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.
The Google - Coinbase Partnership
In one of the biggest news of the week, Google announced that starting next year they will be accepting crypto payments for Google Cloud services through Coinbase. This is great for both companies, as Coinbase will be getting a new kind of revenue stream (one that, hopefully, is not correlated with the volatility in the market), while Google will tap into Web3 companies that need cloud services while having crypto assets.
To further cement this partnership, Google will be using Coinbase’s Prime custody service, while Coinbase will migrate the compute power behind Cloud Nodes from Amazon’s cloud offering (AWS) to Google’s.
I think besides this being good news for Coinbase, it’s also great news for Crypto, showing another level of adoption by one of the most important (perhaps the most) Internet companies. In case you haven’t been keeping track, lately Google also helped people track the progress towards the Ethereum Merge, as well as added support for ETH wallet queries. Cool stuff!
Mihnea
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Yuga Labs’ trial by fire
As most of you may know, now’s not the best time for stocks. Or crypto. Or NFTs. The latter imploded in the past few months after reaching crazy volumes late last year (Opensea data only). From a whopping $4.86b in January to a mere $350m in September. Painful, but it’s important to understand these things' cycles.
All markets are currently shaky and we’re only a few bad events from another leg down. Apecoin has already had it, unfortunately. The SEC is probing Yuga Labs for launching the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection and investigating whether the NFTs are more of a security than others. Should they decide that they are securities, this is bad news for Yuga because they should’ve followed disclosure rules.
And that’s not the end of it. Although, as of today, the NFT collection hasn’t taken a considerable hit in terms of price and/or volume, Apecoin suffered severely. That black candle you’re seeing in the graph below wiped out 8% of $APE’s price in 1 hour.
The main reason, besides uncertainty (which investors hate), is that the SEC is also looking into Apecoin because it’s been distributed to BAYC, MAYC and Kennel Club members via an airdrop… making it seem even more like a security.
There is still, however, hope. The SEC might just be sniffing around (and rightfully so, since it’s their job) but they might not necessarily be ill-intentioned. Yuga assured that they are willing to collaborate with the regulators and help shape the ecosystem more clearly.
Matei
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Shell, Accenture and Amex GBT aim for sustainable aviation fuel through blockchain
Back in June, Shell, Accenture and American Express Global Business Travel (AMEX GBT) announced a pilot blockchain initiative called Avelia to promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel. But let’s start by understanding what sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) actually means.
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is made from renewable sources such as plant or animal material, used cooking oil and waste. It can potentially be up to 80% less polluting than conventional air fuels in terms of C02 emissions. SAF isn’t that different from traditional fuels so it can be mixed with them and there’s no need to modify engines.Historically SAF has been much more expensive than aviation fuels, often twice the price or more, although the cost differential is less at the moment because of the Ukraine war.
The objective of Avelia is to try to get corporate travelers to co-fund the additional fuel costs. It uses a ‘book-and-claim’ system, which allows the carbon saving benefits to be claimed by the traveler even if SAF isn’t available on that flight. In that case, the SAF that’s paid for is used by another aircraft. The role of Amex is to sign up some of Amex GBT’s 19,000 corporate customers, but Shell is looking for other partners to join.
Jan Toschka, President of Shell Aviation, said of SAF, “it’s currently scarce and costs more than conventional jet fuel. Avelia will help trigger demand for SAF at scale, providing confidence to suppliers like us to further increase investment in production, and in turn helping to lower the price point for these fuels.”
“Blockchain technology will be piloted to help ensure trust via data integrity, validate proof of ownership, and enable transparent tracking of the environmental benefits of SAF for customers,” said Rachel Barton, Europe Strategy Lead, Accenture.
Evelyne
For more educational crypto content, check out the links below:
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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/
#54 The Google - Coinbase Partnership. Yuga Labs’ trial by fire
Thank you & Well Done as always !
Thank you🙏👨💻