Follow the Brains...

"Follow the developers" as an indicator to a project's success and more...

September 23, 2021

Contents:

  • 👩🏽‍💻 Follow the Developers

  • 📉 The Crash and its Reasons (Audio)

  • 🗂️ Directory

  • 👀 Under the Radar

  • 📰 News

  • 👊 Sponsors

  • 💸 Coupons

Follow the programmers 👩🏽‍💻

On an podcast by “Ark Invest,” I overheardMs. Cathi Wood, one of the most successful investors and industry professionals of our generation, mention something we already know but rarely do, this is: "Follow the Developers." This advice is even more applicable in the cryptocurrency ecosystem where the achievement of projects depends entirely on good programming of the blockchain(s) in question, its usefulness, speed and security.

Apart from how critical it is to investigate who the developers are, it is also important to know what the relationship between them is like, and if they are part of other projects. A bad relationship between collaborators can affect performance and product results.

Ethereum is the perfect example of the importance that developers have in crypto products. Vitalik Buterin has not only been able to surround himself with and attract creative and dedicated programmers, but he has also been able to retain them for a long time and as a result they have created the most useful and robust blockchain platform available. Other examples are:

  • Celo, a project that we have in our "Under the Radar" section this week, facilitates transaction of cryptocurrencies using cell phones and their phone numbers as a private key. Celo's team is made up of programmers and developers from MIT, Stanford, Google, Square, Circle, Visa, Harvard, The gates foundation, Capital One, Twitter and other prestigious institutions. Access to this type of talent allows for a much more efficient, faster, and safer development for Celo and its users.

  • Algorand is a blockchain that claims to be able to execute a thousand transactions per second. Its founder, Silvio Micali, a professor of computer science at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), received the Turing Prize (2012) for his fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of the secure computing of electronic money, cryptocurrencies and blockchain protocols. Making him one of the most important creators in the industry.

  • Anatoly Yakovenko, is the key piece behind Solana. His career began at Qualcomm, where he rose through the ranks quickly and became the Engineer’s lead manager. Later, his career led him to be the main engineering at Dropbox and since 2017 he has been developing Solana, the fastest blockchain to date, thanks to the “Proof of History” consensus which was his invention.

These are just some of the examples that illustrate the importance of how project leaders can be an indicator of the future of a particular project. In the traditional market, many companies buy other companies just to get the talent they need to grow and avoid their competition. And others hire en-masse so as not to be left behind. Andreessen Horowitz, one of the institutions that are at the forefront in terms of investments in the crypto market, have hired all the talent that comes their way; from writers, editors, programmers, analysts, and developers to former government officials. This has allowed them to have connections in all corners of the world, analyze investments and potential in different industries and position themselves as a futuristic corporation with tentacles in marketing, lobbying, technology, entertainment, government, and education. This has made the company much more attractive for investors and talent.

The Crash and its Reasons 📉

The cryptocurrency market suffered a drop of almost 20% between September 19th and the 21st. This type of volatility is normal in this market, but obviously, it is still something of concern for investors and we all want to know why these fluctuations happen and we want to educate ourselves so that we can avoid losses in the future. This month has been full of interesting news and events in the crypto industry.

  • Regulations - Coinbase dropped its lending program plans. The world's largest crypto-exchange platform was threatened with lawsuit by the SEC. Claiming that “they would be sued if they launched their lending and borrowing program so that their clients could earn interest by staking crypto.” Now Coinbase has offered the SEC a framework which could be implemented to properly regulate these types of programs without the need to completely stop them. The DeFi movement will continues to accelerate exponentially and it is better to regulate it intelligently instead of trying to stop innovation. Additionally, Joe Biden is pushing regulation in the industry to minimize ransomware and is about to nominate law professor Saule Omarova to be the next director of the “Comptroller Office” of the cryptocurrency.

  • Hacks - Vee Finance suffered a $ 35 million hack. The DeFi platform, built on Avalanche, lost over 8,000 Ethereum and around 214 BTC when compromised by hackers. And Bitcoin.org, an open source system, has not yet been able to identify its hackers who added a window on the Bitcoin.org website with a QR code asking visitors for money for a fictitious raffle.

  • Panic - When markets fall precipitously, many investors who have entered short-term tend to panic and liquidate, thus accelerating the decline. Much of this panic has come from the collapse of the Chinese real estate company, Evergrande. More than $ 1.2 Billion of BTC futures were liquidated in just 24 hours.

  • Other Markets - The S&P 500 fell nearly 1% last Friday, and less than 75% of listed stocks closed above their 200-day moving averages. According to Yahoo Finance, this ended the fourth longest positive streak since at least 1928. (S&P 500 image - Friday, Sept. 17)A recent report released by the University of Michigan also showed that consumer sentiment is on the decline, a trend that could well be affecting the cryptocurrency market itself. (decrypt)

Directory 🗂️

Under the Radar 👀

  • Terra: With only 1 Million available LUNA tokens, this protocol seeks to facilitate the fragmented digital payment system we have, by unifying several payment platforms globally and conducting all transactions through its application and blockchain, executing them faster and cheaper. They have had positive results in Asia where they have 45 million users and more than $ 57 million in capital.

  • Algorand: Similar to Ethereum and Solana, but with a permissionless proof-of-stake consensus. It can run a thousand transactions per second (Bitcoin runs 5 per second and Ethereum 12-15 tps). Its value has doubled in the last 3 months (from $ 0.8 to $ 1.66). The Marshall Islands are using Algorand to create their national digital currency.

  • Celo: The objective of this protocol is to increase the adoption and use of cryptocurrencies on cell phones. Uses the phone number as a public key giving the potential to make ever cell phone (6 billion cell phones in circulation) a digital wallet.

  • Avalanche: Avax, its native token, has appreciated 500% in the last 3 months and we believe that this ascent is just starting. The developers claim that it is the first smart contract network to offer transaction completion in less than a second. The objective is to provide a kind of global asset exchange, which allows launching and trading them in a decentralized manner using smart contracts. In addition, it has the implementation of an Ethereum virtual machine in another chain which does not interfere with their current chain, streamlining its processes. (Sushiswap is built on Avalanche).

  • Cosmos: An ecosystem that allows different blockchains to cooperate, share data, and scale together. Cosmos revolutionizes this synergy, before Cosmos launched, blockchains operated in silos and without communicating. They created the “Internet of Blockchains.” Programmers can build and work with public and private blockchains and execute thousands of transactions per second. Polygon, one of its closest competitors, allows the connection of blockchains as well, but only for chains of the Ethereum network.

News 📰

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