#39 Crypto Jobs Survey - Hanging In There. NFT NYC, animal prints: Doggs, Apes, in the times of the Bear.
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.
Crypto Jobs Survey - Hanging In There
CoinDesk chose possibly the best time to conduct a survey among Crypto industry employees - the month of June 2022. It includes insights from 170 respondents and covers areas such as job security, payment options as well as organization size. You can follow all of it on their website, but I’ll point out the key takeaways here:
Although this was the time while companies such as Coinbase were announcing layoffs, the survey found only 6% of respondents reporting that their companies were actively reducing headcount. At the same time, 50% said their companies are actively hiring.
When asked whether they are satisfied with their job security, more than 60% answered that they agree (or strongly agree) with the statement.
Interestingly, two thirds of the respondents are paid fully in fiat.
In terms of demographics, 3 people were under 21 at the time of the survey and 11 were 61 or older. 60% were aged between 22 and 40.
While these data points are interesting and, I would say, encouraging, it’s worth keeping in mind that the sample size was relatively small, at 170 people. I definitely expect this number to grow as Crypto jobs scale up in the future. For more data and charts, be sure to check out the full results on CoinDesk.
Mihnea
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Deleveraging in crypto may be in its final stages
According to a recent note published by JPMorgan’s research analyst that also tackles the crypto space, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, the crypto deleveraging cycle would not last much longer.
The note mentions that the recent crypto company failures have been influenced by the huge price declines among tokens, while entities that have been over-leveraged are exposed in these market conditions.
Panigirtzoglou identifies two key events that are contributing to the market stabilization:
Better capitalized companies stepping-in to shore up liquidity in troubled companies: brings echoes of the Panic of 1907, when J. Pierpont Morgan was deciding which firms would be saved or not. A number of companies assumed this role publicly (FTX or Alameda Research), while probably many others are doing this behind closed doors (Binance?, Jump Crypto?).
Continuous funding from VC: venture capital represents an important source of capital for the crypto ecosystem and it has continued at a healthy pace in May and June. Saurabh Sharma, head of investments at Jump Crypto, mentioned that investors may be taking more care in evaluating projects but there will continue to be funding in the space. VC funding stood at $3.7bn in June and $4.2bn in May, the volume in both months being lower than the $6.8bn raised in April.
The research note adds that the firm’s net leverage metric, a measure of risk appetite that takes into account long vs. short positions, indicates that deleveraging is already well advanced.
Razvan
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NFT NYC, animal prints: Doggs, Apes, in the times of the Bear
Imagine this: only 1.5 million wallets on OpenSea with at least one NFT transaction on them, yet the NFT NYC reached its 4th Edition. We are still in the early stages, but your NFT wallet age will make a difference in the future to come. Until then, let’s recap the “Woodstock” NFT event, as the NY Times says.
We had it all, from Exclusive rap concerts to impersonators in Times Square, from music producers' announcements to anti-NFT protests.
But, maybe, one of the most enthusiastic news of all is the idea of a 3D interoperable open metaverse, which involves connecting virtual worlds that act as gamified social networks and fusing our physical and digital identities. Timmu Toke, CEO of Ready Player Me, a platform that produces metaverse-ready avatars with a selfie, and is interoperable across applications and games, stated that “The future we are fighting for involves breaking virtual walls and connecting the world”.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) hosted the members-only ApeFest, with an outstanding concert by Eminem & Snoop Dogg, launching also their new music video “From The D 2 The LBC“, using their BAYC NFTs as avatars and creating the visuals to measure their lyrics. And of course, Snoop also had an impersonator, Doop Snogg, and maan, people felt for it so easy.
Funny thing is that lots of people believed that the anti-NFT protest was actually for real, not only a great marketing stunt, creating awareness for the people who weren’t bitten by the NFT bug yet. But it was fun though:
Doodles also stepped in, announcing @Pharrell as the new Chief Brand Officer. Pharell will also act as executive producer on Doodles’ first music release, launched in partnership with Columbia Records. @jholguin, Doodles CEO, says that the NFT technology will transform the music business.
A lot more has happened in NYC, and I advise you to read some more into it and to watch the It’s NFTime videos Endi & I are making, talking also about this event. But I will end with this:
The Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF), which was founded last week by more than 30 tech titans like Meta, Microsoft, and Epic Games, aims to define the priorities and guiding principles for technologies developed for the metaverse, such as virtual reality and augmented reality is bringing us one step closer to the end game: Interoperability at it’s finest.
Stay close
Cosmin
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Decentralized Identities - a step for many to come
One of the promises of blockchain is that of decentralized identities - a way in which users control their own digital identity, without depending on 3rd parties or service providers. We aren’t really used to being in full control of our data because of how the previous Webs (1 and 2) work, but it’s important to understand its value: privacy within our lives.
Polygon has been working on such a solution and recently they launched Polygon ID, a ZK-based, privacy-centered ID. Leveraging a ZK toolkit, it taps into the endless possibilities (& permissionlessness) of blockchain and allows its users to prove some claims are true without revealing any information besides the necessary one.
What I also found interesting is that this may very well be the start we were hoping for regarding on-chain credentials and building a true, digital-native reputation. Tied to our achievements and actions, it can be used as a CV when applying for Web3 jobs or campaigning for being a delegate in a DAO. I can also see this as a better way of fighting against bots and KYC-ing wallets. One other thing I’m thinking of is switching to 1 identity = 1 vote in DAOs… and who knows what else?
Certainly, there is more to the story and I highly encourage you to read the full documentation. I may be overly enthusiastic about it, but the promise of it is exactly that of Web3: true ownership of yourself and your work. I hope we’ll come back in a few years and see this moment as an important, pivotal moment in blockchain history.
Matei
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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
Stakeborg Academy: https://academy.stakeborg.com/
Thank you👨💻📝🧠