The best way to fund open-source projects remains a question,and one that – in the context of crypto protocols – has never had higher stakes. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen live action experiments in a number of different approaches.
Gitcoin, BCash and Zcash all try different paths to fund public protocol development, plus the latest in CBDCs from Japan and Cambodia and Andrew Yang on crypto.
Gitcoin Grants used a quadratic funding program to match grants to technology builders and media creators in Ethereum.
After months and months of concerted community debate and conversation, Zcash will implement a new Dev Fund of 20 percent of the block rewards after the Founders Reward runs out in November, splitting it between the Electric Coin Co (7 percent), Zcash Foundation (5 percent) and third-party developers (8 percent).
A consortium (cartel?) of the four largest bitcoin cash (BCH) mining pools tried to insist upon a 12.5 percent block reward diversion to a new dev fund, with a threat to orphan blocks that didn’t comply. The plan ran into a barrier when Roger Ver’s bitcoin.com backed away.
Also in this episode, @nlw looks at the latest in CBDCs – including Japan’s continued hedging that it is preparing for the possibility of needing to move quickly and Cambodia’s announcement it will be implementing a CBDC this quarter.
Finally, Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang took a few minutes to talk about cryptocurrencies and why regulation with the intent to stop them would be doomed to fail.
The US Government’s Mixed Signals on Digital Currency Privacy
To look at the U.S. government, it is the best of times and the worst of times for personal financial privacy.On the one hand, in comments before the Senate Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his agency’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, is planning stricter regulations on anti-money laundering and crypto.
At the same time, the CEO of DropBit was arrested on money laundering charges around a bitcoin (BTC) mixing service he allegedly ran between 2014 and 2017. In this new enforcement regime, one of the government’s major partners is Chainalysis, which has won more than $10 million in federal agency contracts since 2015.
Yet, privacy advocates are also surprisingly enthused by comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who suggested in testimony to Congress that any potential U.S. digital dollar would need to preserve privacy.
The Top Narratives Driving Crypto Market Growth, Feat. Travis Kling
The halving? Coronavirus and volatility? Fed action? Listeners vote on what’s driving crypto growth.There’s no denying 2020 is off to a roaring start. From prices to volume to social media, sentiment is up, up, up. But what’s driving it? On this special Valentine’s Day episode, @nlw reacts to listeners’ votes about which narratives are driving the shift in energy, discussing:
The episode finishes with some hot takes on what is driving the markets and what we should be most concerned about and most excited for, with Ikigai Asset Management’s chief investment officer, Travis Kling.
The Litecoin Foundation Helped Produce a Horror Movie – Here’s the Trailer
In surprising twist to its normal day-to-day duties advancing the litecoin (LTC) cryptocurrency, the Litecoin Foundation has acted as executive producer for a new horror flick.
According to its description on Apple iTunes, the movie sets three friends off on a road trip to a heavy metal gig that ultimately sees them involved in scary shenanigans involving satanic killers. We don’t want to give too much away, but here’s a fuller plot description from Paste.
Johnny Knoxville (who co-created «Jackass» and has acted in films such as «Men in Black II» and «The Dukes of Hazard,» among others) stars as the «fire-and-brimstone» preacher father to one of the characters.
The movie was released April 10 and stars Alexandra Daddario, Amy Forsyth, Maddie Hasson, Keean Johnson, Logan Miller and Austin Swift, alongside Knoxville. Marc Meyers («My Friend Dahmer,» «How He Fell in Love») directed the film.
If it seems a little odd that a cryptocurrency-focused organization is linked to a horror movie, the Litecoin Foundation has previously come up with deals to showcase the LTC logo in the UFC Octagon and at Miami Dolphins games – all as part of its efforts to promote the network in payments
