypto Insider Podcast:
#22 KPMG Purchases its First NFT. $1 Billion for the Web3 Economy
🧑🏽💻👷🏼♂️👍thank you