#49 The $10 mil Coop Records Fund for Music NFTs. Binance to Deal in BUSD Instead of USDC, USDP and TUSD.
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.
Binance to Deal in BUSD Instead of USDC, USDP and TUSD
In a polarizing move, Binance announced that they will auto-convert USDC, USDP and TUSD balances to BUSD, their own Binance USD stablecoin flavor. In turn, trading pairs with the three stablecoins will be removed, consolidating all of them into the BUSD pair equivalents. Users will be able to withdraw their USD stablecoin balance in any of the three flavors from the platform.
These are the facts. Essentially, Binance is saying you can send in and out any flavor of USD stablecoins, but while trading on the platform you will only be using BUSD. Some people call it Crypto Monopoly 101, others call it a genius move. Interestingly, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of USDC’s issuer Circle, is a fan of the move:
The longer explanation is given in this Twitter thread, essentially saying that removing these pairs leads to consolidated liquidity in the BUSD pairs. If before market makers would have to manage 3 BTC pairs (one for each of the converted stablecoins), now there will be only one. Conversion will be 1:1 (aka free), allowing users to keep using whatever flavor they want outside of the platform. The main competitor of USDC, USDT, is left out of the deal, so its trading pairs will remain with [expected] lower liquidity and an extra conversion step (which might not always be 1:1). All of this could lead to users losing interest in USDT, opting to rely more on BUSD and the more popular USDC.
Binance is not the first to do this. As Blockworks writes, FTX does a similar thing where any USDC, TUSD, USDP and BUSD balance is simply shown as “USD”. It will be interesting to see how these changes will affect USDT’s market share. You can follow here.
Mihnea
================
MakerDAO’s at a crossroads
A few weeks back, Mihnea talked about the Tornado Cash sanction - and, while the news and anger of some may have diminished, the entire event put something considerably bigger in motion. I’m talking about MakerDAO’s future, one of the oldest DeFi protocols in existence - the birthplace of DAI.
Rune Christensen is one of the founders and is heavily contributing to the project and, recently, he has shared some thoughts on what the Tornado Cash saga showed: a threat coming from the authorities. Since USDC is a very large percentage of the assets backing minted DAI, Rune fears for DAI that it could get into trouble, should Circle choose to “comply” with US laws as they did in Tornado Cash’s case. As such, he proposed moving away from USDC and, gradually, completely decentralizing MakerDAO by splitting it into several MetaDAOs, reducing exposure to RWAs (given his plan) and becoming fully resilient to authoritarian threats by ~2030. He also wishes for DAI to become free-floating, thus de-pegging from the USD in the long term to assure resilience.
Some consider this a strong reaction, and I suggest you go check out the proposal (linked above) since it’s highly complex and well-reasoned. Personally, I believe the proposal risks in terms of profitability (and thus, future funding) but the general idea is one we all signed up for: freedom.
Matei
================
The $10 mil Coop Records Fund for Music NFTs
At the beginning of this year, Coopahtroopa said, "10 Music NFT collectors are more valuable than a million monthly listers on Spotify".
He kept on writing about music NFTs and how they will change for the better and fix the broken music industry. He wrote it in stone, publishing his thesis as a written NFT on mirror.xyz, where he introduces Coop Records, following the Coop Records Fund, a $10M early-stage fund investing in the next generation of music, investing in Startups, NFTs and Artists.
Coopahtroopa considers there haven't been many chances for the average consumer who has spent his entire life listening to music to contribute to the development of the artists they most like.
What if you had the chance to invest in SoundCloud or Spotify at the beginning, Post Malone, or Drake? Would you do it? Web3 provides this opportunity, and the Coop Records Fund is created for this new music monetization strategy that Web3 develops.
NFTs aren't intended to replace streaming, contrary to popular belief, and the industry of streaming is expanding and will do so in the years to come.
But what about patronage markets? What new artists are there for those seeking more than merely adding a fresh release to their playlists?
We are still early on, and there is a big bet regarding Music NFTs, even though not a lot of people understand them yet.
Yesterday, Endi and I were invited to talk about this subject during the Music Mastering for Business 2022 in Bucharest, hosted by the one and only Dan Fintescu. The feeling we got is that people are interested in what's coming, with a twist of scared that they won't be able to keep up or that an AI might go and render them useless.
It's up to us to guide them, help them understand this industry, and ensure the process is simple enough to dissipate the uncertainty. It might not be so obvious, but the uncertainty kills creativity and has always been. We're here to help, as always. After all, it's all about Values and Principles and as long as the artists understand that the purpose is right, everything will be ok.
.
Cosmin
================
Accenture used the Metaverse for onboarding 150,000 new stuff during the pandemic
Accenture, a global professional services company, has onboarded more than 150,000 new team members during the pandemic virtually. Instead of using the standard zoom procedure, a new Accenture employee would receive through the post a new laptop and a XR headset. Their first experience would therefore be immersive at the virtual One Accenture Park.
Accenture’s attention has been turned to the metaverse for a while now and they explained in a blog post back in April why they think it’s gaining incredible momentum right now. They explained that rather than looking at it as just one concept, they see the metaverse as a continuum that bridges the internet of place and the internet of value. And because of COVID, the company has already deployed the technology at scale. Even their Technology Vision report named “ Meet Me in the Metaverse: The Continuum of Technology and Experience Reshaping Business” has focused on this topic emphasizing how the metaverse is here today and the time to act is now.
Besides HR onboarding, Accenture has also deployed other metaverse enterprise applications. One that’s been deployed by Accenture is creating a supply chain control room as an immersive experience that combines digital twins of a product moving through the supply with track and trace data.
Evelyne
================
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 for newest info in crypto industry!
⬆️📝🧑🏽💻🤝thank you