#56 Tax Office in the Metaverse. Ford & The Blockchain Battery Passport Pilot.
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 Adoption Going Strong
I wanted to come up with a dose of optimism despite the bear market we constantly hear about. Nothing to do with the recent ETH 15% jolt, I swear. This time, it’s all about adoption.
First of all, after Google’s partnership with Coinbase from 2 issues ago, Google announced a fully managed node hosting solution, starting out with Ethereum support. Think of it like the Cloud services AWS (Amazon Web Services) traditionally provides for regular computing. Pretty cool.
Then, over to Revolut, one of the top neobanks out there, who after getting their Crypto services license in the UK announced they will enable users to use Crypto balances for regular payments. I guess that’s the end of the “you can’t pay for bread with Bitcoin” argument.
To wrap it up, check out Coinbase giving kudos to Reddit’s NFT rollout. Although the NFT market is under water (CoinDesk says volumes are 97% lower than in January), Reddit managed to get 2.5 million users to create an NFT wallet (they call them vaults) in just a few months. How’s that for adoption?
Mihnea
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Tax office in the Metaverse
Ernst & Young (EY) is Big 4’s web3 frontrunner. They’ve embraced blockchain and crypto early and have since developed a lot of expertise in NFTs, DeFi, cryptocurrencies and, their favorite, the metaverse. Vlad hosted Paul Brody, EY’s Global Blockchain Leader, at the StakeborgDAO Talks 9 months ago. I urge you to go watch it and see what came true of his vision.
EY has dedicated teams to Web3 and they thoroughly recognize the benefits of decentralization, resilience and inclusiveness - they even opened a “Metaverse Lab” a few days ago! The goal is to help clients explore new business models and incorporate digital experiences while we shift toward a decentralized economy.
And this is specifically what they’ve done with a Norwegian governmental agency: they brought them into the Metaverse, in Decentraland to be specific. They will open a new virtual office, meant to appeal to the younger (& future) clients who spend more time in the digital world. As such, it’s great to see what’s commonly known as rigid and conservative (i.e. the government) reaching out for help and connecting with citizens.
It may be a while before an important part of their customers will use the new offices, but when they do, the agency (The Brønnøysund Register Center) will provide help with crypto reporting and starting enterprises.
Despite Meta’s (Facebook’s) reported losses, it seems like all eyes are on the metaverse and a narrative shift is clearly ongoing.
Matei
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Ford & The Blockchain Battery Passport Pilot
Ford has been announced as one of Everledger’s partners in launching a battery passport pilot. The battery passport will use technologies including auto ID, blockchain, and artificial intelligence to support the responsible recycling of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
The Everledger Battery Passport is a technology platform that enables all stakeholders in the supply and value chains to share information about a battery and its history to maximize safety, optimize battery use throughout lifecycles and ensure responsible recycling at end of life. Battery minerals, battery packs, and critical components (modules, cells) are enabled so data can be shared between qualified stakeholders on a distributed ledger or blockchain. All stakeholders have access to this permission data in real-time, and the data is immutable.
Together with US lithium-ion battery recyclers Cirba Solutions and Li-Cycle, Everledger and Ford will use the battery passport solution to track batteries in new and older EV models. Part of the pilot may have been funded through a phase 1 funding round awarded by the US Department of Energy to Everledger in 2020 for providing battery identities. This pilot will run for six months, and thereafter the battery passport will be released commercially.
“The automotive industry is currently on the verge of electrical transition, and the responsible environmental performance of electric vehicles is of great concern. Ford once again has shown their global leadership by taking up the challenge to transform sustainably”. said Leanne Kemp, Founder, and CEO of Everledger.
Ford has previously used blockchain solutions for EV batteries. Earlier this year, Ford participated in the MOBI blockchain alliance to release the Battery State of Health standard, the consortium’s first standard relating to electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
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/
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