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- VeradiVerdict - Top 10 Gifts for the Holidays - Issue #17
VeradiVerdict - Top 10 Gifts for the Holidays - Issue #17
Hi, I am Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the oldest and largest institutional investors focused on investing into blockchain companies and cryptocurrencies. I focus on early investments and want to share my thoughts and what’s going on in the industry in this weekly newsletter.
Hi, I am Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the oldest and largest institutional investors focused on investing into blockchain companies and cryptocurrencies. I focus on early investments and want to share my thoughts and what’s going on in the industry in this weekly newsletter.
View this issue on my Medium blog here.
If you aren’t subscribed already, you can click here to subscribe.
Editorials
Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year when you get to spend time with your loved ones and to get gifts for those you love, both professionally and personally.
Last year, people were frantic to learn more about cryptocurrencies and while the hype has softened, there is still curiosity to understand what’s going on.
I usually try to get gifts that help people either get a small financial investment into cryptocurrencies or other playful gifts for those that already have some crypto. Below is a list of 10 cryptocurrency gifts that’s i thought would be appropriate for these holidays.
Top 10 Gifts
Comfy socks put me in the holiday spirit. Your friends and family might some Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar, Monero, Litecoin socks.
Christmas is never complete without ugly sweaters and meeting the whole family. A crypto sweater is the perfect conversation starter during the holidays.
CryptoKitties are the biggest collectible and proved blockchain had a use case in the entertainment industry. They’re cute and fun to share.
What better a Christmas present than a personal spot on the decentralized web?
You can own your very own Blockchain. Its completely unhackable and very physically tangible.
Gift shares of ownership in premier housing and properties through Harbor. Harbor makes it possible to access premium real estate investments in a more liquid and accessible medium.
Origin is a decentralized marketplace where you can find exclusive experiences like DJ lessons and a 36ft sailboat. Check it out and see the unique finds on Origin.
Blockchain is making it possible to assign ownership over digital content. R.A.R.E is a curated site to find unique art pieces for sale.
Make use of your crypto by hiring a freelancer to help you make your Christmas gift idea a reality. With a vast number of designers, content creators, developers, and more on Canwork, you can make any idea ranging from a hand drawn illustration of a profile image to a website a real gift for the holidays.
It’s always important to protect your crypto assets. Share the gift of security and insure control of crypto funds with a hardware wallet.
Digests
Really cool look at the completely incredible story playing out on Compound and its potential developments.
The team at Dune Analytics churned some really good data on usage of the most popular Ethereum Dapps in 2018, from MakerDAO DAI to Compound lending, from 0x trading to Aragon DAO creation.
“While 2018 was more about trading, experimentation and laying out the initial infrastructure, 2019 will be more about solving problems for real users, deploying scalable and robust infrastructure, crafting great user experiences and driving sustainable businesses.”
In the Tweets
I've spent the last 6 months exploring the promises & hard realities of crypto in places like Venezuela. Our team is formalizing into a not-for-profit called the Open Money Initiative. We'll share more in 2019 but take a peek at what we are thinking here: https://t.co/kwgp0efXEb
7:22 PM - 19 Dec 2018
The Facebook stablecoin (if it works, scales, gets deployed and adopted by non-Facebook companies, doesn’t get regulated into dust) is going to be a massive game-changer for the financial services industry. Fight me.
9:49 AM - 21 Dec 2018
@preston_vanloon @ameensol @RyanSAdams @fredwilson @ethereumJoseph @ConsenSys @prylabs Just sent 1000 eth. Yolo.https://t.co/s1q8K5Wlhs
4:11 PM - 18 Dec 2018
The Token Taxonomy Act would provide exactly the type of regulatory clarity the crypto industry needs. Legislation like this is orders of magnitude more important than non-binding guidance from agencies like the SEC.Check out @BlockchainAssn's summary and read the bill here: https://t.co/Nbb5cwsJFX
2:18 PM - 20 Dec 2018
News
2.04m additional units were covertly minted during the import of the Bitcoin UTXOs and sent to the BTCP shielded pool, bringing the initial supply to 22.6 million, contradicting the whitepaper and all of the materials published by the team.
Interesting podcast on Stablecoins and DAOs from A16Z with Maker’s CTO.
Consensys is forcing out many of its spokes with an aggressive choice between severance and a small equity stake.
Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain is going to sack almost half of its staffers by the end of this week, sources from the Chinese media reported.
Regulations
A bill introduced this week in Congress takes a hard line on Iran’s efforts to develop its own cryptocurrency. U.S. regulators have warned in recent months that Iran’s government wants to use a sovereign cryptocurrency, similar to the petro in Venezuela, to evade economic sanctions.
Last week, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released a series of questions for the public, focusing on the workings of ethereum and the market for its token, ether.
Two US Congressmen have introduced the “Token Taxonomy Act,” which proposes to exclude digital tokens from the definition of a security. If passed, the sponsors say it could provide more “certainty” for blockchain innovators.
New Products and Hot Deals
Facebook Inc. is working on making a cryptocurrency that will let users transfer money on its WhatsApp messaging app, focusing first on the remittances market in India, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Picks & Shovels Co. and CoinVantage Inc. announced today the merger of the companies to create the leading portfolio accounting and reporting system for digital assets.
Speaking of pricing feeds, Nomics, who we’ve heard from multiple sources have one of the best crypto trading data APIs in the market, have closed a $3M Series A round led by Arthur Ventures and participated by Ben Davenport, CityBlock Capital, Coinbase Ventures, CoVenture Crypto and Digital Currency Group.
Abacus is building more infrastructure for the ‘tokenization’ of securities, with a platform to facilitate their issuance, administration and settlement on the blockchain, ultimately enabling secondary markets.
Crypto investment and infrastructure platform Layer1 announced today the closing of $2.1 Million in Seed Funding backed by world-class investors, including Peter Thiel, Digital Currency Group and Jeffrey Tarrant.
OpenNode raised a seed round from Draper Associates for a Lightning payments platform.
Not a new round, but a cool interview between two Unplug-alumni, with Coinlist’s Regan Bozman interviewing Set Protocol’s Felix Feng about their fundraising process.
Looking to 2019!
Thanks for being an awesome newsletter subscriber! Really looking forward to 2019 for crypto. I will be sending out my predictions and thoughts in the next email.
Meet with Me
Los Angeles, January 11
Let me know if you are in the area and would like to meetup.